Papers Found in Rail Car May Aid ID Process
Investigators are sifting through scraps of paper found on 11 bodies in a rail car to try to identify them and find the smugglers they believe locked the suspected illegal immigrants in the car.
The victims may have carried names and numbers of contacts who could help identify them, an Immigration and Naturalization Service supervisor said in Brownsville, Texas.
Investigators will check the information against INS databases with phone numbers, nicknames and other information on known smugglers.
The four women and seven men, who ranged in age from 17 to 55, died of dehydration and hyperthermia, or overheating. Their bodies were found Monday in a rail car being prepared for loading at a grain elevator in Denison, about 60 miles northeast of Omaha.
They may have been locked in the stifling car for four months, officials have said.
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