(Newser)
– California City authorities suspect bad play in the case of two young boys who disappeared from their yard four days before Christmas, News about the Mojave Desert 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 boys were playing on the back porch the last time he saw them. “I came home,” he says. “I saw them there, I went into the house, I went out, I didn’t see them there.” The parents say they searched the neighborhood for the boys without success and then called the police. Since then, the FBI and other agencies have reportedly become involved in the investigation. Police have not yet named a suspect in the case.
However, at a news conference Tuesday, Police Chief Jon Walker said, “I suspect an ugly game.” Desert news, adding: “I can’t comment on this, whether I think I’m alive or not. We couldn’t put together how the boys came out of the yard or where they left off. He also told reporters that neighbors had not seen Orson or Orrin since the West family moved to California City, about 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles, in September. The boys were adopted in 2019, according to reports. Their biological mother, Ryan Dean, tells 23ABC that they suspect their adoptive parents are involved in their disappearance. “They did something, I feel like they did something and I know something,” she says. Four other children from the West were allegedly taken into protective custody. (Read more stories about disappearances).