US teen Shelbie Lynn Dwyer missing in Mexico

Mexican authorities have issued an “urgent” Amber Alert for a missing American teenager after she was last spotted on Sinaloa drug cartel turf nearly three weeks ago, according to reports.

Shelbie Lynn Dwyer, 17, was last seen in a stationery store and Internet cafe on March 31 in Salvador Alvarado in the Mexican state of Sinaloa, one of the region’s plagued by drug cartel violence, the Mexican news outlet El Milenio reported.

“It is believed that her safety is at risk,” the Sinaloa State Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement Tuesday, the outlet reported. “She may have fallen victim to a crime.”

Authorities said Dwyer is five feet tall and has several distinctive tattoos, including doves and praying hands on her upper left arm, a rose on her right thumb, and the word “Bendita” — Spanish for “blessed” — on her lower right arm.

She also has a heart on her middle finger and the word “Muerdeme” — or “bite me” — on her buttocks, the newspaper reported.

It is unclear if Dwyer was living in Mexico or was visiting.

The Amer Alert was issued on Friday, the same day that the body of a 20-year-old Texas woman was found in El Verde in Mexico — more than a week after she was last heard from.


Missing US teen Shelbie Lynn Dwyer.
Shelbie Lynn Dwyer, a 17-year-old American, was last seen alive on March 31 in a stationery store in the Mexican state of Sinaloa, which has long been plagued by drug cartel violence. An “urgent” Amber Alert for Dwyer went out Friday.

Bionce Jazmin Amaya Cortez of Mission, Texas, was dumped near a farm where she had been staying.

She had been missing since April 6.

Three other women from Texas — Maritza Trinidad Perez Rios, Marina Perez Rios and Dora Alicia Cervantes Sanez — went missing in the Mexican city of Montemorelos in February and remain unaccounted for, according to US authorities.

And last month, four friends from South Carolina traveling for one of them to get a cosmetic surgery procedure were kidnapped at gunpoint, with two of them later killed by their assailants.

The Americans got lost and found themselves in the crossfire of a rival cartel shootout, with Shaeed Woodward and Zindell Brown later pronounced dead.


Stationery store and Internet cafe where Shelbie Lynn Dwyer disappeared.
Shelbie Lynn Dwyer, 17, was last seen alive on March 31 in this stationery store and Internet cafe in the Mexican state of Sinaloa, one of the regions long plagued by drug cartel violence. An “urgent” Amber Alert for Dwyer went out Friday.
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