Guatemalan national Yenifer Yulisa Cardona Tomás, 20, spoke to the Associated Press Monday from her hospital bed to say that the day she and others loaded into the semi was already hot.
A woman who was inside the semi-trailer where 53 migrants died last month at the U.S.-Mexico border says a friend's advice saved her life, CBS News reported.
Guatemalan national Yenifer Yulisa Cardona Tomás, 20, spoke to the Associated Press Monday from her hospital bed to say that the day she and others loaded into the semi was already hot.
She said that the smugglers confiscated everyone’s cellphones before cramming people into the semi from a warehouse. She added that she believes that crushed chicken bouillon was placed on the floor of the truck to throw off any scents when dogs come across the truck, the Associated Press reported.
Cardona Tomás said that she was cautioned to stay near the door where it would be cooler, advice she then relayed to another friend who also survived the horrific corrections.
“I told a friend that we shouldn’t go to the back and should stay near (the entrance), in the same place without moving,” she told Associated Press.
Cardona Tomás is being treated at Methodist Hospital Metropolitan in San Antonio near where the semi was discovered. The truck was headed to Houston and Cardona Tomás was going to make her way to North Carolina, CBS News reported.
She said that the truck made additional stops where they would collect more migrants and more people tried to sit closer to the door for the same reasons.
"The people were yelling, some cried. Mostly women were calling for it to stop and to open the doors because it was hot, that they couldn't breathe," she told the Associated Press.
She told the Associated Press that people were calling out for water. She lost consciousness and eventually woke up in a hospital.
Federal officials say the semi carrying Cardona Tomás is believed to be the deadliest human smuggling case in modern U.S. history.
The horrific discovery was made by a San Antonio worker who heard pleas for help and saw "stacks of bodies" in the trailer, officials said.
The victims came from Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala.
“This is nothing short of a horrific human tragedy,” said San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg at a news conference near the gruesome scene.
The Department of Homeland Security issued a statement saying it was "horrified at this tragic loss of life near San Antonio. This speaks to the desperation of migrants who would put their lives in the hands of callous human smugglers who show no regard for human life."
The city's fire chief said first responders were being debriefed to help them recover from what they witnessed.
“We’re not supposed to open up a truck and see stacks of bodies in there,” Hood said. “None of us come to work imagining that.”
The driver and three others were arrested and charged by U.S. prosecutors.
