A woman called her family in Mexico to say the group she was crossing the desert with had left her behind. Deputies with the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office looked for her to no avail.
But on June 14, a group of hikers found her body under a tree in the desert, the Sheriff’s Office said.
The Sheriff’s Office did not say why the woman was crossing the desert with a group. But the area where she was found, near Interstate 8 in the Vekol Valley, has long been a corridor used by people crossing into the United States from Mexico.
Federal immigration authorities have reported as much as a 94% decrease in agents encountering people crossing the border in 2025, the first year of the second term of President Donald Trump, compared with 2024.
The 26-year-old woman called her family at about 2 p.m. June 10 to say the group she was crossing with had left her behind, Sheriff's Office spokesperson Sgt. Joaquin Enriquez said. She also said she wasn’t feeling well, he said.
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Her family called the Sheriff’s Office the next day concerned about her, Enriquez said, and deputies and a search and rescue crew looked for her, concentrating on the area near the geographical coordinates given to them by the family.
That search was not successful.
On June 14, a group of hikers found the woman under a tree in a desert wash, according to Enriquez.
Deputies confirmed it was the woman the office had searched for days before.
Temperatures in the Phoenix area hit 110 degrees for the first time on June 14.
No foul play was suspected, but the investigation was ongoing, Enriquez said.
The woman’s name was not released.
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