A days-long search for three missing tourists near a surfing town close to the U.S.-Mexico border ended tragically Friday when authorities announced they had found three bodies in a pool of water.
Two Australian brothers, Callum and Jake Robinson, and their friend Jack Carter Rhoad, a U.S. citizen, were on a vacation surfing and camping along the coast near the Mexican city of Ensenada on Saturday. It’s gone.
The brothers’ mother, Debra Robinson, said in a social media post Wednesday that they had booked an Airbnb in another coastal town north of Ensenada but never showed up there.
“I am contacting everyone who has seen my two sons. They haven’t contacted us,” she pleaded with the more than 120,000 members of a community Facebook page created for people interested in traveling to Mexico’s Baja California peninsula.
She added that Callum is a type 1 diabetic.
State Attorney General Maria Elena Andrade Ramírez said at a news conference Thursday that prosecutors were investigating three people in connection with the case, but that critical time had passed since the three men went missing.
“Unfortunately, it wasn’t until the last few days that they were reported missing,” Andrade Ramírez told reporters. “So that means important time or time has been lost.”
Andrade Ramírez said in an interview that Mexican authorities discovered the bodies of three men on Friday morning after closely examining a 50-foot-deep pool of water on La Bocana beach near the town of Santo Tomás. The already decomposed remains “meet the characteristics of those assumed to be, with a high probability, the Robinson siblings and Mr. Lorde,” she added.
Researchers will conduct DNA testing to confirm the results.
Prosecutors also believe that the three people involved in the death incident attempted to hijack the victim’s vehicle. When they resisted, one of the men pulled out a gun and opened fire before attempting to dispose of the bodies, Andrade Ramírez said. The person was arrested.
He added, “This attack appears to have occurred under unexpected circumstances.” “We pledge that this crime will not go unpunished.”
The remains of a fourth male, who has not yet been identified and is not related to this incident, were also found at the same scene.
According to State Department figures, 192 U.S. citizens died in Mexico in 2022, but most of those deaths were accidents or suicides. Only 46 were ruled murders.
Baja California’s big waves have long drawn crowds of surfers and travelers, many of whom have dealt with rising crime rates for nearly two decades.
But record levels of violence have hit the state in recent years. According to government data, Baja California now ranks first in car thefts and second in homicides, most of which are linked to drug trafficking or organized crime, Mexican Defense Secretary Luis Crescencio Sandoval said this year.
A white pickup truck carrying the missing tourists was found burned near La Bocana Beach, an official familiar with the investigation but not authorized to speak publicly said. Other belongings and evidence are also being analyzed, the official added.
The rapid efforts to find the tourists were a rare exception in a country where nearly 100,000 people remain missing, according to the latest figures provided by Mexican officials in March.
Most cases remain unsolved. The family and volunteers follow up leads on their own, but the presence of the cartel and lack of support from authorities make the search mission a dangerous affair.
The recent incident in Ensenada recalls the 2015 death of two Australian surfers, Adam Coleman and Dean Lucas, while crossing Sinaloa, another northern Mexican state. Local authorities have arrested three men who shot two friends after they resisted a robbery. Their bodies were found inside a van doused with gasoline and set on fire.
