Surfers’ Families Identify the Three Bodies Found in Mexico

Update, May 6: The office of the attorney general in Baja California has told NBC San Diego that the bodies discovered on Friday, May 3, are those of missing surfers Carter Rhoad, Jake Robinson, and Callum Robinson. According to the outlet, a statement provided by officials said that the three were killed in an apparent carjacking.

Family members traveled to Baja California to identify the surfers’ bodies in person in Ensenada, Mexico. At a news conference on Sunday, May 5, authorities said they had three people in custody related to the case. Two of the three were being held on drug charges, while the other was the subject of a different arrest warrant for kidnapping.

Original story, May 3: Mexican police have discovered three bodies near the location where American Carter Rhoad and Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson disappeared on Wednesday, May 1, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

The grisly discovery happened on Friday, May 3, in the Santo Tomas area of Baja California.

The three men were in Baja for a surf trip, and were declared missing when they failed to check into their AirBnB in Rosarito, a town just south of Tijuana and the United States border. The trio was last seen on April 28 at La Bocana, a surf spot south of Ensenada, according to Tijuana news outlet Zeta.

Andrade said investigators found tents and evidence “that can be linked to the three people we have under investigation” in the vicinity of La Bocana, including “blood and dental parts” in a cabin where they allegedly stayed during their trip. The Sydney Morning Herald reported Friday that police found a torched truck allegedly belonging to the trio on a farm near where they were surfing. According to Zeta, state authorities detained three people in possession of drugs and a cell phone with a lockscreen photograph of one of the missing surfers.

Mexican authorities said social media posts about the trio’s disappearance had sparked the police investigation, after a missing persons poster began circulating on social media earlier in the week. An official missing persons report was not made until 48 hours after the men were last seen. “Very important time was lost,” Maria Elena Andrade Ramirez, the district attorney for Baja California, told reporters on Thursday.

The Robinson’s mother, Debra, who lives in Australia, wrote on social media that her son Callum—who was known as “Big Koala” to his friends—was “living his dream” in San Diego, where he met Rhoad. Jake made the “trip of a lifetime” to visit his brother, she wrote. “Our only comfort right now is that they were together doing something they passionately love,” the Robinsons said.

This is a developing story, Outside will continue to update it as information becomes available.