Mexico: 3 bodies found are those of Australian, US surfers

The bodies of three tourists who went missing in Mexico's Baja California state last month were identified by family members, the state prosecutor's office said Sunday.

Australian brothers Callum, 33, and Jake Robinson, 30, and their American friend Jack Carter, 30, were on surfing trip along a stretch of coast south of the city of Ensenada when they went missing on April 27.

Mexican authorities assisted by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) found the bodies in a well in the town of Santo Tomas on Friday. The missing men's parents traveled to Mexico to officially confirm the remains were those of their sons.

Mexican prosecutors said the bodies were found with bullets wounds to the head and were found dumped in a remote well some distance from a campsite, close to where the men's vehicle, which had been burned, was found.

Their bodies were in "an advanced state of decomposition," chief state prosecutor Maria Elena Andrade Ramirez said earlier.

A fourth body was also found in the well, but it seemed from its state to have been dumped there earlier.

Murdered for tires

Prosecutors believe the men were attacked by thieves who wanted to steal their car, partly because they wanted the tires.

"When (the foreigners) came up and caught them, surely, they resisted," Andrade Ramírez said.

Authorities have detained two men and a woman in connection with the case, which locals said was solved far more quickly than the disappearances of thousands of Mexicans, suggesting that the authorities moved faster due to the foreign nationalities of the victims.

Baja California, known for its inviting beaches, is also one of Mexico's most violent states because of organized crime cartel activity.

rmt/lo (AFP, AP, Reuters)