Mom Accused of Kidnapping Her Children Wants Kids Back

Jan. 9, 2007 — -- The biological mother of 17-month-old twins says that postpartum depression and the overwhelming demands of child care led to her putting them up for adoption.

"I never had sleep deprivation like that before," Alison Quets said in an exclusive interview with "Good Morning America."

"In college, I would pull a few all-nighters -- but [for] one or two nights. But this was sleep deprivation that went for weeks even months because while I was pregnant I was throwing up at night," she said.

Now, Quets, 49, is accused of kidnapping the twins from their adoptive parents during the Christmas holidays and fleeing to Canada.

The babies, Tyler Lee and Holly Ann, were returned to their adoptive parents at their home in Raleigh, N.C., following Quets' arrest after a week on the run. A custody agreement with the adoptive parents had allowed Quets to take the children for a brief visit Dec. 22 to Dec. 24, but authorities say she never returned the babies and went to Canada.

The FBI said an investigation indicated that Quets had crossed the Canadian border with the twins on Dec. 23. She apparently spent five days tucked away with the twins at a bed and breakfast in Kingston, Ontario, before they were found on Dec. 29 in Ottawa.

Quets, a single engineer who gave birth to the twins after undergoing in-vitro fertilization, was in the process of appealing the adoption in the state of Florida at the time of the alleged kidnapping. Though a resident of Florida, Quets kept an apartment in Durham, N.C., so she could see the children.

"I always wanted to be a mother. I always, always wanted to be a mother," Quets told "Good Morning America."

"You know they were my babies. … That I dreamed of for so long," she said.

She says she regretted putting up her twins for adoption immediately and still wants to attempt to get them back. Besides postpartum depression, Quets says an inability to eat led to her putting up Tyler Lee and Holly Ann for adoption.

"While that's happening to you, you're not really paying attention to what's happening to you because there's always a baby that needs to be fed," she said.