On March 29, Ben Baier arrived at a UK airport expecting to collect his two young sons and fly home to Colorado. Instead, the 43-year-old father was left waiting as his ex-wife, Nishika Samaratunga, failed to appear with the children—and has not been seen since.
Samaratunga, 34, a British citizen originally from Sri Lanka, is believed to be hiding five-year-old Blaine Baier and three-year-old Nathaniel, known as Nate. The boys, both born in the United States, had been living with their father near Denver, Colorado. They travelled to the UK in March for court-mandated contact following their parents’ divorce, but Samaratunga failed to return them as ordered.
“British mother Nishika Samaratunga has been on the run in the UK for three months after abducting her two autistic sons from their American father.”
Baier and Samaratunga married in 2020, with Samaratunga moving to the US, but their relationship broke down in 2024. Samaratunga then applied to a Colorado court to relocate the children to London in August last year but returned to the UK the following month after this was refused. She made further requests to relocate the children, but a Colorado court ordered in October that Baier become their sons’ primary custodial parent. While the court ordered that the children must remain in the state, it also directed Baier to bring the children to England so they could spend time with Samaratunga, with a first visit taking place between December and January.
When Baier went to the airport to take his sons back to the US following the second visit in March, Samaratunga failed to return them, in breach of the Colorado court’s order. Both children have autism, Baier said, and such abrupt changes to their routine are incredibly damaging to their development and health. “I never believed that Nishika would abduct Blaine and Nathaniel and then conceal their whereabouts in an effort to keep them from me, uprooting them from their home in Colorado,” he said. “I’m calling for her to do the right thing and return them to me so they can return to their life as normal, and for anyone who knows where they are to help return them to their home. I can only pray for their safe return.”
The High Court in London has since issued orders against several companies to trace Samaratunga, including JP Morgan Chase, HSBC, Thames Water and the NHS, but no information has been disclosed. The High Court has allowed the publication of details of the case to help locate the children. Samaratunga has now been on the run for more than three months, with Baier’s lawyers raising concerns that the two boys do not appear to be attending school or nursery and are not receiving medical care. The father has launched High Court proceedings to try to secure his sons’ return, but their whereabouts remain unknown.