Jesus Gerardo “N” aka “El Kekas”, the main suspect, confided to his girlfriend that he “killed three gringos” after coming home with new tires, stolen from the three friends’ car.
The circumstances surrounding the murder of three surfers, two Australians and an American, who were reported missing on April 27 in a seaside resort in Baja California (northwest) are becoming clearer. A few weeks after the tragedy which aroused great emotion in the world of surfing, and even beyond, the main suspect of the murder, Jesus Gerardo “NOT” a.k.a “El Kekas”admitted to his girlfriend having killed Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson, and their American friend Jack Carter, according to the BBC .
The young woman, 23, told investigators that her companion had come to her home on April 28, telling him that he had done something to “three gringos”. Intrigued by this sentence, she would have relaunched it for more precision. “I killed them”he replied, before guiding her to his car and showing her his new tires, which were allegedly stolen from the killed surfers.
The bodies of the three surfers, found with a gunshot to the head, were formally identified on Sunday May 5. They disappeared on April 27 while camping in an area outside of Santo Tomas, near Ensenada.
The suspect has not yet pleaded guilty
The local prosecutor’s office confirmed that the motive for the murder was the theft of the three surfers’ car, while the bodies of the two brothers and their American friend were found at the foot of a cliff 15 meters deep. On May 2, authorities in Baja California indicated that three Mexicans had been arrested and were being questioned in connection with these disappearances.
“El Kekas” will appear in a Mexican court on Wednesday for “kidnapping”but with these new elements, the authorities say that accusations of “murder” will soon be brought even though he has not yet pleaded guilty.
The Ensenada Forensic Service on Tuesday handed over the bodies to a funeral home that was supposed to transfer them to the United States, where the families are located. Also on Tuesday, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese lamented the death “tragic” of the three surfers, saluting the memory of “wonderful young men”.
“Our hearts are broken and the world has become a darker place”declared the mother of the two Australian brothers, Debra Robinson, from San Diego, an American city bordering Mexico.
Ensenada, a popular spot for Americans
Violence occasionally strikes foreigners in Mexico. In March 2023, suspected members of the Gulf Cartel kidnapped four Americans in the city of Matamoros, on the US border. Two of them were killed. According to official figures, more than 41 million tourists visited Mexico in 2023, more than half of them from the United States with the country’s beaches as their main destinations.
In Ensenada, very popular with Americans because it is located around a hundred kilometers from the border, dozens of surfing enthusiasts demonstrated on Sunday to demand better security measures. They held up surfboards on which they could read “Beaches, safety, freedom, peace” Or “No more deaths”according to an AFP photographer.
The wave of violence that has gripped Mexico since the federal government launched a controversial anti-drug operation at the end of 2006 has left more than 450,000 dead and 100,000 missing.