Pullman Father Indicted; Accused of Kidnapping, Fleeing to Mexico

An alleged kidnapper was arraigned in federal court on Friday.

21-year-old Aaron Aung, of Pullman, is charged with one count of international parental kidnapping. If convicted, he may go to prison for as many as three years.

Aung is accused of reneging on a custody exchange of his two-year-old daughter, Seraya Aung Harmon - and absconding to Mexico with the child in tow. This according to Vanessa R. Waldref, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington.

Neither Aung nor the toddler materialized for a scheduled custody exchange at the Pullman police station on June 3. By that point, both father and child had reportedly been out of the country for several days.

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The FBI, working in tandem with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, obtained photos of a vehicle belonging to Aung crossing into Mexico at the port of entry in Andrade, California.

On July 4, Mexican officials at last confirmed Aung Harmon's whereabouts. She was in Mexico with Aung and his fiancée, Nadia Cole, a recent graduate of Washington State University. It seems that Cole was swiftly deported to the United States.

Aung and the two-year-old stayed behind until July 7, when Mexican authorities caught up to them in the border town of Nogales. It was then that deportation proceedings began. Aung and his daughter were brought to Arizona and remanded into CBP custody.

By then a felony warrant out of Whitman County had been issued for Aung's arrest: first-degree custodial interference.

An FBI investigation is ongoing. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Rebecca Perez and Michael J. Ellis are the attending prosecutors in this case.