Inside The FBI's Hunt for Aurora Phelps' Unknown Victims

Today, we are here to enlist the public's help to identify potential victims of what we believe to be a sinister and far-reaching romance scam. This is a very unusual episode of Prime Crime because we've been asked by the FBI to participate in an ongoing investigation, which is extremely rare. But this case is so extraordinary that they're asking for your help to bring this alleged perpetrator to justice. The federal authorities say 43-year-old Aurora Phelps from Las Vegas targeted and drugged older men with dangerous amounts of sedatives. She then stole whatever she could. Aurora Phelps is accused of running an international dating scheme that turned deadly. I don't know if there's a better way to describe it than a romance scam on steroids. I mean, it really is. After she got what she wanted their assets, we believe she killed some of these subjects. Someone could argue that she is a serial killer. So far, the FBI knows of 11 victims, but there may be more. She is truly a predator without comparison. What she did to these men, how she conned them, how she lured them, how she seduced them, is like nothing I've ever seen in 44 years of crime reporting. [Music] My father, John Wienes, was an amazing talented gentleman who he was an engineer for most of his career. He was loved to paint. He loved his dogs. We were trying to get in touch with him, and he wasn't answering his phone. We called the police to do a well check on him and they went in and said it looked like the place had been left in a hurry. So that's when I made a missing person's report. We actually became aware of Aurora Phelps in 2022. There was a missing person's report filed for a gentleman here in Las Vegas. I think that's why it's so interesting in this case is that it just started as something as simple as a missing person and it transpired into what it is now. The first alleged victim of Aurora Phelps that hit the FBI's radar was a man named John Wienes. And for his son Mike who reported missing, there were a few things that just didn't add up. The neighbor had just gone over there because the door was cracked open and they hadn't seen his car there for a few days and they noticed his dog was barking. He would never leave his dog even overnight without somebody taking care of it. So yeah, it was very concerning. So within two weeks I went to Las Vegas, I got into the house and you know we knew something was wrong. There was a stack of old drivers licenses on his desk and his laptop was on the desk. I took the laptop home with me and was able to get into it and access his email which already had all kinds of purchases being made. They were odd. The family did see these fraudulent charges and purchases of Dior and other things like hey my father would never buy these things. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, I had worked with a detective over there before and he called me and said hey Zach I have this case, I've done everything I can do with it. It can't help us out. I knew at that moment something more was going on. In or around December 2022 we opened an investigation. We were still hopeful that he was going to come back at that point. In talking to Mike Williams agents find a clue in something that John himself had told his family. He said he was sick and tired of being lonely and then he wanted to find someone. I think he was having a little bit of a hard time with dating and we were kind of concerned that he was using the dating apps to meet people and he was actually confident that he knew what he was doing. He actually even told his family I have a date with a woman I met on a dating application. He was excited about it the family said and so he met Aurora at a local restaurant. So far all investigators have this name Aurora Phelps. So they start looking into who exactly she is and whether she had anything to do with John's disappearance. Aurora is 44 years old. She was actually born in California but grew up in Guadalajara, Mexico and lived there with her family. Early on in adulthood had moved to the United States in Arkansas where she was married and then later divorced moved to Las Vegas and remarried. She was living with her new husband here in Las Vegas who they had a daughter and just living out of the apartment near downtown. It seems Aurora was building her brand as a kind of influencer using the name Borias. As influencing became a thing I could see on social media she had some accounts where she would do unboxing videos with high-end merchandise where she would unbox for example a purse, a high-end purse and show it off. And I believe she liked that feeling not only of hey look what I have, look at this beautiful item, this expensive item I have but also that spotlight of a feeling important. I think she felt like a superstar at that moment. She's like she's on top of the world, she's getting attention from people, she's on social media, she's showing us these expensive gifts that she's bought herself, that's like winning a lottery. And maybe that explains those theore purchases that suddenly appeared on John Wayne's credit cards. Purchases were being made and shipped right to her house Aurora's house. And as agents dig deeper they find that Aurora used a number of different nicknames or aliases on social media. You have Aurora Phelps, Aurora Alvarez, Aurora Flores, Velasco and then she would have nicknames on social media like Sissy, Borias, Borie, Laura, all sorts of nicknames. We realize that it might be a little bit more than just a missing person which opened up the doors to our investigation and let us realize that there's not just a victim but potentially a deceased victim and that there might be other victims out there as well. When investigators get to the bottom of John Wayne's story, what they'll learn is almost unimaginable. But that's going to take some time. For now they press rewind and they go all the way to the beginning of Aurora Phelps story. When we start an investigation a lot of times it starts with going backwards which is hey where did she start, where did she come from and potentially what did she do where she previously was. Oftentimes that's just how cases grow is looking into the past and seeing where they were and what they did. This quaint historic town in Arkansas seems to be where Aurora's alleged criminal activities began. Her first reported victim was her very own first husband Alejandro Alvarez. They had gotten divorced and when he was granted custody of their three children she apparently made a false claim against him that he abused her. She turned on Alejandro Alvarez viciously and coaching her brother Abraham down in Mexico on how to spoof a phone call make it seem as if it was coming from Alejandro's phone threatening her and coaching him on how to send threatening text messages. I can only hypothesize that she just wanted some revenge on her husband for having her children and wanted her children with her. So an abuse claim in a child custody battle would go a long way to accomplish that goal. But police ran to her alleged scam and instead of giving her her children back they issued a warrant for her arrest. In response Aurora apparently skipped town she moved to Las Vegas and made a life for herself there. Aurora was in bands singing in bars and at one point she was working for a restaurant. At another point she was selling timeshairs in Las Vegas but didn't seem like she had a consistent source of income or a consistent job. Aurora initially lived with friends out in Las Vegas and that included her former roommate Sergio Herrera and he remembers this as a term. a million times, to say the least. - So we live for like one year and a half. Sometimes it's so weird, you know, like she like, she's added to like in three minutes, you know, and she like, yes, so crazy. Her boyfriend moved up with us, you know? So I don't know why you come with your boyfriend to move with us, you know? So we got a little fight and I'm not happy with that, you know? So this is why I said, you know what? His boyfriend needs to move up and I got to work. And when I come back to work, she changed the lock and the door. So I need to call the cops because, you know, I'll be the rent and everything. So it's the last time I see Aurora. I heard that she's praying it and she married him. - It turns out a mutual friend had even warned Sergio about Aurora. Blanca Jimenez had known Aurora since childhood and they remained close through the years. - Blanca told me, one of her friends called her and said, you know what, be careful with Aurora, you know? She's crazy. - Aurora settled in Las Vegas with her new husband and her baby daughter, but it turns out she went back to Arkansas for a while. And this, it seems, is when she started to develop this alleged MO of praying on people for their money. Only this time, it wasn't a man she targeted. - She started an Arkansas with a female friend. - They had been friends for about three years, leading up to that incident. I think it was just an opportunity that could be set up quickly to be able to gain some funds. She had met that lady in a hotel room and potentially drugged her. - We learned she had actually drugged her own friend in order to take her identity and steal some of her money. - The lady woke up from being unconscious alone in the hotel room to find her wallet gone and then saw charges on her credit card. Now, fortunately, in this case, that female didn't die, but again, it sort of opened up the door to like, what else has she done, where she'd been, and how many other victims are there out there, whether they're alive or whether they're dead? - Was this kind of a test case for Aurora? Had she been able to pull off this small scam and realize there might be bigger fish to lure? - She started moving into the dating world and using romance scams, if you will, to lure in gentlemen that have a lot more money than her former friend did. I think that's once she realized, okay, there's a lot more to this and there's a lot more that I can gain by looking after victims like this. - Well, she got smarter about how to commit these crimes, how to get more and more money with each scam that she ran. - How many could she get away with, and how long could she do this? And, you know, what's the most amount of money I can get out of one person? And how do I expand upon that? - She found the piggyback. These men who had steady incomes, either big savings accounts or pensions, social security in some cases, and she knew how to tap into that. And as we began to find evidence that linked this one victim to multiple other victims and it just continued to grow, it was like, whoa, we've got something I've never seen before going on here. - Her scheme was pretty simple when it came to the dating website, which is, you know, she posts a profile, typically indicating that she's interested in older men, has a picture of herself. Any, you know, single gentleman that's out there says, here's a younger, you know, female that looks like she's interested in dating. That's not unheard of. I'll hit a button. I'll see if she responds and I'll be darn. If she doesn't respond pretty, pretty quick. She made herself look attractive to, especially to older men. She seemed very pleasant. It was nothing that would be disturbing or suspicious for somebody that is in the world of dating online when you would look at her profile. You wouldn't think anything of it. People describe her as being easy to have a conversation with polite and charming. But she's able to change her personality to fit what that person imagines, right? And what that person's seeking for. - She has the ability to turn on and off these different parts of her personality. It's almost like there's 10 different people in that one person. - One of the very first men who responded to Aurora's posts was living near Las Vegas. And this was about a year and a half before John Wayne's. - He had a long career in the film business working in Hollywood. And at the time that this happened was retired, doing well, kind of enjoying life in the '60s. And I think was just looking for someone to date casually and got on dating websites to try to meet someone. And that's when he met Aurora Filps. They actually began kind of a dating relationship. They would meet in person on lunch dates. - Mike Wienz, whose dad was allegedly victimized, also spoke to this man about his story. - He tried not to pursue a relationship with her. She insisted and came over to his house bringing food. - At one point, they ordered food and left food unattended, came back and began to eat and then passed out. And was estimated to be held in his home for about five days. He told me that he recalled waking up briefly to her, shoving more pills down his mouth. And we assumed that for the five days was continued to be given drugs. - And at some point, he was able to, she was gone. He was able to come out of a coma and find a spare set of car keys that he had hidden somewhere. And he tried to get to the hospital and he crashed his car. He was so bad. - He received medical treatment and checked out the hospital a couple days later. His sister was notified and she came to Las Vegas to take care of him. - This scam takes place in Vegas every night in every casino. Somebody slipped something in a guy's drink or a woman's drink. They go upstairs, wake up with their watch missing at a big charge to their hotel room. That's what happens. She took it to a whole different level. - This reported victim was safe and eventually recovered but he did suffer some very serious financial and emotional pain. - You found his iPad gone, his wallet gone, his iPhone gone and Fraud had been conducted on his bank account and she attempted to liquidate $3.3 million out of his e-trade stocks and then out of his USAAA account, $65,000 was transferred. - He said that she tried to steal from his Apple account. She was changing passwords and trying to, she wasn't successful now. Which is why I think she made sure the next people died. You've worked your whole life to save up this nest egg and have this income and it's all taken from you and at an elderly age where people are vulnerable. And so when that happens, I'm sure their emotional state gets pretty low. - You wanted me to know that it doesn't mean your father wasn't intelligent for this to happen because he said that this person gave no indication that this was going to happen to him. She didn't ask about his financial status or any of that. - The guy is going to feel stupid. He doesn't want to admit it to his family. He doesn't want to admit it to himself quite honestly. I think that's what happens in a lot of these cases. - The impact of being scammed in such a way has profound psychological effects. It's what happens after trauma because victims don't trust and have to figure out how to repair from all that. - And that's one of the reasons the FBI wants us to share these stories. - There's this fear of concern that there may be more victims out there that just don't want to report. You've got not just, hey, I lost my money but now I've got this fear of reporting it. Like do I really want to tell my daughter, my grandchildren that I went on to a dating website and not only was I doing that but I got scanned by somebody half my age and there's an embarrassment that's associated with that and that's one of our biggest concerns and especially with this case. - There will be contact information for the FBI at the end of this episode if you know something and want to reach out. About a half year after the previous case, it seems Aurora has struck again. Her next alleged victim was a retiree living across the border in Mexico. - My name is Robert Herbach. People call me Bo. People call me Bobo. - There have been called a lot of things. - What do you do that on the stage, Jan? - And now I'm a member of a local 16. I've been in the business half for 44 years. I did some of the great psych muddy waters, valley garden and the great opportunity to go out on the stones. You too, guns and roses, Aussie, pink Floyd, cloned with heartening, chetuses, David Bowie. - That's impressive. - Let's go friends. - When I started in our local stage, He was like the best thing for me because he had been around and he was kind of bold and didn't hold back. The bow was a really loving guy. You know, he showed me part of that in the way that he treated me as a co-worker and as a friend. And as, you know, someone he mentored or guided. The FBI didn't know about Bow Urbach until well into the investigation. We began to look into him and he too was reported as a missing person by his family back in 2021. They had been kind of looking for his whereabouts for over a year when we reached out and inquired about the missing person report. He had adopted children, had a big heart from what his family described them as. He had moved to Mexico, I think, just for a change of lifestyle, a change of pace since he was retired. That was seemed like he was, you know, enjoying that fifth gear that he had found himself in, you know, like going down there, being in the stun. There's a whole community in Mexico of X-pats and they, you know, they're retired engineers and professionals who, you know, weren't millionaires but they had a solid savings and they have a solid pension and they can live very well down there. And they can have fun, they can hang out with other X-pats, but they also can cross paths with somebody like Aurora Phelps. And for some of these guys, well, that was a death sentence. Aurora allegedly approached Bo on the dating app Tinder, going by the username Sissy. He had went to the Hard Rock Hotel because there's a restaurant there to meet Aurora after meeting her through the dating application. As with the other apparent victims, Bo's family tried to get in touch with them and they couldn't, which was unusual. Family who checks in often and also gets some financial support from him begin to notice, okay, one, he's not communicating again to the financial support, it's not coming through as it usually does. And the lack of response or sometimes the response that doesn't seem like their loved one throws up red flags. In this case, Bo's son apparently receives this text message written in broken English, where Bo claims that he's moving to Ecuador and to stop looking for him. Bo's family reports him missing anyway. The Missing Persons report was filed in California, but he lived in Mexico. So there's really nothing that those local authorities could do with that Missing Persons report. It's tough for an American family of one of these guys to initiate an investigation in Mexico. It's a different world down there and it's very mysterious and difficult to navigate. So if they got a guy who dated the wrong girl and got ripped off her money, where does that balance in their priorities? We were pretty confident that he was a victim connected to Aurora after he went missing there were charges on his account and then there were purchases made that we can confirm Aurora made on his bank accounts. We were able just to connect the dots. There was a report that someone contacted Robert Airbox Union and it appears that someone, presumably Aurora, was trying to redirect his pension. And this fits of course with other behavior that's been alleged against her. She was ruthless, cold-hearted, and she would go to any length to get money from her victims even after they were gone. We estimate probably around successfully 300,000. She attempted to do over three and a half million. That was luckily flagged, but that's just what we know about. Sadly, Boa Airbox family remained in the dark, waiting and wondering what had happened to him. It's torture to not know where your loved one is, to have no sense is this person dead alive. How do you move on when you can't have closure or the answer about somebody that you love who's gone missing? As you begin to look into these victims, you begin to take on almost a responsibility for their families. A lot of them seem like they didn't know where to turn to for help. They've been waiting some of them years to find out what happened to their loved one and it became very personal. You develop connections with the victims' families when you're investigating what happened to their loved ones. It reminds you that this isn't just a story, it's not just an investigation, it's not just a prosecution, real lives are involved here. And it matters. For Agent Zach Franklin, the case of Boa Airbox, who the FBI calls victim three, is almost literally keeping him up at night. One night I woke up from having a dream of with victim three telling me, "Help me. Help me." I think everyone wrote off, "Well, we'll never find victim three's body ever." And I guess that helped me hold on to hope that there's something more here. We need to keep digging. About a year and a half after the investigation started, we were able to locate his body in a morgue in Mexico. And it was incredible because Mexico doesn't hold on to all their bodies in a morgue all the time and if this was a John Doe to them and we were able to find his body and return it to the family. It was very emotional for me and for them because they had waited for so long to bring their loved one home. I believe that he really, really was hopeful and that may have been what led to his demise is that hope, that willingness to give in to that kind of chance for love. And to me, it's really unfortunate that what he, one of his most value assets was used against him. Sorry. Heartbreaking stories like Boerbox are part of the reason the FBI is reaching out to you, our viewers. Any help in identifying more alleged victims could bring some justice to their loved ones. Gigi was a legendary figure, loved by many, and that's the truth. He was that guy, tall, handsome, spoke well, smelled good. You know, the whole, the whole package. He knew how to entertain. He knew how to cook. He knew, he knew good wine. You know what he knew? He knew what he was doing. He's been around the block. I says, you know, I'm going to try this out. This is Manuel Gus, also known as Gigi, talking about his younger days in the music industry. And at the time, I was broke as a joke. There was no money coming through. I was living from, I don't even want to say paycheck to paycheck. It was, it was a tough time. Gigi is another elderly American man who was living his best life in Mexico when the FBI got win that something was wrong. And they refer to him as victim 4. Number 4, again, was identified through just connections that we developed and we were able to contact victim 4's family who confirmed that victim 4 had died in May of 2022. But they, they just believe that there was something wrong with the circumstances of his death. He too lived in kind of a suburb of Guadalajara called Heehee. And it's kind of right next to the town of Chapala. He spoke very from Spanish. So Mexico was not hard for him to handle that down there. He kind of had a nice community kicking around and he was already getting well known down there in that area. Because he's a talk, he's a socializer. So it's not hard for him. He's an extrovert. That's the way he wrote. He was an elderly male just like everyone else. He was running a business down in Heehee, both a food trailer business, I believe, and then his own version of Uber. Well, good afternoon to everyone out there in the Instagram Land. Yours truly Gigi here. Let you know that today is Friday French Friday. So if you haven't had my crappy fries yet and you live in the Lake Chapala area, give me a call today. Talk to you guys later. His car that was missing, he used to do rideshare. His dog was missing. His phone was missing. This victim called religiously his daughter. They spoke every day. and then she didn't hear from her father. She tried calling him in the response, tried texting him in the response, so she became very concerned and called the local police in Mexico. And the police entered the house to do a well-being check and found him deceased on the bathroom floor of his home. - His ex told me through Instagram. She sent me a long paragraph that they had found Gigi dead. She had found that I don't know if she heard it through others or the family and I said, "Oh, no." They didn't have any news yet at that time. Lenny may not have known how his friend died, but he did know something about his life in Mexico. It seems he was dating a woman there. She's Mexican, you know, she's big, pretty good English. You know, I enjoy being with her. She's hot as we spoke more and more. That he mentions, "Yeah, she's got a husband that she's leaving." I said, "Gigi, I said, "Listen, be careful." And I said, "You are a target." "No, I got this, no, no." The FBI discovers his girlfriend could very well be Aurora Phelps. - One of the key pieces of evidence that we found was a charge to American precious metals exchange, papemex for a gold coin that was shipped to Aurora's house after he would have already been found deceased. - I knew he was giving her money. That I remember. She would ask a few hundred here, if you wanted. He was giving her actual money. He never mentioned that she was attacking his accounts. This case shows a predator prowling without fear. This woman had no conscience. She'd do anything to anyone to get what she wanted and what she wanted was their money. - Well, I don't get enough of retirement. Not saying he's a millionaire, he had enough money to enjoy life down there. I was upset, very upset because that was my biggest fear about him going down there. - Being a target, something happening and it's exactly how it went down. It seems that Aurora Phelps told Gigi Gus a lot of lies. But there was one thing that was true. She was married at the time. Her husband, known as Cody Phelps, was based in Las Vegas. So the question for the FBI is, how much did he really know? - Based on our conversations with her husband, he was unassuming, unaware. I didn't know why she was having these lavish bags that she would purchase and all this money that was coming in. It's like, how can you get away with something like that right in front of somebody else? - I mean, he claims that he didn't really see this personality out of her. But their relationship was very up and down. I believe it was just, he knew something was just a miss. But didn't want to cause a fight, didn't want to rock the boat. Was he scared of her? Was she threatening him? Was he depending on her for financial security? Was he convincing himself, oh no, she's not doing anything wrong or, oh no, I wouldn't want to say anything because I'm sure I'm just making a big deal out of nothing. - This is someone who was able to carry on a marriage, have a husband who thought everything was great. But in the meantime, straddled two different countries with dual citizenship and prey upon elderly vulnerable men on both sides of the border. - Aurora seems to find her next reported victim very quickly and unsurprisingly, he fits the same mold. - He was a U.S. citizen living down there. He's a chiropractor and again, was on a dating application and met Aurora through that dating application and they agreed to meet for a meal. - Maybe she drugged him when they were out to eat but somehow they returned back to his home. And while he was semi-conscious, she had free access to all of his documents and accounts. - Almost immediately as she comes to the door, starts going through, through drawers. Almost like he doesn't matter anymore. Of course, with him there, the keys are there and everything so you can get in pretty easily. And then he goes off to who knows whereas she begins to look through things. - According to a friend of Aurora's, when Aurora was living out in Arkansas, she had worked as a pharmacy tech and she knew a little bit about medications, including relaxants and sedatives. - As he drugs keep people awake, not that it's a true serum but someone asks him what's your password to, you know, the normal password you use. More than likely they're gonna give it because they don't know any better in that kind of state. - The rules on getting different drugs and pharmacies in Mexico are different than the United States. It's much more lenient down there. You can walk into a pharmacy and get pretty much whatever you want. And so it would not be hard for her to get valium or Xanax or maybe even something more dangerous that was a sedative or something you could use to control somebody. - But fortunately, this alleged victim wasn't alone in this house with his assailant. - He luckily lived where he works, his business is from home. He does have a housekeeper that lived in the house. She wakes up to find this strange woman in the house and she became very alarmed asking, you know, what are you doing? Aurora said that he was drunk and this would help wake him up. And so she convinces her to help put him into the bathtub, fully submerged in water to try to wake him up from his inebriated state. - Staff did show up, found them in the bathroom and the staff member got him out of that tub immediately and called authorities, both the ambulance and the police. He just remembers at some point waking up in a hospital from a coma. - The victim says he doesn't drink at all so he wouldn't have been drunk. It would have had to be some other influence. - In the grand scheme of things, this alleged victim is lucky to be alive. But he did suffer some significant financial damage. He filed a report with police claiming that Aurora stole $25,000 worth of jewelry and cash and electronics. - When we look at most men out there, they're gonna be pretty unassuming to the fact that okay, if I go meet this female, she's gonna drug me, potentially kill me and steal all my money. There's just not that expectation that a female's gonna take advantage of them in that kind of way. - But now we have to circle back to the man who was the first alleged victim identified by the FBI John Wienes, although turns out he was the last known victim of Aurora Phelps. His son, Mike, tells a spine shilling tale of what happened to his dad after he seemingly disappeared. - Police in Las Vegas were trying to communicate with my dad and they were texting back and forth and those were obviously not him. She was pretending to be him. And even saying that he was gonna be on a flight coming home at a certain time and date. And I think Las Vegas PD was there at the airport and no one showed up. But police do find footage of John Wienes at the Las Vegas airport, except he's apparently headed to Mexico and his son, Mike, finds that very strange. - He wasn't dressed the way you would dress to go on a trip, okay? He was just in some little sweats and he didn't have his glasses. When he got off the plane, the footage showed him in a wheelchair. The fact that he was in a wheelchair was huge. That was not something that should have been happening. He was in such a state that he had to be wheelchaired off the plane. - She did take him across the border in a wheelchair to the Tijuana Airport through the tunnel that crosses the border. - You look at it from an outsider's perspective and you see, well, here's a female and with an older gentleman crossing the border in a wheelchair, like maybe that doesn't seem that odd. I mean, if you look at the age range, not everybody's gonna second guess what potentially looks like the daughter of a gentleman, you know, pushing in a wheelchair. So it doesn't bring a whole lot of scrutiny from, you know, from an onlooker to be like, "Okay, there's something there I need to make a call." - Apparently, the plan was for them to check into a hotel out in Mexico City. - Prior to him checking into the hotel, he sounded very muted or disorientated. They know the hotel that they checked into and that's where he passed away at that hotel and he was found in the bathtub. He had passed away within days of being kidnapped. - Can you imagine someone who would drug a victim, put him in a wheelchair, bring him across the border in the wheelchair? I mean, that's just insanely audacious. It was pieces of information coming constantly. Somehow they found his picture at the morgue. And then it was 99% at its end, right? So they wanted the DNA to match. And that was, they had to exume him. But it was just a miracle that they found him. There was a lot of skill involved here from investigators. A lot of bravery from victims and victims' families courage to come forward. But sometimes you need all this to come together with a little bit of luck. And it did in this case. John Wienes was the last of Aurora suspected victims. But again, this is the first one that the FBI had found out about. And soon after they start investigating his case, Las Vegas law enforcement bring Aurora in, but on a different charge. And this one is dating back to her time in Arkansas. Oh, we can put one in my hand. All right, man, do you have any weapons on you? No. No needles, blades. I do not like that. I'm going to take a seat, please. We're going through HQ. This is Aurora Phelps finally being taken into custody by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police, not the FBI. We'll be heading HQ about Phelps in custody. Your hand hurts? This part. It's ready for you. She was arrested on an Arkansas warrant. And because of that, she needed to be sent to Arkansas to see a judge on that warrant. When she was there, she saw a judge and gave reasons as to why she should be released. And at some point, she was released. And that's because her charges were fraud. Not a homicide charge or anything like that that would have potentially had her be detained. She got out of jail in Arkansas, took a bus, and came to Las Vegas. And she actually left about a day after that to Mexico. Took a flight. And we got notification that she was there. And we organized with the legal attache in Mexico, who helped us coordinate with the local authorities to go arrest her for some crimes that she committed down in Palisco, the state of Palisco, Mexico. The charge is robbery, but it is related to our investigation. Having her arrested in Mexico, not only do they get her off the street and they can breathe easy as far as her victimizing other people, but the procedural rights of a defendant in the United States have not taken effect. They were making sure that they had everything organized and had their ducks in a row before they made a move. Aurora was indicted federally on September 13, 2023. She was indicted on 21 counts total. And in that indictment, faces charges of wire fraud, male fraud, bank fraud, identity theft, and two charges of kidnapping, one of which is kidnapping resulting in death. The FBI undoubtedly kept investigating Aurora and gathering information after the initial indictment in September 2023. So a long time passes and they're digging in, they're trying to get their arms around the whole thing. We're here today to announce criminal charges against Aurora Phelps. The charges being unsealed today relate to crime's Phelps as alleged to have committed against four male victims. By February 2025, the FBI has learned so much information about possible other victims. They realize, my gosh, we have an incredible crime spree that this woman has pulled off. If we've found this many victims already, who knows how many others may be out there? At that point, a decision is made to do something unusual, and that is to have the indictment unsealed so that they can hold a press conference, make it public, and see if they can develop information about other crimes and other victims. Meanwhile, Aurora Phelps remains incarcerated in Mexico on charges connected to the death of Robert Boerbach. Aurora Phelps was sentenced in Mexico following her trial in the Robert Boerbach case to 37 years, six months. My understanding is that Aurora is facing other proceedings in Helisco, Mexico relative to other crimes that she committed down there. The FBI has confirmed that when the proceedings are completed, that Aurora will be extradited. What is unclear is how extensive the proceedings will be against Aurora before the extradition takes place. When she's extradited, she'll face the charges that are outlined in the federal indictment. So those 21 charges of fraud and kidnapping in the District of Nevada. She's looking at, in the United States, life in prison. She's going to spend the rest of her life in jail. The sweetheart's swindle has been around since the dawn of time. These stories are as old as the Bible. But Aurora Phelps takes this to a whole different level. This case is remarkable for a couple of different reasons. One, how long she got away with this? Two, the fact that she was able to exploit these men at this level and just the audacious nature. She doesn't care. She'll do anything to anyone to get what she wants. She was an addict. She was addicted to the hunt and the thrill of the hunt, perhaps even more than what she was gaining from the hunt. And that's truly frightening. That is why the FBI asked us to tell this story and why they're asking you to help them. If this sounds similar to something your loved one went through or you yourself went through, please call the FBI with that information we'd love to speak with you. And there are some earmarks to look out for. First, the basic time frame should be from about 2019 to 2022. Was there fraud on their bank accounts where their purchases that your loved one would have never made that are products that they would have never been interested in? Like the orange Chanel and other things. Some loved ones notice items being shipped to Las Vegas, even though they have no address in Las Vegas. Something that would be a red flag is my loved one. They had drugs in the system, but I know he doesn't do drugs. Or he was so drunk that he got an accident. Well, he doesn't even drink. If you're seeing something strange and it's giving you that little spidey tingle, you should probably just make a call. Make a report. The public is our eyes in our ears. And we can't do what we do without the public's cooperation. If you know anything about Aurora Phelps or this investigation, please contact us. I would say the Aurora Phelps case is definitely one of those stand out for my whole career. And I think everybody that touched it, everybody that was a member of it in one way or another. It's a hard one to forget. But it's also one of those ones that you're glad to be a part of. I've become very close with each of these families and victims, be sure in their sadness. And because of that, you come to love them, honestly. You come to love them as fellow human beings and people. It's just amazing that the FBI, it's such wonderful work and brought them to home. This is where we would go fishing out of here. It's quite the fishermen, yeah. And this is the area, basically, but we made my dad's arrest and we'll scatter some flowers and send some prayers and lay them to the rest. I'd see, I'd be asked to be here. [Music] [Music]