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Police: Iowa family of 4 found dead in Mexico
00:36 - Source: KCCI
CNN  — 

An Iowa family vacationing in Mexico was found dead Friday inside a condominium in Tulum, according to police.

The bodies of Kevin Wayne Sharp; his wife, Amy Marie Sharp; their son, Sterling, 12; and daughter Adrianna, 7, were discovered during a welfare check by Mexican authorities at the vacation rental, according to Mark Williams, chief dispatcher for the Creston Police Department in Iowa.

A family member reported the Sharps as missing just after midnight, a statement from the police department said. Local police in Iowa made contact with the US State Department before Mexican authorities checked on the family at the coastal Caribbean condo, where they were found dead.

Kevin Wayne Sharp with his wife, Amy Marie, son Sterling and daughter Adrianna.

Police told CNN affiliate KCCI in Des Moines there were “no signs of traumatic injury” to the family. Autopsies are being conducted in Mexico, the police statement said.

Jana Weland, a relative, told CNN the family arrived in Tulum on March 15. They were staying in a rental house they found through a vacation rental company. The last contact the family had with the Sharps was a picture the son posted to Snapchat of his feet by the water that day, Weland said.

The Sharps were supposed to return from their vacation Wednesday, Weland said. Kevin Sharp, who owns a beer distribution company, failed to check in with his employees that morning as planned, which was unlike him, Weland said.

Then the family failed to attend a basketball game Wednesday night in Danville, Illinois – a game Weland said the family was looking forward to. But the extended family waited until Thursday night to call authorities in case the Sharps had problems with their flight.

Stock car racer

Besides working in beer distribution, Kevin Sharp was a race car driver at southwestern Iowa’s Adams County Speedway, where he finished fourth in last year’s stock car series standings.

Sharp first got involved in the speedway through his beer distribution business, and eventually became a board member, track announcer Bob Harris said.

The Sharps show off a trophy after a race at Iowa's Adams County Speedway in an undated photo.

Harris said the Sharp family was tightly knit.

“Everything they did, they did as a family,” Harris said. “His family was involved – his son was working on the race car with him, cheering him on. Here in Iowa racing is a big family; we try to promote it as a family sport and (the Sharps) lived it.”

Harris said he last messaged Sharp on March 14, about a racetrack project. Sharp messaged back, saying the plans for the project looked great, and that he was traveling to Mexico.

The two were supposed to go racing together next week, Harris said.

CNN’s Chuck Johnston and Marlena Baldacci contributed to this report.