New details emerged this week about the arrest and conviction of Las Vegas resident Aurora Phelps on charges in Mexico arising from the disappearance of an American man.
On Tuesday, the State Prosecutor’s Office in Jalisco, a state in western Mexico, issued a statement crediting their missing persons unit with securing the conviction of a woman for the crime of “disappearance committed by a private individual.”
Mexican federal law makes it a crime for a person to detain, abduct or kidnap someone with an intent to conceal their fate or whereabouts from authorities or loved ones.
The statement issued by the prosecutor’s office identified the alleged perpetrator as “Aurora” followed by the letter “N,” which stands for “name not revealed” – a common practice in Mexican judicial proceedings.
The woman in a photo that accompanied the statement is recognizable as Phelps despite the privacy bar partially obscuring her face.
The prosecutor’s office said that the events leading to the conviction of “Aurora N” began on Dec. 8, 2021, in the Guadalajara metropolitan area.
According to the prosecutor’s office, the woman and the unidentified “male victim” connected online and agreed to meet in person.
The “male victim” appears to refer to Robert “Beau” Erbach, a 67-year-old American expat who disappeared after meeting up with Phelps in Guadalajara in December 2021.
According to the statement from the prosecutor’s office, after the victim met with “Aurora N” he was “transported in his own vehicle to the State of Nayarit,” about a hundred miles away from Guadalajara.
The statement said that “Aurora N” was later arrested “while in possession and driving the victim’s vehicle.” The “vehicle” is an apparent reference to Erbach’s BMW, which Phelps allegedly stole from him.
A source involved in the Mexican legal system told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that Phelps is being held in the Women’s Penitentiary Center at the Punte Grande federal penitentiary complex near Guadalajara, pending further legal proceedings in Mexico.
FBI spokeswoman Sandra Breault told the Review-Journal last week that following the legal proceedings in Mexico, Phelps will be extradited to the United States to face criminal charges pending against her in federal court in Las Vegas.
In September 2023, a grand jury in Las Vegas returned a 21-count sealed indictment against Phelps for kidnapping, fraud, and identity theft.
In February 2025, after the FBI discovered seven more alleged victims, the indictment was unsealed as part of an effort to enlist the public’s help.
The FBI is asking anyone with information about Aurora Phelps’s alleged romance scam to complete an online form or call 1-800-CALL-FBI.
Doug Kari is an author and investigative journalist who writes about true crime.
