BELLINGHAM, Wash. — A press release from the Department of Justice detailed kidnapping charges filed against a Bellingham woman on Wednesday, January 14, 2026.
A 32-year-old Bellingham woman appeared late yesterday in U.S. District Court in Seattle after being extradited from Panama where she had illegally traveled with her 4-year-old son, announced U.S. Attorney Charles Neil Floyd. Talisa Manuella Munoz, failed to return the boy to his father as required by the final parenting plan. She secretly flew to Panama after using false documents to get the child a passport. Magistrate Judge Kate Vaughan ordered Munoz detained pending trial. The judge found that Munoz was a flight risk due to the extensive planning and misrepresentation that the defendant engaged in to secrete the child and take him to Panama.
According to the criminal complaint, Munoz, was supposed to return the child to his father on September 8, 2025, following a weekend visitation. When the child was not returned, the father reported to law enforcement and the FBI opened an investigation.
Law enforcement determined that months before leaving, Munoz, had falsely claimed on her son’s passport application that she had no way to find or know the father. She submitted a birth certificate that said “none named” where the father’s name should be. The investigation revealed that Talisa Manuella Munoz schemed with her family for months to take the child to Panama and flew out of Seattle on or about September 7, 2025.
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Click for more informationThe Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs (OIA) and the U.S. Embassy in Panama City worked with law enforcement in Panama to arrest and secure the extradition of Talisa Manuella Munoz. She was returned to the Western District of Washington on January 8, 2026. Her young son was reunited with his father.
International Parental Kidnapping is punishable by a maximum of three years in prison. False statement in an application for a passport is punishable by a maximum of fifteen years in prison.
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.
The case is being investigated by the FBI. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Cecelia Gregson.
– US Attorney’s Office, Western District of Washington (January 15, 2026)
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