TWIST OF FATE THAT SAVED MAN FROM DOOMED SURF TRIP IN MEXICO
- Friend was invited on doomed Mexico surf trip but cancelled
- San Diego photographer recommended spot three men killed
- READ MORE: Three suspects charged over disappearance of Aussie surfers
A close friend of one of the two Australian brothers allegedly killed by thieves during a surf trip in Mexico has revealed how he almost joined their doomed holiday.
Randy Dible, a photographer from San Diego, is now overcome with guilt after he recommended his neighbour Callum Robinson, 33, stay on a remote stretch of coastline renowned for its surf breaks in Baja, Mexico.
Mr Dible drew his neighbour a rough sketch of how he could access a remote beach as well as a campsite where shell casings and blood would later be found.
Mr Robinson, a professional lacrosse player, invited Mr Dible to join his younger brother Jake, 30, and their American friend Jack Carter Rhoad, 30, on the trip.
However, the photographer got a job and was forced to cancel.
'I told him about this place because I'd been travelling down there all over that country for 30 years so I know it like the back of my hand and I knew just where to go,' Mr Dible told The Australian.
'And he was murdered in that exact spot.'
The three men had been about an hour-and-a-half south of the US-Mexico border when they disappeared just a few days into the trip.
The brothers' mother issued a desperate plea on social media after the group failed to turn up at an Airbnb they had booked in Rosarito.
Mexican authorities found shell casings and blood at a campsite where the three men were last seen with investigations leading them to a well about 2km away.
Three bodies, as well as a fourth body believed to be a local rancher, were discovered in the well located on a cliff by the ocean on Saturday.
It took rescuers up to 20 hours to pull the bodies out of the well with authorities yet to officially confirm the identification of the remains.
Family members of the victims are travelling to Mexico to see if the bodies can be identified by sight, before other tests are conducted.
Physical characteristics, including hair and clothes, means there is a 'high likelihood' the bodies are those of the three surfers, authorities said.
It comes as Attorney-General María Andrade Ramírez said the murder investigation would probe whether the men were killed in an attempted robbery.
She said the thieves were likely interested in the mens' truck, a white Chevrolet Colorado pickup, and more specifically in the tyres.
'The probability that it's them is very high,' Andrade Ramírez said.
'When they tried to get the vehicle, the victims opposed the robbery, the robbers were armed with a firearm and apparently shot the victims.'
Three Mexicans, Jesus Gerardo Garcia Cota, alias El Kekas, his girlfriend, Ari Gisel Garcia Cota, and his brother, Christian Alejandro Garcia, were arrested on Wednesday and charged with forced kidnapping.
Ms García Cota, 23, reportedly had one of the missing men's mobile phones.
It is understood police were able to make the arrests after one of the brothers' mobile phones was turned back on, and pinged a local mobile tower.
All three suspects were found in possession of an assortment of methamphetamines and other illegal drugs, according to local outlets Zeta and Talk Baja.
Baja California, where the men shared their vacation snaps, is known as one of Mexico's most violent, cartel-controlled states.
The disappearance of the men has not been linked to organised crime, but investigators are not ruling anything out.
In social media posts shared by Callum just before they vanished, the trio was seen relaxing at Rosarito Beach, where they were said to be surfing and camping as they moved up and down Mexico's west coast.
They reportedly planned to move on to Ensenada, about 50 miles (80km) down the coast, but concerns were raised when they failed to check into an Airbnb on Sunday.
The last image posted to Callum's Instagram showed the group had made it to San Miguel beach in Ensenada before vanishing without a trace.
One chilling picture showed their white Chevrolet Colorado pickup truck at a beach in Rosarito, which police believe was the same vehicle later discovered burned out.
'... and it begins,' Callum had captioned an image of the truck at the beach, alongside an emoji of the Mexican flag, at the start of the trio's doomed trip.
The Robinson brothers had attended Coachella before going to Mexico to surf.
Callum was based in the U.S. where he was an accomplished lacrosse player known as 'the Big Koala', and his brother Jake, who worked in regional hospitals across Australia, had flown out to San Diego two weeks ago to visit him.
Rhoad worked in technology services in San Diego.
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