FERGUS FALLS — The day a family of four froze to death while trying to walk across the border between Manitoba and Minnesota was brutally cold with blowing snow that made even travel by vehicle hazardous, witnesses testified Tuesday at the trial of two men accused of human smuggling.
Steve Shand and Harshkumar Patel are accused of being part of a ring that flew Indian nationals to Canada then had them walk across the border. They 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 there was blowing snow and severe cold on Jan. 19, 2022 that would threaten anyone not properly dressed for the weather. Temperatures were below -20 C, and the winds made it feel even colder.
"When the wind chill gets into the -30s, frostbite can occur within 10 minutes," Daryl Ritchison, director of the North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network, told court.
"Multiple layers would be required to maintain body heat."
Shand and Patel are accused of running several trips in December 2021 and January 2022.
On Jan. 19, 2022, Shand was driving a 15-passenger van that got stuck in the snow on a back country road just south of the border, far from any legal entry point, court heard.
Troy Larson, a worker at a nearby gas plant, testified Tuesday he came upon Shand's van, which had two other people inside, and towed them out of the ditch. He offered to guide them to a nearby building where they could warm up from the cold, but Shand declined, Larson said.
"He said that they were going to visit friends in Winnipeg," Larson said.
Border patrol agents soon arrived. The first, Christopher Oliver, said Shand also told him he was going to Winnipeg but the story didn't make sense because the van was far from any main highway.
Oliver ran Shand's driver's licence and the Indian passports of the two young men in the van, who had Canadian student visas and no stamps that would indicate they had entered the United States legally, Oliver old court.
Oliver received a call that other border-crossers had been found in a field. He said he asked Shand whether he was aware of others.
"People will die if you don't tell me the truth," Oliver recalled saying. Shand replied that there were no others, he said.
Five more migrants were picked up by other agents nearby and one of them, a woman, was suffering from severe hypothermia and fading in and out of consciousness, Oliver said.
The woman's 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.
Hours later, RCMP found the 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 — frozen in a field just metres north of the border. They were not related to the accused man with the same last name.
The father was still holding his youngest child in his arms.
Under cross-examination, Oliver said Shand did not provide any 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 his co-accused, and was unaware until the day of his arrest that he was doing anything illegal.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 19, 2024.
Steve Lambert, The Canadian Press
