A man killed two Australians and a San Diego man during a surfing trip to Mexico to steal their truck for tires, authorities said Sunday.
Baja California state prosecutors have released gruesome details of the killing, but have not yet officially confirmed the identity of the body. The victim’s family is currently looking at the body to see if it can be visually identified.
The bodies had decomposed after the perpetrators dumped them in a remote well about 50 feet (15 meters) deep, about four miles (6 kilometers) from where the foreigners were killed. If relatives cannot confirm the identity of the body, further tests will be carried out. The well also contained a fourth corpse, which had been there for a much longer time.
“It is very likely that it is them,” said state prosecutor María Elena Andrade Ramírez, noting that the bodies still appeared to be visually identifiable. “If they say they’re not completely sure it’s a relative of theirs, then we’ll have to do genetic testing.”
The Ensenada coroner’s office announced Sunday that the cause of death for three bodies recovered Friday in Baja California has been determined to be gunshot wounds.
According to the ME, two bullets representing two of the three gunshot wounds in the head of each body were recovered, and all were identified as men, approximately 30 to 40 years old. They are likely to have been dead for five to seven days, the ME added.
The three went missing last weekend after going on a camping and surfing trip along the coast south of the city of Ensenada, posting idyllic photos of waves and secluded beaches on social media.
But Andrade Ramirez said the trip wasn’t over for brothers Jake and Callum Robinson from Australia, and American Jack Carter Lord, who sources say live in San Diego. He spoke about what he believed to be a terrifying moment. Callum lived in Ocean Beach.
She hypothesized that the killers were driving by, saw the foreigners’ pickup trucks and tents, and tried to steal their tires. However, “when[the foreigners]approached and grabbed them, they did resist.”
She said the killer would have shot the tourists then.
Authorities have confirmed that they have found four bodies in a remote area of Santo Tomas, near where the three men went missing. But as NBC 7’s Janet Quezada explains, they haven’t released their identities.
The thieves then went to what she described as a “very difficult to access location” and allegedly dumped the body in an apparently familiar well. She said investigators have not ruled out the possibility that the same suspect also dumped the first body in the well as part of an earlier crime.
“They may have been looking for a truck in the area,” Andrade Ramirez said.
The thieves are said to have boarded up the well. “It was literally almost impossible to find the body,” Andrade Ramirez said, adding that it took two hours to pull the body out of the well.
The site where the body was found near Santo Tomas County was near a secluded beach area where the missing man’s tent and truck were found along the coast Thursday. Judging by their last photo post, this trip looked perfect. But even experienced local expatriates question whether it’s safe to camp along the now largely deserted coast.
“The reality is that the risks of traveling and camping in remote areas no longer outweigh the benefits,” the host of the local Internet forum Talk Baja, who has lived in the area for about 20 years, wrote in an editorial Saturday. said.
Loved ones around the world are holding out hope that three missing surfers, two of them from San Diego, will be found alive in Mexico. NBC 7’s Dana Williams reported on May 3, 2024.
But in a sense, adventure was the key to Victim’s lifestyle.
Callum Robinson’s Instagram account had the following slogan: “If you’re not living on the edge of a cliff, you’re taking up too much room.”
Asked by one of the reporters at a press conference, Andrade Ramírez expressed his agreement that the search for foreigners was carried out on such a large scale and quickly, but that locals disappeared in the area. , asked why little was done for weeks, months, or even weeks. Year.
“Do I have to be a foreigner in Baja California to be investigated if something happens?” asked a reporter who declined to give his name. “Each investigation is different,” Andrade Ramirez replied.
As if to drive home that point, dozens of mourners, surfers and demonstrators gathered in the main square of the nearest city, Ensenada, to voice their anger and grief over the deaths.
“Ensenada is a mass grave,” read a placard held by the demonstrators. “Australia, we are with you,” a man scrawled on one of the six surfboards taking part in the demonstration.
The woman held up a placard that read: “They just wanted to surf. We want safe beaches.”
Surfer Gabriela Acosta joined the protest “to show love, solidarity and respect for the three lives lost.” Acosta said Baja surfers are aware of the dangers, she said.
“As women, we sometimes feel like surfing alone,” Acosta said. “But given the circumstances, we will never do that. We must always accompany.”
“I think what happened to them is just one example of the lack of safety in this state,” she said.
Baja California state prosecutors said they are investigating three people in the case, two of whom were arrested for methamphetamine. Prosecutors said the two were detained on drug charges but remain suspects in the case.
A third man was arrested on charges amounting to kidnapping, but that was before the body was discovered. It is unclear whether he will face further charges.
A third suspect is believed to have been directly involved in the killing. In accordance with Mexican law, prosecutors identified his first name as Jesús Gerardo and his alias as “El Quecas” (slang for “quesadilla” or cheese tortilla). Andrade Ramirez said he has a criminal history and that more people may have been involved.
Last week, missing Australian mother Debra Robinson posted on a local community Facebook page appealing for help in finding her sons. Robinson said Callum and Jake had not heard from each other since April 27 and had booked accommodation in Rosarito, near Ensenada.
Mr Robinson said Mr Callum was diabetic. She also said the American who was with her was named Jack Carter Lord, but the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City did not immediately confirm that. The U.S. State Department said it was aware of reports of Americans missing in Baja, but gave no further details.
In 2015, two Australian surfers, Adam Coleman and Dean Lucas, were killed in western Sinaloa state, across the Gulf of California (also known as the Sea of Cortez) from the Baja Peninsula. Authorities said they were victims of a highway robbery. Three suspects were arrested in that case.
