A California man found dead in Mexico on vacation with his wife was allegedly the target of an extortion scheme by Mexican police hours before his brutal death, ABC News reports.
On January 14, Elliot Blair and his wife, Kim Williams, were celebrating their first wedding anniversary at Las Rocas Resort and Spa in Rosarito Beach, Mexico. Hotel employees woke Williams up around 1:40 a.m. when they found Blair’s body outside the couple’s room.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, authorities in Mexico had initially said Blair fell from the second floor, but multiple autopsies indicate foul play.
Blair’s head had upwards of 40 fractures, many of them on the left side of his face and toward the back of the skull. That is significant because when Blair’s body was found, the right side of his face was facing the ground.
A large black mark was also observed on Blair’s left forearm, which one expert said may be the result of Blair trying to block an attack.
The coroner in Baja California, Mexico, determined that Blair died of “aggravated homicide,” and a private autopsy arranged by his family indicate his death was intentional, according to the New York Post.
Hours before Blair’s bruised body was found, he and Williams, both of whom are lawyers, were stopped by two policemen in what appeared to be an official law enforcement vehicle.
It was about 7 p.m. and the couple had just left a restaurant when the officers confronted them.
One of the officers allegedly said the couple did not completely stop at an intersection and then demanded they pay in cash. The couple responded that they didn’t have any money, but the officers didn’t let up.
“The officer asked us where we were staying and what we were doing in Rosarito,” Williams told the Post. “Elliot told him we were on vacation. He asked us again for cash. At that point, Elliot pulled out his Orange County Public Defender’s badge.
“Elliot looked at him sternly and said, ‘Look, we’re attorneys, and we’re not going to play these games. We will do this the right way. Take us to the station, and I will pay with a card and you can give me a receipt.’”
One of the officers continued to demand cash and the couple eventually emptied their wallets, handing over approximately $160.
“He turned back towards us and said, ‘OK, that’s fine,’ and we breathed a sigh of relief,” Williams told the Post. “We thought, ‘Thank God they didn’t pull us out of the car,’ and they didn’t do anything more. That whole interaction took around 10 minutes.”
The couple returned to their hotel room and Williams reportedly went to sleep before she was abruptly awoken by hotel staff later in the night.
Case Barnett, a lawyer for the family, said the evidence thus far indicates Blair may have been attacked by more than one person.
“It’s obvious to us and to the experts we have spoken to this is foul play,” Barnett said in an interview with the Post. “It’s either he fell to his knees for some reason or he got hit and dragged. One of our experts told us that likely that more than one man did this if you look at the damage to Elliot’s head.”
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[Feature Photo: Family Handout]
