2 children found dead in CA storage unit; 2 arrested

Andreas Fuhrmann/AP Police said they discovered the bodies of a 3-year-old girl and 6-year-old boy in this commercial storage facility in Redding, Calif., after investigating a child abuse case over a hundred miles away.

The investigation started with a call about a possible child abuse in the small town of Quincy. Huntsman cared for 6 children-three of her own and three other children-, according to Monterey County Superior Court records.

A 39-year-old woman and a teenage boy are suspected in the deaths of two children whose bodies were found inside a storage unit in Northern California, in a case that came to light after police checked on a 9-year-old girl who was found starving and injured but alive, authorities said. She is the 9-year-old girl’s aunt, but reportedly became her guardian after the girl’s mother committed suicide two years ago.

The Redding Police Department has been in contact with the Salinas Police Department and learned that Huntsman and Curiel had physical custody of two juveniles that have been reported as missing persons.

On Friday (Saturday NZT), authorities found the 9-year-old at a Quincy home, according to a news release from the Sheriff’s Office.

Redding police are asking anyone with information on the couple’s activities to come forward and released a rough timeline of their travels: Huntsman and Curiel traveled between the cities of Salinas, Redding, Shingletown and Quincy between November 27 and December 11.

Both are now being held on $1 million bail, with the possibility that they could be facing murder charges.

Authorities searched a Salinas apartment on Monday night. “I don’t understand. And I don’t think anybody can fully appreciate the measure of suffering and pain and terror that people inflict on one another”, Hagwood said.

Huntsman and Curiel were arrested and charged with torture and felony child abuse.

The tip led investigators to a storage unit in Redding.

An autopsy is pending to determine a cause of death, Redding police said.

That newspaper also said Huntsman is the sister of Wayne Allen Huntsman, an El Dorado County man who set a fire that grew into the King Fire in 2014. He was sentenced a month later to two life terms in prison without the possibility of parole.