Pair tied to deaths of 2 children in California storage unit

Hagwood told the Sacramento Bee that Plumas County authorities received a call Thursday from someone in Monterey County asking about the condition of a 6-year-old and a 3-year-old tied to the case.

The children’s bodies were reportedly found by officers wrapped in plastic in a plastic tote container inside a storage unit at AAA Enterprise Stor-All on Tarmac Road. Huntsman’s 12-year-old twins, a boy and a girl, were placed into protective custody.

William Bayon, owner of business, said Wednesday that Tami Joy Huntsman, 39, of Quincy had rented the storage unit on Friday.

Redding police Lt. Pete Brindley wouldn’t say whether the children were killed in the storage unit or elsewhere. Police said the case was being investigated as a homicide pending completion of autopsies.

Authorities said that Huntsman and Curiel moved from Salinas to stay at a Motel 6 in Dunnigan, California, in late November.

That was the same day Huntsman and her boyfriend, 17-year-old Gonzalo Curiel, also of Quincy, were arrested in Plumas County on felony child abuse, torture and mayhem stemming from the alleged abuse of an emaciated 9-year-old girl, who is being treated at a Sacramento hospital.

There are people in our world that are capable of frightful acts of evil, and for anybody that sees something that isn’t right… say something.

It’s not yet clear the relationship between the two dead children, the 9-year-old, and Huntsman, but KSBW reported that the children are siblings and Huntsman is a female relative, but not their mother.

Sheriff Greg Hagwood of Plumas County says if it was not for a phone call from a concerned citizen, reporting a suspected case of child abuse, they may have never have been found.

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.

On Friday, authorities found the 9-year-old on the floorboard of a locked Toyota 4Runner near a Quincy home.

The Tara children appear to be the children of Shaun Daniel Tara, 31, whose Facebook page includes photographs of them.

Huntsman and Curiel have not yet been charged in the murder of the two children.

During the investigation, deputies were tipped off to the storage unit through interviews with family members, leading to the discovery of Delylah and Shaun Tara’s bodies. Curiel was charged as an adult. The pair are being held on $1 million bail on charges that could send them to prison for life. Tami Huntsman was looking after the children, and now she’s in jail accused of abusing and torturing another child.

He reportedly divorced from Huntsman two years ago.

Her profile image was a photograph of a grinning girl being hugged by her. She recorded her field as “being the best mother I can be”.