GILMER — The former Gilmer woman accused of kidnapping her daughters in 1987 and eluding capture until last weekend will be returned to Texas within the next 10 days, according to authorities.

During a Friday bail hearing in Southern California, Catherine Walker, 49, waived extradition, a spokeswoman with the Riverside County District Attorney's Office said.

That means Walker, who has worked as the editor of a small-town newspaper in Blythe, Calif., for 18 months, will return to face felony charges of interference with child custody in Gilmer, where authorities and relatives of the two girls say she belongs.

The charge carries a penalty of two to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000 upon conviction.

Ingrid Wyatt, the public information officer in Riverside County, said Walker will remain in the California jail until she is picked up by Upshur County authorities. The judge denied bail at Friday's hearing, she said.

Walker was arrested a week ago in Blythe after a routine traffic stop turned up her true identity and a felony warrant from Upshur County.

The woman, known as Lyn Johnson in Blythe, vanished from Gilmer with her two daughters, Beth and Becky, then 3 and 6, in August 1987. The woman and her ex-husband, Doug Harwood, were engaged in a custody dispute.

Walker had been found in contempt of court for not allowing Harwood to visit the children, and also for falsely accusing him of not paying child support.

The girls, now adults, were reunited with Harwood in February and told their father they lived a nomadic life, traveling from state to state in a recreational vehicle. Their mother worked as a missionary on Native American reservations, they said.

It's unclear if the girls lived with Walker in Blythe, but they both live in Washington now.

Lt. Wayne Young of the Upshur County Sheriff's Office said the girls did not want to divulge their mother's whereabouts. They had no hard feelings toward her, he said.

Young, who has investigated the case for the past two years, said Friday he was not sure if he would be one of the authorities to travel to California to bring Walker back, and he's not sure when the trip will occur.

"I'm just glad the California courts upheld our request (for extradition)," he said.

Harwood and the girls' half sister, Theresa DeNatale, who both live in New York, have said they want to see Walker face charges in Gilmer. They said they lived in turmoil during the years when they didn't know where the children were and that Walker should be prosecuted.

According to an article published Wednesday in the Palo Verde Valley Times, where Walker worked, she believes fleeing with her children was her only choice.

"Through a corrupt court system, I was forced to flee with my children and assume another identity to protect them, years ago," Walker wrote in a letter from jail.