Three bodies found in Baja California have been identified as missing tourists from the U.S. and Australia, just over a week after they were killed in a suspected vehicle robbery during a camping and surfing trip, Mexican officials said.
Mexican officials said three people were detained in connection with their deaths.
Relatives of Jack Carter Rhoad and Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson identified their bodies without requiring a genetics test, Baja California prosecutors said in a statement to the Associated Press.
Debra Robinson—Jake and Callum’s mother–wrote on Facebook last week her sons had not contacted the family since April 27, indicating the brothers and an “American citizen” were scheduled to arrive at an Airbnb in Rosarito, Mexico, after a camping trip, but did not arrive.
María Elena Andrade Ramírez, Baja California’s attorney general, told reporters Friday three bodies suspected to be the tourists were discovered at the bottom of a 50-foot-deep water hole near the Mexican town of Santo Tomás.
A fourth body was also discovered in the water hole, though Ramírez said the person is likely not connected to the tourists’ deaths.
Ramírez said the three tourists were likely killed in a vehicle robbery gone wrong, suggesting they were shot in the head after they resisted thieves who wanted tires from their white pickup truck, according to the Washington Post.
Three Mexican citizens have been arrested on suspicion of kidnapping, according to Ramírez, who said one suspect was charged with forced disappearance.
Ramírez said investigators hadn’t ruled out whether local cartels were involved in the tourists’ death, the Post reported. The FBI is involved in an ongoing investigation.
The State Department issued a travel advisory to Mexico last year, urging Americans to “reconsider travel” to Baja California because of crime and kidnapping. The department also warned of other violent crimes, including “widespread” carjacking and robbery. Last March, two Americans were killed and two others survived after being kidnapped and assaulted by armed men in Mexico. Investigators said they believed a Mexican cartel mistakenly thought the Americans were drug smugglers and kidnapped them at gunpoint. In 2015, the bodies of two Australian surfers were found in a burned-out van in Sinaloa, the Mexican state east of Baja California. Five people were arrested in connection with their deaths, though none were associated with major drug cartels, CNN reported.
- That’s how many Americans were missing in Mexico when four tourists were kidnapped last year, according to the Washington Post.
3 Bodies In Mexican Well Identified As Australian And American Surfers Killed For Truck’s Tires (Associated Press)