FBI Believes Twins, Birth Mother in Canada

The FBI said Thursday that 17-month-old twins allegedly taken by their birth mother last week were spotted crossing the Canadian border.

According to a news release issued early Thursday evening, FBI investigators have determined that Allison Quets crossed the border last Saturday with the toddlers, Tyler and Holly Needham. All three are believed to still be in Canada, investigators said.

The twins were taken from their adoptive parents in Apex last Friday for a scheduled monthly visitation with Quets. Police said Tuesday that Quets, 49, never returned Sunday evening.

On Wednesday, a federal warrant was issued charging Quets with violating an international parental kidnapping law. Additionally, federal investigators filed a provisional arrest warrant application with Canadian authorities to assist in locating Quets and returning the two children to the United States.

FBI officials said they are working jointly with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the FBI legal attache's office in the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa, and the Durham Police Department. They also have enlisted the assistance of the National Center for Missing/Exploited Children, along with Child Find Canada.

Quets had been embroiled in a custody dispute with Kevin and Denise Needham , who live in Apex, in Jacksonville, Fla., where Quets lived.

The FBI said that matters concerning custody and parental rights would be determined by the appropriate authorities in the state of Florida.

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Latest Comments

Please pray for everyone involved in this case.

ihavefaith02
December 29, 2006 11:29 p.m.

Again, none of us know the entire story, including Bryan. But I do know a little something about hyperemesis gravidarum, and it can literally liquify a woman's brain (in the case of Wernicke's encephalopathy resulting from thiamine depletion). We do not know what kind of medical treatment Allison, already a high risk patient because of her advanced maternal age, got. She was obviously quite severe if she was on total parenteral nutrition (hyperalimentation). The starvation and dehydration cycle can affect a person's cognitive abilities (see: Tom Hanks talking to his volleyball in Castaway). Perhaps she thought that her health would be affected for the rest of her life and worried that she could not navigate twin care. It is regrettable that the combined ignorance and projection of some readers prompts them to make wild assumptions and character judgements. The only thing anyone can say with any certainty is that apparently, the law has been broken.

whiningpuker
December 29, 2006 9:08 p.m.

I think the crime here was committed by the adoptors...people so desperate for a baby that they decided to take another womans children even though she obviously wanted them back almost immediatly. open adoption is very misrepresented in this country and a sick, emotional, expectant mother whose hormones are going wacko is in no shape to make such a decision. I would never take another womans child againt her will...the second she changed her mind those kids should have been back with their mother. Obviously these adoptors have money or power..otherwise this story would never have gotton so much press so quickly.

darlalandreth
December 29, 2006 6:59 p.m.

I wouldn't trust the sister to be an unbiased source of information in this case.

Was she carried the kids but I heard she was a surrogate, and just wanted the $$$ besides doing a bunch of crappy stuff prior to this. Who knows... More facts before a conclusion, people.

kdstrick
December 29, 2006 5:53 p.m.

From reports she was not only ill during the pregnancy but suffered from hyperemesis and was hospitalized often. Who is to say that this might not have contributed to her state of mind when she put those children up for adoption? Florida state law has a 3 day statute that allows birth mother's to change their minds, she obviously did or a Judge would not have allowed her to fight for her children nor would he have mandated that she have visitation. As an assistant Engineer working for the same company for the past 20 years she would have easily been able to afford in vitro. With or without a man she made a decision to become a mother, alone she might have been prepared for morning sickness but not the point that she suffered. When adoptive parents are so desperate for a child and decide to fight for a child that they want to be theirs it can take YEARS sometimes well into that child being 5 sometimes 6 years old before a decision is decided. She is fighting for her babies.

iluvstrwbrries
December 29, 2006 4:58 p.m.