Federal and Mexican authorities have charged 44-year-old Aurora Phelps with murder, fraud, and kidnapping resulting in death.
She allegedly used dating applications to target and incapacitate older American men on both sides of the border.
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According to the FBI, Phelps utilized platforms like Tinder under the username "Sissy" to gain access to bank, Social Security, and retirement accounts of lonely men in their 60s and 70s.
The agency has identified 11 potential victims so far across a decades-long pattern of digital manipulation, theft, and physical harm.
The criminal operation unraveled following the disappearance of 67-year-old retiree Robert Erbach.
He vanished in December 2021 after a date with Phelps at a hotel in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Court records show Phelps subsequently drove Erbach's white BMW SUV to Las Vegas, where she drained $50,500 from his bank accounts using his personal documents and debit card.
Two days after Erbach went missing, Mexican authorities discovered the body of an unidentified middle-aged man who had been asphyxiated alongside a road near Guadalajara.
Investigators did not immediately link the discovery to Phelps.
Erbach's son later received suspicious, poorly written texts from his father's phone claiming a sudden move to Ecuador, while the pension union received fraudulent emails demanding direct deposit updates.
Suspect Described as Highly Manipulative
Christopher Delzotto, the FBI special agent in charge in Las Vegas, characterized the suspect as highly manipulative and dangerous during a public plea for additional victims to step forward.
"The white-collar criminal, especially when it comes to Aurora Phelps, is no different than a violent criminal," Delzotto said.
"They are psychopaths. She truly believes her lies.
She visualizes all of this stuff. She believes it.
It has become her reality."
The investigation revealed that Phelps, who holds dual U. S.
and Mexican citizenship, carried out these actions while married to William Phelps of Las Vegas. He expressed shock when confronted with the allegations last year.
"We've known each other for 14 years and she's never shown a sign or an ounce of this," William Phelps said.
"If she did do it, damn, she put one over on me."
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The suspect's history of digital harassment dates back to her youth in Guadalajara, where she grew up after moving from Arkansas.
A childhood friend, Blanca Jimenez, recalled that their relationship deteriorated due to Phelps' extreme jealousy, which eventually escalated into digital identity theft and extortion.
Jimenez cut ties completely after discovering that she could no longer access her email account and that her friends were receiving violent threats demanding wired money.
The case highlights a broader, international trend of criminal syndicates and individual predators exploiting online dating platforms. This has resulted in massive financial losses and violent fatalities globally.
In the United Kingdom, 60-year-old Julie Osgood from Middleton spoke out to the BBC after being targeted by four consecutive financial scammers on dating applications, including the over-50s platform Ourtime.
According to data obtained by the BBC, financial losses from romance fraud reported to Action Fraud surged to over £92 million in 2024, up from £82 million the previous year.
Osgood managed to intercept the fraud attempts before losing any money.
She even played along with a scammer named "Franck" who requested £20,000 in cash by fabricating a frozen bank account crisis in France.
Osgood arranged a fake meeting at a Paris airport but did not board the plane, later reporting the account to Greater Manchester Police and the platform administrators.
In an email exchange shared with the BBC, representatives from the dating service addressed the security breach.
"Our members' safety is our top priority and we aim to create a safe and friendly environment for all users," Ourtime said in an email to Julie Osgood.
Meanwhile, online dating lures have also been linked to violent outcomes in Southeast Asia.
Police in Nonthaburi, Thailand, are currently hunting for the owner of a townhouse following a gruesome discovery on June 4, 2026.
Officers from the Bang Bua Thong station found the severely decomposed body of a 28-year-old man who is believed to have been dead for at least a week on a stairway landing.
CCTV footage captured the homeowner fleeing the property on a red motorcycle on June 2, 2026, wearing a full-face motorcycle helmet.
The victim's mother, residing in Chiang Mai, informed investigators that her son had traveled to the residence specifically to meet a man he connected with through a dating application.
Local village officials noted that the exact same Nonthaburi property was previously raided by authorities to rescue another male visitor who had been falsely imprisoned and starved for three days.
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Authorities in both the United States and Thailand are continuing their respective forensic investigations, and no formal arrests have been finalized in the Nonthaburi case.
