Three bodies found last week in the Mexican state of Baja California have been identified as those of three Australian and American tourists who disappeared a few days earlier, Mexican authorities announced on Sunday.
The bodies were confirmed to be those of Callum and Jake Robinson, two brothers from Perth, Australia, and Jack Carter Rhoad, from San Diego, the Baja California attorney general’s office said in a statement. “The confirmation comes after the families of the victims were able to identify them, without resorting to genetic testing,” the statement said.
The Robinsons and Mr Rhoad were on holiday, surfing and camping along the coast near the Mexican town of Ensenada, when they disappeared on April 27. The Robinsons’ mother said in a social media post Wednesday that they never showed up to an Airbnb they booked in another coastal town.
Friday morning, Mexican authorities recovered the three bodies from a 50 foot deep water hole near La Bocana beach. A fourth, as-yet-unidentified male body, which prosecutors say is unrelated to the case, was also found at the bottom of the hole.
Each of the bodies, later identified as those of the tourists, had a gunshot wound to the head, said María Elena Andrade Ramírez, state attorney general.
Three suspects have been arrested in connection with the murders. One of them was accused of forced disappearance. Ms. Andrade Ramírez said he tried to rob the Robinson brothers and Mr. Carter of the van they were traveling in. When they resisted, she said, he shot them and then disposed of their bodies.
“Unfortunately, they remained in an inhospitable place where there was no way to call for help,” Ms. Andrade Ramírez said at a press conference on Sunday.
The other two people arrested were charged with possession of methamphetamine, Andrade Ramírez said. She said there could be more arrests, but that there was no indication that any Mexican organized crime gang was involved in the killings.
“The assumption so far is that they approached with the intention of taking over the pickup and attacking the victims,” she said.
Ms. Andrade Ramírez said a burned campsite was discovered in a remote and isolated area south of Ensenada, about six kilometers from where the bodies were discovered. A single shell casing and bloodstains were found at the site, and the tourists’ van, also burned, had been abandoned nearby, Ms. Andrade Ramírez said.
