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 Friday.
“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 U.S.-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.
The victims were lonely, looking for companionship, and went on multiple dates with Phelps before she stealthily gave them sedatives, Evans said: “It’s folks that are out looking for love that ran into something far more sinister.”
Authorities believe Phelps was using popular dating apps including Tinder, Hinge and Bumble, among others, to perpetrate her scheme.
Phelps, a dual citizen of Mexico and the U.S., stole hundreds of thousands of dollars and attempted to steal millions, and had been on the FBI's radar for a couple of years, according to Evans. He declined to comment on her criminal history.
Several of the victims' relatives called authorities when they were unable to contact their loved ones, said Evans.
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, and mailed it to her house, the indictment alleges.
The FBI is aware of more alleged victims in the U.S. 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.
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Bedayn reported from Denver, and Govindarao from Phoenix.
Ty Oneil, Jesse Bedayn And Sejal Govindarao, The Associated Press
