(Newer)
California City authorities suspect foul play in the case of two young boys who allegedly disappeared from their backyard four days before Christmas, Mojave Desert News reports. Orson and Orrin West, ages 3 and 4, went missing on Dec. 21 by their adoptive parents, Trezell and Jacqueline West. Trezell West tells KGET that the boys last played when he saw them on the back porch. “I came into the house,” he says. “I saw them there, entered the house, came back, did not see them there.” The parents say they searched the boys in the neighborhood without success and then called the police. Since then, the FBI and other agencies have reportedly become involved in the investigation. Police have not yet named a suspect in the case.
However, at a press conference on Tuesday, Jon Walker, police chief, said: “I suspect foul play,” according to the Desert News, and added: ‘I can not comment on that, whether I think they are alive or not. We could not compile how the boys got out of the garden or where they went. He also told reporters that neighbors had not seen Orson or Orrin since the West family moved to California City, about 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles, in September. According to reports, the boys were adopted in 2019. Their biological mother, Ryan Dean, tells 23ABC that she suspects the adoptive parents are involved in their disappearance. “They did something, I feel like they did something and they know something,” she says. The four other children from the West were apparently taken into protective custody. (Read more disappearance stories.)