Murdered bodies ‘most likely’ those of missing surfers, Mexican investigators say

By Stefano Pozzebon and Bertha Ramos, CNN

(CNN) — Mexican authorities said Sunday that three bodies found in the state of Baja California earlier this week had been murdered and are “most likely” those of three missing surfers from the US and Australia.

The state’s Attorney General Maria Elena Andrade told a news conference that a forensic investigation had revealed that the three bodies had suffered gun shots to the head and were thought to be those of American Jack Carter Rhoad and Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson.

The three friends are believed to have been on a surfing and camping trip near the town of Ensenada, about 60 miles south of the border city of Tijuana, when they went missing on April 29.

“It’s most likely that the three bodies are those of the three surfers, but the family is still going through the identification process,” Andrade said.

She added that the three bodies had been determined as having been murdered but had not yet been formally identified.

Family members of the surfers arrived in Tijuana on Saturday and would examine the corpses on Sunday afternoon, Andrade said.

Andrade said she expected the identification process to be completed “in the next few hours.”

Three Mexican citizens who were previously brought in for questioning in relation to the case have since been arrested on suspicion of kidnapping, the attorney general’s office said on Friday.

The three bodies were found on a cliff to the south of the Ensenada municipality, according to two security sources and a member of an activist group specialized in searching for missing people.

A local police source told CNN that authorities also found the men’s pickup truck, burned out, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) from where the bodies were found.

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