The Crime Ledger: September 8, 2026

Baja Surfers Trial Opens in Ensenada

Three men charged with murder and aggravated robbery in the April 2024 killings of Australian brothers Callum Ryan Robinson, 33, and Jake Martin Robinson, 30, and American friend Jack Carter Rhoad, 30, appeared Monday in Ensenada, Baja California. Prosecutors say the trio, Jesús Gerardo García (“El Kekas”), Irineo Francisco N., and Ángel Jesús N., killed the men while trying to steal their pickup during a remote-beach camping and surfing trip. Bodies were found days later in a cliff-top shaft with gunshot wounds to the head; the burned truck sat nearby.

Martin Robinson attended with his wife Debra. “I know they would want us to be here; they would do the same for us,” he told reporters. García’s former partner Silva Raya already drew 20 years after admitting she instigated the robbery for the truck’s tires. The judge-only trial was due to continue Tuesday. All three accused are presumed innocent.

Update, Oct. 11, 2026: On Oct. 9 the judge convicted Jesús Gerardo García Cota, Irineo Francisco García Montaño and Ángel Jesús León Aguilera of aggravated homicide and robbery and acquitted them of disappearance; prosecutors seek up to 210 years each, with sentencing Oct. 16, AP reports.

Belconnen Fire: Curtin Charged, Bail Refused

Jack Henry Curtin, 27, faced ACT Magistrates Court Tuesday on murder and arson charges in the May 18 death of Kylee McHugh, 46, at Wallcliffe Flats on Osborne Place in Belconnen. Firefighters found her after a ground-floor unit blaze about 6:40 a.m.; police later treated it as homicide. Curtin was arrested Monday in Fyshwick. He entered no plea.

Prosecutor Tamzin Lee told Magistrate Alexandra Burt the alleged killing sat between about 11 p.m. May 17 and the early hours of May 18, with CCTV placing Curtin nearby. A preliminary autopsy finding pointed to a neck injury before the fire; Lee said the blaze was lit inside to conceal the murder. Det Acting Insp Chris Watson of ACT Policing said Curtin was known to McHugh as an “association,” not a relationship, and that others may still hold information. Legal Aid sought bail on family and medical grounds. Burt refused, finding no special or exceptional circumstances. Back in October. Curtin is presumed innocent.

Frankfort: Walsh Ordered Held Pending Trial

A Will County judge on Tuesday granted prosecutors’ petition to keep Corie Walsh, 40, in custody pending trial on three first-degree murder counts in the Sept. 1 death of her son Barrett, 2, at a Brook Stone Court home in Frankfort. Walsh stood in handcuffs and shackles. Prosecutors said a neighbour found Barrett hanging from basement rafters after siblings came home from school, started CPR, then found Walsh upstairs in a bathtub with self-inflicted cuts and took a kitchen knife from her hands. Barrett was pronounced dead at hospital.

They allege Walsh told officers she did it because the toddler was the “devil” and “anti-Christ,” threatened to poison her husband on his return from out of state, and had been “very invested” in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial, texting a mothers’ group chat the morning of the killing. Defense attorneys Andrea Lyon and Anthony Kerr rejected copycat talk as “baseless and cruel,” argued psychosis, and said Barrett’s funeral was the same day. Next court date: Sept. 24. Walsh is presumed innocent. The New Yorker’s Eren Orbey separately mapped how an 11-1 deadlock note and a refused juror probe ended Clancy’s Plymouth trial in mistrial.

Kanpur: Daughter-in-Law Accused of Hiring Killers

Kanpur police arrested Shalu Minocha, 30, on Monday, alleging she paid former domestic help Vishal Gautam ₹6 lakh to kill her father-in-law, pharmaceutical trader Vineet Minocha (reported as 60-63), inside flat C-104 at Ratan Orbit Apartment in Kalyanpur. Police say the dispute centered on CCTV cameras Vineet installed for security; Shalu claimed they invaded her privacy. She allegedly handed over a key for a duplicate, then on Sept. 5 told the hit men she and husband Subrat would be at a party and waved them past a security officer as “medicine delivery” under the false name Shivam.

Police allege Gautam and Raj Kishor, 30, hid in a bedroom, panicked when Vineet walked in around 11 p.m., and stabbed him, postmortem counted 26 wounds, then fled over a rear wall. Nothing was stolen. The pair were arrested after an encounter Sunday; Shalu was produced before a magistrate and sent to 14 days’ judicial custody. Conspiracy under BNS 61(2) added. Subrat is being questioned. All accused are presumed innocent.

Palakkad: Suspect Held After River Dump

Pudur Police on Tuesday took custody of Provat Das of Alipurduar, West Bengal, the prime suspect in the double murder of a woman and a child at Attapadi in Palakkad, after a Kerala team traced him across state lines. Decapitated bodies stuffed in sacks were recovered from the Bhavani River on Sunday. A nursery supervisor helped identify an Assamese woman and her child who had worked at the nursery with Das; relatives in Assam are being brought for confirmation.

Police say Das confessed in interrogation and stated the woman was not his wife and the child was not his. She had stayed with him about two months. Autopsy findings: multiple chop wounds to the woman’s head before decapitation with a heavy weapon; the child strangled, then the head severed. Motive still unclear. Thrissur Commissioner Nakul Rajendra Deshmukh (additional charge of Palakkad Rural SP) said interrogation continues. Das is presumed innocent unless and until charged and convicted.

Conchalí: Neighbour’s Account of a 2008 Disappearance

Fiscalía Centro Norte confirmed Monday the detention of a 42-year-old man who walked into Conchalí’s 5ª Comisaría Sunday night and said he killed Mariana Sepúlveda, last seen in 2008 on her way to school at age 19. He allegedly buried her in a room at his home on pasaje Logroño, then moved the remains years later. Carabineros OS9, LABOCAR, and canine units excavated the property; Fiscal Marcelo Cabrera said an arrest order followed self-incrimination and that control de detención was expected the next day. Homicide is the formal imputation. He is presumed innocent.

The man, Ghislain Jesús Quiroz Carrizo, 42, a neighbour on Pasaje Logroño, told police he took her to his house, killed her, buried her under a bedroom floor and five years later dug up the remains and put them out with the rubbish, BioBioChile and TVN report. Update, Oct. 11, 2026: A bone sample found under a bed turned out not to be human, and the homicide case was dismissed because the statute of limitations had run, La Tercera and Central Noticia report. No court has found him guilty, and Mariana Sepúlveda’s remains have not been found.

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