Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Trans Mom Kidnapped Son to Get Gender Surgery: FBI

Episode Date: April 24, 2026

Rose Inessa-Ethington is a transgender woman who is charged with international parental kidnapping and aiding and abetting. Rose, and her wife, Blue Inessa-Ethington, are accused of kidnapping Rose's 10-year-old child and taking the biological male to Cuba. FBI agents said there were concerns the Inessa-Ethingtons took the child to Cuba for gender reassignment surgery prior to puberty. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy goes through the startling allegations and the rescue of the child in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest:Neama Rahmani https://www.instagram.com/neamarahmani/CRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This is not your typical case, a child allegedly kidnapped by their own parent. And the FBI says this trip was for gender reassignment surgery. I've got the documents. And what they reveal, it's hard to believe. I'm Ann Janette Levy, and this is crime fix. You know, it's not every day that I tell you about a kidnapping case. And this one is different for sure. It involves a 10-year-old child, the child's transgender mother.

claims that the child was kidnapped and taken to Cuba for gender reassignment surgery. There are a lot of twists and turns with this, so just follow along with me. Rose Anessa Ethington is a transgender woman who shares custody of her 10-year-old child with her ex-wife. Now, that child is a biological male, but the FBI says if you talk to the child, the child says they identify as a female. More on that shortly. Rose Anessa Ethington is married to a woman named Blue Anessa Ethington.

A Facebook post states that Rose and Blue tied the knot on May 11th, 2025, almost a year ago. The FBI says on March 28th of this year, Rose Blue and Rose's 10-year-old, along with Blue's three-year-old child, were supposed to arrive at a motel in Calgary, Alberta, in Canada for a planned camping trip. A criminal complaint said the 10-year-old told his mother, by phone that they had arrived in Canada, but the FBI says the group never showed up at the motel, and the mother couldn't reach any of them by phone. This was concerning to say the very least, and days later, on April 3rd, the FBI says the 10-year-old was not returned to the mother in Utah, per the custody agreement. Something was very, very wrong. The FBI says they discovered there was never a camping trip to Canada. There was an entirely different type of trip planned.

The criminal complaint states on March 29, 26, at approximately 1545 hours, the group, including minor victim one, crossed the U.S. Canada border by foot from Blaine, Washington, into Surrey, British Columbia via the Douglas Peace Arch Port of Entry Pedestrian Crossing. On March 29, 26, the group, including Minor Victim One, took Air Canada Flight 996 from Vancouver, British Colombia in Canada, which departed at approximately 1650 hours to Mexico City, Mexico, which landed at approximately 2315 hours. Mexican immigration authorities confirmed their arrival in Mexico City, utilizing their U.S. passports. Then on April 1st, the FBI says the group took a flight from Mexico to Havana, Cuba. And the reason for this trip, which was believed to be a

One way with no return was startling. The complaint states, interviews of minor victim one's family members provided significant concerns for minor victim one's well-being, as minor victim one was born a male. However, identifies as a female child, which is largely believed to be due to manipulation by Rose Anessa Ethington. Concerns exists that minor victim one was transported to Cuba for gender reassignment surgery prior to puberty. So just in case you thought you didn't hear me right, this child is just 10 years old. And the FBI said there were really very real concerns here that Rose and Nessa Ethington had kidnapped her child. So gender reassignment surgery could be performed in Cuba. And you might be wondering why Cuba? Well, Cuba has a really good health care system. It's a public health care system that is inclusive when it comes to the LGBTQ community.

Gender reassignment surgeries are offered for adults, but not minors. And when those surgeries are performed for adults, they come with very strict guidelines. An FBI agent wrote in a complaint, searches of Rose Annessa Ethington and Blue Anessa Ethington's residence revealed numerous to-do lists, including packing lists and notes, including learn Spanish, and information on flights to Canada, Mexico, and Cuba. Other notes were located, which stated, get haircuts. 10K withdraw, cash to have. 10K emergency, leave with Nikki.

Confirm Cuba limit, 100 pound, 50 pound, one bag, two bags. Write out and start what we can for tourist visa. Empty USU Bank. An additional note was located regarding putting items in storage and buying a combination lock. Recovered notes include instruction from a mental health therapist located in Washington, D.C., including instruction to send the therapist the $10,000 and instructions on gender-affirming medical care for children. Now, looking at this, combined with the fact that an FBI agent says Rose quit her job and Blue took time off and didn't return to work on April 1st as expected,

the feds believed the women had no plans to return to the United States. Back in 2021, Blue actually started a go-fund me for Rose, the title, Help a Trans Mother, Keep Custody of her child. It featured a photo of Rose. Blue wrote, Rose is a cornerstone of the LGBTQ plus community and a wonderful mother. Last week, Rose's ex relocated several counties away negatively impacting Rose's parent time with the child. Anyone who has spent time with Rose and the child sees how much care and thought she puts into parenting. her gender open child. The child does exceptionally well for their age because of how Rose is raising them. Rose helps find safe and inclusive medical providers and schools for the child in addition to

organizing appointments buying clothes and ensuring good nutrition. She even trains providers and teachers to make sure the child has the best chances of not being discriminated against. While her ex is not making an issue of Rose's gender, as a trans woman, Rose is at a disadvantage against her Sizhet ex-wife. Rose also lacks the family resources and connections to face this litigation on her own. Rose has put 15 years into advocating for the LGBTQ community. She's organized marches and rallies, set up support groups, lobbied lawmakers, written articles, taught diversity trainings, and help distribute resources to community members. She has helped us so much. We, her chosen family, are asking the community to help return the

favor. Rose scrambled to find an LGBTQ plus friendly lawyer to quickly file an injunction to keep the child safe and stable throughout this process. The attorney has agreed to take her case at a discounted rate and payment plan for the retainer. But Rose does not qualify for free legal aid, and we could not find any grants for this situation. Rose was able to pull savings for the first half of the retainer. She needs help covering the rest of the retainer in the next week. She also needs help covering the large legal fees that will most likely be necessary to maintain her status as an equal co-parent. Please help us give back to this amazing woman who has already done so much for us and who is going through such a difficult time. Now, since 2021, that fundraiser has raised a little

more than $9,000. There's also a section here where Blue wrote about how donors could help. It includes things like, donate what you can now, directly call, text her private message. your friends one on one asking them to help by donating or contacting others. You could say something like, I donated X number of dollars to help a trans woman fighting a custody battle. Can you donate or ask someone else to? Put a reminder in your calendar to donate on next payday. Put a recurring reminder in your calendar to donate monthly as Rose will be billed monthly for the law firm's work. So it appears custody has been an issue with Rose and her ex. Going back, five years, Rose and Blue are now in federal custody in Virginia.

The DOJ actually flew a plane to Cuba to pick up the child and the two women after Cuban law enforcement detained them. Okay, so to break down this case, which I'm still, you know, it's just boggling my mind. I want to bring in Nima Romani. He's a former federal prosecutor, so he knows everything for the most part about federal law and crime. and all of that good stuff. So Nima, thanks so much for joining me. Did you have to do a double take like I did when you first read this headline and looked at the story? I did, and Jeanette. And obviously, you know, parents, especially when they're going through a separation or custody dispute, kidnapping their kid and taking them out of the country, that's a tale as old as time. But obviously,

in this particular case, you have a young child and there's at least the argument or the allegation that the kidnapping wasn't just to take the kid away from the other parent, but to have a gender surgery, which of course is a very big deal. So definitely attention grabbing headline there. Yeah. You know, we have heard of these cases. And most, I would think most kidnappings are by people who know the person. I mean, when you hear about abductions and stuff, it's not like the movies where people get abducted for ransom and stuff like that. I mean, wouldn't you say that most kidnapping cases are custodial cases? That's absolutely right. You know, for someone to be snatched off the street and be thrown into a white van, that is not common at all. Most likely, it is someone that knows

the child. And more often than not, it's a relative that wants custody of the child. So these types of cases are so common. There's a very specific federal statute. entitled international parental kidnapping because it happens so often. Wow. And that is so disturbing. And we've seen these types of cases crop up in the news in the past where a parent does take a child to another country. But this is next level. Because what is alleged in the complaint in this case, it goes into some pretty significant potential psychological manipulation because Rose, the transgender mother who was the father, you know, when the child was born, I guess, and when Rose was married to Rose's ex-wife,

you know, they had a biological male for a child. And now family members are being interviewed. and even a family member of roses told the New York Times, yeah, like, I would be supportive of this if I thought that the child was doing this of, you know, his free will. But they're saying Rose, they believe Rose was manipulating the child, this boy into thinking, I'm a girl or I identify as a girl. And that is very disturbing because it's one of the same. thing to be like, I, you know, I'm trans and I think I'm trans and that, you know, you go through some layers there. But this is potential like manipulation of a child for what reason I don't understand.

No, that's absolutely right. And I mean, the reason this is such a big deal. I mean, I'll just start with the law itself and then I'll go into the transgender issues. But you can't even get a passport for a minor unless both parents are physically present. You know, any parent who's traveled with their minor child will know that. So, or it's a special notarized form. I mean, you have to give consent because this is such a big deal. Now, as far as the law itself is concerned,

it doesn't matter the purpose for the trip, as long as you're taking the child abroad in violation of a custody agreement or other parental rights. I mean, that's enough. But obviously, I'm not naive. The big issue here is the transgender issue. And I'm sure people in the comments

are gonna be talking about transgender rights and transgender issues. That is a hot button, political issue. I'm sure this video, like all your videos, and Jeanette's going to get a lot of views and a lot of comments. So let's talk about it. And I think you're right. There is a huge difference, regardless of how you feel, if the child identifies with a different gender, right? And, you know, for instance, my wife, I gotta give her a shout out. She represents foster kids.

And, you know, sometimes there's a disagreement between the biological parents or the step parents or the foster home. And the courts have to decide whether to allow medical treatment that the minor child wants. But the standard in all these cases is really the best interest of the child, right? That's in family court, foster kids. If it's not in the best interest of the child and the parent is pushing his or her or their own agenda on the child, that is a huge problem. That's bad parenting. That's unlawful. And I'm sure lots of people who are watching who our parents are going to be very upset, as am I, if that's indeed true. I mean, if that is true, and that is the allegation being made here by the family members to the feds,

and the feds seem to believe it because they put it in a complaint. That's very disturbing. I mean, I think back to Caitlin Jenner, when Caitlin Jenner was transitioning and did the big interview and was still Bruce Jenner, and I remember Caitlin, Bruce, saying ever since I was a little kid, I just felt different and I felt this way and I just kind of kept it to myself and things of that nature. You know, it was a different time. But that doesn't sound like what was going on here. You know, Rose, the father of this child obviously transitioned and believes, feels that she is transgender. This is a 10 year old. A 10 year old,

you know, if your 10 year old is coming to you and feels like they're, they identify as a girl, I mean, you would take your child to their primary care doctor. And then the primary care doctor would probably refer you to like a psychologist who specializes in this type of stuff. And there are clinics for these types of things because sometimes kids don't even know, they don't always know if what they're feeling is real or not. I mean, this would take some extensive evaluation. Oh, no question. And obviously a 10 year old, is probably not in the position to make a decision for life-altering surgery. Absolutely not.

That is maybe not appropriate down the road at some point, but 10 years old, anyone who's at a child, I mean, 10-year-old, you're still in elementary school. I mean, how does that make any sense whatsoever to, even if the child does want it to allow it at this point in his or her, their life, it does not make any sense under the law. under any kind of parenting norm. Obviously, I'm all for folks to live their life the way they seek best, but a 10-year-old should not be making these types of decisions. Absolutely not. Absolutely not.

And what's, I want to drill down on a couple of things here, NEMA. I want to go back to the passport issue. You said that they would have to get a passport. There would have to be a notary kind of both parents would have to sign off on that. It makes me wonder, was this whole camping trip to Canada, just a ruse. And are they going to later say that possibly that Rose got the ex-wife to sign off on getting the passport for the camping trip so that they could take the child to Canada in order to fly to Mexico and then later Havana? I mean, that's like, that's even, that's next level.

Yeah, that's absolutely right. So, yeah, the way minor passports work is you have to go in person with the minor child. typically speaking both parents have to be physically present to get that passport and if one parent is unable to be present there's a form the State Department has that has to be notarized that identifies the reason why the other parent is not present in consenting to the issuance of a passport unlike adult passports minor passports are only valid for five years instead of ten so there's a completely different system in place because of this very

specific issue, not the transgender issue, but parents taking their kids, leaving the country, and we know how difficult it is to get a child back if they're in another country. And frankly, I'm very happy, but also pleasantly surprised that Cuba really cooperated in this, because there are some countries that absolutely would not. I mean, setting aside the transgender issue, once your child is gone, good luck getting them back. Right. And that's another point I wanted to bring up with you because I don't look at Cuba in the United States is exactly being like, you know, best buddies. I know you can now, you know, under certain circumstances, travel there and stuff like that. But the fact that Cuba, you know, the Cuban authorities

tracked them down. They found Rose and Blue and the children. They got the child. The child, thank God, is reunited with his mother, his biological mother. a magistrate granted exclusive custody of this child to the mother. But they found the child. So were you surprised to see that Cuba was so willing to cooperate with the United States on this issue? And maybe it's because, oh, my God, there's a child possibly in danger who's going to undergo a procedure that maybe shouldn't be undergoing this procedure. Maybe they saw this as something that could turn into a really sticky international incident. And no question.

I'm old enough to remember the Alien Gonzalez. So I'm very, very happy that the Cuban authorities, they stepped in, law enforcement there. And look, these things, they're not easy. It's not just law enforcement. There's the State Department that has to get involved at a high level. So there's diplomats. The fact that they got involved in this case, returned the child. I think it's very important.

So maybe just maybe the fact that. the parents didn't want to, or at least one of the parents did want the child to undergo this surgery. Maybe that is what prompted them to take action in this case. Maybe they would not have if it were another kidnapping type case without the surgery. But whatever the reason, I'm very happy and again pleasantly surprised that given the very icy diplomatic relationship between Cuba and the United States, that the authorities there did help reunite this child. with their mother. And you know something else just came to mind for me, Nima.

I've been reading a lot about how Cuba is very inclusive when it comes to LGBTQ plus rights. And they're very, you know, they have a lot of trans health care initiatives. And they're very open to this. And they probably don't want that kind of press either or don't want. this because they don't allow gender reassignment surgery for minors. But if these people were willing to go there, because the allegation is that they wanted this surgery performed on this child before puberty, which is really just mind-boggling to me, they wanted it done before puberty.

I mean, can you imagine the outrage toward that country had this actually happened to this child and it would have been against the norms and the laws in Cuba had they been able to find somebody some doctor down there to do this. Oh, it would be an international incident. Not just us talking about it on law and crime. You probably have the president talking about it on truth social and other platforms. I mean, this would be a big deal. The law is there to protect children. I mean, they're the most important and most vulnerable members of our society. And when their parents are putting them in harm's way. I mean, that's something where law enforcement needs to step in and intervene. Now, you raised a good question. Yeah, that's my understanding as well, certainly not an expert in

Cuban law. My understanding is that it is unlawful to perform any type of gender affirming surgery on a minor in Cuba. So hopefully they didn't find some butcher online who was willing to do this to a child. I would hope that the doctors in Cuba, which reportedly, by the way, has very good medical care, notwithstanding the economic straits that the people are in, I think they have some of the best health care in the Western Hemisphere. I would hope that a physician there would not consider performing this surgery, and there wasn't some sort of arrangement in advance that prompted the family to bring this young child to Cuba. Yeah, let's hope not. I mean, there was talk of, you know, we need $10,000 for this and we need $10,000 for that. According to the notes that were found, you know, the little notes left at the home in Utah. But, yeah, you grease enough, if you grease palms, things can happen that aren't necessarily legal.

We all know that. So, Nima, do you see, they're held right now, blue and rose are held right now on the, international kidnapping, international parental kidnapping and aiding and abetting charges. Do you see potentially other federal charges being added here as this investigation progresses? Because really, this is a pretty new investigation. And I say that because it really started in earnest around, I guess, late March, early April. So do you think that there is room for additional charges? know if there's some type of conspiracy charge that could be added.

Yeah, certainly a conspiracy could add some time. Obviously, you have individuals who are conspiring to do something unlawful. Obviously, there's potential state charges as well. There in Utah, a conservative jurisdiction, I can not imagine that prosecutors anywhere would like a kidnapping, like this, much less a kidnapping for this reason. The statute itself has a three-year max, I believe. So this is the type of case where they're going to get some federal prison time. regardless of whether it's just the international parental kidnapping charge or additional charges like conspiracy and others and on state charges potentially as well.

Well, we will keep an eye on this case. And again, thank goodness that 10-year-old is safe and back with Biomomom because really the safety of the child is what's paramount here. Numer Romani, thank you so much. Thank you, Anjanan. You're absolutely right. Just closing thought is. Thank God the child is okay. We cover so many really sad cases here.

on law and crime and at least this one was a near miss and hopefully a happy ending. Yes, most certainly. And I hope that child is getting the psychological care that the child needs, whether that child is truly transgender or not. You know, we're open to everything here. Thank you so much, Neema. I appreciate it. Thanks, Angelette Talks him.

A federal judge ordered that Rose and Blue Anessa Ethington be detained. they will be returned to Utah to face these federal charges there. I reached out to the lawyer representing the 10-year-old child's mother. At the time of this recording, I have not yet heard back from her. We'll keep an eye on this case and let you know what happens. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Ann Janette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me.

Remember, you can always watch us on YouTube, and you can also watch and listen to us on Spotify. So check us out there. I'll see you back here next time.