In August 2007, 41-year-old mother Maria Transito Guazhambo and her 10-year-old son left Altar, Sonora for Tucson, Arizona as part of a group crossing the border. After a six-hour truck ride to the border they continued on foot and walked for about a week through desert conditions. The week after, Maria developed a severe headache; by the next day the group had run out of water. They later found a large, rusty metal water tank near a dry stream bed, but Maria’s condition deteriorated, and she fainted and began to bleed significantly.

She managed to keep going until a Sunday afternoon collapse left her unable to speak or walk. Companions placed her in the shade of a large tree. She told her son she could not continue; the group’s guide persuaded the boy to leave with the claim that another group behind them would render aid. Hours later the boy and the group were driven on to Phoenix. Maria Guazhambo was left behind and has not been seen since.

What information do readers in the area have about people left in that part of the desert in August 2007?