‘House Of Horrors’: Arcadia Couple Arrested In Abuse Case Involving 13+ Surrogate-Born Children

ARCADIA, CA — A couple was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of conspiracy to commit child abuse after investigators learned more than a dozen children born through surrogates were subject to punishment that included beatings in their posh Arcadia home.

Guojon Xuan, 66, and his wife, Sylvia Zhang, 39, were arrested by deputies from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Special Victims Bureau, according to department spokeswoman Nicole Nishida.

At a news conference Tuesday morning, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman and Sheriff Robert Luna detailed what they called "horrific abuse" in a "house of horrors."

The investigation was launched by Arcadia police after Zhang brought the couple's 2-month-old son Walter to Children's Hospital Los Angeles, where doctors found the infant had a brain bleed.

Chunmei Li, the nanny charged with assaulting the child by striking the side of his head, fled to China before police could get her into custody.

After Arcadia police began investigating the case and arrested the couple in May 2025, authorities took custody of the children born via surrogate and under Xuan's and Zhang's care with the assistance of nannies.

According to an earlier statement from Arcadia Police Department Lt. Kollin Cieadlo, the hospital notified them on May 7, 2025, that a 2-month-old infant had been admitted with a traumatic head injury and brain bleeding.

Detectives responded to a home in the 600 block of West Camino Real, where a search warrant was served, Cieadlo said.

Seized surveillance cameras showed a nanny employed by the infant's parents violently shaking and hitting the child on May 5, causing the baby to lose consciousness, according to Cieadlo.

"Despite being made aware of the incident, the child's parents failed to seek timely medical attention," Cieadlo said in a statement. "The child was not transported to the hospital until two days later, after the onset of seizures."

On May 9, 2025, arrest warrants were issued for the parents and the nanny, 56-year-old Chunmei Li.

Zhang and Xuan were arrested on suspicion of felony child endangerment/neglect, with bail set at $500,000 each, Cieadlo said.

They were subsequently released, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department inmate records.

Li remains at large.

"As a result of the investigation, the (county) Department of Children and Family Services was notified and responded to the residence," Cieadlo said. "The remaining children in the home were taken into protective custody."

Hochman called it "an unprecedented case of child abuse," and offered a warning to those listening before describing the alleged treatment of the children, who ranged in age from months to 5 years old.

In early September 2025, Arcadia police requested assistance from the sheriff's department, whose Special Victims Bureau took over the probe.

After warrants were served Tuesday morning at the home, the couple was arrested and taken to Superior Court in Pasadena to be arraigned on suspicion of conspiracy to commit child abuse.

According to Hochman and Luna, the parents typically monitored the abuse from 32 motion-activated cameras and microphones set up in three rooms ostensibly used as "learning centers."

Another room had no surveillance, but children's screams could be heard after children were brought in, according to the criminal complaint filed Tuesday.

Hochman said prosecutors would seek $100 million bail for each defendant given the nature of the allegations and an extreme flight risk.

There is a $105 million arrest warrant.

The couple took up residence in the Arcadia home in April 2021, Luna said.

According to Hochman, the surrogates, who were paid tens of thousands of dollars, were lied to, with some of them being told Zhang was struggling to conceive and most, if not all, were not made aware that the couple had more than a dozen children.

The defendants allegedly used a spreadsheet to keep track of their own children.

"They set up a house of horrors for these incredibly young children," Hochman said, adding that the children would spend one to four hours a day seated at desks under the supervision of various nannies.

Xuan allegedly coached one nanny on how to discipline the children and even encouraged her to strike the children harder.

Hochman said Xuan joined in that situation, repeatedly hitting the child's buttocks and head and at one point lifting the tot by one arm and striking their head, which could be seen moving from side to side with each blow.

He was also recorded handling stacks of cash used to pay the nannies.

The children were coached not to disclose the abuse and to lie about the cause of any obvious injuries.

The nannies were also coached to not leave marks on the kids, Hochman said.

City News Service