MEXICO CITY — Aurora Phelps, a 44-year-old American who used dating apps to charm older men and then looted their finances, has been sentenced to 37 years in prison in a Mexican court for the disappearance of an American retiree whose body was found dumped on a road outside Guadalajara.
Phelps, a dual U.S.-Mexican citizen, hooked up with divorced and widowed men decades her senior on both sides of the border, using Tinder, Plenty of Fish and other dating apps.
Authorities say he sometimes drugged the men, gained access to their finances and emptied their savings and retirement accounts.
Phelps was originally charged with murder in the death of Robert Erbach, 67, but this month a Guadalajara judge convicted her of a crime known as “disappearance committed by private individuals.”
According to Mexican law, the penalties for this crime are potentially greater than those for homicide (there is no death penalty in Mexico) and the judge opted for the crime of disappearance.
Prosecutors had asked for a sentence of 75 years in prison. The judge convicted and sentenced her on June 5.
In recent years, tens of thousands of people have disappeared in Mexico, which explains the emphasis on the disappearance statute, which is used when a person or criminal organization deprives someone of their freedom and hides the fate or whereabouts of the victim.
Erbach spent decades in the Bay Area and owned a concert management company in the United States before retiring to an expatriate community near Guadalajara. Erbach went on a date with Phelps at the Hard Rock Hotel in Guadalajara in December 2021 and then disappeared.
Mexican authorities found Erbach's body next to a road outside the city two days later and determined he had been asphyxiated. It would be more than two years before his remains were identified.
After Erbach disappeared, Phelps drove his BMW SUV north to Las Vegas, where he opened a bank account using her information and emptied his accounts of $50,500, court documents show.
Phelps was born in Arkansas and spent part of his youth in Guadalajara. She eventually moved to Las Vegas where, according to the FBI, she met another older American man who later turned up dead in Mexico.
Last year, the US attorney's office in Las Vegas charged Phelps with 21 criminal counts, including identity theft and fraud, and two counts of kidnapping, one of which resulted in death.
“Aurora Phelps targeted older men by drugging and robbing them,” the FBI said in a statement following her conviction. “The FBI believes there may be additional victims who may have been affected by Ms. Phelps. If you have information or know someone who may have been a victim, please contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI or submit an online tip at tips.fbi.gov.”
In a profile of Phelps in The Times, Christopher Delzotto, FBI special agent in charge in Las Vegas, described her as a psychopath. “She really believes his lies,” he said. “She visualizes all of this. She believes it. It has become her reality.”
Mexican authorities have already approved his extradition to the United States, but it is not clear when this transfer would occur.
