Texas Authorities Suspect Dead Border Patrol Agent Linked to Assault and Kidnapping of Three Illegal Women

Texas authorities who found a Border Patrol officer dead in his Mission home believe he could have been linked to the assault and disappearances of three women living in the United States illegally.

FBI agents familiar with the case told the Associated Press on Thursday that U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials discovered a wounded woman on Wednesday night during routine checks. She told the officers that a man had attacked her and two other females. Authorities launched a "search and recovery" mission, and later located the second wounded woman.

FBI and border patrol agents who spoke with AP this week said further clues led them to the man's home in Mission, a suburb of McAllen.

Once inside the house, officials found him dead. The third woman was in the agent's apartment, according to law enforcement officials who discovered her there.

The agent has not yet been identified, FBI spokespeople told AP.

"We believe he is the person responsible for the kidnappings and the assault of all three of them," San Antonio FBI spokesperson Michelle Lee said.

Lee added she was not at liberty to say much more about the investigation.

All three of the female victims were transferred to medical facilities to receive treatment.

Spokesperson with the Mission Police Department Sgt. Manny Casas told the Associated Press that he was called to the agent's home with reports of "a kidnapping situation" inside an apartment at about 12:39 a.m. on Thursday.

Members of a SWAT team were also brought to the site, after law enforcement officials said they'd heard some gunfire coming from the direction of the apartment complex.

Casas told AP that he wasn't sure whether the SWAT team when into the home, and didn't have any more information about other people who might have been inside the apartment.

The agent's cause of death is still unknown, pending a report from the coroner.

Jenny Burke, spokesperson with Customs and Border Protection, said the agency "takes this incident extremely seriously and [is] fully cooperating with the investigation."