Queensland mum Tahnee Shanks missing in Cancun as police search Mexican jungle for body

A search in the Mexican jungle for an Australian mother who has been missing for nearly a year along with her estranged husband has turned up no trace of the couple.

Tahnee Shanks, 32, was last seen on May 2 last year checking out of the family hotel in Cancun with husband Jorge Luis Aguirre Astudillo and now three-year-old daughter Adelynn.

Little Adelynn was later found alone and barefoot outside a church in Cancún around 9 p.m. that day with no sign of her parents.

While Adelynn’s uncle Daniel and grandmother Leanne Shanks immediately flew from Queensland to pick up Adelynn, who now lives with Daniel and his wife, there is no sign of her parents.

In January, a heavily armed team consisting of members of the State Attorney’s Office, Investigative Police, Quintana Roo Police, National Guard and Secretary of National Defense searched an area in the jungle near a residential unit in southern Cancún.

They believed the couple’s bodies had been brought there and buried in clandestine graves.

A search for the Australian mother (right) in a jungle area in Cancun proved unsuccessful

A heavily armed team searched a stretch of jungle in Cancún for the bodies of Ms. Shanks and her husband in January, but found no trace of them.

Several acres of the area were searched, which also included cadaver dogs, but no trace of the couple was found, a Mexican newspaper reported.

The search came after authorities may have received ‘new evidence’ regarding their disappearance, suspecting that Ms Shanks and Mr Aguirre Astudillo may have been taken to the jungle area and murdered.

The white car they were in was reportedly parked outside a house for 10 hours before disappearing.

The Mexican publication Por Esto! said sources close to the investigation believed there may be other bodies of victims of crime groups buried in the area.

At the time of Ms Shanks’ disappearance, authorities said they were investigating two theories.

The first is that there was a domestic violence incident and that Mr. Aguirre Astudillo is on the run or in hiding.

Tahnee Shanks, 32, was last seen on May 2 last year checking out of the family hotel in Cancun with husband Jorge Astudillo and now three-year-old daughter, Adelynn

In January, a heavily armed team consisting of members of the State Attorney’s Office, Investigative Police, Quintana Roo Police, National Guard and Secretary of Defense searched a section of jungle near a housing unit in southern Cancun.

The alternative theory is that Mr. Aguirre Astudillo was involved in criminal activity related to Mexico’s notorious drug cartels and that the disappearance is revenge.

The family had traveled from their home in Merida to the tourist hotspot of Cancun on May 1 and checked out of their hotel the following day.

Their white 4WD was spotted on turnpike cameras just before noon on their way back to Merida before making an abrupt U-turn.

A similar car was later found burnt out and believed to be the car the family was traveling in.

But reports suggest that the car may have been linked to another kidnapping, and that the car the family was traveling in has since been bought by another driver unrelated to Ms Shanks’ disappearance.

Leanne Shanks now hopes that CCTV, taken outside the church where Adelynn was left, can find out what happened to her daughter.

She said she was recently given permission to view the footage, with someone from a missing persons organization claiming to have seen Mr. Aguirre Astudillo and one of his relatives outside the church.

The pair’s white ute was captured leaving a Cancun hotel on the morning of May 2. They were traveling 12 miles toward Merida when the ute suddenly made a U-turn and headed back to Cancun, before taking a detour off the highway

Texts from Mrs. Shanks to a friend show her describing the breakdown of her marriage

“I’m willing to go back (to Mexico) but the consulate can’t really take care of me, which makes it difficult because I don’t even know where to start and if they (the police) want to talk to me,” she told the Courier Mail.

“Is it criminal or is it domestic?” We’re really still none the wiser.’

Ms Shanks was due to return to Australia on June 22 last year, just weeks after going missing.

Text messages between her and a friend revealed that she expressed the break of her relationship with Mr. Aguirre Astudillo.

While she said he wasn’t physically abusive, she “didn’t want” to wait for the emotional abuse and anger to turn violent.

In another WhatsApp exchange, she revealed that she locked herself in her daughter’s bedroom in an attempt to escape her husband’s wrath when he tried to kick her out of the family home.

The couple recently split after Ms Shanks found out he was having an affair and booked a flight to return to Queensland with Adelynn.

Ms. Shank’s mother Leanne (left) and brother Dan (right) were rushing to Mexico to pick up Adelynn when she was found in the street. Adelynn now lives with them