Arrested California Couple Charged in Killing of Their Two Adopted Boys

A California couple have been arrested and charged in the killing of their two adopted sons, who have been missing since 2020, according to court and police records.

Trezell West and Jacqueline West were arrested Tuesday, Jason Townsend, a police lieutenant in Bakersfield, California, told local media.

Both have been charged with two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of willful cruelty to a child and one count of false report of an emergency, according to Kern County Superior Court online records.

The case surrounding the two missing children, Orrin and Orson West, has puzzled authorities for more than a year. The adoptive parents reported them missing shortly before Christmas in December 2020, SFGATE reported.

At the time, Trezell West told authorities that the boys were playing outside their California City home on December 21 when he briefly left them alone and left the back gate open. When he returned, they were gone, he said.

West said that he drove around the neighborhood looking for the children until it began to get dark. His wife then suggested they report the brothers missing to the police, SFGATE reported.

When police canvassed the home and area, they found no trace of the boys, apart from when police K-9s picked up their scent inside the house. The dogs did not detect the boys' scent outside, despite Trezell West saying that that was where they were last seen.

At the time, California City Police Chief Jon Walker told KGET-TV in Bakersfield that authorities had left no stone unturned in conducting their search of the house.

"We brought in search dogs, cadaver dogs, any dog you can think of has been in that house and has not had any kids anywhere in the house," he said.

Walker also said that the family's neighbors were asked about the boys' disappearance but none could remember seeing them outside the home, SFGATE reported.

Kern County Superior Court online records show that both Trezell and Jacqueline West have arraignments scheduled for Thursday morning. They are being held without bail and did not have any lawyers listed on the records.

The couple said they began providing foster care to the boys in 2018 and officially adopted them the next year. At the time they vanished, Orrin and Orson were 4 and 3 years old, respectively.

The Wests' four other children, two of whom are biological and two of whom were also adopted, were taken into protective custody after Orrin and Orson disappeared, according to SFGATE.

It was not immediately clear what led to the arrests and charges more than a year after the boys' disappearance. But Kern County District Attorney Cynthia Zimmer was scheduled to hold a press conference on the arrests Thursday afternoon.

Newsweek reached out for comment from the Bakersfield Police Department but did not hear back by publication time.

Update 03/02/22, 1:30 p.m. ET: This story was updated with additional information and background.