2024-05-05 21:21:02
One of the leads followed by investigators is that of an attempted theft of the tourists’ pick-up which apparently went wrong.
Jorge Duenes / REUTERS
The alleged bodies of two Australian surfers and an American, missing in Mexicowere found with a bullet in the head, Mexican prosecutors announced on Sunday, while their families were on site to identify them. “They all have a hole in their head produced by a gun projectile”said prosecutor Maria Elena Andrade.
The families of the victims arrived in Mexico on Saturday to formally identify the bodies, she said during a press conference. One of the favorite leads followed by investigators is that of an attempted theft of the tourists’ pick-up which apparently went wrong.
The vehicle was found burned not far from the bodies of the two Australian brothers, Jake and Callum Robinson, and the American Jack Carter, surfing enthusiasts. They were last seen on April 27 in Bocana de Santo Tomas, a resort town in the municipality of Ensenada.
According to Australian media reports, 30-year-old Jake Robinson was a doctor in the Australian city of Perth. His brother Callum was 33 and their American friend Jack Carter was 30. Three suspects, including a woman, were arrested last Thursday for their possible direct or indirect participation in the affair, according to Mexican justice.
A state of criminal cartels
On Saturday, prosecutor Maria Elena Andrade told journalists that the bodies were in a “advanced state of decomposition”which complicates their complete identification. “However, based on their clothing and certain characteristics such as long hair and specific physical descriptions, the probability is high”she declared, when asked regarding the possibility that these were the three missing foreigners.
Journalists deployed to the area saw rescue teams and forensic experts extract what appeared to be mud-covered corpses from a well in a cliff at the top using a pulley system. above the Pacific. Another body was discovered in the same place, but analyzes showed that it had been there for longer and had nothing to do with the disappearance of the three surfers.
The mother of the two Australians, Debra Robinson, said on Facebook on Saturday that they never arrived at the accommodation they had booked. Callum Robinson’s Instagram account posts various snaps from the trio’s trip to Mexico where they can be seen enjoying beers with their feet up in a bar, lounging in a jacuzzi, eating roadside tacos, watching the waves .
The US Federal Police office in San Diego, southwest California, announced on Saturday that “three deceased individuals” had “found in Santo Tomas”, in the Mexican state of Baja California, regarding 45 kilometers southeast of Ensenada. The famous beaches of Baja California are frequented by many American vacationers, who take advantage of the proximity to the border with the United States.
But this state is also one of the most violent in Mexico due to the presence of drug trafficking cartels. In November 2015, two Australian surfers, Dean Lucas and Adam Coleman, were killed in the state of Sinaloa, in northwestern Mexico. And in March 2023, suspected members of the Gulf Cartel kidnapped four Americans in the city of Matamoros, on the American border. Two of them were killed. The wave of violence that has engulfed Mexico since the federal government launched a controversial anti-drug operation at the end of 2006 has left more than 450,000 dead and 100,000 missing.
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