Exclusive | California dad whose autistic son was abducted to Kazakhstan launches hunger strike as he fights for return

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...