Border Patrol agent from El Paso sector found dead along remote New Mexico trail

LORDSBURG, New Mexico -- A U.S. Border Patrol agent for the El Paso sector was found dead along a trail in a remote stretch of New Mexico's Hidalgo County, officials confirmed Saturday.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection, in a statement issued Saturday, identified the deceased agent as 26-year-old Johan Mordan.

CBP officials said Mordan was "working in the remote boot heel area of New Mexico when agents lost communications with him" on Thursday. After a brief search, he was found "unresponsive lying on a trail."

Efforts by fellow agents to revive Mordan were unsuccessful, officials said, and they were awaiting the results of an autopsy to determine his cause of death.

Mordan had been a Border Patrol agent since July of last year, the agency indicated.

CBP Acting Commissioner Mark Morgan in a tweet on Saturday said "it is with great sadness that we mourn the loss," adding that Mordan had "served his country and community with honor."

Mordan was the second border agent from the El Paso sector to die this year while on duty in the boot heel area of New Mexico. In January, 48-year-old Alfredo Nino was found unresponsive at a remote outpost in Animas.