A SPOKESPERSON for the Sinaloa State Attorney General Marco Antonio Higuera has told press it will be another week before the bodies of two men found in a van will be identified.
The two men are believed to be missing surfers from Golden Bay, Adam Coleman and Dean Lucas.
The parents of the men have given DNA samples to be matched against the bodies found in the van.
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READ NOWMexican authorities have confirmed they made three arrests at the weekend in relation to the murder of the two men.
Mr Higuera said undercover agents arrested three men who were pretending to be police officers and robbing drivers on the Mexico-Nogales highway.
He said the three men confessed to shooting two men in a van on November 20, which is the same night the surfers disappeared.
He said one of the men confessed to shooting a long haired man in the face and then shooting a second man.
They reportedly drove the van, which has been confirmed as the one the men were driving, to another location and shot the men again.
The trio then said they set it on fire with two bodies inside.
Their van was found on November 21, burnt out near Navolato, which is described as a violence plagued town.
Mr Coleman and Mr Lucas were last seen in Los Mochis on November 21, where they stopped to ask for directions.
They were driving from Canada to meet Mr Coleman’s girlfriend, Andrea Gómez, in Guadalajara.
Mr Higuara said he was hopeful DNA tests would soon confirm the identity of the bodies in the van.
Community support “has been overwhelming”.
A fundraising page set up on Go Fund Me to raise money for the families of Mr Lucas and Mr Coleman reached $63,650 a week after it was created.
Mr Coleman’s mother Zena Cattermole posted on Facebook that the “support has been overwhelming”.
The page is full of heartfelt messages from all over the world from people who met the men on their travels.
On December 1, family friend Gareth Taylor told media the sheer number of people offering support “was staggering and much appreciated”.
Perth supermodel Emily McDonald nee Cattermole, who is one of Mr Coleman’s three sisters, changed her cover photo to a picture of her brother partying at her wedding.
Their sister Holly has also posted a tribute to her brother where she describes him as a role model.