Searching to save one of their own

BARRETT JUNCTION, Calif. -- The search team descended into the blackened canyon hoping the flames had spared Juan Carlos Bautista. The last time anyone had heard from the 37-year-old migrant was Oct. 21, the day the Harris fire swept through the rugged backcountry east of San Diego.

Now, more than a week later, the canyon yielded no clues.

Perhaps, the searchers hoped, he was stranded on nearby Tecate Peak.

Rising nearly 4,000 feet, the mountain looms over the U.S.-Mexico border like a giant wall of granite. It would be hard trekking, but the searchers felt a special bond with Bautista. Some of them also had crossed illegally into California years ago.

“We have to help our own people. . . . I know the anxiety he lived, the fear,” said Rafael Hernandez, director of Desert Angels, a humanitarian group that spearheaded the search.

Bautista began his trek with six other migrants, crossing into a mountainous area 40 miles east of San Diego that has long been a funnel for illegal immigration. Within hours of crossing, it became a death trap.

The sky rained ash. Flames raced up hillsides. The migrants huddled under blankets. They poured water on each other. Six ran into a canyon skirting California 94. Bautista started climbing Tecate Peak, where he thought he would be able to make a 911 call from his cellular phone.

During the next few hours, the fire would kill a man trying to save his house in nearby Potrero and injure four firefighters. Bautista’s companions suffered severe burns but were rescued and transferred to the UC San Diego Regional Burn Unit.

On Oct. 29 -- a week after Bautista disappeared -- his brother, who lives in San Diego County, called a radio station in Tijuana asking for help finding his brother. A native of the Mexican state of Chiapas, he said his brother had lived in the United States and was re-crossing to reunite with family members.

The radio producer contacted Hernandez, a former Mexico City paramedic whose group provides food and aid to migrants. Hernandez said he crossed illegally from Tijuana more than 20 years ago. Though it was much easier then and he is now in the United States legally, he still sympathizes with the migrant experience.

Hernandez’s Desert Angels consists primarily of a 1995 Chevrolet pickup truck with cracked emergency lights and a siren he says is just for show. Volunteers include tile floor installers, students and mechanics. The radio producer, Jose Arturo Rodriguez, also participated in the search for Bautista.

Hernandez knew well the rugged area where Bautista vanished. A few days earlier he had watched U.S. Border Patrol agents retrieve the charred bodies of four migrants found dead at the bottom of a canyon.

After their first fruitless search, Hernandez’s team went to the burn center to consult with the survivors. The team showed them video of the terrain. The survivors confirmed that Bautista was probably still on Tecate Peak.

Using ropes, rappelling equipment and harnesses, the volunteers on Saturday started climbing the mountain. When they encountered the group’s burned backpacks, they knew they were on the right track.

On Sunday, volunteer Guillermo Perez skirted a huge boulder and saw something: A man lying on the ground with his arm resting over his face. “I thought he was sleeping,” Perez said.

The man had died just outside a cave where he was apparently trying to seek shelter. His rubber-soled shoes had melted onto his feet. His face and back were burned. Animals had eaten part of his foot.

“It was a very sad death. It doesn’t look like he died of burns. He was probably thirsty and hungry,” said the weary Hernandez, his body covered with soot from the search.

Night fell without emergency services coming to retrieve the body. The group stayed overnight, hooking themselves with ropes onto the steep walls. They took shifts throwing rocks at coyotes and other creatures trying to eat the remains.

Alberto Lozano, a spokesman for the Mexican Consulate in San Diego, said authorities discovered Bautista’s identification on the burned body. The cause of death has yet to be determined, but it is probably fire-related, Lozano said.

The searchers, he said, would be formally honored by the Mexican Consulate for their bravery and commitment, he said. “It’s incredible that they found him,” Lozano said, “and incredible how long they waited and guarded the body so the animals wouldn’t eat it.”

richard.marosi@latimes.com