This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Investigators searching for two Australian surfers who went missing in Mexico are carrying out DNA tests on two charred bodies found in a region notorious for drug-trafficking.

Dean Lucas, 33, and Adam Coleman, 33, were on a road trip from Edmonton in Canada to the city of Guadalajara in Mexico but failed to appear as planned on 21 November.

Prosecutors in the northern state of Sinaloa said on Monday that they had begun DNA tests on the bodies, which were found in the burnt-out wreckage of a Chevrolet van registered by Coleman in Alberta, Canada.

Australia’s foreign affairs minister, Julie Bishop, confirmed the vehicle had been registered to one of the men, and said the Department of Foreign Affairs had “very grave” concerns for their fate.

“A vehicle registered in the name of one of the West Australian men has been located,” she said on the Today show. “There are human remains and these are yet to be formally identified.”

The bodies were left unrecognisable by the fire. The girlfriends of the missing men were due to arrive in Sinaloa on Monday with dental records and hair samples which will be used in the DNA analysis.



Sinaloa’s state attorney general, Marco Antonio Higuera, said that identifying the van was complicated by the extensive fire damage and the fact its numberplates were missing.

Sinaloa has long been the stronghold of the Sinaloa cartel, led by fugitive Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán who escaped from a high-security prison in July.



Guzmán, and several other narco kingpins, were born in the marijuana-growing district of Badriaguato which lies 60 miles (96.5km) north-east of the site where the bodies were found.

But the region has not recently suffered the extreme violence commonly associated with disputed territories in other parts of the country.

'Everything points to' bodies in van in Mexico belonging to surfers, girlfriend says Read more

Erubiel Tirado, security and organised crime expert at the Ibero-American University in Mexico City, told the Guardian: “This is El Chapo’s base. One hypothesis is that the zone could become disputed if rival cartels think he is weakened because of his fugitive situation … Even then, it is unlikely that foreigners would be considered a threat.”



Coleman and Lucas, from Golden Bay in Western Australia, left Edmonton with another friend who they dropped off in Las Vegas before continuing south along Mexico’s Pacific coast, picking up odd jobs along the way to fund their surfing adventure, according to Andrea Gómez, Coleman’s Mexican girlfriend.

When the pair failed to arrive as planned in Guadalajara, family and friends launched a social media campaign to find them.

Mexican authorities have started piecing together their last known movements.

The two boarded a ferry in the border state of Baja California which arrived at the port of Topolobampo, Sinaloa, at about 10.30pm on 20 November.

It appears they set off immediately from the ferry port hoping to drive through the night in order to reach Guadalajara the next day.

Lucas’s partner, Josie Cox, said she had received a text message the night of 20 November, and said Coleman had planned to meet his girlfriend, Andrea Gómez, in Guadalajara, on 21 November.

“Adam wanted to get to Guadalajara as soon as possible,” Cox said. “I presume that from when they got off the ferry to Guadalajara, it was an unfortunate time … and they maybe pulled in to sleep or something.”

The burnt-out van and bodies were found a day later in a rural area of Novolato, about 100 miles (160km) south of the Topolobampo port.



“I had talked to them about the insecurity but I never told them about the terrible things that can happen [in Mexico]. For that I feel a bit responsible,” Gómez told Associated Press.

Mexico’s bloody drug war has left more than a 100,000 people dead since 2006, but relatively few victims have been foreigners.

In 2014, another tourist was killed along Mexico’s Pacific coast. Harry Devert, a 33-year-old stock trader from New York, disappeared while travelling to Brazil for the World Cup on his motorbike.

His decomposed remains were found months later further near the resort town of Zihuatanejo, in the dangerous state of Guerrero. The American was allegedly killed after being mistaken for US law enforcement agent.

The US Department of State’s travel warning for Mexico states that 81 US citizens were murdered in Mexico in 2013, with that number jumping to 100 in 2014.

“Crime and violence are serious problems and can occur anywhere, and US citizens have fallen victim to criminal activity, including homicide, gun battles, kidnapping, carjacking, and highway robbery,” the warning states.

“While many of those killed in organised crime-related violence have themselves been involved in criminal activity, innocent persons have also been killed.

“While violent incidents can occur anywhere and at any time, they most frequently occur at night and on isolated roads. To reduce risk when traveling by road, we strongly urge you to travel between cities throughout Mexico only during daylight hours, to avoid isolated roads, and to use toll roads (“cuotas”) whenever possible.”

