Authorities say the man may be a seventh victim in a suspected human smuggling case under federal review.
SAN ANTONIO, TX — A man found dead Monday near railroad tracks in southwest Bexar County is believed to be connected to six people found dead a day earlier inside a Union Pacific shipping container in Laredo, authorities said.
The discovery expanded a suspected human smuggling investigation that began Sunday near the Texas Mexico border and now stretches about 150 miles north to the San Antonio area. Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said the man found near Wolf Road may have been inside the same rail shipment or part of the same group before he died. Federal agents are investigating the Laredo deaths as a possible human smuggling event.
The Bexar County body was found May 11 near the 9600 block of Wolf Road, in a rural area near Macdona in southwest Bexar County. Salazar said investigators were called to the area after Union Pacific railroad police followed information from train sensors that showed a boxcar had been opened in the county. The man’s body was found near the tracks in a decomposed state. Salazar said a Mexican voter registration card was found with him, but authorities had not publicly confirmed his name or cause of death. “We believe he is connected to the incident in Laredo,” Salazar said.
The Laredo case began Sunday afternoon when six people were found dead inside a shipping container at a Union Pacific rail yard near mile marker 13 of Interstate 35. Laredo police said a Union Pacific employee found the bodies during an inspection. The Webb County Medical Examiner’s Office later said five of the six victims had been identified. They included a 14-year-old boy and a 24-year-old man from Honduras, along with a 29-year-old woman, a 45-year-old man and a 56-year-old man from Mexico. A sixth person remained unidentified. Dr. Corinne Stern, the Webb County medical examiner, said the woman died from hyperthermia, or heat stroke, and that heat illness was suspected in the other deaths pending full examinations.
Authorities are still working to determine how the people got inside the container, where the rail shipment began and when anyone last opened it. Salazar said one theory is that smugglers opened a railcar or container in Bexar County and removed the man’s body. Another possibility, he said, is that the man fell from a moving train. He said investigators were also trying to learn whether the man was alive when the train passed through the San Antonio area. Officials have not said whether anyone has been arrested, and they have not released the name of a suspected smuggler or organization.
The Laredo deaths came as South Texas faced dangerous heat. Authorities said temperatures inside a closed rail container can climb far above the outside temperature, creating deadly conditions within hours. Stern said the Laredo victims may have died in less than eight hours. Investigators found identification cards and cellphones that may help confirm names and nationalities. The Webb County Medical Examiner’s Office is working with consular officials to notify families and help with identification and repatriation. Laredo Mayor Victor Trevino said the deaths struck “at the center of our humanity” and said the binational community felt the loss deeply.
The case has drawn comparisons to earlier migrant smuggling deaths in Texas, including the 2022 San Antonio tractor trailer case that killed 53 people. Authorities have also reported past cases of people being trapped in railcars in South Texas. Laredo is one of the busiest land ports on the U.S. Mexico border, and freight trains move through the region daily. Law enforcement officials have said smugglers sometimes use rail routes because containers can sit sealed and unmonitored for long stretches. Union Pacific said it was saddened by the deaths and was working with investigators.
Homeland Security Investigations, Laredo police, Texas Rangers, Union Pacific police and local authorities are involved in the investigation. In Bexar County, the medical examiner must determine the man’s cause and manner of death before officials can confirm whether he died from the same heat related conditions as the Laredo victims. Investigators are also reviewing rail movement records, sensor data and evidence from phones recovered in the Laredo container. Officials have not released a date for when all autopsies will be complete.
The scene in southwest Bexar County was described as a quiet stretch of rail line bordered by tall grass, discarded tires and scattered trash. Deputies and railroad police searched near the tracks while investigators worked to connect the man’s path to the container found in Laredo. Salazar said the evidence suggested the man was not simply an unrelated death near the tracks. “There is a strong possibility,” he said, that the body was tied to the same smuggling operation.
As of Tuesday, the Bexar County man had not been publicly identified, and officials had not confirmed whether he was the seventh victim from the same group. The next major step is the medical examiner’s ruling, followed by any federal findings on who placed the victims inside the rail container.
Author note: Last updated May 12, 2026.