Twins in Foster Care: Court

By Stephen M. Silverman

10/01/1997 at 12:00 AM EDT

A court in Birmingham, England, ruled on Tuesday that the American-born 6-month-old twin girls at the center of an international tug-of-war (after they were brokered for adoption over the Internet) will remain in foster care in the U.K. until their fate is decided. California couple Richard and Vickie Allen first cared for the girls, born to Tranda Wecker, a divorcee in Arkansas. Wecker, who now says that she wants her babies back, allegedly arranged to extract the children from the Allen home in order to place them in the care of a Welsh couple, Judith and Alan Kilshaw. Both couples reportedly paid a San Diego, Calif.-based baby broker thousands of dollars to adopt the girls.