Settlement Near in Baby-Switch Case
A couple who claim that their daughter was switched with another girl in a hospital maternity ward promised not to seek custody, in exchange for an agreement on genetic testing to settle the dispute.
Ernest and Regina Twigg returned from Pennsylvania to Sebring earlier this month to be closer to Kimberly Michelle Mays, the 10-year-old Sarasota girl they say is their daughter.
The child’s father, Robert Mays, agreed Friday to the genetic testing only after the Twiggs promised not to seek custody of Kimberly if she proves to be their biological daughter. They will retain the option to seek visitation rights.
Mays agreed for himself and his daughter to give blood samples within 10 days. Mays’ first wife died in 1981. The agreement still must be approved by a Sarasota Circuit judge.
The Twiggs began their fight after learning through genetic tests that the girl they reared, Arlena, was not biologically theirs. Arlena died of a heart defect in 1988, never knowing that questions had been raised about who her parents were.
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