How Could You? Hall of Shame-Orrin and Orson West (Classic and Cinsere Pettus)cases-Twin Children Deaths UPDATED Now Lawsuit

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From California City, California, adoptive parents Trezell and Jacqueline West reported Orrin and Orson West missing “at 8 p.m. Monday”[December 21, 2020] “and were last seen in the … Aspen Ave. Both were described as 3 feet tall, between 30 to 40 pounds, black hair, brown eyes and were wearing black sweatshirts and gray sweatpants. They were last seen Monday.

[Trezell West] said he appreciated the efforts of the community but declined further comment until police provided him with an update.

Anyone with information regarding the boys’ whereabouts is asked to call the California City Police Department at 760-373-8606.”

“The FBI is interviewing the adoptive parents of two California City boys, ages 3 and 4, who have been missing since Monday evening, according to investigators.

A search warrant has been served and evidence collected from the home of Trezol and Jacqueline West, the couple who adopted Orrin and Orson West in April 2019, said California City police Lt. Jesse Hightower. The couple is cooperating and at this point no one has been ruled out regarding the boys’ disappearance, he said, adding that some items need to be forensically examined.

California City police have reached out to several different agencies for assistance due to the nature of the investigation, Hightower said. Police have also contacted the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

The parents went willingly with officers at 3:45 p.m. after a police cruiser entered their driveway, police said. They were not handcuffed as they were taken in for questioning.

Police served the warrant just after 6 p.m. Tuesday. Officers left the house carrying several brown bags and a large duffel bag. The parents’ white van was towed.”

FBI interviewing adoptive parents of missing California City boys

[KGET 12/22/2020]
“The reward money for information about the whereabouts of two missing California City boys continues to grow.

On Monday, the extended family of Orson and Orrin West announced they were offering $30,000 for information leading to the return of the 3- and 4-year-old children. Added to the rewards other businesses and the city have already announced, and total compensation for pertinent facts is now $80,000.

“By far, it’s the highest reward ever in Cal City. I’m sure of that,” said Rick Jones, owner of Greenstone Cannabis Retail and Preferred Towing, which have offered a combined $20,000. “It’s the unknown that gets people going, and I think people are going to keep going and going and going until there’s some kind of closure.”

Jones said the involvement of two young children was the reason he got involved in the search. The boys have been missing since Dec. 21, when their adopted parents, Trezell and Jacqueline West, say they were last seen playing in their backyard on Aspen Avenue.

Their disappearance has caused a frenzy in the city of around 14,000 about an hour east of Bakersfield. Although California City Police Chief John Walker has said he suspects foul play, there have been no breaks in the case even as it stretches past the three-week mark.

“There’s all sorts of conspiracy theories out there,” said Carolinda Fleming, a California City resident who has searched adamantly for Orrin and Orson. “We’re hoping and praying that the boys are found healthy and they are unharmed, but if the worst case scenario does prevail, we at least need closure so these two little babies can rest in peace.”

Hundreds have taken up the search in both California City and Bakersfield, where Trezell and Jacqueline previously lived. Between 50 and 100 people gathered near Casa Loma and Lotus Lane in Bakersfield in the first week of January to search an area believed to be the couple’s residence before they moved.

Search organizer Adrian Saenz, with Bakersfield Street Media, said there’s speculation the children didn’t even make it to California City.

“It’s heartbreaking, and the story really doesn’t add up,” he said.

Communicating through the blogging platform Medium, the boys’ extended family said they did not hope to gain anything financially from the tragedy.

“We ask that you do not give to individuals who have already attempted to profit off of this horrendous situation involving six innocent children,” they wrote. “Again, we are not asking for money — we only want the boys found. If you want to give please contact officials in California City, California and (Bakersfield), California who are leading aspects of the investigation — they may have needs that can be supported financially by the general public.”

The California City Police Department did not respond to a request for comment Monday.

Even as no new evidence has become public knowledge, interest in California City has not waned.

“I feel like I was the day when we (were alerted), on Dec. 21,” Fleming said. “Find them, find what happened to them one way or another. Our community is a passionate community and we honor children, our elderly, everybody in the community. For something like this to be blamed on it happening in Cal City has us all in uproar.”

CCPD can be reached at 760-373-8606. The Bakersfield Police Department can be reached at 661-327-7111.”

Reward for information on missing Cal City boys grows to $80,000

[Bakersfield.com 1/11/21 by Sam Morgen]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Update:“The search continues for 4-year-old Orrin and 3-year-old Orson West. Authorities said the brothers vanished from the home of their adoptive parents in California City, California on December 21.

KGET reports the children were adopted by 31-year-old Jacqueline West and 34-year-old Trezell West after the children were placed in their care through the foster program.

Jacqueline reportedly said she was wrapping Christmas presents around 4 p.m. that day when she let the children go around back to play on the patio with chalk. Trezell claims he went out to get wood for a fire, walked past the brothers, and went back inside. Soon after, Trezell claims he went back outside and the boys were gone. He says he realized he may have left the gate open. Police were called just before 6 p.m., according to reports.

Searches took place through the area that night, but California City Chief of Police Jon Walker, who was leading the investigation at the time, said, “What I do truly believe: That night there’s no way that they could have got out of that neighborhood without some sort of assistance from an adult.” K9’s were reportedly sent inside to track the children’s scent, but the chief added the dogs did not “smell the children leaving the house.”

At the beginning of the investigation, investigators dug up the backyard, searched the town and nearby desert, but didn’t reveal any new information regarding the children’s whereabouts.

“Those are our babies and we want them back,” said Trezell West to KGET.

After countless searches and following up on many tips, in early March 2021, the FBI and Bakersfield Police announced they are now leading the investigative effort. Police Chief Gregory Terry said his department, which is located 76 miles east from where the boys vanished, has been involved since the start of the investigation. Terry added that it “made sense” to take the lead role. His department is continuing to work diligently to figure out what happened to these children.

Less than two weeks after the announcement, on March 12, investigators executed a search warrant at a home in East Bakersfield related to this case.. According to an update on the Bakersfield Police Department Facebook page, “This information is being provided in response to numerous media inquiries regarding the facts and circumstances of the search. Search warrants are a normal investigative tool used in all types of investigations, and a standard investigative/legal measure to protect the rights of persons,” the post adds. KGET reports the warrant was at the home of the brothers’ adoptive grandparents.

BPD says a neighbor’s camera captured footage of the West’s side yard the night the boys disappeared, and the video corroborates with Trezell’s story. Police added that the adoptive grandmother was the last person besides the adoptive parents to have seen the boys.

The last time Trezell and Jacqueline West have spoken publicly or given any update on the missing boys was December 23. Not long after, they left their house in California City and police say they now live in Bakersfield.

Since their move, someone threw a rock through a window at the California City home. Another person hung a large sign over the porch asking, “Where are the boys?”

Reports say Jacqueline and Trezell have six children and four of the six are adopted. California City officials confirmed the other four kids were taken into foster care, where they will stay until a court case is settled.

The West’s extended family has released three statements over the past few months. According to those statements, the family is offering a $30,000 reward for anyone with information leading to the boys. Other statements asked for the community to stop attacking their family, and most recently, Trezell’s mother has pleaded for help bringing her grandsons home.

A spokesperson for CPS told KGET in March that there will also be a court case to determine “whether or not [Orrin and Orson] can or should be returned to their adoptive parents.”

Orrin and Orson’s biological mother, Ryan Dean and extended family members have held several vigils and search parties, in addition to raising awareness through social media and banners.

“It’s hard but we have to stay strong for the parents, the mother and them,” the biological cousin of the brothers, Rosanna Wills, told KGET. “The community’s been doing their part in a major way. Without them, we’d be lost.”

Dean said she lost her children to the state when Orrin was injured and she took him to the hospital for a broken thigh bone. Dean said she doesn’t know how the injury occurred, but CPS placed the boys in foster care, and she hasn’t seen them since 2018.

“I have a good background. I don’t have a police record, never been in jail,” Dean said to KGET.

The biological family raised money to put up three billboards in Bakersfield seeking information on the children’s disappearance. Another two people, unrelated to the family, paid to put up three more billboards throughout Kern County.

“Their faces shouldn’t be on a billboard at all,” Diondra Key, from the biological family, said to KGET. “They should be with their family.”

Chief Terry said at this point, “everyone is being looked at” and no suspects have been named in this case. They will continue to explore all possibilities.

If you know anything about the disappearance of these two brothers, please contact Kern Secret Witness at (661) 322-4040 or the Bakersfield Police Department at (661) 327-7111.”

Toddlers Orrin and Orson West Still Missing From California

[Investigation Discovery 4/21/21 by Michelle Sign]

“The Bakersfield Police Department released a case update for the disappearance of Orrin and Orson West, who went missing on Dec. 21, 2020, in California City.

According to BPD, in connection to this case, 83 people have been interviewed, 44 search warrants have been conducted on residences and electronic devices, 170 items have been seized, over 200 tips have been received, `16 mass area searches have been conducted and three searches have been conducted outside of California.

The West boys, 3-year-old Orson and 4-year-old Orrin, have been on the minds of law enforcement officers and the community for over five months now. Many questions remain surrounding their disappearance.

The California City Police Department originally investigated the case, as the last place the boys were seen was at the home of their adoptive parents in Cal City. The adoptive parents Trezell and Jacqueline West said the boys were playing with chalk in the backyard when they suddenly went missing.

Since that initial investigation, Cal City PD, the Federal Bureau of Investigations, Kern County Sheriff’s Office and BPD have assisted in the investigation. BPD took over the investigation on March 1.

According to the latest facts released by BPD, all associated family members including the adoptive and biological parents have been interviewed by police, some on multiple occasions.

Police said this case “is not a cold case.” BPD said a detective has been assigned as the full0time lead investigator along with a team of detectives and crime analysts.

BPD said they are working closely with experts from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, along with ‘technical experts’ from the FBI.

Anyone with information regarding this case is asked to call BPD at (661) 327-7111.”

Bakersfield Police release case update for missing West boys
[Turn to 23 6/1/21 by Veronica Morley]

Update 2: “Key pieces that are slivers of hope the family of missing brothers Orson and Orrin have been gripping onto for the past 10 months.

“I don’t feel like the boys are deceased, I feel like someone might have them and it might not be in California, but I don’t know,” Keisha Stevenson, a friend of the biological family, said.

“We are using every legal means to figure out what and get the facts and circumstances of what occurred,” Pair said.

“We are the only ones out here, including the supporters who are pushing for the boys, we haven’t heard anything from the adoptive side of the family,” Rosanna Wills, biological cousin of the boys, said.

“It’s one of those situations where you open a door and that door leads to a hallway, and it leads to another hallway, we haven’t reached the end of our journey,” Pair said.

But the hope remains that they will get an answer to the question that’s been asked over and over for the past 10 months: where are the boys? ”

“Anyone with information on the boys or their disappearance is asked to call the Kern Secret Witness hotline at 661-322-4040. The reward for information leading to the boys’ whereabouts is set at $125,000.”

10 months later: Orrin and Orson West remain missing from California City
[KGET 12/21/21 b y Christian Galleno]

Update 3: Classic and Cinsere Pettus were their names. In March 2022, “an investigation determined they are deceased.”  Trezell and Jacqueline were arrested.

“The biological mother of two small California boys who died while in the state foster care system has filed a federal lawsuit alleging her sons were unlawfully taken from her and placed with foster parents who are now charged with killing them.

Four-year-old Classic Pettus and 3-year-old Cinsere Pettus were reported missing from their foster family’s backyard in the desert town of California City on Dec. 21, 2020. The boys, who were Black, have not been found and Kern County prosecutors said in March that an investigation determined they are deceased.

The foster parents, Trezell West and Jacqueline West, have pleaded not guilty to multiple charges including two counts of second-degree murder. Their criminal trial is scheduled to begin next month.

The civil rights and wrongful-death lawsuit filed June 17 by the boys’ birth mother, Ryan Dean, and grandmother, Dana Moorer, names the Wests as defendants along with Kern County Human Services and the California Department of Social Services.

It alleges the foster home was a “state-created danger” that led to the eventual disappearance and deaths of the two boys. The lawsuit seeks $40 million in monetary damages.”
Mom of 2 California boys who died in foster care files federal lawsuit
[CBS 6/21/22 By AP]

A search of Court Cases files of Kern County reveal that Trezell and Jacqueline West will be tried on 10/24/22.

A search of Court Case files of kern County reveal that a jury trial is scheduled for 1/30/23.

Update 4:“After weeks of hearings and testimony, 12 jurors came to the conclusion that Trezell and Jacqueline West were guilty in five of the seven counts in connection to the deaths of their adoptive sons Orrin and Orson West.

In regards to Orrin West, Trezell and Jacqueline were found guilty of murder second-degree, involuntary manslaughter, willful cruelty to a child, and false report of an emergency.

In the case of Orson West, they were both found guilty of willful cruelty to a child, and false report of an emergency.

The jury was hung on conspiracy to commit a crime and murder second-degree in regards to Orson. After being asked by the jury, the foreman of the jury said they would not be able to come to a verdict on those counts.

The Cal City couple originally reported Orrin, 4, and Orson, 3, missing on December 21, 2020. Police immediately responded and began searching the area. Aerial searches were brought in, cadaver dogs, and even the community organized search parties for the children.

Still, the bodies of Orrin and Orson have never been found.

As the prosecution laid out in court, investigators quickly began to suspect foul play on the part of the parents. All of this is based on the statements of four children under the age of eleven.

Officer Brian Hansen was sent to interview the Wests’ other children, who were with Trezell’s mother Wanda. He asked each child if they understood the difference between a truth or a lie. The children were able to exhibit that they did. He then asked if they knew it was wrong to kill someone. Again, the children said yes.

During the trial, the prosecution pointed to these interviews as the first pieces of evidence that something had happened to Orrin and Orson. The defense, on the other hand, said these interviews were improper, with leading questions that had no established timeline. Defense counsel argued that the children gave conflicting statements and were confused when answering questions.

Recordings of these interviews showed the children at times saying that Orrin and Orson weren’t in the van when they were brought to Wanda’s, that they were only in Cal City for a few days, or that they hadn’t seen them since the family moved from the Casa Loma apartments in Bakersfield.

The defense argued that after these interviews, Hansen delivered information that something happened to Orrin and Orson, causing the investigation to focus on Trezell and Jacqueline.

The couple was brought in to speak with Hansen, Bakersfield Police Detective John Ryan, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Recordings of the interview with Jacqueline were played during the trial. In those recordings, Jacqueline is grilled for hours about her story not matching Trezell’s or statements from other family members. By the end of the interrogation, Jacqueline is frustrated having said repeatedly that she’s said the truth, and tells Ryan that she regrets getting the police involved.

While Trezell and Jacqueline were questioned by investigators, their children were brought to the Jamison Center to be interviewed by social worker Sunya Barton.

During an interview on Dec. 28, the Wests’ eldest biological son said that one night heard strange noises coming from Orrin’s bed. He said, in a recorded interview, that the following day he saw vomit coming from Orrin’s nose, his parents said Orrin had died, and that he even touched his body and it was cold.

The child said that he didn’t tell anyone because his parents said that he and his brothers would get taken away.

The defense argued that the story the child told Barton was the result of days of interrogation, exposure to media coverage, and improper questioning. They brought in Dr. Susan Napolitano, a child psychologist, to review the interviews and testify to leading and suggestive questions.

In her review, Dr. Napolitano said she heard moments where Barton used techniques like social pressure to influence the child. At one point during the recording, Barton is referring to alleged abuse and tells the child that all his brothers had described it so why doesn’t he? Dr. Napolitano said this was improper and could have caused the child to begin answering questions in order to please Barton rather than to tell the truth.

The prosecution revealed that Dr. Napolitano was being paid between $35,000 to $42,000 to testify for the defense and that she only reviewed a few of the interviews and not the 2,000-page offense report.

While the defense argued that the investigation was unjustly aimed at Trezell and Jacqueline, the prosecution began to highlight ways that their stories didn’t match. The prosecution said Jacqueline claimed she had looked for the boys and ran down the street to search, but there was no surveillance video showing this. In fact, call records from that night showed Jacqueline had been on the phone with her eldest son for four to five minutes during that period.

Call records also discredited other statements from Trezell and Jacqueline, like when the family visited Maria Martinez for her birthday on Dec. 5. Jacqueline said her mother was not home so they only dropped things off and left. Martinez however said the family stayed while Trezell went to get food, and she didn’t recall seeing Orrin and Orson. Cell phone records show the couple in different parts of Bakersfield that day.

Martinez testified many times that she didn’t see the family much after the move to Cal City. She visited once to talk to Jacqueline and, while she saw several children in the home, she didn’t focus on who was there.

Trezell’s mother, Wanda, said that when she went to babysit the Wests’ children on Sept. 19, she knew she was only watching the four older boys and assumed Orrin and Orson were with Martinez. However, Martinez said she didn’t watch the boys.

Investigators began to suspect that this was what led the couple to plot. They suspected Orrin died just before the family moved to Cal City and because they were worried that Wanda would ask questions after seeing Orson, they decided to kill him. The prosecution argued that this gave the couple three months to discard the bodies, get rid of their cell phones and change their numbers, and finish moving.

Then Christmas approached.

During the trial, Wanda and her husband Phillip testified that they had been planning to visit the family in Cal City. Wanda even said she had sent presents and asked the couple for a family photo in front of the fireplace. She never got that photo.

The prosecution believed this put pressure on the couple, which ultimately led them to decide to report the boys missing.”

Trezell and Jacqueline West guilty in five of seven counts
[ABC23 5/22/23 by Veronica Morley]