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The American and two Australians killed during a surfing trip in Mexico were targeted by murderers who intended to take the tires from the truck they were traveling in, prosecutors revealed on Sunday (May 5) via the New York Post.
The Baja California Prosecutor's Office shared new details on the deaths of American Jack Carter Rhoad and Australian brothers Callum, 33, and Jake Robinson, 30, after their bodies were found last week and positively identified by their families on Sunday. The alleged killers targeted the surfers when they noticed their truck and tens, Chief state prosecutor Maria Elena Andrade Ramirez announced during a press conference.
“They approached, with the intention of stealing their vehicle and taking the tires and other parts to put them on the older-model pickup they were driving,” Andrade Ramirez said via the Post.
“When they (the foreigners) came up and caught them, surely, they resisted,” she added. “And these people, the assailants, took out a gun and first they killed the one who was putting up resistance against the vehicle theft, and then others came along and joined the fight to defend their property and their companion who had been attacked, and they killed them too.”
The suspects then burned the victims' tents and dumped their bodies into a 50-feet deep well located about four miles from the scene of the murder, which was then covered with boards, according to Andrade Ramirez.
“It was literally almost impossible to find it,” Andrade Ramirez said of the hidden well via the Post.
Authorities suspected the bodies found belonged to the three surfers prior to confirmation from their families. A burned out truck was also located near the scene and suspected to have belonged to the victims.
A fourth body, which was described as being badly decomposed, was also found when the bodies of the victims were recovered and is believed to be the remains of a rancher who owned the property and was reported missing two weeks prior. Jesús Gerardo Garcia Cota, alias El Kekas; Ari Gisel García Cota; and Christian Alejandro Garcia, who is Cota's brother, were all arrested in connection to the victims' disappearance, however, have not been charged with murder.