Missing tourists found dead in Mexican well were trying to stop carjacking: Officials

Three bodies recovered in Mexico last week are those of three tourists who disappeared during a surfing trip and three people were in custody in connection to their deaths, officials in the country confirmed Sunday.

American Jack Carter Rhoad, 30, of San Diego, and Australian brothers Jake Robinson, 30, and Callum Robinson, 33, vanished April 27 while on the trip in Ensenada, less than 100 miles south of the U.S.-Mexico border.

During a press conference, the Baja California State Attorney General's Office said the victims were found shot at the bottom of a 50-foot well after it appears the trio tried to intervene in an apparent carjacking.

On Sunday in an announcement, Mexico publicly expressed its condolences in the tourists' deaths after a prosecutor confirmed relatives of the victims traveled to the country and identified their loved ones bodies, the BBC reported.

A fourth body was also found in the well, but does not appear to be related to the tourists' killings, the office wrote in a press release. Authorities said that victim had been there for a longer period of time.

Watch: Man points gun at Pennsylvania pastor during church, police later find body at man's home

Three people detained in surfers' slayings

Baja chief state prosecutor María Elena Andrade Ramírez said a warrant was issued for Jesús Gerardo “N”, alias “El Kekas”, charging him with forced disappearance of people in connection to the case. That suspect, Ramírez said, was in custody on Sunday.

Two other people, a man and a woman, had also been detained in connection to the killings, Ramírez announced. Officials did not identify the pair.

Ramírez said officials believed the killers saw the victims' tents and pickup truck and wanted to steal their tires, but when the victims "came up and caught them, surely, they resisted.”

California mass shooting: Long Beach shooting injures 7, 4 critically wounded, police say

Gun casing, blood stains and drag marks found at scene

The office previously said it learned about the missing friends through social media and announced their bodies were discovered after searching property near where they had been camping in area known as La Bocana Santo Tomás.

At the scene, officials wrote in a release, evidence including tent rods, a gun casing, plastic gallon bottles, blood stains and drag marks, which led to the suspicion that the victims may have been attacked.

U.S. and Australian consulates, embassies and national law enforcement confirmed they have been working closely with the Mexican authorities on the investigation.

The U.S. Department of State encourages citizens to keep their friends and families aware of their international travels and to discuss plans in the event of an emergency.

Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected] and follow her on X @nataliealund.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Tourists found dead in Mexico identified as US, Australian surfers