UPDATE: The United States Attorney's Office for the District of Minnesota has released a statement saying that a 47-year-old man from Florida has been charged with human smuggling in connection with the incident.
Steve Shand was arrested on Wednesday by U.S. Border Patrol when they stopped a 15 person van that Shand was driving. Inside the van were two passengers who did not have documentation.
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The Manitoba RCMP is investigating after finding four bodies near the Canada U.S. border yesterday after information sent to them by their counterparts in the U.S.
The info from US Customs and Border Protection was sent to the RCMP after they had arrested a group of people that crossed from Canada into the US near Emerson. While the individuals were being questioned they found items on them for an infant but they did not have an infant with them.
The RCMP were alerted that there were possibly more people trying to cross the border in the area but were not found at the time so the Mounties began patrols of the areas in and around the border.
After a search the RCMP were able to locate 4 bodies in the area with them being identified as:
- An adult male
- An adult female
- An infant
- A male believed to be in his mid-teens
The victims were located within 40 feet of the US border and within the early parts of the investigation, it’s believed that they all died due to the exposure to the extreme cold but work will continue to identify who the victims are and confirm their cause of death.
The RCMP continued their search in order to make sure there were no other victims with none having been found to date.
The RCMP along with US Customs and Border Protection and the US Department of Homeland Security continue their investigations and we’ll have more as it comes available.
