30-year-old Graciela Gómez Hernández died after crossing from Tijuana on Sept. 14, 2025, ending up about 1 mile from a General Dynamics surveillance tower and 1.4 miles from a newer Anduril tower in the Otay Mountain Wilderness.
Voice messages to her family suggest she became lost and exhausted within hours; she said she could not continue, and her remains were found nearly three weeks later near the border with no food or water nearby.
Times of San Diego found at least 138 migrant remains along the California border since 2022 within the nominal range of surveillance towers, and MIT Technology Review estimated at least 81 were likely in clear camera view.
The findings sharpen questions over whether the system failed to detect people in distress or detected them without triggering aid, especially as Border Patrol and tower makers did not answer questions about Gómez Hernández's case.
More than 120 towers stand along the California border, part of a broader buildup projected to reach 2,300 towers by 2034, while advocates say heavier surveillance is pushing migrants onto faster, riskier routes where deaths can still occur.