(4 May 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Santo Tomás, Mexico – 3 May 2024
1. Coast behind crime scene yellow tape
2. Mexican navy soldiers guarding site
3. Pan of search area
4. Crime investigators overlooking search area
5. Soldiers guarding search area
6. Various of search area
7. National guard soldiers at scene
8. Various of search area
9. Various of soldiers guarding search area
STORYLINE:
Mexican forensic examiners were at a remote site in Baja California on Friday where three bodies were reportedly found, in the same area where two Australians and an American went missing last weekend.
An employee of the state prosecutors’ office who was not authorized to be quoted by name said Friday that examiners and emergency workers were trying to recover evidence found at the scene.
But the employee would not say what that evidence was.
The site is near the township of Santo Tomás, south of Ensenada.
That is the area where local media reported three bodies had been found.
Mexican news outlets and the local Talk Baja Facebook group all cited sources close to the investigation as saying the bodies had been found relatively near where the three foreigners went missing last weekend during what was apparently a surfing and camping trip.
The surfers’ tents and truck were found Thursday on a remote stretch of coast nearby.
Three men — identified by family members as brothers Jake and Callum Robinson from Australia and American Jack Carter Rhoad — went missing Saturday in the area.
The U.S. State Department said it was "aware of those reports (of bodies) and are closely monitoring the situation. At this time we have no further comment.”
Baja California prosecutors said Thursday they were questioning three people in the case.
María Elena Andrade Ramírez, the chief state prosecutor, would not say whether the three people questioned were considered possible suspects or witnesses in the case.
But Andrade Ramírez said evidence found along with the abandoned tents was linked to the three.
The three foreigners were believed to have been surfing and camping along the Baja coast near the coastal city of Ensenada, but did not show up at their planned accommodations over the weekend.
On Wednesday, the missing Australians’ mother, Debra Robinson, posted on a local community Facebook page an appeal for help in finding her sons.
Robinson said Callum and Jake had not been heard from since April 27.
The U.S. State Department said it was aware of reports a U.S. citizen missing in Baja, but gave no further details.
In 2015, two Australian surfers, Adam Coleman and Dean Lucas, were killed in western Sinaloa state, across the Gulf of California — also known as the Sea of Cortez — from the Baja peninsula.
Authorities said they were victims of highway bandits. Three suspects were arrested in that case.
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