The adoptive parents of California brothers Orrin and Orson West, who have been missing over a year, have been arrested on suspicion of killing the toddlers.
Trezell West, 35, and Jacqueline West, 32, were arrested by Bakersfield police Tuesday and are currently booked into the Kern County Jail. They have both been charged with two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of willful cruelty to a child and making a false report of an emergency, jail records show.
“This morning I’m saddened to announce that the investigation has revealed that Orrin and Orson West are deceased,” Kern County District Attorney Cynthia Zimmer said at a press conference Wednesday. “The investigation has also revealed that they died three months before their adoptive parents reported them missing.”
The bodies of Orrin and Orson have not been found. Zimmer declined to provide further details, pending the Wests’ criminal trial.
“This is not the outcome that we and so many others had hoped and prayed for,” Bakersfield police Chief Chief Greg Terry said.
Who are Orrin and Orson West?
The case has roiled the small community of California City, a desert town in Kern County. Orrin and Orson went missing shortly before Christmas 2020, and the disappearance baffled investigators and family alike.
The West brothers are the adopted sons of Trezell and Jacqueline West. When they went missing, Orrin was 4 and Orson was 3. The couple say they began fostering Orrin and Orson in 2018 and officially completed the adoption process in 2019. They also have four other children, two of whom are adopted and two more that are biological, who were taken into protective custody after the boys’ disappearance.
At the time of their disappearance, both boys were about 3 feet tall and weighed about 40 pounds. They were last seen wearing black sweaters and dark-colored sweatpants.
When did they go missing?
The boys were reported missing by the Wests on the evening of Dec. 21, 2020.
According to Trezell West, Orrin and Orson were playing outside their home at 10717 Aspen Ave., where they had moved from Bakersfield in September. Jacqueline was inside wrapping Christmas presents, and Trezell said he was outside collecting firewood.
“I realized that I left the back gate open and I panicked and came inside the house, searched the house, me and my wife,” Trezell West told 23ABC. “Once that didn’t pan out, I got in the van, I looked down the street in both directions, it was getting dark, getting cold.”
West says he then drove around the neighborhood looking for the boys until the sun began to set. At that point, he says Jacqueline decided it was time to call the police and report the boys missing.
What did police find at the scene?
In short, nothing. Police K-9s caught the boys’ scent inside the house but not outside. Searches of the home and the Wests’ vehicle yielded nothing of note.
“We’ve looked everywhere possible in a house we could possibly look,” California City police Chief Jon Walker told KGET at the time. “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.”
Walker said a canvass of the neighborhood turned up an odd detail: No neighbor could ever recall seeing the boys outside the West home. After repeated searches of the property, including digging up the backyard, Walker told reporters shortly after their disappearance that foul play could not be ruled out in the boys’ disappearance. The home is now boarded up and vacant; the Wests relocated back to Bakersfield, which is also where Orrin and Orson’s biological mother lives. She has assisted in the search.
What’s next in the case?
Trezell and Jacqueline West are due in court for a hearing at 8 a.m. Thursday. They are currently being held without bail and are expected to be arraigned tomorrow. Zimmer said they have already been indicted by a grand jury, and the case will proceed next to a criminal trial.