SHOCKWAVES were sent around the world in 2001 when The Sun exclusively revealed details of how twin girls were sold by their American mother – before being sold again to another couple in the UK.
Read on to find out more about the new documentary that looks back at what happened, along with details of the people who feature in it.
The Baby Scandal That Shocked The World tells the story of the twin girls who were at the centre of a controversy, after being sold twice to two different sets of parents who wanted to adopt them.
Kiara and Keyara Wecker were just six months old when they were handed over for £8,200 to Judith and Alan Kilshaw back in 2001.
But it was revealed that their birth mum Tranda Wecker had previously sold them to another set of parents back in the US.
The twins were first bought for £4,000 by Californians Richard and Vickie Allen, who began to raise them as their own.
But two months later they were snatched back by their mum and sold for twice as much to Brits Alan and Judith.
The two families both then claimed the tots were theirs and were at war over the girls’ future.
The Sun exclusively revealed the girls were put up for adoption by their natural mother Tranda Wecker, 28, a twice-divorced hotel receptionist from St Louis, Missouri.
Tranda Wecker is the mother of the twin girls who were given up for adoption and sold to two different couples.
It sparked a chain of events which saw the girls chased across the US and even kidnapped as both sets of adoptive parents claimed they were legally theirs.
At the time, she was a hotel receptionist from St Louis, Missouri.
She later tried to force her way back into the lives of the twins by gate-crashing their graduation ceremony.
It’s reported that the girls were allowed to meet their mum if they wished – but they chose not to.
Vickie Allen, along with her husband Richard, paid Tranda Wecker £4,000 for the adoption of her twin girls Kiara and Keyara.
The couple lived in California, and began to raise the tots as their own.
But Wecker had told British couple Judith and Alan Kilshaw that they were just looking after them.
The two families both then claimed the tots were theirs and were at war over the girls’ future.
The girls were eventually returned to the States where they were found a new foster family in Missouri.
Judith Kilshaw, along with her husband Alan, paid Tranda Wecker £8,200 so they could adopt her twin daughters Kiara and Keyara.
The babies – named Belinda and Kimberley by the Kilshaws – were brought into Britain on holiday visas and their new parents were made wards of the court by their council in North Wales.
But they were unaware that Wecker had already sold her daughters to a California couple – and were later forced to hand them back.
At the height of the court battle for the twins, Judith was dubbed the most hated woman in Britain.
The mum-of-four, who had two sons with Alan and two older daughters, had looked into adoption when they found they were unable to have any more children.
But after a shake-up in “baby trading” rules under Tony Blair, the girls – named Belinda and Kimberley by the Kilshaws – were returned to the US and placed in foster care.
Judith and Alan split in 2006 but remained friends, with Alan even walking her down the aisle when she married her third husband three years later.
The Baby Scandal That Shocked The World is showing in the UK on Channel 5.
Its first airing is at 9pm on Tuesday, 2nd July 2024.
Soon after it airs, it’ll also be available to watch on Channel 5’s online streaming service My5.
The documentary takes an in-depth look at the case, and runs for two hours.
