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– Authorities in California City suspect foul play in the case of two young boys who disappeared from their backyard four days before Christmas, the Mojave Desert News reports. Orson and Orrin West, aged 3 and 4, were reported missing on December 21 by their adoptive parents, Trezell and Jacqueline West. Trezell West tells KGET that the last time he saw them the boys were playing on the porch. “I came into the house,” he says. “I saw them there, went in the house, came out again, didn’t see them there.” The parents say they searched the neighborhood without success looking for the boys and then called the police. Since then, the FBI and other agencies have reportedly been involved in the investigation. The police have not yet named a suspect in the case.
However, at a press conference on Tuesday, Police Chief Jon Walker said, “I suspect foul play,” the Desert News, adding, “I can’t comment on that, whether I think they’re alive or not. We have not been able to find out how the boys got out of the garden or where they went. He also told reporters that neighbors have not seen Orson or Orrin since the West family moved to California City in September, about 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles. Reports say the boys were adopted in 2019. Their biological mother, Ryan Dean, says 23ABC that she suspects that 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 of the West are reportedly in protective Taken into custody. (Read more stories of disappearance.)