Trezell and Jacqueline West: California parents held for 2020 murders of adopted kids
KERN COUNTY, CALIFORNIA: The adoptive parents of two toddlers have been charged with murdering them three months before they reported the kids missing. Kern County District Attorney Cynthia Zimmer confirmed that Trezell West, 35, and Jacqueline West, 32, were arrested on Tuesday, February 1, on murder and other charges in an indictment returned by a grand jury.
Four other kids of the couple are now in protective custody. Orrin West, 4, and his brother Orson, 3, were reported missing from their family's backyard in California City back in December 2020. Law enforcement agencies and community members conducted a massive search but could not find them. "This morning, I'm saddened to announce that the investigation has revealed that Orrin and Orson West are deceased," Zimmer said. "The investigation has also revealed that they died three months before their adoptive parents reported them missing."
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Testimonies from as many as 50 witnesses were heard by the grand jury over three months. Direct and circumstantial evidence proved that the boys were dead. "I would like to emphasize that the fact that law enforcement has not found their bodies does not preclude a murder prosecution," Zimmer said. "As a matter of fact, there have been many, hundreds, of what we call no-body homicides prosecuted across the United States successfully."
Both the suspects are being held without bail on two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of willful cruelty to a child, and a count of false report of an emergency. They are being held at the Kern County Sheriff’s Central Booking Facility. Among the four children now in protective custody, two of them are adopted.
The family earlier lived in Bakersfield and moved to California City only in December 2020. When the couple was asked if the two deceased boys were ever really brought to California City, they answered, "that's something we're going to answer during the trial."
In a similar incident recently reported, police found the body of a four-year-old girl from Kentucky who went missing more than a year ago. The girl’s mother and her live-in boyfriend have now been charged with her murder. Serenity McKinney's remains were discovered on Friday, February 18, along a winding road in Kentucky. She went missing on December 24, 2020.
Serenity was last seen at the family's home in Shelby County, about an hour from the location where her body was found. Catherine and her boyfriend, 26-year-old Dakota Hill, have been charged with murder, and abuse of the preschooler's corpse. They are currently in police custody.
Serenity’s grandparents reported her missing after Catherine cut off contact with them and kept telling them the girl was okay. The family was unable to get in touch with the child for over a year. “This is out of her character,” step-grandmother Aundrea Wainscott was quoted as saying. “She had gotten back in contact with us through messenger, pretty much saying they’re OK, but still wouldn’t let us talk to Serenity or show us Serenity.” Police said that Catherine refused to cooperate with them when they contacted her. Earlier this year, she left the family's Shelby County home and was arrested along with her boyfriend last week and extradited to Kentucky. They remained there when Serenity’s body was found.