CALIFORNIA CITY, Calif. (KNX) — The adoptive parents of two young Antelope Valley boys reported missing more than a year ago have been charged with their murder.
According to police, Trezell and Jacqueline West were both arrested Tuesday evening in Bakersfield. They were charged with second degree murder alongside child cruelty charges, according to filings in Kern County Superior Court.
The couple are the adoptive parents of Orrin, 4, and Orson West, 3, both reported missing by the couple from their home’s backyard in Dec. 2020.
In searching for the boys, Bakersfield police executed 44 search warrants and interviewed 83 people.
Authorities said the parents were being held at the Central Receiving Facility in Bakersfield as of late Tuesday night. No additional details were available on Wednesday.
The boys’ biological father, Charles Pettus, has filed a lawsuit against Kern County alleging officials were negligent in taking the boys from their birth parents and placing them in the Wests’ custody.
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