A Mexican court has handed a 37-year prison sentence to a dual U.S.-Mexican citizen accused of drugging men she met on dating apps and killing at least one of them, as authorities prepare to extradite her to the United States.
According to Western Journal, 44-year-old Aurora Phelps, who holds citizenship in both Mexico and the United States, allegedly carried out a calculated scheme between 2019 and 2022 that targeted vulnerable victims she met online. Prosecutors say she used dating platforms to identify potential marks, then exploited their trust to gain access to their finances, highlighting once again the dangers of unvetted digital matchmaking and the need for stronger personal vigilance rather than ever-expanding government control.
Phelps, who sometimes used the aliases Aurora Flores, Aurora Velasco, and Aurora Alvarez, is accused of stealing personal information to raid bank accounts, retirement funds, and Social Security benefits. An FBI bulletin issued last year stated that Phelps primarily targeted elderly men but was also known to target all age groups as well as women, underscoring the breadth of her alleged predation.
Mexican authorities sentenced Phelps on June 5 following her arrest in February 2023, when she was charged with murder and taken into custody, where she has remained. Among the most serious allegations is the 2021 killing of 67-year-old American retiree Robert Erbach, who owned a home near Guadalajara and believed he had found companionship rather than a predator.
Erbach and Phelps reportedly met on Tinder and dated for three months before he was discovered dead by a roadside near Guadalajara, a grim end that has fueled outrage among those who see this case as a stark warning about online dating risks. In the aftermath of his death, more than $50,000 was withdrawn from Erbachs accounts, suggesting a financial motive that fits the broader pattern described by investigators.
Local reporting indicates that Phelps has at least 11 known victims, though authorities suspect there may be more who have not yet come forward or been identified. Born in Arkansas, she spent her childhood moving between the United States and Mexico, a bi-national background that may have helped her navigate jurisdictions while allegedly carrying out her scheme.
Phelps now faces federal charges in the United States, including fraud, identity theft, and two counts of kidnapping, one of which allegedly resulted in death, reflecting the seriousness with which President Trumps Justice Department is treating cross-border criminal activity. Phelps would meet older men on dating websites or services, then meet them in-person, the United States Attorneys Office for the District of Nevada said last year, outlining what prosecutors describe as a deliberate and repeatable method of exploitation.
It was part of her scheme to drug the older men to gain unauthorized access to and steal money from their financial accounts to personally benefit herself and her family members, the U.S. Attorneys Office added, portraying a calculated operation rather than a crime of impulse. Her husband, William Phelps, has claimed he was blindsided by the allegations, telling KTLA, Weve known each other for 14 years and shes never shown a sign or an ounce of this.
If she did do it, damn, she put one over on me, he said, capturing the sense of betrayal felt not only by family members but by a public increasingly wary of predators hiding behind screens. As extradition moves forward under President Trumps renewed emphasis on law and order and secure borders, the case stands as a sobering reminder that personal responsibility, skepticism of online encounters, and strong but focused law enforcement are indispensable in confronting modern forms of exploitation.
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