A couple was arrested in connection with a child abuse investigation that led authorities to their home in the Los Angeles suburb of Arcadia, where they found 21 young children, some of whom were birthed by surrogate mothers, according to police.
Police said they are investigating whether the children found at the home in the San Gabriel Valley east of Los Angeles were part of a surrogacy scam. The home’s residents — Silvia Zhang, 38, and Guojun Xuan, 65 — were released from custody, pending further investigation, authorities said.
It is not clear how many children at the home were born to surrogate mothers, but one of the mothers was found in Texas by a bioethics watchdog group. The woman said she was misled into thinking her child was the only child who would be taken in at the Arcadia residence.
Kallie Fell, executive director of the nonprofit Center for Bioethics & Culture Network, said she spoke with the Texas woman named Kayla. Kayla said she was told she’d be helping a couple struggling to have a child but was later shocked when she learned that wasn’t the case, Fell said.
“It was her first time being a surrogate mother,” Fell said. “The baby that she birthed, she is trying to get custody now. She was told by the intended parents that she was their only surrogate mother, that they had one child…”
Zhang and Xuan, who are listed as the legal parents of the infant Kayla carried, were arrested after a local hospital called police to investigate the case of a 2-month-old baby who arrived at their care with head injuries. The baby’s condition has improved, but the long-term prognosis is unclear.
After the child abuse report, officers arrived at the couple’s Arcadia home and discovered 15 children whose ages ranged from 2 months to 13 years. An additional six children connected to the couple were found in the care of family and friends.
“We have been in contact with the FBI,” said Lt. Kollin Cieadlo. “We are working with them. When we first were out there, we recognized this as going to be something beyond the scope of our local investigative abilities so we reached out fairly quickly to them.”
The children in the home were taken into protective custody, police said.
NBC Los Angeles reached out to the FBI's Los Angeles field office for comment but did not immediately receive a reply.
Arcadia police said the home was set up like a school. Cameras seized from the property showed the children being emotionally and physically abused by at least six nannies, according to law enforcement. Authorities said the video showed a nanny violently shaking and striking the hospitalized infant on May 5, resulting in a loss of consciousness.
The baby was not hospitalized until two days later, after the onset of seizures, Arcadia police said.
Arrest warrants were issued for Zhang, Xuan and the 56-year-old nanny, who was not in custody Wednesday. Zhang and Xuan were booked on suspicion of felony child endangerment/neglect. Bail was set at $500,000 apiece.
“There are no laws against hiring multiple surrogate mothers at a time,” Fell said. “… but as we can see, this case highlights inherent dangers of commercial surrogacy.”
The infant that Kayla birthed is in foster care. She’s currently working on gaining custody of the baby.
It was not immediately clear how many other surrogate mothers gave birth to children at the home and how they ended up at the residence.
“That’ll be part of the long-term investigation to see the origins of where these children were all born, contact those surrogate mothers, see what the backstory is on that,” Cieadlo said. “And again, that will be something that we work with our federal partners because we believe this extends beyond our city limits, possibly through the rest of the country, even internationally.”
The Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services released a statement Wednesday morning, saying the safety of children is its highest priority.
“When our agency receives a call to the Child Protection Hotline concerning allegations of child maltreatment, our social workers conduct a thorough investigation and work closely with families to address issues that may negatively impact child safety and well-being," the agency said. "If abuse or neglect is confirmed and a child cannot remain safely at home, children may be required to move in with family members, close family friends or a foster family until their parents may regain custody.”
The agency said it is bound by state confidentiality laws that prevent the department from discussing potential involvement with families.
Anyone with information was asked to contact the Arcadia Police Department at 626-574-5168.
