(Newser)
– California city officials suspect a crime in the case of two boys who allegedly 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 foster 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 went home,” he says. “I saw them there, I went into the house, I came back, I didn’t see them there.” Parents say they searched the neighborhood for the boys without success and called the police. Since then, the FBI and other agencies have been involved in the investigation. The police have not yet named any suspects in the case.
At a news conference on Tuesday, however, police chief Jon Walker said, “I suspect a crime,” according to the Desert News, adding: “I cannot comment on that, whether I think they are alive or not. We couldn’t find out how the boys left the yard or where they went. ”He also told reporters that neighbors have not seen Orson or Orrin since the West family moved to the city of California, located about 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles, in September. The boys were adopted in 2019, according to reports. His birth mother, Ryan Dean, tells 23ABC that he suspects the adoptive parents are involved in his disappearance. “They did something, I feel like they did something and they know something,” she says. The other four children of the West were taken into protective custody. (Read more disappearance stories)