Karen Castaneda/AP
A photo of Jake, Callum Robinson and Jack Carter Lord taken on May 5, 2024 on the beach in Ensenada, Mexico. The three went missing during a surfing and camping trip.
CNN —
A suspect has been charged in connection with the deaths of two Australian brothers and an American citizen who died during a surfing trip in Mexico, the Baja California State Prosecutor’s Office said.
The suspect was charged with forced disappearance in the case involving three tourists whose bodies with gunshot wounds to the head were found dumped in a 50-foot well last week.
The prosecutor’s office said in a statement Wednesday that it also intends to press charges of murder.
Brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their friend Jack Carter Lord went missing while on a surfing and camping trip near the town of Ensenada, about 90 miles south of the border city of Tijuana.
Mexican authorities believe that at some point between the afternoon of April 27 and the following morning, several people approached the surfer with the intention of stealing his car, and “the victim’s reaction resulted in his death.”
Authorities said the suspect, one of three Mexican nationals arrested on suspicion of kidnapping in the case, was arrested “a few hours later.”
“Other evidence was also collected at the suspected camping site, including tent poles, firearm casings, plastic gallon bottles, blood stains, and drag marks,” authorities said.
Baja California has been plagued by drug cartel violence in recent years, but it rarely occurs in tourist destinations like Ensenada.
Dozens of people protested in Ensenada last week, calling on authorities to step up efforts to tackle the violence faced by tourists and locals alike. Many people held up surfboards with slogans written in memory of the three murdered tourists.
Drug cartels are terrorizing Mexico with increasing levels of violence, in part due to huge demand for drugs from U.S. consumers and armed with large amounts of weapons from north of the border.
Although parts of Mexico are well-established tourist destinations, parts of the country, especially border areas, are rife with violent crimes such as kidnapping and human trafficking. Mexico has the highest murder rate in the world, with more than 100,000 people still missing in the country. Studies show that only about 7 percent of murders in Mexico are solved.
Additional reporting by Jessie Yeung
