Utah Father Says Newborn Daughter Was Put Up for Adoption Without His Knowledge

By Jack Phillips
November 25, 2015 Last Updated: March 1, 2016

Colby Nielsen, a father from Utah, said that his newborn daughter was put up for adoption without his knowledge and consent. Nielsen, 20, told 2News that he was forced to hand over his two-week old child, Kaylee, to prospective adoptive parents even though he wanted to raise the girl himself.

“I’d do anything I could for her,” Nielsen was quoted as saying. His family hired an attorney to get the baby back.

The adoptive couple said they will return the couple to the biological mother and turn over custody rights.

“We believe the couple, if unfettered by legality and other pressures, will be able to decide what is best for Kaylee,” said the couple, who was not named. “This is how the situation should have always been resolved.”

Nielsen said the mother, who is 19 and his former girlfriend, started the adoption process without telling him.

But the would-be adoptive father said Nielsen seemed fine with the adoption and never said anything negative about it.

“This has attacked me and my family,” the former adoptive father said of the situation. “We have received quite a bit of hate mail” after the story came out a few days ago, he said.

Nielsen, via an attorney, said the adoption was not consented upon. They said he met with the biological mother to return the child.

“We have made numerous demands to have Kaylee returned to Colby where she was before she was illegally taken,” his attorney, Wes Hutchins, said. “But those demands have fallen on deaf ears.”

Colby Nielsen’s mother, Teresa, said that the situation “makes me really proud to see him stand up and be a father and be nourishing,” according to KSL.com.