MEXICO CITY — Three bodies recovered in an area of Mexico’s Baja California state are likely those of two Australians and an American who disappeared last weekend during a camping and surfing trip, the state prosecutor’s office said Saturday.
Although there has not yet been confirmation based on forensic examinations, the physical characteristics – including hair and clothing – mean there is a high probability that the bodies are those of the three tourists, local TV network Milenio reported, citing the chief prosecutor. of the State, María Elena Andrade Ramírez. .
“It is assumed that (the bodies) are the ones being investigated,” a state attorney general’s office official who was not authorized to be cited by name told the Associated Press.
The bodies were found in a well where investigators also found another body that authorities said would be investigated.
“A fourth body was located. It has no relation to the three foreigners. The fourth body had been there for a long time”, added the person in charge.
The site where the bodies were discovered near the municipality of Santo Tomás was near the remote coastal area where the missing men’s tents and truck were found Thursday along the coast.
The men – identified by family members as brothers Jake and Callum Robinson, from Australia, and American Jack Carter Rhoad – disappeared on Saturday. They didn’t show up at their planned accommodation over the weekend.
The US State Department said: “We are aware of these reports (of bodies) and are closely monitoring the situation. We have no further comment at this time.”
Baja California prosecutors said Thursday they were questioning three people in the case. On Friday, the office said the three were arrested and charged with a crime equivalent to kidnapping. It was unclear whether they could face more charges.
Andrade Ramírez, the state’s chief prosecutor, said evidence found along with the abandoned tents was linked to the three people questioned about the missing foreigners.
Milenio reported that he said the suspects appeared to have stolen the surfers’ truck and some of its parts were found in another truck belonging to one of the suspects.
On Wednesday, the mother of the missing Australians, Debra Robinson, posted on a local community Facebook page an appeal for help finding her children. Robinson said Callum and Jake had not heard from each other since April 27. They booked accommodation in the nearby town of Rosarito.
Robinson said one of his sons, Callum, was diabetic. She also mentioned that the American who was with them was named Jack Carter Rhoad, but the US Embassy in Mexico City did not immediately confirm this. The U.S. State Department said it was aware of reports of a U.S. citizen missing in Baja, but did not provide 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 highway robbers. Three suspects were arrested in that case.
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