11 Found Dead in a Rail Car in Rural Iowa October 15, 2002 By TINA KELLEY Up to 11 badly decomposed bodies were discovered yesterday afternoon in a grain hopper car in Denison, Iowa, the authorities said. They appeared to be Mexican immigrants, the Mexican consul in Omaha said. A spokesman for the Union Pacific railroad, John Bromley, said the grain hopper car was parked at the F.S.C. Archer Daniels Midland elevator in Denison, where it was to be loaded with grain. Employees planning to clean the car opened it and discovered the bodies. José Cuevas, the Mexican consul in Omaha, said he was told that there were 11 people inside, though he did not know their sex or ages or whether they had identification or personal belongings with them. "We're assuming they're Mexican nationals," he said, because of the route the car took. "We know that the train came through the port of entry of Matamoros, Mexico, in June," he said. "We know that the train was parked in a railyard in Oklahoma for close to four months, and then was just recently moved to Denison." Jerry Heinauer, the district director of the Immigration and Naturalization Service for Nebraska and Iowa, said the train arrived in Denison on Sunday. "The car was closed but not sealed," he said. "You can't get out of it from inside, but someone else can open a hatch easily and let you out." He said it was not unusual for a smuggling operation to use grain hoppers, perhaps because it was difficult for the authorities to find people inside. "If it appears as though it was a smuggling event, we'll do our best to identify and prosecute those individuals responsible and do whatever we can to prevent this kind of tragedy from happening again," Mr. Heinauer said. The bodies were taken to Des Moines so the state officials could determine the cause of death, the authorities said. The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, Union Pacific and the Crawford County Sheriff's Department are also involved in the investigation. Gary Merrill, a dispatcher with the sheriff's office, said no railroad employees were being considered as suspects in the case. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/15/national/15IOWA.html?ex=1035702719&ei=1&en=c15389dc349e990c