Mexican woman dies dangling from the U.S. border wall

Federal agents found the body of a migrant woman hanging from the border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, media outlets reported this week.

Authorities believe that the woman climbed the wall using a ladder and had a harness to rappel down. However, as she attempted to descend to the other side of the wall, her foot was caught on the rope, trapping her upside down. Authorities claim that she was in this position “for a significant amount of time.”

Griselda Verduzco Armenta, 32, from Sinaloa, Mexico, was found ensnared on the fence on the U.S. side on April 11, the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. The woman was found unresponsive. She was taken to a hospital near Bisbee, Arizona, where she was pronounced dead.

An autopsy revealed that the woman died of traumatic asphyxia, said the Chief Mexican Examiner in Pima County. 

The section of the wall that the woman tried to climb is made of vertical steel posts placed inches apart. “That’s a part of the wall where the border bars are very high,” Ricardo Pineda, head of the Mexican consulate in Douglass, told The Washington Post.

Police do not believe that the woman climbed the wall on her own. “It’s very difficult for one person to carry a metal ladder, to place it,” Pineda said. “Generally, that’s not done by a person who does not know the terrain.” Most likely, she received the help of smugglers, commonly known as coyotes. 

"And, well, they left her there for her own safety, also, I think, so [border officials] wouldn't arrest them. And they left her hanging there, she was still alive," said a relative of the young Mexican woman in an interview with Telemundo.

“This is a deplorable event, because people without scruples put the lives of our nationals in danger and destroy families,” Pineda added. “It’s the first time that I see an incident of this nature.”

Verduzco was trying to cross the border to provide a better life for her two daughters, aged one and nine, her cousin told Telemundo in an interview. 

"These types of incidents are not political, they are humanitarian realities that someone has lost a loved one in a senseless tragedy," Cochise Sheriff Dannels said. " We have to do better in finding solutions to the challenges facing our border, and we have to do it for the right reasons. Regardless of opinions, it is the facts that should direct our progress and we will keep working towards a shared goal of border safety and security."

At least 7,000 undocumented migrants have died while attempting to cross the border since 1998. In the past five months alone, four other people have died along the U.S.-Mexico border. 

The investigation is still ongoing.