Tahnee Shanks disappearance: Family arrive in Mexico to be reunited with woman’s daughter

The family of missing Aussie Tahnee Shanks have arrived in Mexico to be reunited with her daughter who was “dumped” at a church. First photo.

Mackay man Ben Shanks and his mother Leanne have been reunited with two-year-old Adelynn after she was “dumped” at a church in Mexico.

Adelynn is the daughter of missing Australian woman Tahnee Shanks,

The Australian embassy ensured the little girl had an emergency passport ready to return her to Australia and the trio is in Cancun waiting for the tick of approval to get her back.

“We ask for privacy while we focus on caring for Adelynn,” the family said.

“Our immediate goal is to get Addy, her uncle and grandmother home safely as soon as possible.

“With several hurdles and red tape, this may take some time. We remain deeply concerned for the safety and whereabouts of Adelynn’s mother Tahnee.

“We would like to thank the kind and generous people from all over the world who have reached out to us and offered their support and assistance.”

Adelynn, 2, has been reunited with her Mackay uncle Ben Shanks and Brisbane grandmother Leanne in Cancun, Mexico after she was dumped at church. Her parents remain missing. Picture: Supplied

The search for Adelynn’s mother continues with the Shanks family holding grave fears for her safety.

“She’s never off social media and she would never leave that girl. That’s the scariest thing,” Ben Shanks said.

“She was with Jorge in the days before and now they’re both missing. She was so close to coming home. Addy’s got her citizenship and she was just waiting on a passport.

“Plane tickets were paid for. She was getting the passport on June 7 and coming home on June 22.”

Mexico’s National System for Integral Family Development, the government agency holding Adelynn, said she would be given to her grandmother once their family connection was officially established.

The organisation has confirmed receiving Ms Shanks’ birth certificate before her mother and brother left Australia.

Toddler Adelynn had no shoes but “smelled like baby soap” when she was “dumped” at a church in Mexico.

Carlos Gutierrez described a normal Saturday night outside the Chapel of the San Archangel on May 3 when Whitsunday woman Tahnee Shanks’s daughter “appeared”.

“It was early, 8pm, there were still people on the street, the church mass had just finished. An ordinary night in Cancun,” he said in Spanish.

“The girl was in perfect condition, only she had no shoes. She had a small flashlight in her hand that she was playing with.”

Mr Gutierrez said she did not seem to have been lost for days or wandering around for a long time.

“She was very well,” he said.

“In fact, she still smelled like baby soap, as if she had just been bathed.

“She did not answer the questions we asked, we later assumed that it was perhaps because she did not speak Spanish completely.”

Tahnee, 32, had been living in Mexico for about nine years. She had recently broken up with her partner Jorge Aguirre Estudillo, the father of their daughter Adelynn, who turned two in November.

Whitsundays woman Tahnee Shanks, far right, is missing in Mexico. Her daughter Adelynn, far left, was found alone at a church. Her partner Jorge Aguirre Estudillo, centre, is missing. Picture: Facebook

The state prosecutor said that since Ms Shanks is still missing, they would not comment further while the case remains open.

Unverified reports circulating online claimed that Ms Shanks husband, Jorge Luis Aguirre Astudilo, had previously been deported from the United States for assaulting a police officer. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) did not comment on claims.

Police were also looking to question Mr Astudilo, and were reportedly searching for a White Toyota Tundra seen driving away from the Chapel of the San Archangel, where Adelynn was found.

Friends and family have raised almost $17,000 on GoFundMe to fund travel to Mexico and the $5000 reward that is being offered for help finding Ms Shanks.

Melbourne ex-pat Teejay Casado Crawford, who is friends with Tahnee living in Merida, Mexico, has been helping spread the message about the missing Australian. Tahnee was on holiday from Merida when she went missing in Cancun.

“Please pray she is found ASAP this is very bad and scary,” she posted to Facebook.

It came amid revelations that Shanks feared for her safety in Mexico in the weeks before she disappeared, friends of the young mother have revealed.

Witnesses said her daughter Adelynn was found shoeless and had just been bathed before she was dumped outside a church in tourist hotspot Cancun.

Her grandmother Leanne and uncle Ben Shanks were en route to Mexico on Friday night to bring the toddler home, with the family and authorities holding grave concerns for Ms Shanks, who has been missing since Sunday.

The two-year-old was found wandering the street in Cancun.

Carlos Gutierrez was at the Chapel of the San Archangel when Adelynn was found.

“It was early, 8pm, there were still people on the street, the church mass had just finished. An ordinary night in Cancun,” he said in Spanish, according to a translated interview.

“The girl was in perfect condition, only she had no shoes. She had a small flashlight in her hand that she was playing with.”

Mr Gutierrez said Adelynn “still smelled like baby soap, as if she had just been bathed.”

“She did not answer the questions we asked, we later assumed that it was perhaps because she did not speak Spanish completely.”

Tahnee’s friends say she feared for her safety in the weeks leading up to her disappearance.

The last contact with Tahnee was at about Sunday lunchtime in Australia, or Saturday night in Mexico.

Witnesses said the man who left Adelynn looked like her father Jorge Aguirre Estudillo, who is now also missing.

Ms Shanks, a normally reserved Whitsunday raised woman, who had lived in Mexico for nine years, had shared some of her concerns with friends recently.

The 32-year-old had told friends who would be to blame “if anything happened to her” in recent weeks.

“She is a great mum, super devoted and in love with Addy,” a friend said.

An emergency passport was expected to be issued for Adelynn, who had tickets booked to Australia on June 7.

Tahnee’s family is due to fly to Mexico to pick up daughter Adelynn, two, who has been abandoned in Mexico. Picture: Facebook

Tahnee Shanks is understood to have been living in Merida, 300km west of Cancun on the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. Highlighted on the map is Cancun, where her daughter was found.

The toddler would have no memory of her grandmother, whom she only met at birth because of coronavirus travel restrictions.

Ms Shanks’s relationship with Adelynn’s father had broken down in recent months.

The family, based in Merida on the Yucatán peninsula, had been on a week’s getaway, with plans to visit Tulum.

The family was due to visit Tulum, about two hours away from Cancun where Adelynn was found.

Tahnee had been living in Central America with her partner and two-year-old daughter Adelynn.

Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it was “providing consular assistance to the family of Tahnee Shanks, an Australian woman reported missing in Mexico.”

Ms Shanks brother Dan said embassy staff were now speaking with local police.

“Most of the correspondence is coming through the Australian embassy now so the police are liaising with them,” Mr Shanks said.

“Because, initially, we had to get someone in to translate – there’s bugger all people in the station over there who speak English. And it was really hard.

“Once we got this set up the way we have now, it’s as good as it can be.”

Originally published as Tahnee Shanks disappearance: Family arrive in Mexico to be reunited with woman’s daughter