3 days ago
Huge fortress home where couple harbored 21 children was set up like a hotel
From the outside, the imposing castle-like design and gated exterior made the $4.1 million mansion appear like a fortress.
Residents admired it as they walked their dogs through the high-end California neighborhood of Arcadia - and assumed the family inside just enjoyed their privacy.
That's until they noticed heavily-pregnant women walking around the grounds.
For behind the walls lurked a dark secret, with mothers claiming the couple who lived there were running a chilling surrogacy scheme.
The owners, couple Guojun Xuan, 65, and Silvia Zhang, 38, made headlines after they were found to have harbored a staggering 21 surrogate babies in the house - 17 of which were under the age of three.
A neighbor, who asked not to be named, told the Daily Mail he suspected the couple were operating some sort of 'maternity house' for years - and would see cars driving in and out at all times of night.
He recalled: 'Some of them [the pregnant women] were Caucasian. They were exercising and walking around because maybe their backs hurt, or they want to go into labor.
'I heard rumors that this was set up like a hotel. There are nine bedrooms. The talk around the neighborhood is they even had a front desk manager, and it was like coming to a birthing hospital.'
Michael Bui, another neighbor, told Daily Mail, he would never see people go in and out and never heard crying.
Women who handed over babies to the couple said they believed they were helping to build a loving family and were oblivious to other surrogates recruited across the country, from Pennsylvania to Texas.
The alleged ruse continued for years - for reasons that California detectives and the FBI are yet to fully uncover - until the couple brought a two-month-old to the hospital with a traumatic head injury in May.
The hospital visit led to a search warrant on the lavish mansion, which turned up the horror discovery of not only the massive brood, but also indoor surveillance cameras depicting nannies 'physically and verbally' abusing the children, Arcadia Police said.
When Daily Mail visited the towering property this week, there was no sign of Xuan, Zhang, or anything showing dozens of children spent their childhoods there besides a dilapidated trampoline.
Xuan and Zhang were arrested after their May hospital visit and charged with child endangerment, while the Arcadia Police Department also issued an arrest warrant for one of the nannies, named as Chunmei Li, 56.
Neighbors told Daily Mail this week that residents on their Arcadia street keep to themselves, enjoying the sunny California weather in the peace of their mansions.
They said they were shocked to hear dozens of children lived in the home for years, as they had never seen any toys or strollers outside nor any children playing in the street.
Mark Tabal, who lives about a block and a half from the home, said he passes by the castle house several times a day to walk his dog, but had not met the couple.
He said: 'I've never seen any of the kids out here. It's a fairly quiet house and I've never seen the owners. Every once in a while, I see a gardener watering the bushes outside.
'It's pretty suspicious to hear the news and knowing this is the house but not hearing anything.'
Neighbor Art Romero told CBS News that the huge nine-bedroom, 11-bath home was set up like a hotel, with a large lobby and a desk at the front appearing like a hotel clerk.
It is unclear what the couple do for work or how they acquired their considerable wealth, with public records showing they are connected to a number of investment firms.
Surrogate mothers who gave their children to the couple have expressed horror at the allegations, saying they believed Zhang and Xuan were clients of a surrogacy company. The FBI is now investigating whether they misled mothers across the country.
After the shock allegations made headlines this week, an image emerged showing Zhang smiling at the birth of one of the children, hugging surrogate mother Kayla Elliot, 27, from Texas.
In an interview with Center for Bio Ethics and Culture on TikTok, Elliot revealed that when Zhang met her at the hospital, she was handed $2,000, and her mother, boyfriend, son and daughter $200 each.
She said that Zhang appeared unemotional about the birth and that she 'wasn't holding the baby.'
She said: 'The baby was wrapped in a bassinet... you would think that somebody that wanted a baby so bad would be holding on that baby and loving that baby and just in awe with that baby.'
Another surrogate mother in Pennsylvania, who asked to remain anonymous, revealed to KTLA that she is currently still pregnant with a baby intended for the couple.
The 15 children found in the home were aged between two-months and 13-years-old, and six others had been given away. All 21 were taken into the custody of Department of Children and Family Services.
Bui said on the street outside the home this week that the staggering allegations have left their quiet neighborhood searching for answers.
He asked: 'Did they send them to school?
'I don't know why no one found out about the people who carried the children. Twenty-one children! What do you want to do with all of those children?'
Surrogate Elliot, 27, is now fighting to regain custody of a baby girl she gave to the couple.
She said that she was told that the baby was going to a loving family who only had one child, and believed Xuan and Zhang were clients of a surrogate firm that investigators now allege they owned.
She told ABC7: 'It's horrific, it's disturbing, it's damaging emotionally.
'These agencies, we're supposed to trust them and follow their guidance and come to find out this whole thing was a scam, and the parents own the agency - that was not disclosed at all beforehand.
Zhang has denied the allegations, and told KTLA that officials are 'misguided and wrong... We look forward to vindicating any such claims at the appropriate time when and if any actions are brought.'
Despite Zhang's alleged claim that she just wanted a large family, one expert fears the mega-family may have been connected to trafficking.
Kallie Fell, executive director of the nonprofit Center of Bioethics and Culture, told ABC7 that while the couple may not have broken the law by having so many surrogate children, the situation made her fear they were part of a human trafficking ring.
Fell, who is working with Elliot, said that the surrogacy industry is unregulated, and often, 'anything goes.'
She said: 'These clinics, these agencies are not regulated by any governing body.
'That to me smells of trafficking... What are the intentions of having that many children at home through these assisted reproductive technologies?'
