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Woman Lured, Drugged and Stole From Older Men in Deadly Scheme, U.S. Says
A 43-year-old Las Vegas woman has been arrested in Mexico on charges that she lured at least four older men on dating websites, drugged them and tried to steal millions of dollars from them in a deadly scheme, the authorities said Friday.
The woman, Aurora Phelps, was charged with one count of kidnapping resulting in death in the scheme, which the F.B.I. said had led to at least three deaths.
Spencer L. Evans, the top F.B.I. agent in Las Vegas, said Friday that the investigation was “ongoing” and that Ms. Phelps might face more charges in the United States and Mexico.
In one case, Ms. Phelps drugged a man in Las Vegas after meeting him online, took him to Mexico City and used his credit card to rent a hotel room, where he died, according to a 21-count indictment unsealed this month.
Ms. Phelps pushed the man, who was “zonked out of his mind” on drugs, in a wheelchair as they crossed the U.S.-Mexico border at a pedestrian crossing, Mr. Evans said in an interview on Friday.
She took her daughter on the trip to Mexico City, in November 2022, according to the authorities. She had drugged the man during a lunch in Las Vegas one day after meeting him on an online dating service, according to the indictment, filed in federal court in Nevada.
Mr. Evans said that Ms. Phelps had stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars in a “romance scam on steroids.”
“It’s probably, in recent history, the worst one that we’ve seen,” Mr. Evans said. “But for meeting with Phelps, all of these folks would be alive.”
Ms. Phelps carried out her scheme at least from July 2021 to December 2022, taking her victims’ tech devices and bank cards, according to the indictment.
In one case, she used a victim’s bank account to buy a gold coin, days after the victim had been found dead in the bathroom of his home in Guadalajara, Mexico, court papers said.
In another case, she sold around $3.3 million in Apple stock belonging to a different victim and unsuccessfully tried to steal more than $3 million from his E-Trade account after drugging him, according to the indictment.
Court papers said that she had stolen Social Security payments and a BMW from one victim after meeting him at a Hard Rock hotel in Guadalajara.
All four of the victims mentioned in the indictment appeared to be in their 60s or 70s, and the man who survived emerged from a five-day coma after being heavily drugged, Mr. Evans said.
Ms. Phelps has been charged with one count each of kidnapping and kidnapping resulting in death, seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of mail fraud, six counts of bank fraud and three counts of identity theft.
Ms. Phelps, who remained in custody in Mexico on Friday, faces up to life in prison if she is convicted, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Las Vegas said.
She was arrested by the Mexican authorities, the office said. The authorities declined to say when Ms. Phelps had been taken into custody.
She could not immediately be reached for comment on Friday, and it was unclear if she had a lawyer. Prosecutors wrote in court papers this month that she had been presented with an extradition warrant and that she “may challenge her extradition.”
Although the indictment described four victims, prosecutors wrote in a request to unseal the indictment, dated Feb. 10, that the “government believes that other victims exist and need to be identified.”
Ms. Phelps, a dual U.S.-Mexican citizen who was born in the United States, has lived in Nevada, Arkansas and Guadalajara, according to the F.B.I.
Mr. Evans said the F.B.I. had identified at least 10 victims, including one in Arkansas. The names of the victims have not been released.
Ms. Phelps was indicted after a two-year investigation by the F.B.I., which started with a missing-person report, Mr. Evans said.
“We’re still looking for additional evidence,” he said, adding, “I’m hoping that someone sitting back and reading the newspaper or watching TV, it might jog their memory and say, ‘Hey — that might be my uncle that disappeared, or my father, or grandfather.’”
News
The New Harvard Trend? Getting Punched in the Face.
Her opponent at the Babson fight night was her Harvard teammate Muskaan Sandhu, 18, a freshman, who had sparred before. No one likes getting hit, Ms. Sandhu said, but she liked learning that she could take a punch.
It made her feel she could do anything. “After the fight, I never felt so capable in my life,” she said.
Modern life — lived on screens or amid the constant distraction of screens — can feel isolating. She sees boxing as a way to engage with people. “You feel really human,” she said. “You feel a connection with the person you’re fighting. Like we’re in this together.”
Mr. Lake said he intended for Harvard’s club to join the National Collegiate Boxing Association, a nonprofit that provides structure and safety rules. The N.C.B.A. represents about 840 athletes, an 18 percent increase from a year ago, said the group’s president, George Chamberlain, who coaches the University of Iowa’s boxing club.
The well-attended fight night at Babson, which also included boxers from Brandeis University, reflected the growing interest.
Before it began, a volunteer passed out waiver documents. Most of the boxers immediately flipped to the end and signed. Mr. Jiang, of Harvard, appeared to be the only one who read it.
He was a mixed martial arts fan who resolved to try a combat sport in college. “I like the technique side of it,” Mr. Jiang said of boxing, “the science behind the sport.”
His fight plan, he explained, was to control the action with his jab and occasionally throw the right hand, to maintain good defense and try to tire out his opponent.
It seemed a solid strategy — though, as the heavyweight Mike Tyson famously noted, everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.
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Frontier Airlines plane hits person on runway during takeoff at Denver airport
A Frontier Airlines plane hit a person on the runway of Denver’s international airport during takeoff, sparking an engine fire and forcing passengers to evacuate, authorities said.
The plane, headed to Los Angeles, “reported striking a pedestrian during takeoff” at about 11.19pm on Friday, the Denver airport’s official X account wrote.
Neither the airport nor the airline has disclosed the person’s condition.
“We’re stopping on the runway,” the pilot of the plane involved told the control tower at one point, according to the site ATC.com. “We just hit somebody. We have an engine fire.”
The pilot told the air traffic controller they have “231 souls” on board – and that an “individual was walking across the runway”.
The air traffic controller responded that they were “rolling the trucks now” before the pilot told the tower they “have smoke in the aircraft”.
“We are going to evacuate on the runway,” the pilot added.
Frontier Airlines said in a statement that flight 4345 was the one involved in the collision – and that “smoke was reported in the cabin and the pilots aborted takeoff”. It was not clear whether the smoke was linked to the crash with the person.
The plane, an Airbus A321, “was carrying 224 passengers and seven crew members”, the airline said. “We are investigating this incident and gathering more information in coordination with the airport and other safety authorities.”
Passengers were then evacuated using slides, and the emergency crew bused them to the terminal.
Denver’s airport said the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) had been notified and that runway 17L – where the incident took place – will remain closed while an investigation is conducted.
Friday’s episode at Denver’s airport came one day after a Delta Airline employee died on Thursday night at Orlando’s international airport when a vehicle struck a jet bridge next to an airplane with passengers onboard, as the local news outlet WESH reported.
Meanwhile, on 3 May, a United Airlines plane arriving in Newark, New Jersey, from Venice, Italy, clipped a delivery truck and a light pole, which in turn struck a Jeep. Only the delivery truck driver was injured, but the plane was damaged extensively and the NTSB classified the case as an accident while also opening an investigation.
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Video: How Trump Is Prioritizing White People as Refugees
new video loaded: How Trump Is Prioritizing White People as Refugees
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