New information has emerged in the case of three tourists presumed dead in Mexico.
On Saturday, according to Reuters, María Elena Andrade Ramírez, the Baja California state attorney general, said three bodies found "meet the characteristics to assume with a high degree of probability" that they are Carter Rhoad, a 30-year-old American, and Callum Robinson, 30, and Jake Robinson, 33, two brothers from Australia.
The current working theory is that the attackers who killed the tourists realized they were in a deserted stretch of beach and that the victims would not be able to get help, according to an electronic translation of the Spanish-language publication La Voz de la Frontera.
Ramirez indicated that authorities believe thieves approached to steal parts from the men's pickup truck, and that the three tourists resisted.
“When they tried to get the vehicle, the victims opposed the robbery, the robbers were armed with a firearm and apparently shot the victims,” Ramirez said, according to Sky News Australia.
Authorities have reported that shell casings were found near the place where the men had made camp.
Their abandoned tents were found not far from a well in which the bodies were found.
The bodies of the tourists, along with that of a fourth man not related to the case, were found in what officials called an advanced state of decomposition at the bottom of the 50-plus-foot well.
Police reveal the bizarre reason why American man and two Australian brothers were targeted during surfing vacation in Mexico https://t.co/fT66DPYgHd pic.twitter.com/zu3fOCqsPY
— Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) May 5, 2024
“A working team (of investigators) is at the site where they were last seen, where tents and other evidence was found that could be linked to these three people we have under investigation," Ramírez said, according to The Associated Press.
"There is a lot of important information that we can't make public."
According to the New York Post, police have arrested brothers Jesús Gerardo Garcia Cota, alias El Kekas, and Cristian Alejandro Garcia, as well as Ari Gisel García Cota, Jesus Garcia's partner.
The three have not been charged with murder.
Rhoad and the Robinson brothers had been on a surfing vacation about 90 minutes south of the U.S. border near Ensenada, a popular tourist destination.
The men had been missing for about a week, having last been seen on April 27, according to Reuters, but they had not officially been reported as missing until Wednesday, according to multiple outlets.
The three being investigated are citizens of Mexico, according to the U.K. Telegraph.
Reuters reported that even though Baja California is considered “one of Mexico’s most violent states,” the area around Ensenada is generally considered safer.
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The U.S. State Department in August issued a travel advisory listing six Mexican states under the category of “Do Not Travel To,” but Baja California is listed under the next category, “Reconsider Travel To,” because of the levels of “crime and kidnapping” in the state.
