CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — What began as a human-smuggling operation that made its way through Brooks and Jim Wells counties in 2022 is now a recovery operation.
For about the last 10 years, this specialty has fallen to Brooks County Search and Recovery Deputy Don White, whose job is to find migrants in distress or, ultimately, their remains.
Over the years, Brooks county has led the nation in migrant bodies discovered and White has helped to find many of those remains.
"Oftentimes it’s an animal," he said. "Every once in a while, you’ll get a human and then you’ll have to expand your search on your hands and knees.”
White and his K9 partner Socks were searching dense terrain in Jim Wells County on Tuesday, trying to find the body of a man who is believed to have died about a year ago.
"You can see where he went through barbed wire and that sort of thing, and then everyone bailed out and ran,” he said.
It all started with a human smuggling high-speed pursuit in Brooks county where it eventually ended near Premont along County Road 425.
One of the migrants was injured and hasn’t been heard from or seen since, but after searching the brush country for any signs of the man, he came up empty-handed.
"I typically search areas that aren’t searched, so, I find old remains," he said. "A year or two years (old). After about three years, the bones are really starting to degrade and go away.”
While White did find remains while 3NEWS was with him Tuesday, they turned out to be cow bones.
"Most of the time it's just bones and that's what I find," he said.
This year has seen one of the fewest numbers of remains found in the area -- 44.
Brooks County Sheriff Urbino "Benny" Martinez said that's because smugglers are getting creative, driving migrants straight through area ranches.
"They’ll cut the fence and drive through, and they’ll cut the lock on the way out, so that’s what they’re doing now,” he said.