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International Mom-Hunt
December 29, 2006 permalink
A woman used in vitro fertilization to initiate a pregnancy. When groggy after birth, she consented to an adoption, and revoked consent promptly on regaining her faculties. The adoption went through anyway, and she lost her kids. She has now taken them to the world's worst refuge, Canada.
When you see a mother caring for two toddlers, call the police!
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Abducted twins taken to Canada
Police are searching for 17-month-old twins, who have been reported missing in North Carolina. Tyler and Holly, went out with their biological mother near Durham and never returned.
CREDIT: Courtesy: www.missingkids.com
Police are searching for 17-month-old twins, who have been reported missing in North Carolina. They were last seen with their mother Allison Quets, 49, had the twins through in vitro fertilization and was entitled to monthly visits.
CREDIT: Courtesy: www.missingkids.comRALEIGH, North Carolina -- The RCMP and the FBI are now involved in the search for a North Carolina woman.
She's believed to have taken the twin toddlers she had given up for adoption and fled with them to Canada.
Authorities say 49-year-old Allison Lee Quets had visitation rights as a part of a custody agreement with the adoptive parents.
The custody order allowed her to take the children from their adoptive home from December 22nd to the 24th, but she never returned.
The F-B-I says an investigation indicates Quets crossed the Canadian border with the twins on December 23rd.
It's not known where she's alleged to have entered Canada.
A warrant for her arrest was issued Wednesday on federal charges of international parental kidnapping.
The children, 17-month-old Tyler and Holly Needham, lived in the Raleigh suburb of Apex with their adoptive parents, Denise and Kevin Needham.
According to Quets's sister, the woman met the Needhams through a friend, and had a change of heart with hours of agreeing to the adoption.
She apparently begged to have her children back, but the Needhams refused.
Child Find Canada is also reportedly involved in the search.
Source: Global TV
Addendum: Police found the mom and twins in Ottawa.
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U.S. woman wanted in abduction arrested in Ottawa
OTTAWA -- Ottawa police have arrested an American woman being sought on a Canada-wide warrant for allegedly abducting her biological toddlers, who she had put up for adoption after their birth.
Allison Lee Quets, 49, a Floridian who had been living in North Carolina to be near the 18-month-old twins, was arrested Friday night at a Centretown residence, police said in a release.
The two children, Tyler and Holly Needham, were with her and are now in custody of the Children's Aid Society.
Ms. Quets was to appear in court Saturday. Ms. Quets was supposed to return the two to their adoptive parents, Kevin and Denise Needham of Apex, North Carolina, on Dec. 24, after a two-day court-ordered visit.
Source: Ottawa Citizen
Addendum: Two further articles give the circumstances of the difficult pregnancy and birth that gave rise to the adoption consent, quickly revoked. The legal system was eager to exploit the mother's troubles by taking her money, not so eager to correct the error by returning her children.
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Mother Accused of Kidnapping Twins Had 'Given Up'
Created: Monday, 01 Jan 2007, 10:45 AM EST
Kidnapping Graphic (FOX8 Creative Services)RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- A biological mother accused of kidnapping her 17-month-old twins from their adoptive parents before they were found in Canada last week had reached a breaking point after struggling to get them back through the court system in Florida, her sister said.
"She's not a crazy, unstable person," said Gail Quets, whose sister, Allison Lee Quets, 49, was arrested in Canada on Friday. "She's a well-meaning, upright citizen who was driven to the brink. I think she must have given up and felt she couldn't get justice in the state of Florida.
"I think she thought this was a last-ditch effort to save her children."
Allison Lee Quets and the twins were found Friday night when police in Ottawa, Canada, acted on a tip, the FBI said in a statement early Saturday. The toddlers, Tyler Lee and Holly Ann Needham, were placed in the custody of Canadian Social Services.
Quets could face federal charges of international parental kidnapping.
A custody agreement allowed Quets to take the children for a brief visit Dec. 22-24, but authorities said she never returned them. The FBI said an investigation indicated Quets crossed the Canadian border with the twins Dec. 23.
The children lived in the Raleigh suburb of Apex with their adoptive parents, Denise and Kevin Needham, who could not be reached for comment. Quets lived in Orlando, Fla., but kept an apartment in Durham so she could see the twins while she appealed the adoption.
Officials with the FBI Victim Witness program were arranging for the adoptive parents to travel to Canada to be with their children.
Allison Quets spent five days last week tucked away with the twins at a bed and breakfast in Kingston, Ontario.
Her sister said Saturday from her Kentucky home that Quets probably thought she was doing the right thing for the children, adding that she had been fighting for the twins since just hours after she gave them up.
Allison Quets was married once for about 15 years, but the marriage ended about a decade ago, Gail Quets said. She has no other children and the father of the twins is a sperm donor.
Quets, who conceived the twins through in-vitro fertilization, became weak during her pregnancy from hyperemesis, a severe form of nausea and vomiting. She was fatigued and disoriented and gave her children up for adoption just weeks after they were born, Gail Quets said, adding that her sister almost immediately changed her mind and attempted to get them back.
"She really is a smart and competent person," Gail Quets said. "She was so disoriented by the disease she suffered during pregnancy, she just wasn't her usual, competent self."
She had the children just long enough to give them their names.
The adoption is not yet final because of Quet's appeal, which is why she had visitation rights.
Custody and parental rights issues will be determined by authorities in Florida, the FBI said in a news release.
Adoption experts say Quets has likely hurt her case for reclaiming her children.
"It's getting a lot of attention because it is rare," said Adam Pertman, executive director of the New York City-based Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute. "It's probably even more rare than divorced fathers snatching their kids."
Quets should not have fled with the children, Pertman said, but he added that the twins were most likely never in danger.
"There was no evidence that she was going to hurt the kids," he said. "There was evidence that she wanted to parent the kids."
Source: WGHP (Fox)
Mom won't be told where kids are
OTTAWA -- The Florida woman accused of abducting her children and bringing them to Canada illegally will start 2007 in an Ottawa detention centre, not knowing if her biological children are still in the country.
Allison Lee Quets, 49, who was taken into custody on Friday, remains in the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre and her Canadian lawyer said she will be there until at least tomorrow, when courts are next in session.
Jeff Schroeder said that the Children's Aid Society, which has been looking after the 17-month-old twins, has told him that they will not be notifying Quets of her children's return to the United States.
The twins' adoptive parents, who live in Durham, North Carolina, were expected to be reunited with the children over the New Year's weekend.
Quets's status has been in dispute since the day she gave up her children for adoption in August 2005. Within 12 hours, she changed her mind and the fraternal twins, a boy and a girl, have been at the heart of a custody battle ever since.
"It's just been a very, very long, arduous legal process," said Gail Quets by telephone from Lexington, Kentucky, and added yesterday that her sister has spent more than $400,000 US fighting for custody.
"She did everything that she possibly could, legally, and she thought that the system was just ignoring her," she said.
In early December, the adoptive parents failed to bring the children for a court-mandated visit with Quets, who eventually got a court order to compel the adoptive family to let her see them.
With the kids in tow, she drove into Canada on Dec. 23.
Source: Edmonton Sun
