San Diego, CA
Mother of Australian surfers killed in Mexico gives moving tribute to sons at a beach in San Diego
The mother of two Australian surfers killed in Mexico delivered a moving tribute to her sons Tuesday at a beach in San Diego.
“Our hearts are broken and the world has become a darker place for us,” Debra Robinson said, fighting back tears. “They were young men enjoying their passion of surfing together.”
Her sons, Callum and Jake, were allegedly killed by car thieves in Baja California, across the border from San Diego, somewhere around April 28 or 29.
Robinson also mourned the American who was killed with them, Jack Carter Rhoad.
The beachside location where she spoke, across the border from the Baja California city of Tijuana, was no coincidence. She noted that her son Callum “considered the United States his second home.”
Robinson noted that her son Jake loved surfing so much that, as a doctor, he liked to work in hospitals near the beach.
“Jake’s passion was surfing, and it was no coincidence that many of his hospitals that he worked in were close to surfing beaches,” she said.
Choking back tears, Robinson conveyed a final message that coincided with her sons’ adventurous lifestyles.
“Live bigger, shine brighter, and love harder in their memory,” she said.
Robinson thanked Australian officials and supporters there and in the United States.
While she thanked Mexico’s ambassador to Australia, she notably did not thank the local officials in Baja California who eventually found the bodies of her sons and Carter Rhoad.
Their killers dumped the bodies of the men into a well about 4 miles away from where they had been attacked at a beachside campsite.
Investigators were surprised when, underneath the bodies of the three foreigners, a fourth body was found that had been there much longer. It was unclear if the body was related to the current case.
The fact that such killers are not caught or stopped in the overwhelming majority of cases in Mexico has led some Mexicans to protest that authorities only investigate such disappearances when they are high-profile cases involving foreigners.
Robinson said that her sons’ bodies, or their ashes, will eventually be taken back to Australia.
“Now it’s time to bring them home to families and friends,” she said. “And the ocean waits in Australia.”
Prosecutors have identified three people as potential suspects, two of whom were caught with methamphetamines.
One of them, a woman, had one of the victims’ cellphones when she was caught. Prosecutors said the two were being held pending drug charges but continue to be suspects in the killings.
A third man was arrested on charges of a crime equivalent to kidnapping, but that was before the bodies were found. It was unclear when or if he might face more charges.
The third man was believed to have directly participated in the killings. In keeping with Mexican law, prosecutors identified him by his first name, Jesús Gerardo, alias “el Kekas,” a slang word that means quesadillas, or cheese-filled tortillas.
He had a criminal record that included drug dealing, vehicle theft and domestic violence, and authorities said they were certain that more people were involved.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told a radio station in the Robinsons’ home town of Perth in Western Australia state that every parent felt for the family’s loss.
“I think the whole nation’s heart goes out to the parents of Callum and Jake Robinson. It is every parent’s worst nightmare to lose a son or a daughter.
To lose these two brothers is just awful and my deepest sympathies and condolences and I’m sure the whole nation’s with the parents and with the other family and friends of these two fine young Australians,” Albanese told Perth Radio 6PR.
Albanese said he was reminded of when his only child Nathan Albanese traveled last year at the age of 22 to a musical festival in Spain.
“You do worry, but you think as well that’s part of the Australian right of passage, is traveling around with a backpack and meeting people and it’s how you grow as a person as well so you want to encourage them,” Albanese said.
In 2015, two Australian surfers, Adam Coleman and Dean Lucas, were killed in western Sinaloa state, across the Gulf of California — also known as the Sea of Cortez — from the Baja peninsula.
Authorities said they were victims of highway bandits. Three suspects were arrested in that case.
On March 7, 2023, as part of Mayor Todd Gloria’s 2022 Land Development Code Update, five San Diego City Council members voted to adopt the “Sustainable Development Area” (SDA) to apply to local San Diego zoning programs, including the Bonus ADU Program and Complete Communities. The council’s declaration that housing built up to a full mile from transit is “transit-oriented development” is unique to San Diego and unsupported by any academic or professional research.
Before the creation of the Sustainable Development Area, the city used Transit Priority Areas (TPAs) to define transit-oriented development. Transit Priority Areas were mapped as one-half mile from major transit stops “as the crow flies.” This measurement was always problematic because it didn’t consider natural or manmade barriers, including canyons and freeways, and resulted in real-world walking distances up to three miles from transit stops.
In 2022, the Planning Department finally acknowledged this absurdity and invented the Sustainable Development Area, which is one-mile walking distance from existing or planned transit, and declared this a reasonable walking distance for transit-oriented development (TOD). But the real motive for substituting the one-mile distance is not to increase transit use — which it doesn’t — but to preserve and even increase the area eligible for the Bonus ADU Program.
Neighbors For A Better San Diego shared research with our elected officials confirming that truly “walkable” transit is located no more than one-half mile unimpeded from a major transit stop.
We presented SANDAG data showing that 92% of San Diegans who use public transit walk a half-mile or less to a transit stop. We also proved that San Diego would be ineligible for most transit-oriented development grants, which limit walking distance to transit to one-half mile. Still, the City Council embraced the discredited definition of “transit-friendly” as being a full mile from a transit stop.
The city is two years into its blind commitment to the “Sustainable Development Area.” Roughly half of permitted Bonus ADU projects are located more than a half-mile from transit, which makes their residents vehicle dependent.
And this one-mile-from-transit SDA policy is totally at odds with state and local definitions of transit-oriented development.
For example, California ADU Code 66322 prohibits local entities from requiring parking for tenants “where the accessory dwelling unit is located within one-half mile walking distance of public transit.” Clearly this establishes that the state considers one-half mile walking distance the appropriate measure of transit-oriented development.
To be eligible for California’s Transit-Oriented Housing Development Program, a project must be “within one-half mile from a Qualifying Transit Station… along a walkable route. The walkable route… shall be free of negative environmental conditions that deter pedestrian circulation, such as barriers; stretches without sidewalks or walking paths; noisy vehicular tunnels; streets, arterials or highways without regulated crossings that facilitate pedestrian movement; stretches without shade or cover; or stretches without lighted streets.”
In addition, San Diego adopted the following definition for transit access in its 2022 Transportation Study Manual:
“Access to transit is defined as transit being located within a reasonable walking distance (½ mile) from the project driveway.”
Finally, San Diego’s Draft 2024 Edition Street Design Manual defines Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) as 2,000 feet (0.38 miles) from transit:
“A mixed-used [sic] community within a typical 2,000-foot (600 m) walking distance of a transit stop and core commercial area. The design, configuration, and mix of uses emphasize a pedestrian-oriented environment and reinforce the use of public transportation without ignoring the role of the automobile.”
San Diego’s Transportation Study and Street Design Manuals concur that transit-oriented development is one-half mile or less from transit. This undermines the Planning Department’s unsupported contention that one-mile walking distance from existing or planned transit qualifies as transit-oriented development.
That’s why the bogus “Sustainable Development Area” should be deleted from San Diego Municipal Code. Instead, the “Transit Priority Area” should be updated to one-half mile walking distance from existing transit as the appropriate measure of transit-oriented development, consistent with city of San Diego, California, national and international standards, and plain old common sense!
Givot is vice chair of Neighbors For A Better San Diego and lives in El Cerrito.
A 24-year-old driver was killed Sunday when he lost control of his SUV and collided with a parked vehicle in San Diego’s Mount Hope neighborhood, damaging three additional parked vehicles, authorities said Monday.
The crash occurred around 10:50 p.m. when the driver behind the wheel of a Mazda CX5 plowed at a high rate of speed into a parked 1995 Jeep Wrangler along the east curb of 42nd Street near J Street, according to the San Diego Police Department.
Police officials said the driver was ejected from his SUV and pronounced dead at the scene. His name was not immediately available.
It was unclear what prompted the crash, but it was reported he “left his residence after breaking glass items,” police said.
The crash was under investigation.
Rescuers were called out Sunday after a six-person passenger plane crashed into the water off Point Loma, officials said.
The aircraft was reported down shortly before 1 p.m., according to San Diego Fire Rescue and the U.S. Coast Guard.
Both the Coast Guard and U.S. Border Patrol are aiding with rescue efforts.
It’s not yet known how many people were aboard the plane when it crashed.
Check back here for updates on this breaking news story — Ed.
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