In this blog we are going to discuss two separate cases of foreign people who have gone missing in Mexico.
The first case is about Malcom Madsen, a Canadian snowbird who disappeared from Puerto Vallarta on October 28, 2018.
Malcom was 68 when he disappeared. His father was Marius Madsen, a Danish adventurer. In the 1920’s, Marius struck gold near Red Lake in Northern Ontario. The gold strike became the Madesen mine and the town around it was called Madsen, Ontario. Marius sold out and invested in real estate and gave his family a very affluent lifestyle.
As a child, Malcom spent many years in Jamaica where his family owned a hotel. When he was in his 20s and living in Toronto, Canada when he met Dale Mullins. He and Dale had a child together, Brooke.
Brooke has said that Malcom was a ‘hit-and-miss father’ and that she was mainly raised by her mother. After Brooke was born, Malcom married a woman in New Mexico. He got his real estate license and also made silver jewellery.
Dale died in 2007 and that is when Malcom came back into Brooke’s life.
Brooke has spoken a lot about her father’s case and has given us some idea about his background.
Brooke has said that for the last ten years of his life, Malcom would travel to Conchas Chinas, just south of Puerto Vallarta for the winter.
According to Brooke, he had a treehouse there.
The breeze wafted through the house and ruffled the palm leaves that covered the roof. He would build a fire on the beach, smoke a little weed and hang out with his friends. Brooke said: “He lived the life he wanted.”
In terms of the area, Puerto Vallarta is a Mexican resort city near the Bahía de Banderas on the Pacific coast of the Mexican state of Jalisco. It has a population of around 225k. According to the crowd-sourced database Numbeo, Puerto Vallarta’s crime index has hovered around 30% to 35% in the past few years. To compare it to major cities – Miami (53%), Tampa (47%), New York (57%), Los Angeles (50%), or Chicago (65%).
Violent crime rates have reached historic highs according to Human Rights Watch, and it’s estimated that about 90 per cent of crimes are never reported, while a third of reported crimes are never investigated. About 2,600 foreigners have gone missing in Mexico in the past 15 years.
While in Conchas, Malcom met a woman named Marcela Acosta. We believe they met around 2010. Marcela was more than twenty years younger than him. She came from poverty – her parents and her two sons all lived together in a one bedroom apartment when she met Malcom. Malcom bought her a five bedroom house and registered it in her name.
Brooke has said that Marcela did not like her because she could claim Malcom’s money and his affection.
By 2018, Marcela and Malcom had been together for eight years. Brooke has said that Malcom was getting restless and talking about selling the Puerto Vallarta house. “He would never have left her with nothing,” Brooke said.
In October 2018, Malcom left Canada for his annual trip to Mexico. A few days later, his friends down there called Brooke. “There’s something wrong. Have you heard from your father?” No, she hadn’t and she immediately phoned Marcela. “No, no there’s nothing wrong. When he got here we went for dinner and to Andale’s” – the best known bar in Puerto Vallarta – “and then in the morning he went to the tree house.” Brooke thought that something didn’t sound right. Kidnapping, she thought, as she got on a plane for Puerto Vallarta. “I thought I was going to rescue him and bring him home.”
When Brooke got there, she contacted Malcom’s friend Zab Vanderhyden and asked for help. They got CCTV footage from Andale’s, the bar that Marcela had spoken about.
Andale’s still exists today. It gets a rating of 4.5/5 on google reviews.
The couple could be seen at a restaurant and then a bar on October 28, 2018. They had gone to celebrate Marcela’s birthday – she was due to turn 44 a few days later. The ate dinner at The Blue Shrimp first. After dinner, they went to Andales Restaurant and Bar. They arrived there at 11.20pm. Marcela could be seen bringing Malcom towards her and she whispered in his ear. While he was distracted, she dropped white powder into his martini glass. He then took a sip.
A few minutes later, another camera captured Malcom and Marcela leaving the bar. He was barely able to walk. This was at 12.29am.
Brooke realized that her father was not a victim of a kidnapping and that Marcela had likely done something to contribute to his demise. Brooke turned the CCTV over to the Puerto Vallarta police.
Brooke started messaging Marcela to find out more. Marcela was cooperative at first.
In response to Brooke’s first inquiry, she replied, “What do you need to know I will try to help you.” But … within hours, Marcela started to sound defensive.
Marcela claimed to have filed a missing person’s report.
Brooke began to try to get solid facts from Marcela, asking questions like, “Which agency did you file the report with? Police station? What restaurant did you go to and how many drinks did he have? Was he drunk?” Marcela became more evasive. She ignored many of the questions and while she did give Brooke the name of the restaurant they had visited the night he disappeared, she also kept talking about how drunk Malcom had gotten during the evening. That struck Brooke as odd, because while Malcom loved to smoke weed, his friends all said, he seldom drank.
A book has since been written about the case and Brooke’s experience – titled Malcom is Missing – A True Story of Murder and a Daughter’s Quest for Justice in Mexico. This information is from the book:
Marcela asked, “Where did your father grow up? What are your father’s parents’ maiden names? And what school did your father go to?”
Brooke was gobsmacked by those questions. In the midst of an emotional exchange about someone who was missing, possibly kidnapped, she felt the questions Marcela was asking were out of context. To Brooke they indicated Marcela was probing for information that would give her a clue about passwords Malcom commonly used … Brooke checked her dad’s bank account. To her horror, she saw that someone had been draining his checking account at breakneck speed. On October 29, the day Malcom disappeared, someone had withdrawn nearly $700 – three separate times. The following day, another $700. The day after that, another $700. On November 1 they’d taken $675 out. In four days, nearly $4,000 had been withdrawn. Brooke called Marcela and asked her “if she had been accessing my dad’s bank account.” She admitted she had and she said that he had told her to take some money so she could go on a trip.
Brooke also went through his father’s desktop computer. He also had a laptop and phone that she was unable to locate. Malcom had put a GPS tracker on his car in Puerto Vallarta. Brooke checked the GPS records. Marcela had told her that the car had never left the house, but according to the tracker, it showed that it had been driven to several locations, including a jungle area outside the city. The car stayed in that location for several hours. Brooke also gave the GPS data to authorities.
Despite Brooke basically hand-feeding info to the Mexican police, nothing seemed to be happening in her father’s case. Corruption amongst the police force there is a widely known problem. According to a 2022 case study, police in Mexico reportedly took bribes in 52% of the cases in which they interacted with people, and between 72 and 77% of the citizens consider that most or all the police corporations are corrupt.
Brooke ended up hiring a lawyer who filed seventeen motions with the Jalisco state attorney general to compel the police to search Marcela’s house, to forensically investigate the car and to also check bank records.
“I began to hate my father for being so gullible,” Brooke says.
She spent months on his computer going through every email. And there were hundreds, between her father and Marcela – intimate emails that daughters should never see. Money that he had given her was mysteriously evaporating. Marcela wrote, “Do you think I am taking your money to waste it?” followed by protestations of love and affection.
On the night he went missing, Malcom had $9,000 in cash on him. After the night at the bar, Marcela managed to withdraw more from his bank account before Brooke had them frozen.
While the investigation into Malcom’s disappearance was going on, Marcela sold the house and took the money. This was essentially legal as she was listed as the owner of the home. Brooke suspects that the proceeds from the sale were used by Marcela to stall the investigation.
Marcela then disappeared herself without a trace.
Different informants started coming forward, allegeding that they had information in the case. One family said that Marcela had been in a relationship with their father and that they had found evidence relating to this case. They said they had found bottles containing Malcom’s eye and some of his genitalia. They asked for money for the evidence and this was given to them. Brooke had to swab the body parts for DNA and the testing came back with nothing relating to her father.
Brooke’s lawyer eventually managed to track down Marcela in Guadalajara.
In the summer of 2020, almost two years after Malcom disappeared, Marcela and her brother Martin Alejandro Acosta Ramos were arrested. A few months later, Marcela’s son Andrés Javier Romero Acosta was also arrested.
All three were charged with a “disappearance committed by individuals,” a charge employed when the fate of the missing person is unknown.
The case went to trial in 2023. This was a win for Brooke as only about two per cent of violent crime ends up being prosecuted in Mexico.
The Mexican government seemed to change their tune towards Brooke. They flew her down and provided her with accommodation for the duration of the trial.
The prosecution included her in their planning for the case and she even sat at their table in the courtroom for the trial.
Brooke has said that she was threatened by someone who showed up at the court several times. “I was definitely shaking in court, for sure,” she later said.
The defendants showed no signs of remorse. At one point, Marcela even turned and looked at her.
“Clearly it was threatening,” Brooke said of the look. “It was a lot of anger.… I just looked back at her, I would like to think, with sad eyes, because I’m very sad that we all found ourselves in that situation.”
All three would end up being found guilty and were sentenced to 56 years and three months in Mexican prison.
“The length of the sentences clearly indicates how seriously the judges take this crime,” said Madsen’s daughter, Brooke Mullins, noting her father is just one of more than 100,000 people currently listed as “missing” in Mexico.
“I’m sad that so many lives have been destroyed or altered because of this senseless crime. I am happy that it’s finally over and that we can start healing. It’s been a long time coming.”
“Life isn’t perfect. I’m not where I thought I would be five years ago, but I’m not angry any more.”
Brooke has said that she spent around $300,000 on flights to Mexico, legal help, informants and bribes.
Juan José Mejía, district attorney for the Jalisco state prosecutor’s office, told the Star that the 56-year-sentence for Marcela and her accomplices was “one of the highest we have ever gotten.” Convictions in similar cases usually come with 25- to 30-year sentences, he said.
He added that the convictions in Malcom’s case will set a “baseline” for prosecutors hoping to bring similar cases to a close.
“Nationally, there have not been too many sentences for the crime of ‘disappearance committed by individuals’ and it is a relatively new crime despite the current crisis of disappeared foreigners,” he said. “The sentence is going to be a national reference … that’s why we are giving it importance.”
The three defendants were also fined 483,000 Mexican pesos ($36,000) to reimburse the state for expenses incurred during the investigation.
As of March 2025, Brooke is still trying to recover a quarter of a million dollars in property and real estate that belonged to her father.
There has been a documentary made on the case called Malcom is Missing. The documentary explores how 95 per cent of violent crimes in Mexico go unpunished, and more than 100,000 people are listed as “missing” or “disappeared” in the country. It’s likely Marcela and her family would have never faced trial if not for Brooke’s years of work.
“They chose to get where they are,” she said. “But it doesn’t sit that easy with me knowing that I’ve played a part in the fact that they’ll probably spend the rest of their lives in prison. It’s just sad.”
The second case we are going to discuss is regarding Australian woman Tahnee Shanks . She has been missing in Mexico since May 2, 2022. Tahnee’s daughter was found alone near a church – thankfully unharmed.
Tahnee was originally from the Whitsundays in Queensland, Australia. Her family in Australia include her mother Leanne, and her brothers Dan and Ben. Tahnee had a third brother who passed away some years ago.
Tahnee had been traveling the world since she was 18 years old. She was 32 in 2022 when she vanished – so she was a very experienced traveler. She visited countries such as Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and the US. She decided to settle in Mexico.
Tahnee described herself as “Happy Hippy Ginger Ninja meering around the world one country at a time” on social media.
Tahnee met Jorge Luis Aguirre Astudillo in Mexico and according to media reports, they got married at some point. By 2022, she had been living in Mexico for nine years.
Tahnee lived in Merida, Yucatan in Mexico because she told her brother Dan that Cancun was getting too dangerous.
In 2024, Cancun’s homicide rate was about 64 per 100,000 residents. For the sake of comparison, the 2024 homicide rate in St. Louis, Missouri was 69.4 per 100,000 residents, a rate cementing the city as the “murder capital of the US.”
Tahnee and George had one daughter together – Adelynn. Adelynn was 2.5 years old at the time of the incident. Jorge has a criminal past – he was deported from the United States for attacking a police officer and has been subject to multiple domestic violence complaints from other women.
Tahnee and Jorge’s relationship ended when he got another woman pregnant. Tahnee told a friend that Jorge was a ‘criminal’. He was known to sell fake vacation packages. Jorge was also alleged to be a cartel member. Tahnee was financially dependent on Jorge and had to make plans to leave him.
Reports indicate that she was due to return to Australia around 6 weeks after she vanished – she was due to arrive back on June 22, 2022 with Adelynn.
Jorge had apparently agreed to sign all the paperwork allowing Tahnee to take Adalynn to Australia. Tahnee had originally planned to return to Australia earlier but her plans were delayed by the pandemic. Adelynn got her Australian citizenship and her passport was due to arrive on June 7, 2022.
Despite their marriage troubles, the three decided to go on a short vacation before Tahnee and Adalynn left for Australia. Tahnee sent her family photos of the vacation and told them that they planned to travel to Tulum.
Tahnee last spoke to her brother Dan via text message on April 30, 2022 at 9.40 pm (local time in Mexico). Tahnee said she could not video chat due to bad reception.
The family stayed in Cancun for one night at a hotel. They were seen exiting the hotel and started to travel back to their home in Merida on May 2, 2022. Their car passed through a toll booth around 20 miles/32km out of Cancun. And then for some reason, the vehicle turned around and traveled back to Cancun, using backroads. This is where Jorge’s phone last pinged.
Around 8 or so hours after their vehicle was seen at the toll booth, Adelynn was found wandering the streets of Cancun. She was alone and barefoot. People who had attended a church service at Chapel of the San Archangel found her around 8pm.
Witnesses have said that Adelynn smelled like baby soap and that she appeared to have just been bathed. She didn’t respond to any questions. She also didn’t seem frightened and she wasn’t crying.
One of the people who found Adelynn, a man named Wilbert Canto, said a man had been following the child. Wilbert had an exchange with the man and he would later say that it was Jorge.
Another witness, Carlos Gutierrez Canto, remembers a man warning him to take care as the little girl might run onto the road and get hit by a car.
When Carlos told him the child was not his he remembers the man saying: “I will go around the church to look for the (parents) and I’ll come back. Can you take care of the little girl just for a few seconds?”
The man never returned. Carlos believes this man was Jorge.
Tahnee’s phone allegedly stopped pinging around the time that Adelynn was found.
On May 2, a burned out car that matched the description of Tahnee and Jorge’s vehicle was found in Puerto Morales, 40 minutes away from Cancun. The car’s serial numbers matched that of their vehicle but someone had tried to grind the numbers off and the license plates had been removed.
Adelynn’s family in Australia were tracked down. They organized an emergency Australian passport for her. Her uncle Ben and her grandmother Leanne flew to Mexico to collect the child.
“Now we have Adelynn home and safe, we can focus 100 per cent on the search and investigation for Tahnee,” they said in a statement.
“We will not give up hope or looking for you Tahnee.”
The family spoke to three witnesses who alleged that it was Jorge who dumped Adelynn near the church. Another witness also said they saw Tahnee and she was so drugged that she ‘couldn’t keep her eyes open.’
The first theory in the case is that Jorge killed Tahnee and is on the run or in hiding.
Despite witnesses alleging to have seen Jorge at the church, State attorney-general, Oscar Montes de Oca Rosales, has ruled it out completely.
“It makes absolutely no sense,” he said.
As of April 2025, both Jorge and Tahnee remain missing. Another theory is that both of them were killed and that people who participated in the murders tried to keep Adelynn safe. They may have been murdered due to Jorge’s criminal activity.
In January 2023, a heavily armed team including members from the State Attorney-General’s Office, Investigative Police, Quintana Roo Police, the National Guard and the Secretary of National Defence searched an area of the jungle near a housing unit in southern Cancun.
It was thought that the couple’s bodies may have been taken and buried in the area.
Tahnee’s mother has spoken about the investigation to date.
‘I’m willing to go back over (to Mexico) but the consulate can’t really look after me which makes it hard because I don’t even know where to start or if they (the police) will speak to me,’ she told the Courier Mail.
‘Is it criminal or is it domestic? We really still are none the wiser.’
SOURCE LIST
https://watershedmagazine.com/features/brookes-justice
https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/police-corruption-0
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-23630-x
https://www.facebook.com/tahnee.shanks
💔 miss you Tahnee 💔