Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said Union Pacific Railroad Police and ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations agents discovered the body Monday, May 11, 2026, in the 9600 block of Wolf Road.
Raul Trey Lopez
A man believed to be a victim in a human smuggling disaster that left six people dead in Laredo was found dead Monday afternoon near railroad tracks in southwestern Bexar County, according to Sheriff Javier Salazar.
The body was found around 1:30 p.m. in the 9600 block of Wolf Road after Union Pacific Railroad Police and federal agents with ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations searched the area while following leads connected to the Laredo deaths, Salazar said during a news conference Monday.
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The man’s body was discovered just a couple feet from the railroad tracks in a patch of tall grass littered with trash and old tires. Union Pacific trains continued rumbling through the area Monday afternoon as investigators worked the scene.
Authorities believe the body may have been there for days.
Investigators believe the man may have initially been part of the same group as the six migrants who died and had their bodies found Sunday inside a rail car or shipping container in Laredo — though authorities are still working to confirm the connection.
Salazar said the investigation began unfolding Saturday after one of the victims later found dead in Laredo contacted a family member outside Texas, saying they were trapped inside a boxcar or shipping container and that conditions inside were becoming dangerously hot.
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The family member then contacted San Antonio police.
SAPD officers responded to a rail location in the city, but Salazar said authorities were searching several miles away from where investigators now believe the train actually was at the time. By the time officers arrived, the train had already moved on.
Authorities later discovered six bodies in Laredo. Salazar said investigators now believe the person who sent the distress message was among those victims.
According to Salazar, investigators believe the train originated in Del Rio and traveled through San Antonio before splitting, with part of the train continuing toward Houston and another section heading to Laredo.
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Salazar said shipping containers on trains are equipped with sensors that alert when doors are opened. Investigators believe one sensor alert was triggered in Del Rio, where migrants may have been loaded into the container, and another alert later went off in San Antonio.
The sheriff said investigators are still trying to determine whether the man found Monday fell from the train or whether his body was removed from the container after he died.
“At this point, we don’t know if it was open to let people out that made it out successfully, or if they just opened it to dump a body,” Salazar said.
The sheriff said investigators believe that at some point, the man’s body was left near the tracks to decompose.
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The man’s identity and age were not immediately known. Salazar said the body was decomposing, and investigators found a Mexican voter registration card among his belongings, leading authorities to believe he may have been a Mexican national.
The discovery raises concerns that more migrants may have been inside the container than originally believed, Salazar said.
The Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office will determine the man’s official cause and manner of death and attempt to identify him.
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