Brit traveller, 36, gunned down in 'murder capital' of Mexico was in 'wrong place at the wrong time', coroner told

Daily Mail​

5 hours ago

A British traveller who was shot dead alongside two friends in Mexico 's 'murder capital' was unlawfully killed, a coroner concluded today.
Ben Corser, 36, was sitting in the back of a car outside a supermarket in Colima, western Mexico, in May 2022 when he was fatally shot alongside two others in the vehicle, a court heard.
The software engineer's father told a coroner the trio were 'tragically in the wrong place at the wrong time'.
Emma Hillson, assistant coroner for Cornwall, said the 36-year-old Briton had been travelling around Mexico since January 2022.
She added: 'He had been very happy and enjoying a sociable time.
'He had lived in different parts of Mexico, becoming part of the community.
'He was living with an American-Mexican family, with two other young men, Claudio and Alfredo, in Colima.
'They were skateboarders and Ben joined them in skateboarding.
On the evening of the incident Ben, from St Just, Cornwall, and Claudio had returned from a trip to Guadalajara and Alfredo picked them up in his car before the trio stopped off at a supermarket.
The coroner told the hearing in Truro: 'While the three were in the car, outside the supermarket, all three of them, including Ben who was sat in the back seat, were shot dead.'
Mrs Hillson said police reports included one witness statement, from a woman who described hearing gunshots and dropped down to the floor before seeing a van with the driver's door open.
Police obtained evidence from video cameras around the scene which showed a grey vehicle with no identifying features.
The coroner added: 'Three years have now passed since this death.
'I am satisfied it is unlikely that further information will be forthcoming.'
Cornwall Coroner's Court heard Mr Corser was taken to hospital unconscious but pronounced dead on arrival there.
A post-mortem examination found he had received a fatal shot wound to his chest.
According to local media reports at the time of Mr Corser's death, there has been a surge in violence in the region after the Colima drug cartel switched allegiance to the Sinaloan cartel, the country's dominant trafficking syndicate.
Mr Corser's father, Andrew, told the coroner the family had received 'no explanation or reason given' for the shooting, and there was 'no suggestion of robbery, kidnapping or anything else.'
'Police have not passed to us any information apart from the cause of death', the former primary school head teacher said.
'Apparently there has been a dramatic upsurge of violence in Colima.
'It is most likely this was a question of Ben, Claudio and Alfredo being tragically in the wrong place at the wrong time.'
Mr Corser asked for information from the Mexican police on their investigation and what lines of inquiry they were pursuing in relation to the case.
A police report read to the inquest said a homicide investigation had been launched following the deaths, with evidence gathered at the scene.
It referred to the witness statement of a local woman who heard gunshots and threw herself to the ground before seeing a van with the driver's door open but could not give any details on those responsible.
Video surveillance from the area showed a grey vehicle with no make or licence plate visible, Mrs Hillson said.
'Investigations are continuing to be carried out,' she read.
During the post-mortem examination, a projectile was recovered from Mr Corser's body and stored as evidence, the court heard.
Concluding the hearing, Mrs Hillson thanked Mr Corser's family - father Andrew Corser, mother Lorraine Downes and brother Tom Corser - and friends for their attendance and for bringing a picture of him to court.
Earlier this month, the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) provided a statement to the coroner's court that 'it was unlikely further information would be forthcoming due to the time passed since the death'.
In 2024, Colima in Mexico ranked as the world's most dangerous city with a homicide rate of 140 per 100,000 inhabitants. Seven of the 10 cities with the highest murder rates worldwide are found in Mexico.
FCDO advises against all but essential travel to the state of Colima, except the city of Manzanillo accessed by sea or air via the Manzanillo-Costalegre International Airport.
Mr Corser's shooting came two months after British businessman Chris Cleave, 54, was killed in his car in front of his 14-year-old daughter at a beach resort near Cancun in eastern Mexico.
In a tribute issued after Mr Corser's death, his family described him as having a 'breadth that is rare today'.
They said: 'He held first class degrees in both fine art and mathematics, he was an artist, a poet, a computer user, maker, coder and programmer, a skateboarder, a sea swimmer, wild camper, a festival goer, an actor, a yoga lover, a photographer, a music maker, a dancer.'