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Bodies Of Missing California Couple Found At Bottom Of Well In Remote Area Of Mexico
Investigators have not released the cause of death, but family members have told local media that foul play is suspected.
The search for a missing California couple took a tragic turn after their bodies were discovered at the bottom of a well in Mexico.
The San Diego Police Department confirmed to Oxygen.com that the bodies have been positively identified as Ian Hirschsohn, 78, and Kathy Harvey, 73, a retired couple who disappeared at the end of August while in Mexico.
The couple had been staying in a house near El Socorrito for about a week at the time they vanished, family members told local station KFMB-TV.
Kathy Harvey had texted her son Robert Harvey on the night of Aug. 28 and told him that the couple was planning to going to explore a gold mine or visit a beach, her son told local media.
But when the couple didn’t return to San Diego on Aug. 31 as they had planned, loved ones became increasingly concerned and officially reported the couple as missing to the Baja California state prosecutor’s office on Sept. 2, according to a statement from the prosecutor’s office obtained by the Associated Press.
Robert Harvey said the couple’s navy blue Toyota Land Cruiser was found in Ensenada last week.
Investigators discovered human remains Friday at the bottom of a well in an unpopulated area south of Ensenada that were later positively identified as the missing couple, officials said according to the Associated Press.
No cause of death has been released in the case to date, but relatives told KFMB that foul play is suspected.
Before the bodies were discovered, Hirschsohn’s daughter Ava Setzer posted a message on Facebook pleading for information about their whereabouts.
“My dad Ian has a house in El Socorrito and is a seasoned veteran of Baja travel since purchasing the house in ’85,” she wrote.
Hirschsohn’s neighbor in Solana Beach, Jim Dietz, told local station KGTV that Hirschsohn went down to Mexico at least every couple months.
“He was a real gentleman. He wouldn’t say an unkind word about anybody,” Dietz said. “I feel very bad for [his kids] because they lost their mother a few years ago and now they lose their father in this kind of a tragic way. My heart goes out to them.”
Kathy Harvey’s son, Robert Harvey, told KFMB-TV that his mother had been enjoying life after spending three decades working as a physical therapist.
“She was really enjoying retirement and had multiple groups of friends,” Robert Harvey said. “She loved walking and traveling. She had a huge bucket list of where she wanted to go.”
The investigation into the couple’s deaths remains ongoing, but it isn’t the only mysterious death in recent weeks.
The body of Craig Harrison, 65, was also discovered on a beach in Cabo Pulmo on Saturday. Authorities determined that Harrison, who had been missing since August 29, had been stabbed to death in the chest, the AP reports.
Harrison, a citizen of both South Africa and Canada, had settled in Mexico in 1997 after leaving his job as an accountant and wine importer in Canada.
