Custody Ruling Further Muddles Future of Twin Girls

As if the tug-of-war between a San Bernardino couple and a British couple over twin infant girls were not complex enough, now a St. Louis judge has given temporary custody of the twice-adopted girls to their biological father.

Because the girls remain in a foster home in Wales, by order of British courts, the ruling Tuesday by Associate Circuit Judge Jack Garvey appears to set up a confrontation between the British and American legal systems.

In the St. Louis hearing, the girls’ father, Aaron Wecker, alleged that his former wife had not told him of her attempts to place the children with adoptive parents.

Through an Internet adoption service based in San Diego County, the girls were placed with a San Bernardino couple, Richard and Vickie Allen. The Allens paid the adoption broker $6,000.

But two months after leaving the two girls with the Allens, their mother, Tranda Wecker, 28, a hotel receptionist from St. Louis, asked for permission from the Allens to take the girls to San Diego for the weekend.

At the end of the weekend in early December, instead of returning the girls, Wecker turned them over to a couple from Wales: Alan and Judith Kilshaw.

The Kilshaws say they paid $12,000 to the adoption service without realizing the girls had already been given to the Allens.

After getting the girls, the Kilshaws drove to Arkansas to complete the adoption and change the children’s names. The state has some of the quickest adoption laws in the nation.

The Allens--feeling tricked by Tranda Wecker and the San Diego adoption service, A Caring Heart--have demanded the return of the children, who are now six months old. A British court has taken the children from the Kilshaws until the legal issues are resolved.

In St. Louis, the judge set a hearing for Feb. 14 on the request by the girls’ biological father for permanent custody.

Just which, if any, laws may have been broken is unclear because Internet adoption services, because they cross state and international boundaries, do not appear to be subject to state regulations.

Citing this case, several state legislators have vowed to include the Internet in laws requiring registration and oversight.