A Vietnamese woman is feared to be among the 39 migrants who perished in the back of a lorry after she text her mother telling her that she was dying.
The family of Pham Thi Tra My have appealed for help after the 26-year-old sent her mother a series of harrowing messages telling her she was ‘dying because she couldn’t breathe.’
In text messages sent at 10.28pm GMT on Tuesday – at about the time the truck container was en route from Belgium to Britain – Pham Thi Tra told her mother, ‘I love you so much…I’m sorry.’
Pham’s mother said her daughter had travelled to China so she could then travel on to the UK in search of a better life.
Hoa Nghiem from Human Rights Space, a civic network based in Vietnam, said: ‘It was told on the news that all 39 people were Chinese but Tra My’s family is trying to verify if their daughter was among them as the last dying text from her was coincidentally in time.
‘Our contact is getting more alerts that there could be more Vietnamese people in the truck.’
The Vietnamese national is thought be among the eight women and 31 men who were discovered inside the ‘metal coffin’ lorry container on Wednesday morning.
Pham Thi Tra My sent her mother a series of harrowing text messages telling her she ‘couldn’t breathe’
In text messages sent at 10.28pm GMT on Tuesday, Pham Thi Tra told her mother, ‘I love you so much…I’m sorry.’
The 39 desperate stowaway migrants were locked up in the trailer (above). It is unclear how long they had been in there for but it is believed to be at least 15 hours
The map above shows the perilous 5,000 mile journey the 39 migrants would have taken to get to the UK having paid ‘snakehead’ gangsters £20,000 for the privilege
Police said the eight women and 31 men were all believed to be Chinese nationals, but claims have surfaced online that some may have been from Vietnam.
A spokesman from the Vietnamese Embassy in the UK confirmed Essex Police had been in contact.
This comes as a husband and wife, thought to be the last known owners of the lorry, were arrested today after police swooped on their £400,000 Cheshire home.
Joanna Maher, 38, and her husband Thomas, also 38, from Warrington, are understood to have been held on suspicion of conspiracy to traffic people and on suspicion of 39 counts of manslaughter.
The couple told MailOnline last night they sold the lorry cab a year ago to a company in Ireland – but police officers investigating the tragedy raided their property today. The refrigerated trailer carrying the 39 frozen trafficking victims is believed to be owned by a rental firm in Dublin.
A Cheshire Police patrol car arrived at the Irish couple’s house at 7am this morning before up to a dozen police officers went inside at around Midday – just before the arrests were announced. The pair have not been seen.
Last night Mrs Maher told MailOnline: ‘It’s the cab – my name was down as owning it. We did own it but sold it 13 months ago’, adding they sold it to a company in County Monaghan, close to where truck driver Maurice ‘Mo’ Robinson, 25, lives.
Final journey: How the 39 tragic migrants ended up in Purfleet, Essex, dead in the back of a refrigerated biscuit lorry
Police are still gather evidence in the area in Grays, Essex, where the lorry containing 39 dead immigrants – 31 men and eight women – was found on Tuesday
The industrial estate where the 39 migrants were found frozen to death in the back of a lorry remains sealed off today as police questioned the driver for a third day
Police at the Warrington home of Joanna Maher, 38, and her husband Thomas, also 38, today where the couple are understood to have been arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to traffic people and on suspicion of 39 counts of manslaughter
Police the home of Joanna and Thomas Maher who were the last named owners of the lorry which was found containing 39 migrants
Robinson arrived in the UK at the weekend after a ferry from Dublin to Holyhead. He picked up the trailer, which had been shipped from Zeebrugge to Purfleet, yesterday morning. Minutes later, he pulled into the Essex industrial estate and the alarm was raised
Two houses have been raided by police in Northern Ireland – one belonging to the lorry driver in Markethill and the other belonging to his parents in Laurelvale, both Co Armagh. A third house in Armagh City has also been raided
Police are also questioning the Northern Irish trucker for the third day with a decision on whether to charge him with murder or release him expected this afternoon.
An Essex Police spokesman said: ‘We have carried out warrants in Cheshire as part of the investigation into 39 bodies being discovered in a lorry trailer in Grays.
‘As a result, a 38-year-old man and a 38-year-old woman from Warrington have been arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to traffic people and on suspicion of 39 counts of manslaughter. A 25-year-old man, the driver of the lorry, remains in custody on suspicion of murder’.
The container carrying migrants had previously criss-crossed the Channel via refugee hotspots in the week before it arrived in Britain with 39 frozen bodies inside, perhaps for several days, it was revealed today.
Today their bodies were moved by private ambulance from Tilbury docks to Chelmsford mortuary for post-examinations that will run into next week.