California Couple Charged in House of Horrors Abuse Case

A Southern California couple who authorities say fathered 21 children, most of them born through surrogates they recruited across the country, has been charged with conspiring to systematically abuse the children inside their Arcadia mansion, a case the Los Angeles County district attorney described as unprecedented in scale. Guojun Xuan, 66, and Silvia Zhang, 39, pleaded not guilty Tuesday and are each being held on $20 million bail.

The couple faces one count each of conspiracy to commit child abuse in case 26PDCF00918, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. Xuan also faces one felony count of child abuse, one count of accessory after the fact, and five felony counts of dissuading a witness. Zhang faces one count of accessory after the fact and four counts of dissuading a witness. If convicted as charged, Xuan faces up to 17 years and four months in state prison, while Zhang faces up to 11 years and eight months.

A Case of Unusual Scale

Prosecutors allege the couple conspired to subject 15 of the 16 children living in their roughly 10,000-square-foot home to repeated physical abuse. At least 14 of the children named in the complaint were born via surrogacy, some as young as 2 months old. The children, who ranged in age from 2 months to 13 years, were taken into state custody after authorities raided the mansion in July 2025; all 21 remain in the care of the Department of Children and Family Services.

“The number of children who were subjected to this alleged horrific abuse is unprecedented,” District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman said. “This was not a home where these children were loved and nurtured. This was a home where these young children were systematically beaten and punished if they did not do what they were told.”

According to NBC News, Hochman said the couple often lied to the surrogates about why they wanted children or how many they already had. One woman, he said, was told that Zhang was a single mother struggling to conceive and was paid up to $75,000 for each of two surrogacies. Another surrogate, then seven months pregnant, was never told the couple already had 16 children. A third was paid $135,000 and told the couple was seeking a miracle baby.

How the Investigation Unfolded

The case began in May 2025, when a 2-month-old boy was brought to a hospital with a head injury. Authorities allege a nanny, Chunmei Li, struck the baby in the head on May 4, 2025, and that Xuan and Zhang did not seek medical treatment until two days later, when they told medical staff the infant had fallen from a bed. The baby has since recovered.

“She appeared to be untruthful with hospital staff about how the injury was sustained, and the hospital staff notified law enforcement authorities,” Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said, according to CBS News. “What they discovered raised even more serious concerns.”

Li, 58, was charged separately in May 2025 with one felony count of child abuse under conditions likely to cause great bodily injury or death. A $105,000 warrant for her arrest remains outstanding, and she has not been apprehended. She faces up to 12 years in prison if convicted. No attorney is listed for her in court records.

According to the criminal complaint, investigators found that the couple ran a surrogacy company, hired nannies to supervise and discipline the children in three makeshift classrooms, and installed more than 30 motion-activated cameras inside the home to monitor both the children and the nannies. Footage was routed to a television near the couple’s desk. One room was not equipped with a camera; some nannies took children inside, where they could be heard screaming.

Over an 11-day period between April 27 and May 7, 2025, the complaint alleges, nannies were caught on video spanking, slapping, or hitting the children. In one instance, a nanny struck a child with a shoe while Zhang and Li allegedly laughed as they watched the footage. On April 30, 2025, Xuan allegedly entered a classroom, told a nanny to strike a child harder, then repeatedly spanked the child, delivered open-handed blows to the head, and lifted the child by one arm while continuing to hit him. In another episode, Xuan could be seen on video laughing as a nanny forced a child into a “horse stance.”

Prosecutors also allege a cover-up: on May 7, 2025, before police arrived, Xuan and Zhang told some of the children to deny that the nannies had beaten them, and Zhang instructed a nanny to hide the sticks used to strike them. During a meeting after the infant was hospitalized, the couple allegedly told nannies not to leave visible marks.

A Family Built Through Surrogacy

The investigation has drawn attention to the surrogacy industry, which is governed primarily by state law rather than any comprehensive federal framework. The couple operated their own surrogacy company and recruited surrogates nationwide.

Melissa Brisman, an attorney for two of the surrogates, told CBS News that the charges were welcome. “This is wonderful news that people will be held responsible for their actions and there will be consequences if you abuse the surrogacy system,” she said, adding that protections are needed so that “bad actors don’t ruin it for everyone else.”

Some surrogates expressed anguish. Maria Castellanos, who carried two children for the couple, said, “I’m mad that everyone involved couldn’t stop this so the kids wouldn’t go through everything they went through.” Kayla Elliot, a surrogate from Corpus Christi who carried one of the children, described the allegations to ABC7 as “horrific” and “damaging emotionally.”

Xuan’s attorney, Mitchell Krems, has denied wrongdoing. “My client is innocent. It is the nanny’s wrongdoing who went on the run,” Krems told CBS News. He said Xuan fired the nanny after learning of the abuse and that the couple is being unfairly scrutinized because of their large family and Chinese background. The size of the family, he told NBC News, stems in part from Xuan’s experience in China under its former one-child policy and his desire to have many children. “He’s exercising his civil liberties to be able to have as many children as he wants,” Krems said. “There’s no law against that.”

What Is Next

Prosecutors sought $100 million bail for each defendant, citing flight risk and the nature of the charges. A judge set bail at $20 million each with home detention and a protective order barring contact with the children. A bail review hearing is scheduled for Monday.

The case remains under investigation by the Arcadia Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Special Victims Bureau, and the FBI has served a separate search warrant at the home. As the legal proceedings move forward, the case is also likely to intensify scrutiny of surrogacy oversight: how a couple could recruit surrogates nationwide while concealing the size of their family, and what safeguards might prevent similar alleged exploitation. The charges filed are allegations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.