Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - This Influencer is in BIG Trouble // The Aurora Phelps Murder Story

Episode Date: August 10, 2026

Aurora Phelps is a dual U.S.-Mexican citizen who orchestrated a deadly, international romance scam by luring, drugging, and robbing older men she met on online dating applications.

So this wannabe influencer is in some big trouble. So what did she do? Now her name's Aurora, and Aurora is around 38 when this story starts and she's living in Las Vegas. And things aren't going so well for her. Her previous marriage had failed. She just lost a custody battle with her ex-husband. And on top of that, she's broke. So she starts looking for ways to make some money.

And that is when she decides she's just going to steal it. And so one day in 2019, Aurora is in Arkansas where she used to live, and she invites her friend over to a hotel that she's staying at to hang out, and, you know, eat some food and maybe drink some beer. So the friend comes over, and while she isn't looking, Aurora spikes her beer with a sedative. And the friend drinks it, and boom, she passes out.

After that, Aurora steals her credit card, and she books herself a flight to Las Vegas, and once she gets there, she starts using that credit card to buy a bunch of shit. Now at some point, her friend finally wakes up and she realizes that she's been robbed. And she reports Aurora to the police. But police can't find her because she disappeared. She fled back to Vegas. And so now she's officially a fugitive and the police are looking for her.

Meanwhile, Aurora is in Vegas living the good life. And after a while, she starts running out of money again. And since her first scam worked of drugging and robbing her friend, she decides to do it again. Only this time, she's going to target old wealthy men. So she signs up for a few dating apps and she starts looking for lonely old men. And before long, she matches with this elderly guy. So they start chatting and they start flirting and eventually they agree to meet up for lunch. So they meet up and they hit it off and everything goes fine and they see each other a few more times, and at some point, Aurora feels like it's the right time to rob this guy. So one day, she and the

man arranged for her to visit him at his place, and she shows up with some food that she had ordered for the both of them. And at some point, she spikes some of it with a sedative. And of course, he eats it, and minutes later, he passes out. Once he's out, she steals his iPhone, his iPad, his driver's license, and his bank cards. Then, she gains access to his bank accounts and she starts transferring money into hers. And anytime the elderly man starts to wake up, she redrugs him so that he immediately passes out again. And with his phone, she's able to use that to bypass two-factor security and she gets access to his E-Trade account and she discovers that this man owns about $3.3 million

worth of Apple stock. So she sells it and she tries to withdraw the money. However, E-Trade automated fraud detection system flags the account and she's not able to withdraw it. Now eventually she gives up and she leaves his house. Five days after she first started drugging him, the man finally fully wakes up. And he realizes that she's gone and he's been robbed and he immediately reports everything to the police. And so now police in Vegas are looking for her. But they have no idea where she is or even who she is.

This elderly man didn't really know her that well, and so he doesn't know where she lives or even what her last name is. And so police can't find her. Meanwhile, this woman uses some of this stolen money she's got to go shopping and buy herself a bunch of fancy bullshit. And listen to this, she actually tries to become an influencer. Like she sets up accounts and she does unboxing videos with a lot of items that she bought with the stolen money. and her accounts never take off because, you know, she's not that interesting of a person, but she tries. Anyway, about a month later, she's staying in Guadalajara, Mexico, where she grew up.

And it's safer there for her because police there aren't looking for her. And so she gets on Tinder, and she creates another account under a different name, and she starts swiping. And pretty quickly, she matches with another lonely, elderly man. And they chat, and they hit it off, and they end up going on. on a date at the Hard Rock Hotel. Now, during this date, the guy just disappears, and she ends up stealing his BMW, so it's assumed that she killed him.

And two days later, Mexican police find his body, and they start investigating. And several months go by, and it's now 2022. And she's still in Guadalajara, and she gets on Tinder, and she matches with another older man, and they end up going on a date, and they end up back at his place, and there she somehow slips a sedative into his drink,

and he drinks it, and it knocks him out, and she steals his bank cards, and she starts accessing his bank accounts. Here's the thing, though. While she's doing all this, this guy unfortunately dies. And it isn't clear if she intended for him to die, or if she accidentally gave him too much, but the sedatives killed him.

And Aurora doesn't call the police or anything. She actually flees the scene. And after that, she keeps going. She goes right back to Tinder, and she keeps finding lonely old men, and she'll meet up with them and drug them and rob them. And she does this over and over and over again, and several months pass.

And at this point, she's actually back in Vegas, still trying to pull her scam. And one day she matches with another elderly man, and they chat and they hit it off, and they agree to meet at a restaurant in the city. Now at this restaurant, while he's distracted, she slips a sedative into his food or drink, and before long, the man becomes all high and confused. So right there at the table, she takes his American Express card and her phone, and she starts trying to shop and like buy shit online. And when the purchases are declined, she's able to call customer service and get this drugged old man to speak to the representative and authorize the transactions. And if that isn't crazy enough, she then takes him out to his own vehicle and she puts him in it and she drives it all the way down to the border of Mexico. And then she parks and she puts this drugged senior citizen in a wheelchair and she pushes him across the border through the pedestrian border.

checkpoint. And from there, she somehow gets him to Mexico City and she books a hotel room using his stolen credit card and she leaves him there passed out on the bed. Meanwhile, she gets online and she starts shopping again and she transfers his money over to herself. She even changes the password to his social security account so that she can keep collecting his benefits. And once she's done with all of this, she abandons the man in the hotel room and she's. And she's, She leaves and she flees back to Las Vegas. And I guess the sedative she gave him is too strong for the poor guy, and he unfortunately dies. Right there in the hotel room.

And at this point, she is drugged and robbed 11 men and three of them have died. So it looks like she's just going to keep going, scamming all these dudes. Until. Until the Mexican feds get involved. And they start investing. investigating one of the men's deaths. While at the same time, back in the U.S., the FBI is also looking into all these suspicious romance scam robberies. And eventually, they figure out that all roads lead back to this woman, Aurora.

And Aurora is now living in Guadalajara again, so the Federales end up tracking her down, and bam, they arrest her. And I can't find a mugshot, but here is a picture of her. And ultimately, she goes to trial in Mexico, and she's found guilty for the murder of one of the men, and she's sentenced to 37 years in Mexican prison. She's also currently awaiting extradition to the United States, where she'll face additional charges for her crimes here.