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An American surfer killed in Mexico was planning his wedding. Now his family is planning his funeral

A countdown clock on Carter Rhoad and Natalie Weirtz’s wedding website was still ticking, counting down the minutes, hours and days until the couple’s big day at the end of the summer.

But tragically, that day will never come.

Rhoad, 30, was shot dead along with two Australian brothers, Callum Robinson, 33, and Jake Robinson, 30, while they were on a surfing trip on Mexico’s Baja California peninsula.

According to the wedding site, he was just three months away from his mid-August wedding to his 32-year-old fiancée at a craft brewery in Columbus, Ohio.

The couple’s July 2023 engagement was the last post on the American surfer’s Facebook page. Photos show Rhoad lying on one knee in the sand at the edge of the ocean, holding out a ring to his beaming fiancée.

Carter Rhoad (Carter Redd Rhoad/Facebook)

Rhoad was from Georgia but lived in San Diego, where he founded an online clothing company called Loma Apparel that made casual T-shirts and hats, according to his LinkedIn page. Most recently he was director of a management consulting firm.

“I love people,” his LinkedIn bio says. “I am fortunate to have found a ‘job’ that fuels my passion for solving problems by connecting the right people with the right companies.”

“Building real relationships is one of the most rewarding things in life, and I am humbled every day by the people that surround me. Obstacles are just opportunities in costumes, they can be scary or fun, it just depends on how you look at them.”

Carter Rhoad (LinkedIn/carterrhoad)

According to her social media posts, his fiancée, a designer, celebrated her bachelorette party with friends in Florida last month.

Now her friends are mobilizing the public’s support to help her cope with the “heartbreaking loss,” according to a GoFundMe page created by one of her friends, Aubrey Byers.

“Following the heartbreaking loss of Carter Rhoad, Callum Robinson and Jake Robinson, our hearts are aching with sadness for their families, friends and community. Her presence brought immeasurable joy, love and kindness to those around her and left a mark on our lives,” the campaign says.

Ms. Byers explains why the GoFundMe was created.

“We created this GoFundMe page for two reasons: The first is to raise support for Natalie during this unimaginably difficult time and to provide essentials such as shelter, food, transportation and more,” she wrote.

“The second is to honor Carter by raising money for scholarships and donations that are close to his heart. No donation is too small and every contribution is greatly appreciated.”

“If you are unable to donate, please consider sharing this page with your community. Together, we can continue to surround this family with the love and support they need to navigate this challenging journey. Thank you for your kindness, compassion and solidarity during this time of profound loss,” concluded Ms. Byers.

Another GoFundMe appeared to be specifically for the Rhoad family and was created by Lee Penland, who wrote that he was a friend of Hal and Page Rhoad, Carter’s parents.

“We have created this GoFundMe to support the Rhoad family during this unimaginably difficult time and provide them with essentials such as shelter, food, transportation and more,” he wrote. “No donation is too small and every contribution is greatly appreciated.”

Rhoad was on a camping and surfing trip along a stretch of coast south of the city of Ensenada with his friends, the Robinson brothers, posting idyllic photos of waves and deserted beaches on social media when they went missing on April 27.

Jake Robinson was a doctor in Australia and had traveled to San Diego to visit his brother Callum, who lived and worked in the San Diego area where Rhoad also lived.

Pictures from Callum’s Instagram Stories show the three men on Rosarito Beach and another shows their white Chevrolet Colorado pickup – which was later found burned out in the Santo Tomás area.

Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson (Delivered)

On the picture of the truck on the beach, Callum wrote: “…and it begins” alongside a Mexican flag emoji.

Family members said the men booked an Airbnb in Rosarito Beach but never showed up.

On May 3, Mexican officials announced the tragic news that the surfers’ bodies had been found.

Senior prosecutor María Elena Andrade Ramírez said Sunday she believes the killers drove by and saw the pickup truck and the surfers’ tents and wanted to steal the truck’s tires. But “when (the foreigners) showed up and caught them, they certainly resisted,” she added.

“As they attempted to access the vehicles, the victims resisted the robbery,” she said. “The robbers were armed with a firearm and then apparently shot at the victims.”

The thieves then allegedly went to a location she described as “extremely difficult to reach,” where they dumped the bodies into a well they apparently knew and covered the hole with boards.

“It was literally almost impossible to find,” Ramírez said. She added that it took two hours to remove the bodies from the well.

The prosecutor said that the relatives saw the bodies recovered from a distant well about 15 meters deep and recognized them as their relatives.

A fourth body was found with the young men. They are believed to be the remains of a rancher who owned the property and who had disappeared two weeks earlier. His death is not believed to be related to the case, authorities said.

Ms. Andrade Ramírez said investigators did not rule out the possibility that the same suspects threw the fourth body into the well as part of an earlier crime.

Investigators announced that three Mexican nationals have been charged with a crime amounting to kidnapping in connection with the tourists’ disappearance.

It is Jesús Gerardo, whose pseudonym is “el Kekas”, a colloquial word that means “quesadillas”; his partner Ari Gisel García Cota; and Jesús’ brother Cristian Alejandro Garcia. They were not charged with murder.

On Sunday, surfers in Ensenada, Mexico, performed a “paddle out” ceremony, forming a circle on their boards in the sea to pay their respects.

Back in San Diego, more than 150 people gathered for a candlelight vigil to honor the three surfers.

On Tuesday, the Robinson parents spoke out for the first time since their son’s bodies were found.

“It is with heavy hearts that we share the news that Callum and Jake have been murdered,” their mother Debra said as she read a statement in San Diego.

“Our hearts are broken and the world has become a darker place for us.

“We also mourn the loss of (Jack) Carter Rhoad, a close friend. They were young men enjoying their passion for surfing together.”