Mexican authorities say two Australians and an American have been killed in a truck tire robbery during a surfing trip.
The latest details in the case came to light after a fourth body was discovered during a search for a missing man in Baja California. State prosecutors have not officially confirmed the missing man’s identity, but said the victim’s family is looking at the body to see if it can be visually identified.
Authorities said the bodies were found decomposing after thieves dumped them in a secluded well about 50 feet deep, about four miles from where the men were killed. The well also contained a fourth corpse, which had been there for a much longer time.
Chief state prosecutor María Elena Andrade Ramírez said it was “very likely” that the body was that of the missing man, noting that the remains were still visually identifiable. “If they say they’re not completely sure it’s a relative of theirs, we’ll have to carry out genetic testing.”
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Australian brothers Callum and Jake Robinson (top left) and American national Jack Carter Lord (right). (Reuters)
Brothers Jake and Callum Robinson from Australia and Jack Carter Lord, an American, were reported missing last weekend while camping and surfing along the coast south of Ensenada. became.
Andrade Ramirez theorized that the killers were driving by and saw a foreigner’s pickup truck and tent and tried to steal the tires.But when [the foreigners] We approached and grabbed them, and sure enough they resisted. ”
She said the killer would have shot the tourists then.
The thieves then went to what she described as a “very difficult to access location” and allegedly dumped the body in a 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.
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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.
On Sunday, 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.
Local residents march to protest the disappearance of foreign surfers in Ensenada, Mexico, Sunday, May 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Karen Castaneda)
“Ensenada is a mass grave,” read a placard held by the demonstrators. “Australia, we are with you,” one man scrawled on one of the six surfboards of the protesters. The woman held up a placard that read: “They just wanted to surf. We demand safe beaches.”
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.
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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.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
