LAS VEGAS (AP) — A woman used online dating apps to lure at least four older men to meet her in person, then drugged them with sedatives and stole hundreds of thousands of dollars in a “sinister” romance scheme, FBI officials in Las Vegas said Friday.
Three of the men died, authorities said, and she has been charged in one of their deaths.
Aurora Phelps, 43, who is in custody in Mexico, faces 21 counts including wire fraud, identity theft and one count of kidnapping resulting in death, Sue Fahami, the acting United States attorney for the District of Nevada, said at a news conference.
“This is a romance scam on steroids,” said Spencer Evans, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Las Vegas division. One of the four victims, who were targeted in 2021 and 2022, awoke from a coma after Phelps gave him prescription sedatives over the course of a week, Evans added.
In one instance Phelps is alleged to have kidnapped a victim by heavily sedating him and taking him across the US-Mexico border in a wheelchair and then to a Mexico City hotel room, where he was later found dead.
After incapacitating her victims, Evans said, Phelps stole their cars, withdrew money from their bank accounts, used their credit cards to purchase luxury items and gold and even tried to access social security and retirement accounts.
According to the indictment, Phelps met one man in July 2021, went on lunch dates with him and that November ordered lunch to his house and slipped him a prescription drug.
While he was “mostly unconscious” for about five days, Phelps gained access to his accounts and stole his iPhone, iPads, driver’s license and bank cards, according to the indictment. She also allegedly accessed his E-Trade account and sold Apple stock worth about USD3.3 million, though she was unable to withdraw that money.
Authorities believe Phelps used popular dating apps including Tinder, Hinge and Bumble to find her targets. The men were lonely and looking for companionship and went on multiple dates with Phelps before she stealthily gave them sedatives, according to Evans.
“It’s folks that are out looking for love that ran into something far more sinister,” he said.
Phelps, a dual citizen of Mexico and the US, had been on the FBI’s radar for a couple of years, according to Evans. He declined to comment on her criminal history.
Phelps does not have a US-based attorney who could speak on her behalf, a spokesperson for the Department of Justice said. The Associated Press left messages seeking comment with Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Ministry and Attorney General’s Office.
Several of the victims’ relatives called authorities when they were unable to contact their loved ones, Evans said.
One woman was unable to reach her father the day after he went on a date with Phelps in Guadalajara, Mexico, in May 2022, according to court records. The next day Mexican police found him dead on the bathroom floor of his home. Phelps then used an account belonging to the victim to purchase a gold coin, along with other transactions, the indictment alleges.
The FBI is aware of more alleged victims in the US and Mexico, Evans said, and is making information about the case public, including suspected aliases, in hopes of identifying others who “fell victim to her scams and whose trust in her may have cost them their life.”
The FBI is also working with the Department of Justice and Mexican authorities to secure her extradition.
If convicted on every charge, which include seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of mail fraud, six counts of bank fraud, three counts of identity theft and one count of kidnapping, Phelps faces a maximum sentence of life in prison, Fahami said.
