A Bellingham woman has been charged with international parental kidnapping after allegedly taking her 4-year-old son to Panama in violation of a court-ordered parenting plan. U.S. Attorney Charles Neil Floyd announced that Talisa Manuella Munoz, 32, appeared in U.S. District Court in Seattle following her extradition from Panama.
According to court documents, Munoz failed to return the child to his father on September 8, 2025, as required by the final parenting agreement. The child’s father reported the incident to law enforcement when his son was not returned after a weekend visitation, prompting an FBI investigation.
Authorities determined that Munoz had planned the abduction for several months. She reportedly provided false information on her son’s passport application, claiming she did not know the father’s whereabouts and submitting a birth certificate listing “none named” under the father’s name. Investigators say Munoz worked with family members before flying out of Seattle with her son around September 7, 2025.
The Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs and the U.S. Embassy in Panama City collaborated with Panamanian authorities to arrest and extradite Munoz back to Washington state on January 8, 2026. The child has since been reunited with his father.
Magistrate Judge Kate Vaughan ordered Munoz detained pending trial due to concerns about flight risk arising from what she described as “the extensive planning and misrepresentation that the defendant engaged in to secrete the child and take him to Panama.”
U.S. Attorney Charles Neil Floyd stated: “The charges contained in the criminal complaint are only allegations. A person is presumed innocent unless and until he or she is proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.”
International parental kidnapping carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison, while making false statements on a passport application can result in up to fifteen years’ imprisonment.
The case remains under investigation by the FBI and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Cecelia Gregson.
