French couple dies hiking New Mexico trail, but family camera leads sheriff to dehydrated boy: 'He could have been the victim as well'

A New Mexico deputy who grabbed a dead woman's camera looking for clues made a life-saving discovery.

She had a 9-year-old boy with her, turning a grim recovery operation into a frantic search Tuesday afternoon at White Sands National Monument, 15 miles southwest of Alamogordo.

A challenging hiking trail in the New Mexico desert where temperatures soared past 100 degrees claimed the lives of two French tourists.

But while Park rangers were too late to save the couple, authorities rescued the dehydrated boy, according to the National Park Service.

The woman's body was discovered about 1 1/2 miles from the Alkali Flat trail head at 5:15 p.m. Unsure exactly what happened, an Otero County Sheriff's deputy began looking through her camera and realized she wasn't alone.

"We were trying to figure out what was going on," Otero County Sheriff Benny House told the Daily News. "We looked at the camera. Otherwise, he could have been the victim as well."

Her husband's body was located about a half hour later, the boy by his side, House said.