Three bodies have been found in a seaside resort in the state of Baja California, in northwestern Mexico, where two Australian surfers and an American disappeared last week, the FBI announced Friday.
Three bodies found
“We can confirm that three deceased individuals have been found in Santo Tomas, Baja California“, declared the American federal police office in San Diego, California, without revealing the identity of the victims.
Santo Tomas, where the FBI reported the discovery of the three bodies, is about 28 miles (45 kilometers) southeast of Ensenada.
Journalists deployed to the area saw rescue teams and forensic experts extract, using a pulley system, what appeared to be bodies covered in mud from a well in a cliff above above the Pacific.
Last seen on April 27
More than a dozen responders, including federal agents, state police, forensic experts and military personnel, were at work Friday in the difficult-to-access cliff area.
Earlier in the day, Mexican authorities, in collaboration with the FBI, had intensified their search for two Australian brothers, Jake and Callum Robinson, and an American, Jack Carter.
The three surf enthusiasts were last seen on April 27 in Bocana de Santo Tomas, a seaside resort in the municipality of Ensenada, in this region of Mexico marked by the violence of drug trafficking cartels.
Three Mexicans arrested
The mother of the two Australians, Debra Robinson, indicated on Facebook that they never arrived at the accommodation they had booked.
On Thursday, authorities in Baja California indicated that three Mexicans had been arrested and were being questioned in connection with these disappearances.
“A white pickup truck was found, along with other evidence“, indicated the state prosecutor in a press release, specifying that the investigation was taking place in coordination with the American and Australian authorities.
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 criminal groups.
Two surfers found dead in 2015
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.
