'My heart sank': Trial hears diapers, mittens set off search for family found frozen

FERGUS FALLS, Minn. -

A U.S. border patrol intelligence agent recalled Tuesday feeling horrified when he realized a group of migrants from India, including a young child, were out in a freezing blizzard on a stretch of open prairie at the border between Manitoba and Minnesota.

"My heart sank ... because there's more people out there," Daniel Huguley testified at the trial of two accused human smugglers.

Some adult migrants had already been picked up after trying to walk undetected across the border on Jan. 19, 2022. One of them had a backpack, and Huguley said he looked inside.

"First thing I saw ... was that diaper."

Diapers, baby wipes, little mittens and two toy cars -- one red and one white -- were shown in photos at the trial. Huguley said he alerted a supervisor that there were clearly still people missing.

A few hours later, metres from the border on the Canadian side, RCMP found the frozen bodies of a family -- Jagdish Patel, 39; his wife, Vaishaliben Patel, 37; their 11-year-old daughter, Vihangi; and their three-year-old son, Dharmik.

The boy's body was cradled in his father's arms.

Steve Shand and Harshkumar Patel, who is not related to the family who died, are accused of being part of a ring that flew Indian nationals to Canada on student visas then had them walk across the border.

The men have pleaded not guilty to charges including conspiracy to transport aliens causing serious bodily injury and placing lives in jeopardy.

A meteorologist told the trial in Fergus Falls, Minn., that the blowing snow and severe cold that day would threaten anyone not properly dressed for the weather. Temperatures were below -20 C, and the wind made it feel colder.

"When the wind chill gets into the -30s, frostbite can occur within 10 minutes," testified Daryl Ritchison, director of the North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network.

"Multiple layers would be required to maintain body heat."

Shand and Patel are accused of running several trips in December 2021 and January 2022.

Shand had been driving a 15-passenger van that got stuck in snow on a back road just south of the border, far from any legal entry point, before the family was found dead, court heard.

Troy Larson, a worker at a nearby gas plant, testified he came upon the van, which had two others inside, and towed it out of the ditch. He offered to guide them to a nearby building so they could warm up, but Shand declined, Larson said.

"(Shand) said that they were going to visit friends in Winnipeg," Larson said.

Border patrol agents soon arrived. The first, Christopher Oliver, testified Shand also told him they were going to Winnipeg but that the story didn't make sense because the van was far from a main highway.

Oliver said he ran Shand's driver's licence and the Indian passports of the two other men in the van, who had Canadian student visas but no stamps indicating they had legally entered the U.S.

Oliver received a call that other border-crossers had been found in a field. He said he asked Shand whether he was aware of more.

"People will die if you don't tell me the truth," the agent recalled telling Shand.

Shand replied that there was no one else, said Oliver.

Five more migrants were picked up by other agents nearby. One woman was suffering from severe hypothermia and fading in and out of consciousness, Oliver told the trial.

Her hand "felt like a chicken breast that had just been taken out of the freezer," Oliver said. She was flown to Minneapolis for medical care.

It was among those migrants that Huguley found the backpack with the child's items, which prompted a renewed search.

Under cross-examination, Oliver said Shand didn't provide false documentation and was no better prepared for the cold than the migrants.

Shand's lawyers have said he was a taxi driver who frequently picked up people for the co-accused and was unaware, until the day of his arrest, that he was doing anything illegal.

Harshkumar Patel's lawyers have said he has been misidentified as part of any smuggling ring.

The trial also heard testimony from a man who said he was part of the smuggling operation but was not directly involved in the deadly trip in 2022.

Rajinder Paul Singh said he worked for eight years, mostly getting people across the border between British Columbia and Washington state, for a man named Fenil Patel, who is also not related to the family who died.

Indian authorities said last year they were working to extradite Fenil Patel and another Canadian to face charges in that country.

Singh said Fenil Patel had phone contact from the migrants as they struggled for hours to walk across the border the night of the blizzard, and Patel then contacted Singh.

"(Patel) said that he told them, 'Come back to where you came from and I'll (have someone) pick you up there,"' Singh testified.

"He lied to them."

Defence lawyers challenged Singh's testimony. One pointed to his three convictions for smuggling and fraud and told court Singh has a history of being deceptive.

   This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 19, 2024.