VIEW LARGER No More Deaths volunteers. A new report from the Pima County Medical Examiner’s office shows a more than 25% increase in deaths across the county last year.
A total 13,461 people died county-wide last year, according to the report, up from 10,880 in 2019.
Chief Medical Examiner Greg Hess said the number of cases referred to his office also increased, a change he partially attributes to the COVID-19 pandemic. The report said 115 of the 2,050 cases referred to the medical examiner were positive for the virus, but testing was not done for the majority of cases.
Still, Hess said his office also recorded a sharp uptick in the number of accidental overdose deaths. A record 446 people died from overdoses last year, a 32% increase from 2019.
But Hess said the number of human remains found in Arizona’s desert borderland also played a role in the increase.
"So in 2020 was the second highest number of remains that we recovered for undocumented border crossers, second only to 2010," he said. "What was different about 2020? For this particular group it was probably the heat."
2020 was the driest year on record in Tucson and the second hottest, making an already dangerous trek through the desert even more deadly.
Hess said remains found across the state’s borderland are referred to his office, even those from other counties. The advocacy group Humane Borders recorded 227 sets of remains in Arizona last year.
More migrants began crossing through Arizona's rugged borderland terrain after heightened enforcement efforts in El Paso, San Diego and other urban areas over the last 20 years. More than 3,000 remains have been found in Arizona within that timeframe.
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