A man and a woman from North Carolina are accused of illegally removing their children from foster care in Lexington County and taking them across state lines.

According to provided arrest warrants Joyce Ann Branch, 47, and David Eugene Ritchey, 48 — both of Asheville — are charged with two counts each of custodial interference for taking their 11-year-old daughter and 15-year-old son Aug. 2 without their foster parents knowledge and concealing and transporting them to Branch’s home address in North Carolina, where she continued to conceal the children from their legal guardians and law enforcement.

The warrants note that these accusations are supported by “call detail records and location data from Branch’s cell phone provider.”

“Based on communication records and information gathered during interviews, investigators have determined Branch and Ritchey circumvented the legal custody of their daughter and son when they removed them from a foster home,” Lexington County Sheriff Jay Koon is quoted. “The children were in the North Carolina foster care system but had been placed in a home in Lexington County through the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children.”

That compact is a statutory agreement between all 50 states along with the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands to place foster children from one state in another state.

“Both Branch and Ritchey provided false statements about the children’s whereabouts to both their foster parents and law enforcement officers,” Koon is quoted. “Thanks to assistance from law enforcement agencies in the Asheville area and the U.S. Marshals Service, the children were located and Branch and Ritchey were taken into custody.”

An Aug. 9 release notes that Branch and Ritchey are being held at the Buncombe County Detention Center, awaiting extradition to South Carolina.