DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -Prosecutors dropped charges Friday against the couple accused of abducting two children from their father in Oakland and driving to Maine.

Brandi Harris, 30, the children’s noncustodial mother, and her boyfriend Vince Hatch, 35, were charged Tuesday with violating a custodial order, but the Iowa attorney general’s office sought to dismiss the charges after discovering the mother had visitation rights on alternating weeks.

“There is insufficient evidence to show the defendant violated a custodial order with the intent to conceal the children from their father,” the attorney general’s office wrote.

Harris, 30, and Hatch, 35, were arrested in Etna, Maine, after a state trooper pulled their vehicle over and found the children inside. Rae Ann Meyer, 8, and Cameron A. Meyer, 10, were put into protective custody. Officials said they were unharmed.

A multi-state search for the children began late Monday when authorities issued an Amber Alert, claiming the couple had abducted the children from western Iowa while they were at a park with a baby sitter.

Officials believed the couple were driving the children to their home in Orrington, Maine, and alerted authorities there of the situation.

AP-ES-08-17-07 1813EDT