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Wednesday, July 16, 2025

14 decomposed bodies found on boat offshore

by

341 days ago
20240808

Foren­sic au­thor­i­ties in the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic are try­ing to iden­ti­fy the re­mains of at least 14 most­ly de­com­posed bod­ies found on an aban­doned ves­sel just 10 nau­ti­cal miles off its north­ern coast.

The Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic Navy said that based on doc­u­men­ta­tion found next to the bod­ies, the 14 skele­tons ap­peared to be­long to in­di­vid­u­als from Sene­gal and Mau­ri­ta­nia.

The au­thor­i­ties are al­so work­ing to de­ter­mine the cause and time of the deaths and whether 12 pack­ages of a sub­stance found on the boat con­tained il­lic­it drugs, pre­sum­ably co­caine or hero­in.

Cell phones and ge­olo­ca­tion de­vices were al­so found on the boat.

It’s be­lieved that the ves­sel was en route from West Africa to Eu­rope.

That route is one of the most dan­ger­ous in the world and boats that miss their des­ti­na­tion can be swept away by At­lantic trade winds and cur­rents from east to west, drift­ing for months. Mi­grants aboard of­ten die of de­hy­dra­tion and mal­nu­tri­tion. 

The bod­ies are be­ing analysed by the Na­tion­al In­sti­tute of Foren­sic Sci­ences (INACIF) in San­ti­a­go, the coun­try’s sec­ond-largest city and near where the dis­cov­ery was made.

SAN­TO DOMIN­GO, Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic,  Aug. 8, CMC  

CMC/dr/kb/202r


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