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Thursday, October 18, 2001
Unknown migrant is buried
Man's remains were found on the Kenedy Ranch last year
By Jeremy Brown
Caller-Times
   One more immigrant who died on his trek northward was buried Wednesday.
   His name was not known. Nor was his home country. He was between 20 and 50 years old and died of heat stroke.
   His remains were found on the Kenedy Ranch in December by a ranch hand working cattle.
   A dark sock, a strip of clothing that could have been the remains of a shirt or a pair of pants, an empty plastic jug and a tin can were about 58 feet away from the skeleton, said Kenedy County Sheriff Ramiro Medellin. There were no identification cards.
   For the last 10 months, authorities have been unable to identify the man.
   In that time, the remains of three more immigrants have been found in Kenedy County, Medellin said.
   The man was buried in the Sarita Cemetery on the Kenedy Ranch, among the graves of ranch hands and more than 30 other immigrants who died in brush.
   The ceremony lasted about half an hour, Medellin said. The Turcotte-Piper Mortuary drove his remains from Kingsville in a white van. Because of the recent rains, the grass was too high for a hearse to navigate.
   A standard cloth-covered casket was used, said Greg Bolton, a spokesman for the funeral home.
   Four pallbearers the dead man had never known carried his casket - the mortician, his assistant, the sheriff and his deputy, Lt. Ray Salinas.
   The only other person in attendance was the gravedigger, Medellin said.
   A metal plaque was placed at the grave. It is inscribed with the dead immigrant's case number and the year and month his remains were found.
   "It's a very quiet, sad feeling having to do this," Medellin said. "You wonder who this person was."


Contact Jeremy Brown at 886-3746 or brownj@caller.com

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