Australian mother Tahnee Shanks missing in Mexico after her 2-year-old daughter found alone
Authorities on Mexico's Caribbean coast have issued an alert for a missing Australian woman whose 2-year-old daughter was found wandering alone in the resort city of Cancun.
Prosecutors in the coastal state of Quintana Roo said Tahnee Shanks, 32, was last seen on Monday in Cancun. There was no immediate information on how she became separated from her daughter.
But on Thursday, prosecutors also issued a missing persons alert for the girl's father, Jorge Luis Aguirre Astudillo, a Mexican citizen. Aguirre Astudillo is also 32 and was also last heard from Monday.
According to a GoFundMe page set up in the name of the family of Tahnee Shanks, Aguirre Astudillo is believed to have dropped the child near a church in Cancun.
The girl was apparently taken into the care of child welfare authorities.
According to her Facebook profile, Shanks, from Conway Beach, Queensland, had been trying to get back to Australia. Her plans were apparently delayed by the coronavirus pandemic.
Shanks wrote in May 2021: "I can't come back to Australia till mid 2022!!! My baby girl will be 2 1/2 years old and hasn't even met her grandad, uncles, great gran, cousins."
Meanwhile, one person was killed and six others were injured Friday in shootings on a main boulevard in Cancun, authorities said.
A suspect had been detained in relation to the attack, which did not take place in the resort's hotel zone, according to prosecutors in the coastal state of Quintana Roo.
The shootings occurred on an avenue lined with restaurants and bars a bit farther inland.
It was the latest instance of violence that has blotted Cancun's reputation as a laid back getaway.
In March, tourists were sent scrambling by loud bangs heard at the international airport in Cancun. Flights were suspended for almost three hours after authorities received reports of gunshots at the airport.
CBS News producer Guy Campanile, who was at the airport during the commotion, told CBS News Radio the disturbance sent hundreds scrambling.