Former Pitt researcher admits to abducting daughter
An Austrian national formerly from Greenfield who disappeared with her daughter in 2016 and fled to Canada admitted her crime Wednesday and will be deported.
Marike Vuga, 48, a former research assistant professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, pleaded guilty in federal court to a count of international kidnapping, after which U.S. District Judge Cathy Bissoon sentenced her to time served.
She has been in custody for nearly two years since her arrest in Ottawa in April 2016.
She will be turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for removal from the U.S. to Austria.
The case stemmed from a divorce and custody arrangement between Vuga and her ex-husband, Austrian national Louis Vuga, formerly of Castle Shannon, involving their daughter Lina.
On March 16, 2016, when the girl was 9, Mr. Vuga went to pick her up at school and discovered she was missing.
Allegheny County Police put out a parental abduction notice in the media a few days later and contacted ICE for help on the suspicion that Vuga would flee the country.
Federal authorities learned she had crossed the border at New Brunswick on March 16 with the help of another adult who let Lina use her own daughter’s birth certificate, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Carolyn Bloch. The accomplice was not charged.
Vuga and Lina traveled to Ottawa, where they checked into Angela’s Bed and Breakfast about a mile from the U.S. embassy. After several weeks there, the manager grew suspicious of her, went online to check her out, discovered she was wanted in Pittsburgh and contacted Ottawa police.
Authorities arrested her April 8, after which she was extradited to Pittsburgh and held in the Allegheny County Jail.
“I take full responsibility for my actions,” Vuga told the judge. “I would like to say I’m sorry.”
Lina is living with her father in Washington, D.C.