A California dad has launched an increasingly desperate search for his 4-year old autistic son after he claims his ex-wife abducted the boy to a remote Central Asian capital — and foreign officials have dragged their feet in forcing the internationally-wanted mom to turn over the vulnerable boy.
Guillaume Garreau, 40, says he’s initiated a hunger strike outside the prosecutor’s office in Almaty, Kazakhstan in a last-ditch plea for local authorities to enforce court orders to recover his 4-year-old son Maximilien.
The hunger strike is the latest chapter in a hellish 28-month saga for the Bay Area tech professional, who says he hasn’t seen his son in years after a lenient judge allowed his ex-wife, Sana Onayeva, to take the boy overseas even after she was found to be abusive.
Onayeva had suspiciously wired her brother in Kazhakstan $220,000 prior to the alleged abduction but the judge, former public defender Michelle Tong, allowed her to travel with the boy anyway over Garreau’s strong objections in court.
Onayeva and the toddler never returned.
The heartbroken father says he’s stationed outside the government building in Almaty until he gets answers on the whereabouts of his son, whom he hasn’t seen since March 2024.
“I am doing this not because I want to, but because I am a parent who has been left with no other way to make the authorities hear that my child is still missing and that every day without action is another day of suffering for me and for him,” Garreau said in an email.
Garreau, 40, and Onayeva, 46, married in 2020 and welcomed Maximilien the following year, but the marriage soon unraveled.
Garreau alleged that Onayeva, a former adjust professor at University of San Francisco according to a social media profile, became verbally and physically abusive towards him and he filed for separation in February 2023.
A family court found that Onayeva had committed domestic abuse before Tong was assigned to the case, according to the San Francisco Standard.
Garreau’s attorneys argued in court that she shouldn’t be allowed to travel home with the boy, particularly given Kazakhstan’s lack of a Hague Abduction Convention treaty that allows authorities to more easily recover missing children.
A felony warrant for kidnapping was issued on March 30, 2024, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
The French-American dad has spent more than $250,000 trying to compel authorities in the U.S., France and Kazakhstan to help locate his son, who suffers from autism that he fears has gone untreated.
Authorities found the boy last month, Garreau claimed, but the 4-year-old suffered an “acute distress episode” requiring medical treatment, and he and his mother once again “disappeared.”
Kazakh courts have recognized the abduction and ordered Maximilien’s return to California effective February 2025, he said.
However, the order has not been enforced although authorities briefly located the boy, he said.
“The central issue is immediate: if authorities know where the child is, why has there been no swift, transparent action to secure his safety and enforce the law?” Garreau said.
“This is no longer just a custody dispute. It is a case raising urgent questions about child welfare, law enforcement credibility, and possible obstruction of a lawful process,” Garreau said.
“A vulnerable child has already shown visible signs of extreme distress in the middle of a chaotic and mishandled intervention. Every additional delay increases the risk to the child’s physical and psychological well-being.”
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