Fugitive mother vows to fight
Quets says she fled to Canada because it's 'family-oriented'
Andrew Thomson, The Ottawa Citizen
Published: Sunday, January 07, 2007
Allison Quets' face beamed yesterday while showing home movies of her biological twins in their beloved double stroller. There was a lot of feeding time on display, and even more crying.
The digital movie camera, which Ms. Quets preciously guards, holds her only reminders of Holly and Tyler while she prepares to return to the United States tomorrow to face kidnapping charges.
The Florida woman, who says she fled with her children to Canada because the people were "warm ... and family oriented," faces federal and state charges in North Carolina after she failed to return the children to their adoptive parents after a Christmas Eve visit.
She was found in Ottawa on Dec. 29 with the 17-month-old infants. Tomorrow she returns to police custody and begins her trip back to the U.S.
Dressed in a white turtleneck, black sweater, beige slacks, and slippers, she sat calmly in the living room of Robert and Mary Thompson. The 49-year-old Ms. Quets said she felt stronger and healthier after recovering from nearly a week behind bars, and wanted to talk about her children.
The self-described "shy, quiet, engineering type" recounted her time in Canada, including jail time in Ottawa, during an exclusive interview with the Citizen yesterday. Ms. Quets has stayed with the Thompsons -- Robert is a retired deputy police chief -- since being given a temporary release on Thursday. The Thompsons' address remains under a court-ordered publication ban until tomorrow morning.
Ms. Quets wiped away tears several times while discussing her difficult pregnancy and her future plans to go home, clear her name, and gain full custody of Holly and Tyler.
"I'll be returning to fight," she said with a slight Southern accent. "That's what my life is right now, fighting for my children. I have sacrificed almost everything and I'm not stopping now. That's all there is for me -- my children -- and they need me, I know they need me.
"I could never ever tell them I gave up on them, ever. And I never will."
Her decision to bypass extradition hearings and voluntarily return was sealed once Holly and Tyler returned home with their adoptive parents, Kevin and Denise Needham of Apex, North Carolina.
'There's really no point being anywhere else or doing anything else," she said.
She wouldn't comment on the specifics of her ongoing custody appeal in Florida. She also declined to answer several questions that might incriminate her in the U.S.
But she referred to her children's last name as Quets, and claimed to have birth certificates for both Holly and Tyler.
"We're all so happy it's seamless," she said. "They know my voice, they know my touch, they know the bedtime routine."
When asked if she considered herself a criminal, Ms. Quets said: "On moral grounds, I did what any other mother would do to protect their children."
A burning question all week was why Ms. Quets decided to come to Canada on Dec. 23, and specifically Ottawa.
She and the twins spent five days at a Kingston bed-and-breakfast, over Christmas before arriving here.
An FBI agent claimed in an affidavit that she also travelled to Ontario on Dec. 2, according to the News & Observer of Raleigh, North Carolina.
Ms. Quets wouldn't talk about her decision to come to Canada before Christmas, and said her only previous trips here were to visit her ex-husband's family in the Maritimes. Yesterday she recalled seeing Nova Scotia and Cape Breton Island before thanking her supporters from across the country.
"I just thought the people were very warm and very engaging and very family-oriented," she said. "I thought it would be a place my children and myself would be embraced.
"It was what I knew about the people and the culture, and that's turned out to be true."
But why Ottawa? Ms. Quets had been told the capital was a "beautiful city" that was child-friendly, walkable, and with easy access to medical services.
Ms. Quets spent the night in jail after being arrested in Sandy Hill at a three-bedroom townhouse on Dec. 29. She declined to answer how long she had planned to stay in Ottawa.
She arrived at the Ottawa-Carleton Regional Detention Centre after a brief court appearance on Dec. 30, where she had her own cell and felt "very lonely and scared."
Ms. Quets claimed to have met officials from the Children's Aid Society of Ottawa that night, pleading for the children to remain in Canada.
A few days later she was transferred to a dorm-type room with 12 beds. She said her fellow inmates were a source of strength while coping with news of Holly and Tyler's return to the United States with the Needhams.
"They sat with me when I cried," she said. "They told me to be strong and some of them gave up their phone time for me.
"The female guards helped as well. They were sympathetic because I was a mother who was fighting for her children."
The slender woman with short brown hair was born in New York City in 1957. She grew up on nearby Long Island with her younger brother and sister, and still keeps in touch with childhood friends.
Ms. Quets hopes to visit Kentucky once she returns, to see her gravely-ill mother.
She earned a psychology degree from Stony Brook University on Long Island and later graduated with a master's degree in social welfare. She worked as a university counsellor for arts and nursing students before attaining a second master's degree in computer science at the State University of New York at Binghamton.
Ms. Quets moved to Florida in 1985, taking a job near St. Petersburg with General Electric. She gave premature birth to Holly and Tyler in Orlando, where she was working for Lockheed-Martin. The twins had been conceived through in-vitro fertilization.
The pregnancy was nearly fatal, Ms. Quets said yesterday. She battled hyperemesis, a condition that causes excessive nausea, vomiting and malnourishment. It can lead to depression, ruptured organs, and even miscarriage.
"Every time I threw up blood I was afraid I was going to die," she said. "I was not healthy."
Ms. Quets also claims to have faced post-partum depression after giving birth and offering the twins for adoption. Since then, she's poured her life savings of about $400,000 U.S. into the custody dispute with the Needhams, and used her academic background to study family law. But she believes most other biological mothers aren't as lucky.
"I'm unlike most other women that are put in this situation," she said. "I think God has chosen me to fight this battle on behalf of so many other women that just can't do it. There are times when I really nearly crushed, but I manage to persevere."
Ms. Quets maintained a two-bedroom apartment in Durham, North Carolina for her weekend visits after a court allowed her access to the twins.
But the News & Observer reported yesterday that a federal prosecutor in North Carolina filed a motion seeking Ms. Quets' detention upon her return, while she awaits charges of international parental kidnapping. The newspaper also said her visitation rights had been terminated by a Florida judge.
Ms. Quets remains optimistic despite the international media glare and her impending criminal charges. Her only thoughts this past week have been with Holly and Tyler.
"I'm praying and praying to see them again as soon as possible," she said.
"How will they ever reconcile that they were kept from their mother for so long when their mother wanted them so desperately, and their mother was able to provide good care? How will that ever be explained to them?"
See the Interview Online
Allison Quets, the American woman accused of kidnapping her biological children and bringing them to Canada broke her silence yesterday afternoon in an exclusive interview with the Citizen.
Ms. Quets, was found in Ottawa last month with 17-month-old twins Holly and Tyler. She's accused of failing to return the twins to their adoptive parents in Durham, North Carolina, after a weekend visit.
She faces federal and state kidnapping charges in North Carolina and will be returned to the United States tomorrow.
To hear an audio recording of the complete interview with Citizen reporter Andrew Thomson and to see exclusive video and a photo gallery of images of Ms. Quets, go to
www.ottawacitizen.com