Murder charges planned after children found in locker

Two young children whose bodies were recently found in a Northern California storage locker were killed around Thanksgiving more than 300 miles away, authorities said.

Tami Joy Huntsman, 39, and a 17-year-old boy, who were living together Quincy, California, and formerly lived Salinas, were held since Tuesday in the Plumas County Jail on charges of felony child abuse, torture and mayhem at million bond each, police said.

Shasta County District Attorney Stephen Carlton told the Redding Record Searchlight that evidence found during the autopsy showed “clearly” the children were killed in Monterey County.

Their accused killers are 39-year-old Tami Huntsman and 17-year-old Gonzalo Curiel. “When you see what has been done to a attractive little 9-year-old girl.” the sheriff said before stopping to regain his composure. She weighed only 40 pounds. She underwent hours of surgery at a Sacramento-area hospital on Sunday and remains in protective custody.

On Sunday, Redding officers acted on a tip from another police department, went to the AAA Enterprise Store-All and found two dead children inside one of the units.

While the children found in the storage locker haven’t been positively identified, Flippo said he was “absolutely convinced” that they are Delylah Tara, 3, and Shaun Tara, 6.

Caption + A commercial storage unit facility is shown Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2015, where two children were found dead in Redding, Calif. Autopsies were planned for the 3-year-old girl and 6-year-old boy, whose names were not released.

And it was around that time that neighbors say they stopped seeing the children, who they said would play out on the patio.

Monterey County District Attorney Dean Flippo said at the press conference that he would file multiple first-degree murder charges with special circumstances against the pair – charges that could result in the death penalty.

His office is also planning on filing charges of torture and causing great bodily harm in regards to the 9-year-old girl. Huntsman and Curiel have been named suspects in that case.

Plumas County authorities got a call from someone in Monterey County asking about the two younger children. They found a severely abused 9-year-old girl in a vehicle outside of Huntsman’s apartment and arrested the two suspects.

Parents or guardians who want to enroll in the charter have to be fluent in English, be at least 18 year old and have earned a high school diploma.

Huntsman assumed custody of the children because a man believed to be her brother – their father – was arrested in connection with a massive wildfire and the youngsters’ mother died in a vehicle crash. “There’s a lot we do not know about the family dynamics”, Flippo said.

McMillin said an “army” of about 30 investigators largely from the Salinas Police Department and Monterey County District Attorney’s Office as well as from the Redding Police Department and Plumas County Sheriff’s Office are working on the case. We’re looking at the case to see if there’s anything we should have done differently that could have prevented this tragedy’.

Investigators are receiving varying levels of cooperation from neighbors and others.

Child welfare workers visited a Northern California woman suspected in the deaths of two children four times in the past year on allegations of neglect.