A 2-year-old Palouse girl, who went missing in early June, was located this past weekend at a roadside checkpoint near Santa Ana, Mexico, according to a news release from the Pullman Police Department, and has been returned to U.S. authorities.
Seraya Aung Harmon was found with her father, Aaron Aung, and his fiancée, Nadia Cole, according to the news release, and both of them were detained by Mexican authorities. Seraya has been in the care of Arizona Child Protective Services, according to the news release.
Aaron Aung is currently being held in the Santa Cruz County Detention Center in Nogales, Ariz., awaiting extradition to Whitman County on an outstanding warrant on a charge of first-degree custodial interference, according to the news release. Nadia Cole was deported back to the United States.
According to the news release, Aaron Aung, Seraya Aung Harmon and Nadia Cole were handed over to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The FBI coordinated the operation in collaboration with the National Institute of Migration, Mexican State Police, the Nogales Police Department, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Aaron Aung failed to return Seraya to her mother’s custody in Pullman on June 3. Authorities suspected Aung and Cole, who had been reported missing to the Port of Seattle Police Department at the end of May, according to the news release, of traveling together with the toddler. The whereabouts of the three were unknown until their discovery in Mexico.
