Three missing surfers in Baja California were killed trying to prevent theft of their vehicle, prosecutor’s office says

The case of the three missing surfers in northern Mexico is nearing its resolution pending formal identification of the bodies of the three young men found in a well near where they were lost track of last week. The authorities in Baja California are almost certain they correspond to the Australian brothers Callum and Jake Robinson and the American Jack Carter Road. The prosecutor’s office announced Sunday that forensic tests on the bodies revealed that they had a bullet wound to the head. This, together with the testimony of one of the three people detained in relation to the crime, reinforces the main hypothesis of the investigation: that the young men were killed while trying to prevent their van from being stolen.

The three men went missing on April 27 in Punta San José, near Ensenada, and were located last Friday a few kilometers from where they were last seen. The authorities reported that during the search operation blood and teeth were found near the tent where the three surfers had slept. The vehicle in which they were traveling was burned. On Sunday, prosecutor María Elena Andrade Ramírez gave a press conference where she outlined how events could have unfolded. “The preliminary hypothesis is that these people were camping in that area. There is evidence of that. The aggressors passed by in a white Ford Ranger, while the victims’ white Colorado pick-up was there.”

According to the prosecutor, the attackers intended to steal the wheels from the vehicle the three men were traveling in, but were met with resistance. “The aggressors took out their weapon and killed the one who initially resisted,” Andrade Ramírez said. The other two young men, attempting to defend him, were also shot in the head, according to the prosecutor’s version. Afterwards, the bodies were thrown into a well around seven kilometers from where the burnt pick-up was found.

The Mexican Forensic Institute (Semefo) reported that the tourists had been dead between five and seven days when they were found, suggesting they were killed on the last weekend of April. That date coincides with the first reports of their disappearance. Having been submerged in water, the corpses are in an advanced state of decomposition but the authorities are confident identification will be positive. “Due to the clothing and some characteristics, such as long hair, and some specific physical descriptions, we have that high probability that they are the surfers reported missing,” Andrade Ramírez said. The three bodies remain in the Semefo facilities waiting for the Prosecutor’s Office to deliver them to their relatives.

Authorities have already arrested two men and one woman, who were discovered with the mobile phone of one of the three missing youths. “We already have [made] significant progress. At this moment, a working team is at the location where they were last seen,” the prosecutor added.

Last Wednesday, the mother of the brothers, Debra Robinson, appealed for help on social media to locate her sons, who had embarked on a trip to surf the waves of Baja California the previous Thursday along with their friend Jack Carter. “I am reaching out to anyone who has seen my two sons. They have not been in contact with us since Saturday, April 27th,” she wrote on the Facebook page Talk Baja, where 120,000 members provided travel recommendations in the border state with the United States.

The woman’s greatest concern was that her son Callum, 33 years old, is diabetic and requires medication. He works in San Francisco as a lacrosse player. His brother Jake, 30 years old, had visited him from Perth, the Australian city where they both originated. Together with Jack Carter, they had made the two-hour journey from the United States to Ensenada in their Chevrolet Colorado with California license plates, number 70189W1, according to the information provided by their mother. Last Saturday, when they disappeared, they had a reservation at a vacation home in Rosarito.

The news had a significant impact in Australia. A spokesperson from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade had confirmed that consular assistance is being provided to the family. What concerned the friend of one of the young men who spoke to ABC Radio Perth the most was that the Robinson brothers did not post on social media after their disappearance: “Part of the concern is that they had been traveling around the United States and had been fairly regular with posting about their trip up until the weekend.”

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