A daylong search for three missing tourists near a surfing town near the U.S.-Mexico border ended tragically Friday when authorities said they located three bodies in a pool of water.
Two Australian brothers, Callum and Jake Robinson, and their friend, Jack Carter Rhoad, a US citizen, were on holiday surfing and camping along the coast near the Mexican city of Ensenada when they disappeared on Saturday.
Debra Robinson, the brothers’ mother, said in a social media post Wednesday that they had booked an Airbnb in another coastal town north of Ensenada but never showed up there.
“To reach out to anyone who has seen my two children. They haven’t contacted us,” she pleaded to the more than 120,000 members of a community Facebook page created for people interested in visiting Mexico’s Baja California peninsula.
He added that Callum was a type 1 diabetic.
The state attorney general, María Elena Andrade Ramírez, said in a press conference Thursday that the prosecutor’s office is investigating three people linked to the case, but that the crucial moment has passed since the disappearance of the three men.
“Unfortunately, the news of their disappearance was only given in the last few days,” Ms. Andrade Ramírez told reporters. “So, that meant important hours or time was lost.”
In an interview, Ms. Andrade Ramírez said that after a careful examination of a 50-foot-deep pool of water at La Bocana beach, near the city of Santo Tomás, Mexican authorities found three male bodies early Friday morning. The already decomposed remains, she added, “meet the characteristics to presume with a high degree of probability” that they are the Robinson brothers and Mr. Rhoad.
Researchers will carry out DNA tests to confirm the findings.
Investigators also believe that the three people linked to the death attempted to seize the victims’ vehicle. When they resisted, Ms. Andrade Ramírez said, a man pulled out a gun, opened fire and then tried to dispose of their bodies. That person was arrested.
“This attack appears to have occurred in an unexpected and circumstantial manner,” he added. “We are committed to ensuring this crime does not go unpunished.”
The human remains of a fourth male body, not yet identified and not connected to this case, were also found at the same site.
As of 2022, 192 American citizens have died in Mexico, State Department the figures show, but most of these deaths were accidents or suicides. Only 46 were found to be murders.
Baja California’s big waves have long attracted crowds of surfers and travelers, many of whom have been dealing with rising crime rates for nearly two decades.
But record levels of violence have hit the state in recent years. Government data shows Baja California currently ranks first for vehicle thefts and second for homicides, most of which are linked to drug dealing or organized crime, Mexico’s defense secretary said this year , Luis Cresencio Sandoval.
An official familiar with the investigation, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said a white pickup truck in which the missing tourists were traveling was found charred near La Bocana beach. Other objects and evidence were also analysed, the official added.
The quick attempt to find the tourists was a rare exception in a country where nearly 100,000 people remain missing, according to the latest count provided by Mexican authorities in March.
Most cases remain unsolved. Family members and volunteers are left alone to follow the leads, but the presence of signs and the lack of support from the authorities make the search a dangerous mission.
The recent Ensenada case was reminiscent of a 2015 incident in which two Australian surfers, Adam Coleman and Dean Lucas, were killed while crossing Sinaloa, another state in northern Mexico. Local authorities arrested three people who said they shot the two friends after they resisted a robbery. Their bodies were found inside their van, which had been doused in petrol and set on fire.
