LAS VEGAS (AP) — A woman used online dating apps to lure at least four older men to meet her in person, then drugged them with sedatives and stole hundreds of thousands of dollars in a “sinister” romance scheme, FBI officials in Las Vegas said Friday.

Three of the men died, authorities said, and she has been charged in one of their deaths.

Aurora Phelps, 43, who is in custody in Mexico, faces 21 counts including wire fraud, identity theft and one count of kidnapping resulting in death, Sue Fahami, the acting United States attorney for the District of Nevada, said at a news conference.

“This is a romance scam on steroids,” said Spencer Evans, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Las Vegas division. One of the four victims, who were targeted in 2021 and 2022, awoke from a coma after Phelps gave him prescription sedatives over the course of a week, Evans added.

In one instance Phelps is alleged to have kidnapped a victim by heavily sedating him and taking him across the U.S.-Mexico border in a wheelchair and then to a Mexico City hotel room, where he was later found dead.

After incapacitating her victims, Evans said, Phelps stole their cars, withdrew money from their bank accounts, used their credit cards to purchase luxury items and gold and even tried to access social security and retirement accounts.

According to the indictment, Phelps met one man in July 2021, went on lunch dates with him and that November ordered lunch to his house and slipped him a prescription drug.

While he was “mostly unconscious” for about five days, Phelps gained access to his accounts and stole his iPhone, iPads, driver’s license and bank cards, according to the indictment. She also allegedly accessed his E-Trade account and sold Apple stock worth about $3.3 million, though she was unable to withdraw that money.

Authorities believe Phelps used popular dating apps including Tinder, Hinge and Bumble to find her targets. The men were lonely and looking for companionship and went on multiple dates with Phelps before she stealthily gave them sedatives, according to Evans.

“It’s folks that are out looking for love that ran into something far more sinister,” he said.

Phelps, a dual citizen of Mexico and the U.S., had been on the FBI’s radar for a couple of years, according to Evans. He declined to comment on her criminal history.

Phelps does not have a U.S.-based attorney who could speak on her behalf, a spokesperson for the Department of Justice said. The Associated Press left messages seeking comment with Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Ministry and Attorney General’s Office.

Several of the victims’ relatives called authorities when they were unable to contact their loved ones, Evans said.

One woman was unable to reach her father the day after he went on a date with Phelps in Guadalajara, Mexico, in May 2022, according to court records. The next day Mexican police found him dead on the bathroom floor of his home. Phelps then used an account belonging to the victim to purchase a gold coin, along with other transactions, the indictment alleges.

The FBI is aware of more alleged victims in the U.S. and Mexico, Evans said, and is making information about the case public, including suspected aliases, in hopes of identifying others who “fell victim to her scams and whose trust in her may have cost them their life.”

The FBI is also working with the Department of Justice and Mexican authorities to secure her extradition.

If convicted on every charge, which include seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of mail fraud, six counts of bank fraud, three counts of identity theft and one count of kidnapping, Phelps faces a maximum sentence of life in prison, Fahami said.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — When her high school basketball coach cut her from the team senior year, Baileigh Sinaman-Daniel refused to let that rejection, or the fact she was born with one arm, end her dream of playing the game that her childhood idol LeBron James made her fall in love with 15 years ago.

That determination led the 22-year-old guard at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to become the first NCAA Division III women’s basketball player with one arm to score in a collegiate game, said her coach, Martin Rather.

“I kind of just shot the ball with the anticipation that I would have to go and get it back on a rebound,” Sinaman-Daniel said of the historic basket that she made from near the three-point line, which snapped the net without hitting the rim. “When the shot actually went in, I was more so surprised.”

Rather immediately called a timeout to mark the moment.

“My first thought was, ‘That’s history and we need to take a second to pause and celebrate it,’” Rather said. “Everybody just swarmed Baileigh, giving her high fives, celebrating her.”

The Stafford, Virginia, native’s path to history was sparked by a painful rejection at Mountain View High School.

“I had played for my high school for about three years and my senior year of high school when I tried out again, as I always did, I actually got cut and the coach basically told me that I wasn’t needed on the team,” she said.

That led to two days of misery and crying, until she made a bold decision while sitting in her car.

“I thought to myself, I could do this in college. What’s stopping me from doing this in college?” Sinaman-Daniel said. “So, I started emailing hundreds of coaches and it didn’t really matter what division it was. I was just trying to get a possible maybe or even better — a yes.”

That persistence caught Rather’s attention when Sinaman-Daniel, a 5-foot-6-inch guard, entered the transfer portal after two years at Warren Wilson College in North Carolina.

At Lesley, Sinaman-Daniel has become known for her work ethic with the Lynx.

She has completed more individual practice sessions than any other player on the team, which is having its best season in 14 years and has reached the playoffs, Rather said.

“I think any team in this country would benefit from having a player with Baileigh’s heart on their team,” Rather said.

The achievement is particularly notable given the scarcity of one-armed players in collegiate basketball who could have served as role models.

“It is not very common to see somebody with one arm playing basketball. I think there’s probably about two or three of us in the collegiate level,” Sinaman-Daniel said.

Though there are few other notable one-armed college basketball players, the most successful is likely Hansel Emmanuel at Austin Peay, whose coach describes as “the biggest inspiration in college sports.” The athletic success of the 6-foot-6 men’s Division I junior, whose arm was amputated at age 6 after an accident, has proved limitations don’t define potential.

Since Sinaman-Daniel could not always use standard balance and ball management techniques used by two-armed players, her on-court success has required unique training methods allowing her to develop fundamental skills.

“Taking passes or giving a good pass or figuring out the right shooting form — I’ve had to tweak and adjust,” she said.

Sinaman-Daniel scored her second basket on her birthday, some seven weeks after her initial score, adding another layer of satisfaction to her breakthrough season.

The junior guard who was born with a tiny right arm that she is unable to use is studying psychology at the university just outside Boston and hopes her achievement will inspire others facing similar challenges.

“When people look at me, I just hope they see me as Baileigh. I hope they see me as a basketball player and also see me as somebody who’s willing and able to do everything that everybody else is doing,” she said.

Rather sees her impact extending beyond the court.

“We’re showing that we can both win and have really high quality players that might not look like everybody else on our team,” he said.