Experts testify to discovery of three bodies in a well on Mexico beach

A Baja California judge told the families that they could leave the courtroom as experts presented graphic photos of the murdered surfers found on a stretch of idyllic Mexican Pacific coastline.ENSENADA, Mexico (CN) — Downtown Ensenada in Baja California buzzed Thursday with the Baja 400, an annual off-road rally race filling up hotels with spectators and participants, but in courtroom three of the Ensenada criminal courthouse, sitting atop a hill facing the state prison, Claudia Cecilia Alvarado Murillo testified to the discovery of three surfers’ bodies on the bottom of a makeshift well on May 3, 2024.Alvarado Murillo, a forensics specialist of the Prosecutor’s Office of Baja California, took photos of a burned out campsite near Punta San José.“This is a close-up photo of damaged burned material. In this area, we found blood, a tooth fragment, and a blood trail,” Alvarado Murillo said on the fourth day of trial over the killings of two Australian brothers and their American friend.“In this picture, there is the sea in the background, a bullet casing, different gunshot materials and a shirt with blood stains,” she said of another photo.Three defendants, in orange jumpsuits and shackled at the ankles, looked up to the monitor showing the photos, blank-faced.Jesús Gerardo, Irineo Francisco and Ángel Jesús are accused of aggravated homicide, aggravated robbery, violent robbery and grand theft auto in the killings. The defendants’ last names are withheld under Mexican law.Through an interpreter, the judge checked several times on the wellbeing of the families of brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and of Jack Carter Rhoad. He told them they could opt out of looking at the graphic photos.“Thank you for the suggestion but we want to stay,” said Martin Robinson, father of the brothers.The judge later asked Paige Rhoad, mother of Jack Carter Rhoad, appearing via video link, if she was okay.“I’m not okay but I want to stay, thank you,” she said.Manuel Cepeda Portillo, Crime Scene Administrator from the Prosecutor’s Office of Baja California reeled through a series of photos: a decomposed body being taken out of a well with a pulley system of cables; a body wearing athletic pants; a body with a swollen red face and short brown hair; brown boots and a burnt green sweater.Cepeda Portillo described how one body had multiple gunshot wounds; the other two had a single gunshot wound in the front of the head and another in the back of the head. The marks on each body were never explained, nor questioned by the defense or prosecution.Investigators had also found a fourth body in the well described by Cepeda Portillo as a meter and half around and roughly 15 meters deep. That body was taken to forensics lab and remains unidentified. The defendants are not on trial for the fourth body.Under defense questioning, Cepeda Portillo admitted that a bullet shell found in the well may have been a little old and that he wasn’t exactly sure how long it was there.“It was a little stained, maybe from the humidity. It was a metallic grey,” he said.Josue Joaquin Sosa Fernández, State Investigation Agency Administrative Manager for missing persons in Ensenada, also testified to receiving a disappearance report on April 30 from the victims’ family and friends.“We did extensive interviews in the area. One person identified one of the men who is sitting here in this courtroom — Jesús ‘El Kekas’” he said. “On May 2, we found a four-door pickup truck and on May 3, we found the bodies.”Sosa Fernández also said that he conducted an interview with Ramón, stepson of Jesús Gerardo. Ramón testified on Monday that his stepfather is violent man; on Thursday the judge requested Ramón’s presence again at the end of the trial, scheduled for the final days of September.The defense team — whose strategy so far is to poke holes not in the state’s evidence itself but in the manner it was collected — asked Sosa Fernández if the interview was conducted before or after the discovery of the bodies.Sosa Fernández said he didn’t remember but was then presented with a record of the interview dated May 11, more than a week after he found the bodies.José Julián Orozco Alvarado, the boss of Rescue Firefighters of Ensenada, also testified Thursday, saying extraction of the bodies took four to four and a half hours and required wooden planks to reinforce the makeshift well.“First we had to monitor the gas level in the well and figure out how deep it was. All the alarms went off — it was very dangerous,” he said.After the testimony, Martin Robinson stood up as Orozco Alvarado exited and said through an interpreter that he appreciated his help in finding his children. Orozco Alvarado stopped and shook hands with Robinson.Courthouse News reporter William Savinar is based in Mexico City.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads