MEXICO CITY –
The three bodies recovered in an area of Baja California 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.
While there has yet to be confirmation based on a forensic examination, physical characteristics, including hair and clothing, mean there is a high probability that the bodies are those of the three tourists, local television station Milenio reported, citing to the state attorney general, María Elena. Andrade Ramirez.
“It is presumed that (the bodies) are the ones being investigated,” a state prosecutor’s office employee who was not authorized to be quoted 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,” the official added.
The site where the bodies were discovered near the municipality of Santo Tomás was near the remote coastal area where the tents and truck of the missing men were found along the coast on Thursday.
The men, identified by relatives as brothers Jake and Callum Robinson from Australia and American Jack Carter Rhoad, disappeared on Saturday. They did not show up at the planned accommodation during the weekend.
The US State Department said: “We are aware of these reports (of the bodies) and are closely monitoring the situation. We have no further comment at this time.”
Baja California prosecutors had said Thursday that they were questioning three people in the case. On Friday, the office said the three had been 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 the evidence found along with the abandoned tents was related to the three people who were being questioned about the missing foreigners.
Milenio reported that the suspects appeared to have stolen the surfers’ van and some of its parts were found in another van belonging to one of the suspects.
On Wednesday, the mother of the missing Australians, Debra Robinson, posted on a local community’s Facebook page an appeal for help finding her children. Robinson said she had not heard from Callum and Jake since April 27. They had booked accommodation in the nearby city of Rosarito.
Robinson said one of his sons, Callum, was diabetic. He also mentioned that the American accompanying them was named Jack Carter Rhoad, but the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City did not immediately confirm this. The US State Department said it was aware of reports of a US citizen missing in Baja, but did not provide further details.
In 2015, two Australian surfers, Adam Coleman and Dean Lucas, died in the western state of Sinaloa, across the Gulf of California, also known as the Sea of Cortez, from the Baja California peninsula. Authorities said they were victims of highway bandits. In that case three suspects were arrested.