Murder charges for children’s deaths in California

Prosecutors will charge a woman and a teenager with first-degree murder after two young children were found dead in a rented storage unit in California.

Monterey County District Attorney Dean Flippo said autopsies had determined that the children — ages three and six — died around Thanksgiving of ongoing physical abuse.

The charges are imminent and will include a special circumstance of torture, which Flippo said could bring the death penalty, if the defendants, Tami Huntsman, 39, and her 17-year-old male companion, are convicted. The teenager was not identified and the relationships between Huntsman and the children remained unclear.

Salinas police chief Kelly McMillin said two dozen investigators were piecing together the tangled and horrific events.

“In my 32-year career, this is the most egregious child-abuse homicide case I’ve ever seen,” McMillin said.

The investigation began when Plumas County deputies were called to a residence to check on a child-abuse report. They found a severely abused nine-year-old girl and arrested the two suspects. The girl is recovering in a hospital.

After questioning the suspects, police in Redding — 480km from Salinas — were directed to the storage unit, where the bodies of the other children were found.

Plumas County Sheriff Greg Hagwood choked back tears and said responding officers were being offered counselling and time off after rescuing the nine-year-old girl and finding the two bodies in a plastic container.