Twin sisters, sold online as babies for £8,200 to both a British couple and an American couple in an internet scam that shocked the world, have started university.

Kiara and Keyara Wecker were sold by their birth mother to Alan and Judith Kilshaw, of Buckley, North Wales, when they were just six months old.

The deal – for £8,200 – was agreed on the internet and a short time later, the girls were taken from their birthplace in Missouri, US, to North Wales.

The twin girls were sold at six-months-old to two different couples in Britain and the US by their birth mother as part of an internet scam investigated by the FBI (Picture: Reuters)

But it soon emerged that another couple, Richard and Vickie Allen, from California, had already paid £4,000 for the babies from adoption broker Tina Johnson of the Caring Heart Agency.




At the time, they claimed the Kilshaws had kidnapped the girls because they had already been caring for the babies for two months when they were tricked into handing them back to their natural mother, Tranda Wecker, 28.

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Wecker had suddenly contacted the Allens to say she wanted two days to say a ‘final goodbye’ but instead handed them over to solicitor Mr Kilshaw and his wife.

They were rechristened Belinda and Kimberley by the Kilshaws and were being raised at the couple’s farmhouse in North Wales until a protection order was served in January 2001 and the twins were taken into the care of Flintshire social services.

Then-Prime Minister Tony Blair even weighed in, calling the sale of the children over the internet ‘disgusting’.

The British couple posed for pictures with the twin girls after paying for them online (Picture: PA)

Alan and Judith Kilshaw pictured with the babies during the adoption storm on January 16, 2001 (Picture: PA)

Judith and Alan Kilshaw hold their court order after police and social services removed the twins in 2001 (Picture: PA)

The FBI got involved, sparking an international legal battle that finally ended with the children being raised by a third set of foster parents in Missouri.

Now the sisters – who were told about their story – have turned 18 and are studying social sciences at a university not far from their home in the US.

They still live at the house they were legally adopted into but are hoping to move into halls of residence next year.

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Their adoptive mother, 56, who remains unnamed, told The Mirror: ‘At times it has been tough, sure it has, but they are our babies and we cannot be more proud of them.

‘They have grown into fine young women, each with their own dreams and ambitions.

‘Nothing will hold them back from their goals. From the day they were brought to us they have been raised with unconditional love.

‘God blessed them into our care and we are forever grateful.’

Vickie and Richard Allen in California also paid £4,000 for the babies through an adoption agency (Picture: AP)

Police and Social Services remove twin babies Belinda and Kimberley from their adoptive parents Alan and Judith Kilshaw at The Beaufort Park Hotel in north Wales in 2001 (Picture: PA)

Kiara and Keyara Wecker are now 18 and starting university in the US

Their adoptive father, 72, added: ‘I remember seeing them on Good Morning America not long after they were handed over to the British couple.

‘I remember thinking to myself what a heartbreaking situation it was.’

The couple, from Missouri, were contacted by social services soon after a High Court case bringing them back to the US, asked if they could take in twin girls who had been overseas.

‘I felt it was my duty to take them,’ their father added.



‘They brought them straight from the airport to our home and we have never looked back since.’

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