Jaimes Tin Aung knew exactly what his son was doing. He knew Aaron had taken his 2-year-old granddaughter across the border into Mexico in violation of a court order. He knew authorities were searching for them.
And he helped anyway, using coded messages to warn his son about the FBI investigation and advising him on how to stay hidden.
Friday, a federal judge convicted both men, along with Aaron’s girlfriend Nadia Erika Cole, of international parental kidnapping in a case that saw a dozen law enforcement agencies across two countries work for more than a month to bring a toddler home.
The scheme began May 29, 2024, with what should have been a routine custody exchange in Pullman. Aaron Aung had visitation rights with his daughter. He was supposed to return her to the child’s mother after his visit.
He didn’t.
Instead, Aaron retrieved a vehicle belonging to his father and drove to Tacoma, where Cole was waiting at a hotel.
Cole’s path to that hotel tells its own story. Earlier that day, she’d been at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport standing in line for an international flight. Then she abruptly left the line, abandoning her phone and personal belongings.
She knew authorities could track her phone. Leaving it behind was the first step in disappearing.
Cole took a taxi to a Tacoma hotel and waited for Aaron to arrive with the toddler. From there, the three of them drove south toward the Mexican border.
On June 1, 2024, they crossed into Mexico.
For the next month, the child’s mother had no contact with her daughter. She didn’t know where the 2-year-old was. She didn’t know if she was safe. She just knew her child was gone.
Law enforcement didn’t know much more. Aaron and Cole had successfully vanished with the toddler somewhere in Mexico, staying off the grid while agencies on both sides of the border searched.
During those weeks, Jaimes Aung stayed in contact with his son using coded language designed to avoid detection. He discussed plans. He warned Aaron about the FBI closing in. He advised his son on how to avoid being caught.
The grandfather wasn’t just aware his son had kidnapped a child in violation of a court order. He was actively helping him evade arrest.
The case broke open July 4, 2024, when Mexican law enforcement made contact with the couple. Authorities deported Cole that day. A few days later, they arrested Aaron on an outstanding warrant from Whitman County, Washington.
Finally, after more than a month, the toddler was reunited with her mother.
Cole pleaded guilty to international parental kidnapping before the case went to trial. The Aungs, father and son, took their chances before U.S. District Judge Thomas O. Rice in a bench trial.
The judge found them guilty of International Parental Kidnapping and Conspiracy to Commit International Parental Kidnapping.
“These three defendants stole a child from her lawful parent and then tried to hide her beyond the borders of the United States,” said W. Mike Herrington, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Seattle Field Office. “Despite their efforts to evade the search, a dozen law enforcement agencies from multiple jurisdictions worked relentlessly to bring the missing child home.”
That relentless work involved the FBI, police departments in Moscow, Idaho, and Pullman, Washington; U.S. Customs and Border Protection; Port of Seattle Police Department; sheriff’s offices in Latah County, Idaho, and Whitman County, Washington; and law enforcement agencies in Nogales, Arizona, and Nogales, Mexico.
All three defendants face sentencing March 25, 2026. Cole’s hearing is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. The Aungs will be sentenced at 11:30 a.m.
The timeline reveals how quickly a custody dispute can escalate into an international incident. May 29, the custody exchange. June 1, they’re in Mexico. July 4, the case breaks. The entire kidnapping lasted just over a month, but that month must have felt like a lifetime to a mother who didn’t know where her child was.
Cole’s recent graduation from Washington State University means she threw away her future for a man who was willing to steal his own child. A young woman from Port Angeles with a college degree now has a federal kidnapping conviction that will follow her forever.
The coded messages between grandfather and son show this wasn’t an impulsive decision made in the heat of a custody battle. This was planned, coordinated, and sustained with help from family members who knew exactly what they were doing.
The Idaho court order that Aaron violated wasn’t a suggestion. It was a legally binding determination about where that child belonged. Disagreeing with a custody arrangement doesn’t give anyone the right to take a child to another country.
A 2-year-old spent a month in Mexico separated from her mother because three adults decided a court order didn’t apply to them. She’s safe now. But the trauma of that separation doesn’t disappear just because she’s home.
