“The bodies all had a hole in the head caused by a firearm,” prosecutor Maria Elena Andrade said on Sunday.
She added in a press conference that the families of the victims arrived in Mexico on Saturday to officially identify the bodies.
One of the hypotheses investigators are working on is whether the tourists’ deaths resulted from an attempt to steal their pickup truck.
The truck was found burned not far from the bodies of the two Australian brothers, Jake and Callum Robinson, and the American Jack Carter, who are surfing enthusiasts and were last seen on April 27 in Bocana de Santo Tomas, a seaside resort in the municipality of Ensenada.
According to Australian media, 30-year-old Jake Robinson was a doctor in the Australian city of Perth. His brother Callum was 33 years old, and their American friend Jake Carter was 30 years old.
Three suspects, including a woman, were arrested last Thursday for possible direct or indirect involvement in the case, according to the Mexican judiciary.
On Saturday, the Mexican state prosecutor, Maria Elena Andrade, said that the bodies were “in an advanced state of decomposition,” which complicates identification.
She added, “But given the clothing and some characteristics such as long hair and some specific physical descriptions, there is a high probability” that these are the bodies of the three missing young men.
On Friday, journalists witnessed search teams pulling three bodies covered in mud from a hole in a cliff overlooking the ocean in the city of Santo Tomas in Baja California.
The body of a fourth person was found in the same place, but analyzes showed that it had been here for a long time and that it was not linked to the case of the missing three tourists.
The authorities in Baja California confirmed that they are interrogating three Mexicans in connection with the disappearance of the three tourists, and that the investigation is being conducted in cooperation with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the US and Australian consulates.
Baja California is known for its attractive beaches, but it is also one of the most dangerous states in Mexico due to the spread of gang violence and organized crime.
Australian surfers Dean Lucas and Adam Coleman were killed and their bodies burned while surfing in the northwestern Mexican state of Sinaloa in November 2015.
In March 2023, members of the Gulf Cartel kidnapped four Americans in the city of Matamoros in northeastern Mexico, off Brownsville in the US state of Texas, and killed two of them.
The cycle of bloody violence taking place in Mexico has led to the deaths of more than 450,000 people and the loss of more than 100,000 since the federal government launched a controversial anti-drug campaign in 2006.
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