Tahnee Shanks: Daughter Adelynn in Queensland after Mexico mercy dash
As Queensland mum Tahnee Shanks remains missing, her daughter found abandoned outside a Mexican church, now in the Sunshine State, is showing few signs of the turmoil. SEE THE PHOTOS
Mackay
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The toddler abandoned outside a Mexican church shows few signs of the mercy mission to get her home as she settles in with her Queensland family.
Little Adelynn — whose Whitsunday mum Tahnee Shanks remains missing — loves watching Paw Patrol and Bluey, singing Mary had a Little Lamb and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and counting in Spanish.
Racing around after her cousins, wheeling a little bicycle in the driveway and running after dogs to cuddle them, it’s hard to comprehend what little Adelynn has been through in the past fortnight.
But she knows she is safe. She knows she is surrounded by people who love her – people who dropped everything to fly around the world to rescue her.
“She’s already picking up words just from the way over here,” her Mackay uncle Ben Shanks said.
“I’ll say ‘Ready, set, go’ and then she’ll say it too.
“I say ‘Addy, where are you?’ when we play hide and seek.
“She’ll say ‘Oh no! Oh no!’.”
Grandmother Leanne, who also went on a mercy dash to Mexico with her son Ben, said little Addy Rae had been incredible throughout the ordeal.
She said she had been so calm at the hotel in Cancun and on all the plane legs back to Australia.
“She must be the most outstanding child I’ve ever come across (when travelling),” she said.
“She’s a runner, though. Ben and the consular people had to keep running after her to catch her.
“She took a real liking to Ben right away. But she’s made such an impression on the lot of them.”
Adelynn, who turned 2 in November, was abandoned at a church in a dangerous part of Cancun in Mexico on Monday May 2.
Her mother Tahnee Shanks, originally from the Whitsundays, has been living in Mexico for about nine years.
Neither her nor Adelynn’s father Jorge Aguirre Astudillo have been seen since. Tahnee’s last contact with her family was on Sunday May 2 Australian time – Saturday in Mexico.
Her usually prolific social media posts dried up soon after.
But it is also social media that Leanne praises, with Facebook lighting up in a quest to find Addy’s parents as soon as the little girl was found alone in the street.
“The most amazing thing is that within 12 hours, these guys were onto it,” she said pointing to her sons and their wives.
Leanne, not big on social media herself, said they “would have been getting worried about why we weren’t hearing from Tahnee” but the pace the messages spread to her family was outstanding.
“It could have been days otherwise,” Tahnee’s other brother Dan Shanks, from Conway Beach, said.
Leanne said the next few days had been a whirlwind as they flew to Mexico via Los Angeles in the United States, spent two nights in Cancun and then returned to Australia via Vancouver in Canada.
“We knew within 12 hours and we were on the plane within 48 hours,” she said.
“From the moment we got there, everybody has been amazing.”
Ben said when they boarded the plane in Australia, they were not sure what would happen once they landed.
“We thought we were going to get a contact off someone over there and then go from there,” he said.
“By the time we got there, Daniel and the guys back home had already organised everything.
“(The Australian representatives) were there, they had (an emergency) passport there for Addy ready and they took us straight to her. They even had toys for her.
“It was surreal to start with.
“I cried as soon as I saw her. Then when she reached for me …”
He clutched his heart, the love for his two-year-year niece clear.
It was a moment the whole Shanks family breathed a sigh of relief, especially since family members back in Mackay had trolls sending fake updates on the same platform that helped them get Addy back.
“We were getting these trolling messages saying someone just picked Adelynn up and adopted her eight hours ago and (others) trying to get her,” Dan said.
“That was the hardest part, that stint when you were on the plane,” Dan’s wife Angela said.
With Addy now safely ensconced with her family in Australia, the Shanks are focusing their attention on finding her mother Tahnee, 32.
“We’re not giving up on Tahnee,” Leanne said.
“Now we’ve got Adelynn out of there, it’s totally focused on Tahnee.”
Dan said he hoped they could reunite Addy with her mother in coming weeks and he praised the Mexican and Australian authorities for their inquiries into his sister’s disappearance.
“We have to let the investigation run its course for now,” he said.
Ben said the briefing he and Leanne had with Mexican authorities convinced him they were “throwing everyone at it” but it was important the family let them do their work.
“We don’t want to hinder the investigation and they’re doing a good job,” he said.
There are plenty of ‘what ifs’ and ‘could we haves’ around the table as the Shanks family reflect on how Tahnee should have been back in Australia in February when she had originally booked flights.
But sister Leela described Tahnee as a strong, independent woman who had travelled the world extensively since age 21, though had been taking smaller trips since she was about 18.
Other family members described her as flamboyant and a great mum who had been “joined at the hip” with Adelynn during Covid.
She even started a mother’s group once they moved from Cancun to Merida so the pair had a friendship group.
“She was addicted to the travelling,” Leanne said.
“She did her aged care nursing and she loved the oldies but travelling was in her blood.
“She would come back from travelling, work hard and save to go travelling again.”
After initially holding grave fears for Tahnee, their mission to get Adelynn home to Australia has given them hope.
“I’ve stopped fearing the worst, I have a bit more hope right now,” Leanne said.
Tahnee’s family have now issued a $1 million peso (A$70,000) reward on social media for her safe return.
‘They’re home’: Toddler meets her Aussie cousins after Mexico mercy dash – May 12
Clutching a green balloon in her tiny hands, baby Adelynn looks straight into the camera as her relieved Aussie family snap photos of the two year old meeting her cousins for the first time.
Despite exhaustion beyond comprehension after a mercy dash to Mexico to collect Addy after she was dumped at church in a dangerous part of Cancun last week, her uncle Ben Shanks and grandmother Leanne are relieved as the family reunited in Mackay.
Sleep has evaded most of the family in the days since Adelynn’s mother Tahnee, 32, went missing and her daughter was found outside Chapel of the San Archangel on Monday May 3.
In one photo taken on Wednesday as the family unites on Aussie soil, Adelynn is on her other uncle Dan’s shoulders.
“They are home and safe,” he said.
“It’s bittersweet but it’s something.
“Now I can focus on Tahnee 100 per cent.”
As the search for Tahnee continues, the Shanks family say they are grateful to the Mexican government for facilitating the quick return of Adelynn to her family and to the Mexican police for their “overwhelming response to the case and ongoing support”.
They also want to thank the Australian embassy for “their tireless work on the case and to all the people in Mexico who have volunteered their time and resources to the search”.
“We would also like to thank Qantas staff for going above and beyond in taking care of the family and especially to the media who have been fantastic in getting the word out and making so much noise that it’s been heard all around the world,” Dan said.
“And to all the people who have donated to the GoFundMe page, the generosity has been overwhelming.
“Now we have Adelynn home and safe, we can focus 100 per cent on the search and investigation for Tahnee.
“We will not give up hope or looking for you, Tahnee.
“We have explored several different avenues but don’t want to hamper the investigation while it’s under way.
“No new information has been released from the Mexican police at this stage, but they are following up on any leads they have.
“After seeing first-hand what they are doing over there in Mexico, we are more than happy they are throwing every resource at this case.
“At this time we would ask that you respect our privacy and thank you for your understanding.”
The family says they will share information as it came to light in the investigation.
The Shanks family knew something was wrong when Tahnee’s social media accounts went dark.
The Whitsundays 32 year old never thought she would be a mother but she was relishing every moment after her daughter Adelynn was born in November 2019.
A prolific poster on her various social media accounts, she shared moments of her life with Adelynn and her father Jorge Aguirre Astudillo in Mexico where she had lived for nine years.
With her friends, she shared selfie videos singing karaoke style hits into her phone.
Brother Dan Shanks, from Conway Beach, spoke to Tahnee just after noon Australian time on Sunday May 1 which was Saturday Mexico time.
The social media posts dried up soon after which, while odd, did not set off blaring alarm bells until about 9pm Tuesday in Australia when Mexicans realised the abandoned young girl was baby Adelynn with no parents in sight.
The nine days since have been a whirlwind for the Shanks family as they rushed to Mexico to collect Addy on an emergency Australian passport.
Ben and Leanne are relieved to be back safely on home soil with Tahnee’s bub in tow.
But the anguish at not knowing his sister’s whereabouts continues to haunt her brother Dan who wants answers whether the news is good or bad.
He fears Tahnee is already dead and he will be raising his niece here in Australia, instead of his sister who had flights booked to return on June 22 after a relationship breakdown with Adelynn’s father Jorge.
“We have grave concerns for her safety,” he said.
“Addy is her whole life so for this to happen is tragic and heartbreaking.”
Mexico police seized a video of a woman being forced into a van as they continue to investigate Tahnee’s disappearance.
But it is understood the video did not relate to Tahnee Shanks.
Mexican publication Por Esto has published an image of a burnt-out van that is alleged to be evidence in the case.
The report says police are investigating whether criminals had targeted Ms Shanks and her missing partner “at random”.
The footage is part of evidence the State Attorney-General’s Office in Quintana is examining, the report suggests.
Tahnee and Jorge had lived in Cancun, a tourist hotspot considered one of the most violent cities in the world, until it became too dangerous and they moved two hours away to Merida.
They had recently separated after he cheated on her with another woman and got her pregnant.
As police piece together the couple’s frantic final moments, the mystery deepens.
On this particular weekend, Tahnee and Jorge had booked a hotel in Cancun but then began to travel back to Merida.
Then mysteriously, they returned to Cancun where their daughter was found abandoned. Ms Shanks has not been seen since.
Police are now doing tests on a burnt-out car found in Puerto Morelos, 40 minutes south of Cancun also in the state of Quintana Roo, on the same day the toddler was abandoned.
Serial numbers confirmed the damaged car was the same as the pair were driving.
The details emerged as Mexican authorities said Mr Astudillo had been deported from the United States for attacking a police officer there.
He has also been subject to domestic violence complaints against another woman, authorities said.
Quintana Roo’s general attorney Óscar Montes de Oca Rosales said police were keeping an open mind on the case.
“We are analysing videos and the chronology of events. They were visiting Cancun for one day, made an hotel reservation, then they went back to Merida, but on the road decided to comeback to Cancun, and that is when the girl’s event takes place,” he said, according to a translation from Spanish.
“The husband would be a line of investigation, since he has a history of family abuse with respect to another couple. We are looking for both.”
Mr de Oca Rosales said the investigation was still active, and they were hoping Ms Shanks would be found alive.
“There are some important contributions, but we have to wait until the investigation is over,” he said.
“In the United States he injured an agent, so he was deported to Mexico. In Yucatán, (he) has a domestic violence claim by a previous girlfriend.
“The protocols and the law require us to look for her alive.
“We already talk with Tahnee’s family, they will give us some details about couples lifestyle, their work and social environment.
“At this time, both are victims, they are missing persons, later maybe we can determine if he is responsible for something, so far he is a victim.”
Police in Mexico were checking “highway cameras, phone GPS” and on the ground search for the missing pair.
There were no CCTV cameras near the church where Adelynn was found.
Rescuers described her not wearing shoes but said she “smelled like baby soap” when she was “dumped” at a church.
Carlos Gutierrez described a normal Saturday night outside the Chapel of the San Archangel on May 3 when Adelynn “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.”
Wilbert Alonzo Canto’s Facebook posts about Adelynn appearing at the church went viral on Monday across the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico where Tahnee was living.
Mr Canto said he went to a religious ceremony for his grandmother, to mark three years since “she left this world”, about 7pm that night.
He said as they left the church, they were shocked to run into baby Adelynn.
“Behind the baby, a man came and asked us if the baby was ours,” he said in Spanish.
“He told us he had been following her because he saw her alone and running without shoes.
“At that moment, my reaction was to hold the baby and not let her go the whole time I had her.
“The man who was following her told us ‘I am going to ask the street behind to see if she belongs to someone or if they know her and the man left.
“From there, my cousin and I went with the baby to ask if anyone in the houses knew her because apparently she came to the church alone. But no one knew her.”
Mr Canto said they then phoned 911 to report the abandoned baby and the authorities arrived about 30 minutes later.
“When the police arrived, they asked us to explain how things happened.”
Mr Canto said the Attention to Victims of Family and Gender Violence group, which is in charge of the children found on the street, took the little girl.
“This group … moved the baby to a safe house where they keep the baby in perfect condition until a family member arrives for the baby,” he said.
“On Tuesday morning, after my Facebook post about the baby went viral the day before, posts about the baby’s parents appeared as missing for three days.
“Seeing the photos of the parents, we realised the father is the same man who was behind the baby the day we found her at church.
“My whole family and I were in shock to see the same man in the photos was the same as the one following (the baby) the night we found her at the church.”
Mr Canto said he was on Thursday summoned to the prosecutor’s office to take statements.
He said he had hope and faith the situation would work out well but he was very worried about Adelynn and her missing mother but he said the girl seemed well when he was looking after her.
“The girl arrived in perfect condition, obviously with the same clothes she had been wearing since they disappeared, but clean,” he said.
“She came running to the church like another common child running around the house.
“The girl at no time was she scared or cried or anything, she was calm while she was with me and my family.
“Never in my life have I been through a situation like this.
“We have not been able to see the baby since Monday at the safe house.
“They do not allow us to see her since we are not relatives of the baby we only know that she is fine
“I was carrying the baby as the authorities arrived. The baby was calm at all times.”
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Originally published as Tahnee Shanks: Daughter Adelynn in Queensland after Mexico mercy dash
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