The trial begins Monday for two men accused of human trafficking following the deaths of their family at the Manitoba-U.S. border

A highly anticipated trial in Minnesota begins Monday with jury selection for two men accused of helping smuggle people across the U.S.-Canada border, including four members of an Indian family who froze to death in Manitoba while trying to cross the border . in snowstorm conditions.

The legal proceedings come almost three years after the bodies of Jagdish Patel, 39, his wife Vaishali, 37, their 11-year-old daughter Vihangi and their three-year-old son Dharmik were found on January 19. , 2022, in a snowy field just 40 feet from the U.S. border.

Autopsies confirmed they all died of hypothermia, U.S. prosecutors said a lawsuit brief filed last month. The family tried to cross the border during a blinding snowstorm on a day when the temperature was -23 C, but the wind chill hovered between -35 and -38.

Harshkumar Patel, who is not related to the victims, and Steve Shand were charged by U.S. federal prosecutors in connection with the case earlier this year.

Shand was arrested by U.S. Border Patrol agents on the morning of Jan. 19, 2022, while sitting in a rented 15-seat passenger van on a snowy highway in Minnesota, just south of the Canadian border near Emerson, Man.

Patel was arrested in Chicago in February 2024.

The men are suspected of various charges related to human trafficking. They have pleaded not guilty.

CBC News will be in Minnesota next week for the men’s trial, which will last about five days at the federal courthouse in Fergus Falls, about 50 miles southeast of Fargo, ND — the closest federal courthouse to where the incident occurred.

The procedure had previously been postponed, including last yearwhen attorneys asked for a delay in Shand’s case, citing its complexity and a desire to avoid multiple trials if more charges were filed.

That came before Patel was charged in the case earlier this yearat which point Shand was also indicted on additional charges.

The family who died near the border were part of a group of 11 Indian nationals who all tried to make the same trip in January 2022, including one who, according to the lawsuit brief, “was so hypothermic that she lost consciousness and suffered severe frostbite.” her nose and fingers.”

Prosecutors say the 11 people were looking for Shand’s van, which was stuck.

Harshkumar Patel, who prosecutors said had a number of aliases including “Dirty Harry,” allegedly hired and paid Shand to meet and transport the migrants once they crossed the U.S. border.

Patel and Shand knew each other because they frequented certain casino gaming rooms and both lived in or around Deltona, Florida, prosecutors say.

Witnesses include Canadians

The prosecutor’s brief outlines their case against Patel and Shand, including photos showing how ill-prepared the migrants were for the cold. It also includes selections of text messages and phone logs from the defendants’ phones, which prosecutors say showed they were aware of the dangers of the cold and a predicted snowstorm.

Between December 12, 2021 and January 19, 2022 – the day the Patel family was found dead – the defendants smuggled dozens of individuals across the Canada-US border as part of a large, systematic human smuggling operation that brought Indian nationals into Canada on student visas and smuggled them then to the US, the court document alleges.

Shand and Patel – working with co-conspirators in Canada – managed the border crossings from Manitoba to Minnesota, prosecutors allege. Patel coordinated with smugglers in Canada to determine the locations, dates and numbers of migrants, the document said.

To date, no one has been charged in Canada. An RCMP spokesperson said the investigation is ongoing and no arrests have been made.

U.S. prosecutors say they plan to call several witnesses at trial, including law enforcement officers who responded to the scene and those who investigated the smuggling scheme. In addition, several expert witnesses are expected to provide information on topics such as telephone records and the weather conditions on the day the Patel family died.

Two Canadian forensic pathologists are also expected to be called to testify about the Patel family’s autopsies.

Prosecutors say other possible witnesses include a man who was part of the larger smuggling plot and sent many of the Jan. 19 migrants to Manitoba to cross into Minnesota after he failed to get them across the border between British Columbia and Washington state to get.

One or more of the migrants who were part of the same group as the Patel family may also be called as witnesses, prosecutors say.