The FBI is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the recovery of Shelbie Lynn Dwyer — an 18-year-old woman who has not been heard from since March 29, 2023.
Dwyer left home, located in Des Moines, on March 25, 2023, to travel to Mexico by car. Over the next few days, she had “sporadic” communication with her family, according to the FBI, until it stopped altogether on March 29, 2023.
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Dwyer’s drive to Mexico was considered a road trip with a man described as a “trusted friend.”
“Dwyer is believed to have traveled to Tijuana, Mexico. She likely traveled by plane from Tijuana, had a layover in Guadalajara, then arrived in Culiacan, Sinaloa,” the FBI wrote in an update. “Dwyer was last believed to have been in the area of Guamuchil, Sinaloa, Mexico, on or around March 29, 2023. She has not been heard from since that time.”
According to Dwyer’s mother, Stacy Macheta, Dwyer was planning on coming home, but ended up going on an airplane to Sinaloa.
“That’s when her phone didn’t ping after she got out of the airport,” Macheta explained to KIRO 7.
Macheta said she last heard from her daughter while she was in Sinaloa, but that call was cut short.
“She was yelling at somebody and then the phone died,” Macheta said.
Dwyer is white, 5 feet, 3 inches tall and approximately 100 pounds. She has brown eyes and hair and has three tattoos: a rose on her right hand; a design on her right middle finger; and the word “Blessed” in cursive on her right forearm.
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“We didn’t go a day without telling each other we love each other,” Stacy Macheta, Dwyer’s mother, told KIRO 7. “She’s really a caring person. She was like my mini-me.”
Anyone with information about Dwyer is urged to contact their local FBI office, American embassy or consulate or submit a tip online.
Contributing: KIRO 7
Frank Sumrall is a content editor at MyNorthwest. You can read his stories here and you can email him here.