How a California mansion filled with surrogate children became a 'House of Horrors'

How a California mansion filled with surrogate children became a 'House of Horrors'

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Mengchen Zhang

Global China Unit, BBC World Service

In May 2025, a two-month-old baby named Walter was taken to hospital in the affluent Californian suburb of Arcadia, with a head injury. A woman who claimed to be his mother said the baby had accidentally fallen from bed per police report. But something did not seem right to the doctor, who said Walter's condition felt more similar to injuries sustained during a car accident or from being shaken.

Suspecting child abuse, police searched the stately mansion where Walter lived and briefly detained his parents, Guojun Xuan, 66, and Silvia Zhang, 39. Prosecutors said what they found "could only be described as a house of horrors"- a camera-laced labyrinth with 14 surrogate children aged between six months and three, who they say faced beatings on a daily basis.

The address of the mansion, the authorities later discovered, was also registered to a surrogacy agency run by the couple and used by them to recruit multiple surrogates.

In October this year, the couple was arrested again and charged with conspiracy to commit child abuse. They deny the charges and remain in custody. The bond is set at $20m (£15m) each. If convicted, Xuan faces up to 17 years and four months in prison, while Zhang could face up to 11 years and eight months.

The couple moved into the Arcadia mansion in April 2021. Online listings show that the 10,000 sq ft (929 sq m) mansion sold for $3.3m (£2.48m) that same year. It features nine bedrooms, 11 bathrooms, and a heated pool.

This wealthy suburb on the east side of Los Angeles has been dubbed the "Chinese Beverly Hills" by local media. Almost 60% of its population was recorded as Asian in the most recent US Census and predominantly Chinese. Household incomes there are well above those of most US families.

"This house could only be described as a house of horrors for these incredibly young children that had been brought to this house through this surrogacy process," LA County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said at a press conference in October following the charges.

Thirty-two cameras were set up in the mansion, according to the complaint. Young children often spent hours sitting by the desks, footage showed. One room had no camera, but other cameras captured video of nannies carrying these children into that room, and children could then be heard screaming from inside.

Prosecutors claimed that baby Walter's injuries were caused by one of the nannies, Chunmei Li, and have charged her with child abuse under conditions likely to cause great bodily injury or death. Li remains on the run and has not been arrested.

The couple's lawyer Mitchell Krems said the allegation was a "mischaracterisation" based on the evidence he has reviewed, CBS News, BBC's news partner in the US, reported.

Krems said his client Xuan was innocent.

"He is being targeted for exercising his constitutional right to have a large family," CBS News quoted the lawyer as saying.

How did they get all these children?

The United States has become one of the world's leading destinations for surrogacy, which is when a woman carries someone else's child to term. A 2024 study of US surrogacy data found that nearly one-third of intended parents between 2014 and 2020 came from outside the country. China, where surrogacy is banned, was the single largest source of international clients, accounting for roughly 42% of foreign intended parents.

The United States offers assisted reproductive technological services that many people from China cannot easily access at home. Single women and LGBTQ individuals often face barriers to IVF and egg freezing. There are also couples who were limited by China's decades-long One-Child Policy and, by the time it ended in 2016, were physically challenged to carry a baby themselves, prompting some to turn to surrogacy abroad.

To surrogates who carried babies for Xuan and Zhang, their request to have a surrogate baby did not raise much suspicion at first, court documents reveal. Several surrogates were hired through an agency named "Mark Surrogacy". While an agency is often seen as an independent third party, Mark Surrogacy, it turns out, was run by the couple - a fact that was not always disclosed, according to two lawsuits filed against the couple by some of their surrogates.

Silvia Zhang was named the manager for Mark Surrogacy in a corporate registration record, and their Arcadia mansion is listed as the company's address in that same document. During the hearing on 16 October, Deputy District Attorney MacKenzie Cameron Teymouri also told the judge that there is not a single other-intended parent that was ever matched with a surrogate through the surrogacy agency that Xuan and Zhang ran out of their home.

One of the surrogates, Tronderrica James, sued the couple in 2025 for damages including fraud and intentional misrepresentation. She alleged that Zhang did not disclose her ties with Mark Surrogacy during the initial stage, and that she would not have proceeded had she known the true nature of the arrangement. James did not respond to the BBC's request for interview.

The defendants later filed a motion to dismiss the case, arguing the woman had no sufficient basis for a lawsuit. The case is still pending.

Another five women, Stacy Raelyn King, Evelyn Senolos Areja, Kayla Elliott, Hallie Hernandez, and Vanity McGoveran, alleged similar experiences in a separate lawsuit filed in August against Guojun Xuan and Silvia Zhang. The suit alleged Zhang failed to disclose her and Xuan's connections to the agency, and also the actual number of children they have had.

"Each Plaintiff was led to believe she was the only woman carrying for the couple, and that she was helping a family conceive a single, cherished child," their complaint alleged.

The couple had also used another outside surrogacy agency - California-based Babytree Surrogacy. Patrick Yu, Babytree's founder, told the BBC they were approached by Xuan in 2018.

Yu told the BBC that he was told by Xuan that he wanted to have a big family. They helped Xuan match with several women who delivered at least four babies.

"When we saw the news reports that he was under investigation, that was when I first realised he had so many children. We immediately stopped working with him," said Yu.

One of the women he helped matched in 2024, however, was already pregnant when news about Walter's injuries broke out in May last year. The authorities had placed their 21 children under protective custody while police investigated alleged child abuse.

Yu told the BBC he arranged a meeting for the couple and the then-newly pregnant surrogate. He described that the couple sounded very confident, reassuring the surrogate mother that they treat the children well. The woman decided to continue the journey and gave birth to a baby in early 2026.

There is no legal limit to the number of surrogacies an intended parent can request, neither is there any requirement to disclose such information, according to Dr Liang Yu, Vice Chair of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine's Chinese Special Interest Group and Program Director of Reproductive Clinical Science at Old Dominion University.

Liang said that certain banks or agencies might have their own requirements, but it was not required by law. And a couple might also work with several different agencies at the same time without fully disclosing all of their information to each agency.

"This creates a grey area in the law and in industry regulations."

Liang added that within that grey area she has seen many examples involving wealthy clients, not just Chinese ones. But because of privacy protections and confidentiality agreements signed with doctors and fertility clinics, most are not known to the public.

"In other words, this kind of behaviour (like Xuan) is not unprecedented."

The BBC approached the lawyers representing Xuan and Zhang about the allegations. Mitchell Krems - who represents both - did not respond. Matt Koohanim, who represents Zhang, said the case would be addressed through appropriate legal channels.

The parents

At a hearing on October 16th, Teymouri told the judge that their financial net worth substantially exceeded $100m (£75m) in 2025.

Teymouri added that found three passports for Xuan were found - Mexican, Chinese, and one from the US.

Xuan was born in Zhejiang in eastern China in 1959 according to local Chinese media. At the age of 18, he started as an accountant in a state-owned grocery company in Urumqi. He became a deputy of the People's Congress in Urumqi in 1997, and later, a deputy for Xinjiang Autonomous Region in 2008 - a position at the provincial legislative body similar to a state representative.

His involvement in public life did not stop after he moved to the US. He became the president of 'US Xinjiang Chamber of Commerce' and vice president of "China America Federation", showing up at public events as early as 2019.

In one photograph seen by the BBC, Xuan was holding hands with former Arcadia mayor, Eileen Wang, at an event in 2022. During Wang's mayoral election campaign that year, Xuan donated $4,900 through a company under his name. Wang resigned as the mayor of Arcadia in May this year after the US Department of Justice charged her with acting as an illegal agent of China. She pleaded guilty to the felony count.

There is less known about Zhang, who worked as a real estate agent. Xuan and Zhang were never married. Zhang was married to another man whom she divorced in 2022, according to court documents.

What is going to happen to the children?

At a hearing earlier this month, Teymouri told the judge that there are 26 children involved with this family.

Zhang kept a spreadsheet of a total of 21 children as of May 2025, according to the complaint. They have been removed to state custody. Five more were born since then, the BBC's US partner CBS News reported in January 2026.

One child born to a surrogate is still living with her surrogate mother in Virginia. Melissa Epps, a surrogate hired by the couple, was pregnant when she learned about the investigation last year and decided to keep the child.

The couple filed a lawsuit against Epps for breaching their surrogacy contract, demanding the return of the baby girl, in addition to a million dollars from Epps. Epps had no lawyers at first and had to represent herself in court, until Pamela DeCamp, attorney of the Virginia Legal Aid Society, took her case.

Epps declined an interview with the BBC. In a statement given to the BBC, her lawyer DeCamp said they were "very thankful for the efforts of the Los Angeles, California District Attorney to obtain justice for the young children".

Their case will continue until next March. The baby girl is under social service custody but currently living with Epps. She recently celebrated her first birthday.

"She remains safe and happy in Virginia. And we are confident she will continue to do so," said DeCamp.