Brian McDonald
Three bodies located in Mexico near where three surfers — two Australians and one American – went missing last weekend and were found with gunshot wounds, Baja California state prosecutors said Sunday.
While authorities await the results of DNA tests to officially confirm the victims’ identities, there is a high probability that the bodies are those of the missing men, María Elena Andrade Ramírez, attorney general for the state of Baja California, said on Sunday. The bodies were found in the city of Santa Tomas, in the Mexican state of Baja California.
The FBI confirmed that three bodies were found on Friday. Mexican authorities said the bodies were found in a well more than 15 meters deep. A fourth body was found in the well, but authorities said they do not believe the final body is related to the missing surfers.
The missing Australians and their American friend were last seen in late April, authorities said. Investigators examined the area where the surfers camped in Mexico. They found tent poles, shell casings, plastic bottles, bloodstains and drag marks.
Andrade Ramírez said he believes the victims were attacked because of their truck. She said the killers drove by and saw the foreigners’ truck and tents and wanted to steal their tires.
“The attackers passed by in their vehicle,” said Andrade Ramírez. “They approached with the intention of stealing the vehicle and taking the tires and other parts to put on the older model pickup truck they were driving.
“When they (foreigners) came and took them, they certainly resisted,” she said. “And these people, the attackers, pulled out a weapon and first killed the one who was resisting the theft of the vehicle, and then others came and joined the fight to defend their property and their companion who had been attacked, and they killed them too.”
The attackers apparently burned the foreigners’ tents.
Jesús Gerardo, an alleged suspect in the case, is currently in prison, while two others are in pretrial detention while authorities investigate the case further, officials said. Jesús Gerardo, whose pseudonym is “el Kekas”, has a criminal record.
Authorities have not ruled out the possibility that the other two, a man and a woman who have not been identified, could be “directly or indirectly related to this case,” Andrade Ramírez said.
The Pacific coast state of Baja California is a popular tourist destination that is also plagued by cartel violence. The US State Department warns that Americans should reconsider traveling to the region due to crime and kidnapping.
On Wednesday, the mother of the missing Australians, Debra Robinson, posted on a local community Facebook page a plea for help finding her children. Robinson said he had not been heard from since Saturday, April 27. They had booked accommodations in the nearby city of Rosarito, Baja California.
Robinson said one of his sons, Callum, is 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 missing U.S. citizen in Baja, but did not provide further details.
AFP contributed to this report.
