UPDATE: Three bodies discovered in a well in Baja have been confirmed to be those of the missing surfers.
—
Two Australian brothers and one American man have been missing for nearly a week in Mexico’s Pacific coast state of Baja California.
The group of three men had been camping and surfing together along the Baja coast in the municipality of Ensenada, about an hour and a half south of the U.S.-Mexico border, when they failed to show up to the accommodations they had booked for the weekend.
Australian brothers Callum and Jake Robinson and American Jack Carter Rhoad were reported missing on April 29 and were last seen on April 27, according to the Baja California’s prosecutors’ office. Mexican authorities are searching at sea and on land for the three men.
On Wednesday, the mother of the Australian brothers made an appeal to the public for information on her missing sons. In a post made to a local Baja Facebook page, Debra Robinson confirmed that she hadn’t heard from her sons since April 27. She also revealed that Callum has Type 1 diabetes.
Get breaking National news
“They were due to book into an Airbnb in Rosarito … but they did not show up,” she wrote. “Callum is a type one diabetic so there is also a medical concern. Please contact me if you have seen them or know their whereabouts.”
People with Type 1 diabetes need to inject insulin or use an insulin pump because their bodies do not produce enough of the critical hormone, according to Diabetes Canada.
The men are believed to be driving a Chevrolet Colorado truck with a California licence plate, according to an image Debra shared with her post.
Callum’s Instagram account shows he was posting stories to his page during the surfing trip. One image shows a white Chevrolet Colorado pickup truck parked near a beach. The posts stopped on April 27.
Mexican authorities said Thursday that they had found tents believed to belong to the group along with “other evidence.” Investigators linked the evidence found to three people, who are being questioned in connection with the case.
María Elena Andrade Ramírez, the state’s chief prosecutor, would not say if the three people being questioned were considered suspects or potential witnesses, adding that there is “a lot of important information that we can’t make public.”
“A working team 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,” she said.
A Thursday press release from the prosecutor’s office added that “a white pickup-type vehicle” was found among the evidence and the three people being questioned are of Mexican nationality.
Mexican authorities are communicating with the FBI, the United States Consulate and the Australian Consulate as the investigation continues.
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 say they were victims of highway bandits. Three suspects were arrested in that case.
— With files from The Associated Press
Comments