Ari Gisell: Murder in Baja

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It started as just a day at the beach.

Ari Giselle and her boyfriend, Hazus Herardo, were relaxing at Punta San Jose near the Mexican

city of Ensenada, with two of their friends.

Beaches like this one in Baja, California are off-grid, uncrowded, and breathtakingly scenic.

Baja is an incredible part of Mexico.

It's very different from the mainland.

It almost feels like a different country.

It has its own culture.

It's very rugged, wild, remote.

Baja is home to world-class wildlife and surfing.

It attracts adventure tourists from all over the globe, looking for the waves of their lives.

And so it was no surprise when Giselle spotted another group sharing the beach.

Australian surfers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend, Jack Carter Road.

But though both groups were enjoying the same beach, they were marked differences between

them.

One group was tourists and the others' locals.

And where the haves and the other, the have-nots.

Giselle couldn't help but notice.

It all made the 23-year-old single mother think about just how little she had in comparison.

Both groups finished their idyllic day of rest and relaxation, then drove off to their

accommodations for the night.

For Giselle, that meant Herardo dropping her off at home.

Meanwhile, the tourists settled into their campground.

And that's where the differences between the two groups grew wider than anyone would

have anticipated.

The date was April 27th, 2024.

One group would wake up the next morning.

The other would never be heard from again.

This is the Abertunist, an original podcast from Podcast One.

I'm Sarah James McLaughlin.

Today, we're telling the story of Ari Giselle and how her chance encounter with the visiting

surfers would change all their lives forever.

It's a tragic tale in which the infamous Sinaloa Cartel takes a front seat, but not in

the way you'd expect.

Now over a year later, we're still left wondering how happenstance at a place so peaceful

and gorgeous could lead to something so horrible.

If you were to ask a tourist to picture Mexican beaches, they might imagine lavish resorts.

What is not where Ari Giselle grew up?

We're talking about Baja California, not Baja California, sir.

That's a completely different state, more than 1,000 miles away that houses popular destination

like Los Cabos.

Baja California is the northernmost state in Mexico, not even 20 miles south of San Diego.

And it's full of pure open country, perfect for adrenaline junkies who want to experience

nature without the frills.

Here's Megan Drillinger, a travel writer who's spent a month driving the Baja Peninsula.

This is outside of places like Los Cabos and Sanada.

If you're going through the middle of the peninsula, you like adventure.

You like to surf, you like to get off-road.

It's its own wild country.

It's gorgeous.

Surfers, fishermen, off-roaders.

My favorite thing about this part of Mexico is that you're going to find adventure at

the end of dirt roads.

And there are thousands of dirt roads on the Baja Peninsula, and they lead to tiny fishing

villages where the surf is epic.

You could drive through the state for hours and hours without cell reception or radio signal,

but that's part of the charm.

Baja California is the perfect place to unplug, to truly get away.

But there are drawbacks, too.

And they're very susceptible to natural disasters when we drove through Hurricane K, had come

through, and actually leveled a lot of these small towns, and, you know, there goes livelihood

for the foreseeable future until they can rebuild.

So poverty is a thing of everybody lives kind of humbly and modestly.

That's the life that Giselle lived.

In early 2024, she was 23 with a four-year-old child from a previous relationship.

She had long dark hair, brown eyes, and wore burgundy glasses.

When she met Hazus Herado, nicknamed El Cacus, she knew that they came from the same world.

Herado is 10 years older than her, wears a buzz cut and a beard, and stands just over five

foot seven.

Like Giselle, he's already had a life's worth of experience.

Herado had ties to the Sinaloa cartel, one of the biggest and most infamous in Mexico.

At four into the eighties, after the dismantling of the Guadalajara cartel, and has been led

by Joaquin Guzman-Luera, otherwise known as El Chapo, Herado wasn't exactly a formal

member, but he at least had social connections to people inside.

But that wouldn't have been shocking to Giselle.

The Sinaloa cartel completely dominates many parts of Baja and beyond.

And as difficult as that might be for a partner to swallow, at least cartel conflict tended

to focus on other cartels and not everyday people.

I can't lie and say that there are no cartels in Mexico.

That's a very real thing that happens.

But by and large, for tourists, it's a non-issue.

That's not who they have their beef with.

And when something unfortunately does happen between, for example, the shootings in Cancun

that happened a few years ago, it was rival gangs and tourists were just in the way for

lack of a better term.

They are not the targets.

Having Herado meant spending time with people in his orbit, like his brother, Irrinho

Francisco and their friend, Anhil, Jesus.

And their lifestyle didn't phase Giselle, at least not at first.

But maybe it should have.

Because with the relationship came exposure to drugs, and eventually abuse.

She had apparently been in a domestic violence relationship with him.

Once Lauren Price, she's a crime reporter for the West Australia newspaper.

What started as a budding love had gone very, very wrong.

But whether due to her feelings or the access, Herado provided for her, Giselle stayed

with him.

That was the nature of their relationship when they decided to spend the day at the beach

on April 27, 2024.

The couple drove to the shore within Rinho Francisco and Anhil, Jesus.

And they had no reason to expect that any strangers would be there.

There is a misconception that if a beach looks wild and abandoned, that it's public, that

it's public land, that you can free camp there.

No land in Mexico is really unowned.

If you're camping there and you think it's free camping, you haven't gotten caught

by the owner.

So to think that you've gone off the beaten path and you found this Eden where you can set

up your tent and that's your paradise and nobody else is going to come there, that's a bit

of a misconception.

Even though it is Baja, it's wild, it's rugged, the land is all owned.

And yet, Giselle, Herado and their friends found themselves stumbling upon another group

sharing the beach, one that was clearly not from Baja.

They were three white men in their thirties, tall, strong, and athletic.

One had long flowing surfers hair and two of them were over six three.

They're three very strong muscular men that are switched on, they're intelligent, they've

traveled before.

They would have been very well like a debt at traveling and being able to keep themselves

safe and aware.

But even the most prepared travelers could not have avoided what happened next.

Two days later, the surfers families reported that the young men never arrived at their Airbnb.

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When single mother Ari Giselle returned home after a chance encounter with the tourist

in the gorgeous state of Baja, California, nothing appeared out of the ordinary.

Incidents between locals and visitors were rare.

If anything, tourists and residents usually lived in harmony.

When tourists come in, when they're off-roading and going to these small towns to find them,

they are met with nothing, nothing but warmth.

Historically, it's a very safe place.

The day the beach reportedly ended peacefully, everyone made it home safe and sound.

But everything changed later that night.

Mexican authorities discovered three bodies a few days later, and they suspected murder.

And Giselle became a prime suspect.

Across the world and Perth, Australia, Deborah Robinson struggled to contact her two sons,

Halem and Jake Robinson.

They lived in a really nice coastal suburb of Perth, so they came from a really nice area.

They went to a really good school in Perth, Sacred Heart College.

Yeah, they just seemed like normal Perth boys, healthy, friendly, lovely people.

Halem had been living it over in San Diego.

Jake had been a doctor in Perth, and he had gone to visit Calum over in the US.

Calum represented Australia in LaCrosse.

So he was big in that world.

He was a big guy as well, very athletic.

Whereas Jake was a bit more gentle, and he was a doctor.

The Robinson's may have described Jake as a gentler brother, but he was still 6'3".

And like the 6'5 Calum, they were both incredibly fit.

They were thriving inside and out.

Friends have described the two brothers as incredibly warm, vibrant people.

Calum and Jake went to the Coachella Music Festival with their American friend, Jack

Carter Rhodes.

Carter, as he went by, was 30 years old and shared the Robinson's contagious thirst for life.

He was planning on getting married, and most importantly, he lived to surf, just like them,

which been all three could use the festival as a perfect jumping off point to experience

the famous waves in Baja, California, just over the border from San Diego.

Their Instagram photos from Coachella could have been pulled out of a movie.

The friends were sun-kissed and smiling as they danced and sipped beers.

By the looks of it, Calum's girlfriend Emily was there too.

The trip was going perfectly, and the next stop was Baja.

Surfing's really big over here in Australia, especially here in Perth and the Great

Southern, so that's probably what drew them to that spot in Mexico.

Carter and the Robinson's weren't naive about visiting a new place.

Each of the men had traveled plenty in the past.

They may have been adventure seekers, but they knew how to be responsible too.

They ganged talk to people who made the trip before and picked their brains about where

to go.

I had a acquaintance of Calum had recommended that they go down there for a surf.

Not acquaintance was San Diego photographer Randy Diable.

Calum and Randy met when Calum purchased a photo at his shop on Ocean Beach and the

two hit it off immediately.

So when Calum brought up his upcoming Mexico trip, Randy knew just the spot.

Randy drew him a map to the Santo Tomas Valley where he'd been surfing his whole life.

The gang was prepared, they were being smart, and they were having a blast.

So basically they just seemed like they were on a trip over a lifetime.

Based on their Instagram post, the friends arrived in Baja around April 22nd, five days before

they went and counter Jacelle and Herardo.

I'm not sure how long they were meant to be going down there, but yeah, it was just meant

to be a surfing camping trip.

Calum's from San Diego, they'd been to Coachella.

They probably just popped through down to the border, popped through the border and just

heard about this really good surfing spot and just wanted to check it out.

The first few days in Baja were just as Randy described, paradise.

They continued to share their picture perfect adventure on social media.

Randy consistently updated friends and family about their plans and whereabouts.

Here's just one heartwarming voicemail from Calum to his girlfriend Emily.

Happy Tuesday.

Good morning.

It's 11-11, and I'm just thinking about you.

Just wanted to drop you a quick message and say hello, baby.

I'd be having a phenomenal start to your day.

I'm sensing a big grin on your face for some reason today.

I hope you're full of positive and in smiles.

Cheers, baby.

Miss ya.

Then sometime around April 24th, their third day in Mexico, the men met some other

surfers that became fast friends.

These surfers described the guys as super nice and so happy to be there.

And they weren't the only ones that felt that way.

Everyone was falling in love with Carter and the Robinson's.

They were easy to connect with and one of the other tourists even invited the guys to

his birthday party.

The party was on the 27th, the day when everything would go wrong.

The plan was to head to the party, go for a surf, and then make their way back up north.

They'd booked an Airbnb in Rosarito, which is further out the peninsula and only a 45-minute

drive from San Diego.

So they tend out at a campground after the beach before driving to the Airbnb the next day.

Sometime after the party, after they'd left the beach with Gisele and her friends, all

three men stopped communicating with family and friends.

This was unusual, especially for Callum and Jake who loved to post on social media.

Even Carter's fiancé Natalie hadn't heard a word.

Then Callum didn't show up for work.

Callum, Jake, and Carter had disappeared.

Mexican authorities say they're searching both land and sea for two Australians and

one American in Baja California.

The trio were reported missing on April 29th, and not been seen since April 27th according

to officials.

The three were on a surfing vacation, but an hour and a half south of the U.S. Mexico

border when they disappeared.

We say they have found tents in the area where the missing men were last seen.

Fearing the worst, the Australian Embassy in Mexico contacted local authorities who initiated

a search alongside the FBI.

Perth here, from where we're from, it's like a big country town, it's a city, but it feels

like a big country town.

Everyone knows everyone.

Even I had connections to these boys.

I didn't know them, but a lot of my friends did.

When they went missing, there was a lot of these social media posts going around.

Debra Robinson shared a photo of her two sons on Facebook and asked friends in Mexico to

be on the lookout for the boy's white Chevy Colorado with California plates.

She was concerned about Callum's health.

He had type 1 diabetes and couldn't survive without insulin.

People who knew the men were shocked.

Everyone was just confused and we were like, okay, where are these guys?

They haven't shown up to their Airbnb in Rosarito.

No one's heard from them.

They had all these social media posts that had just come to an abrupt stop.

I think everyone deep down knew that something had gone terribly wrong.

This situation was heartbreaking, but what did it have to do with Giselle, who just happened

to see them at the beach several days earlier?

We'd find out soon, but only because of a massive stroke of luck.

Giselle was driving in Ensenada when a police cruiser pulled her over.

It was a routine traffic stop, nothing out of the ordinary as far as the officer was concerned.

While Giselle threw a 100 gram bag of methamphetamine out the window, Herardo's world of drugs

was finally catching up to her, but this wouldn't be just a drug bust.

Discovery of the meth meant the police could search the rest of her car.

And when they did, they found something potentially sinister, Jack Carter rode's iPhone.

Giselle had no choice.

She confessed what really happened that day on the beach on April 27th.

As it turns out, Giselle didn't just passively envy the tourists when she saw them at the beach.

When she saw their iPhones and new tires, she wanted them for herself.

And she told Herardo to get them for her.

So after dropping her off at home that night, Herardo, Francisco, and Jesus tracked down

the tourist campsite.

But according to Giselle, all she expected was a robbery.

Then a Herardo returned home that night with different news.

She now claims that Jesus Herardo, also known as Elkecas, has confessed to their killing.

So this was what he allegedly said either the day of or the day after he killed those three men.

When he said, and I am paraphrasing because it is profane, but I screwed up three gringos.

And she asked, what do you mean?

And he said, I killed them.

He then proceeds to give her a mobile phone, which the prosecutors claim belonged to one of the three men.

He also allegedly said that they had lots of money and electronics on them.

And also they had this vehicle, which he has allegedly taken the tires off and then put on to her vehicle.

Because that was a vehicle he was driving around with the night before.

Once he said that to her, she just fled to her mother's house.

And then later she was found with one of their phones.

And so the authorities were like, what are you doing with this phone?

And she's, that's what she's told them, is that her partner's done that?

The police now had their suspects, but how would they find them?

And that's when they received some help from the least likely sources.

According to a new report, Mexican law enforcement did receive help to find the suspects from an usual ally, the Cinaloa cartel.

The city of Incinada is under control of the Cinaloa cartel.

And now a member of the criminal organization has told the Daily Beast that not only do the suspects have no affiliation with them,

but the cartel actually cooperated with authorities to have them arrested.

And not in the Cinaloa members saying they were low-level robbers acting alone, but we handing them over the cartel members saying they did so

because they didn't want unwanted attention from Mexican authorities.

In that moment, all hopes of locating Carter and the Robinson safe and sound were over.

But there is still work to be done.

At that time, Herardo was charged with forced disappearance and Gisela and the others faced only drug possession charges.

But if they were going to be convicted with murder, the police needed more evidence.

The next day, Mexican authorities made a shocking discovery.

The campsite was found.

I think there was evidence of a scuffle there, maybe some bullet shell casings, some teeth.

That burnt out truck was found at a nearby ranch.

And then finally on May 3rd, they found the men.

There are reports out of Mexico that authorities have located three bodies in the search for missing Perth Brothers,

Calum and Jake Robinson and their American friend.

This has only just come to hand with the remains believed to have been discovered in the country's north close to where they went missing.

Baja California state prosecutors say their bodies were recovered from a remote well about 50 feet deep.

Authorities found their pickup truck nearby, a scorched white Chevrolet Colorado.

Mexican law enforcement even found an additional body in the same well.

A relic of another past act of wonton violence that was never solved.

It was becoming clear that Herrado had been raining terror across Ensenada,

and nobody knows just how many lives his cruelty touched.

Here's Randy Diable, the San Diego photographer who recommended the beach to Calum just a few weeks earlier.

And an ironic twist of fate, Calum had even invited Randy to join them on the trip,

but Randy had other plans, and those plans saved his life.

I wish I'd never met the fellow he'd probably still be alive today, you know.

Just hit home and I thought, oh my god, I threw him a map.

So half of me says I wish I'd gone to other houses, I'm glad I'm not.

I didn't go, but I mean, how would you feel? I don't know how to feel.

The mystery behind the disappearances of Calum and Jake Robinson and Jack Carter Rhodes was over.

Herrado and his men confronted the surfers with guns drawn, demanding their possessions.

But when they resisted, instead of attempting to de-escalate the situation, they were murdered.

Three human lives taken, all over a couple of phones and slabs of rubber.

The police had their means, motive, and opportunity, but they were going to need even more

if they wanted to guarantee justice. They were going to need to turn to one of those criminals themselves.

On April 27th, 2024, Ari Giselle spotted some tourists at the beach and encouraged her boyfriend

Jesus Herrado to rob them. But that night, Herrado and his friends did more than

steal from the innocent tourists. They murdered them in cold blood.

Giselle and Herrado may not have planned to do what they did when they woke up that morning,

but when the moment presented itself, they left at the chance.

This was just a few opportunistic robbers who wanted to steal their car.

They say it's just a bungled robbery of robbery going wrong.

Now the two were in police custody. Along with Herrado's brother,

and Renio Frenzisco, and their friend, Unhell Jesus, the question was, would they be convicted?

The brutal truth was that the only other witnesses who understood the full extent of what happened

could no longer advocate for themselves. The prosecution had plenty of circumstantial evidence,

but a true eyewitness would be crucial. Finally, they found one.

When Giselle herself agreed to testify against her boyfriend.

From just here outside the court in Ensinada, it was a tiny little courtroom that were inside,

less than 30 people in total, including the accused, Jesus Herrado, who was there,

clad in a orange jumpsuit. He was handcuffed, he was chained to the floor, and for most part,

he sat impassively as the judge worked through the prosecution's case against him.

But the most important new piece of evidence comes via his then-girl friend, we believe they

have now broken up. Ari Giselle, who was actually also being arrested in connection with what was

then the disappearance of Jake and Colin Robinson and their friend Carter Road. So this is an

extraordinary twist in this story so far. Ari Giselle is still in jail because of those alleged

drugs offences, but it does appear that she has now become a witness for the prosecution.

In November 2025, Giselle pled guilty to instigating the attack and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

14 years for robbery of a vehicle with violence, and six for robbery with violence.

That same November, Herrado, Francisco, and Jesus appeared in the same court together for the first

time. They had all rejected plea deals between 47 and 52 years each. Their cases were going to trial.

At that court hearing, the public got to learn the prosecution's targeted sentence for the murders.

210 years each. Herrado as a ringleader would also face an additional 168 years for forced

disappearance for a total of 378 years. Today, Herrado, Francisco, and Jesus are still awaiting

separate trials, and there are currently no dates set. In the meantime, Jesus is waiting at a

jail in Incinata, while Herrado and Francisco remain in custody at El Hongo, a high security

prison in the middle of the desert. Authorities considered a local jail too dangerous for them,

giving Herrado's relationship with the Sinaloa cartel. During her sentencing, Giselle was given

the opportunity to address the Robinson and Rhodes families directly via video. She cried as she

apologized in English, saying that she knew there was nothing she could say to make them feel

better, but that she would focus on being a better person. And she'll have plenty of time to

focus. By the time Giselle is released, her child would be 24. Even older than Giselle was when

she instigated the murders. Calum and Jake's father, Martin, said that he didn't think that

sentence was long enough. He would never understand why she did what she did.

Carter's mother Paige responded as well. In an emotional moment, she told the court that Carter

had visited her in a dream and asked her to forgive Giselle, but Paige admitted she can't, at least

not yet. It's now been almost two years since the murders, and the outpouring of love for them

has shown no signs of slowing down. Over 1,000 people attended the Robinson Brothers funeral.

A go-fun need to help with the cost of the funerals, flights, and memorial service raised over

$350,000, with donations pouring in from Australia, the US, Mexico, and all over the world.

Carter's fiance Natalie continues to call him the love of her life.

It's a really sad story. I did watch the mother of the Australian boys. I'd watched her

tribute, and that was heartbreaking. Here's Deborah Robinson addressing everyone who cared about

her sons and had been following their story. Now it's time to bring them home to family and friends.

And the ocean waves in Australia. Please, live bigger, shine brighter, and love harder

in their memory. Live bigger, shine brighter, and love harder. That's the mantra of the

Calum and Jake Robinson Foundation. Deborah and Martin created the foundation with the go-fun

need money, and their aim is to use charitable grants and programming to help the needy to live

like their sons did. They don't want their sons' stories to end by one act of violence. Instead,

they hope for the boys to live on through good deeds. Carter and the Robinson's already

seem to be making a difference to leave behind a better world than the one that they lived in.

Local in Sonata residents poured into the city's main plaza in mass to protest and mourn all three men.

The locals went out and protested, which was that was really nice for us because you could tell

that they were just as hurt by what had happened. But I think they came out with surfboards saying,

you needlessly kill these two Australians. Australia, we stand with you. So I think they are

just as hurt by it as us. And it obviously happens to their own people as well. So I think it resonated

with them. Even before the surfers, there have been too many in Sonataans suffering from violent

crime. And they were flying under the radar. They had journalists from a lot of different places

in their country after it happened. So the pressure was on.

News outlets all over the world showed up to report on the protest. One sign read,

they only wanted to surf. We demand safe beaches. And another,

and Sonata is a mass grave. One reporter asked the chief prosecutor,

do you have to be a foreigner in Baja, California, in order for there to be an investigation of

something happens to you? The prosecutor replied, every investigation is different. Here's Megan.

I personally have not had much interaction with local law enforcement. Save, for example,

you make a wrong turn down one way street and bone the cops are on you because they, you know,

they know that they're going to get some money from you off of that. I'm not going to say that

the police force in Mexico is not without its issues. That is definitely something.

Whether real reform takes place remains to be seen. But if true awareness takes hold,

and ensignadins can breathe a little easier at the beach and in the city,

it would make for a better suite silver lining in this hurt wrenching tragedy.

I personally have never been, I've worked, I've report on a lot of messed up stuff,

but this story particularly, I don't know why, but it has actually just rocked me.

Desal made a decision in a matter of seconds, one with irreversible consequences.

Today, we're still waiting on trial dates for Herardo, Francisco, and Jesus.

And when the time finally does come, it's safe to say that the entire world will be watching.

In the meantime, Carter and the Robinson's families and friends are keeping their

legacies alive through constant tributes online. And it beaches where the brothers and friends

would surely love to visit with their surfboards in tow.

Thanks for tuning in to the opportunist. This episode was written by Alex Boyd,

produced by Abby Newhouse and Julianna Postrell, an executive produced by Connor Powell.

We'll be back in two weeks with a new story about people seeing an opportunity to get ahead

and taking it. Until next time.