Suspect in triple murder of surfers killed in Mexico allegedly told girlfriend: ‘I killed her’

LOS ANGELES – A man arrested in connection with the murders of two Australian brothers and their American boyfriend during a surfing trip in Mexico is said to have confessed to his girlfriend that he was responsible, a court statement said.

The BBC reports that Jesús Gerardo Garcia Cota allegedly showed up at his girlfriend Ari Gisel Garcia Cota’s house on April 28 and told her he had done something with “three gringos,” as the girlfriend testified Wednesday.

Garcia Cota told her: “I killed her,” she said in court. After the stunning confession, he then walked her outside to her car, which was reportedly equipped with tires that were allegedly stolen from the victim’s truck. Authorities had previously said the surfers were likely targeted because of their truck’s tires.

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He made the grisly confession on April 28 – the day after Callum Robinson, Jake Robinson and Jack Carter Rhoad were last seen alive. The three surfers were reported missing after failing to show up at their accommodation last weekend. The trio were on a camping and surfing trip along a stretch of coast south of the city of Ensenada and posted idyllic photos of waves and deserted beaches on social media before disappearing.

Mexican prosecutors claim the three men were killed as they tried to fight off the suspects.

“When they (the foreigners) came and caught them, they certainly fought back,” she said. “And these people, the attackers, got a gun and first killed the one who resisted the vehicle theft, and then others came and joined the fight to defend their property and their companion who was attacked, and “they have them also killed,” said senior prosecutor María Elena Andrade Ramírez.

RELATED: Three bodies have been found in the search for US and Australian surfers who mysteriously disappeared in Mexico

The bodies were found in a remote well about 50 feet (15 meters) deep in a rugged hilly area near the popular tourist town of Ensenada, about 90 minutes south of the U.S.-Mexico border.

Garcia Cota, his girlfriend and his brother Cristian Alejandro were arrested.

Garcia Cota is being prosecuted for the crime of “enforced disappearances” and murder charges are expected to be filed later, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said they were gathering evidence to charge two other suspects who remain in custody for alleged possession of methamphetamine.

In 2015 two Australian surfers, Adam Coleman and Dean Lucas, were killed in the western state of Sinaloa, across the Gulf of California – also known as the Sea of ​​Cortez – from the Baja Peninsula. Authorities said they were victims of muggers. Three suspects were arrested in this case.

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In 2022 alone, there were 66 million international visitors, including nearly 34 million US tourists, according to the Mexican Ministry of Tourism.

The Associated Press and FOX News contributed to this report.