LA Couple Lose Custody Case After Welcoming 27 Kids, Nearly All Under 3 Years Old, Via Multiple Surrogates

An L.A.-area couple who welcomed 27 children via multiple surrogates have reportedly lost custody of 20 of their kids.

The L.A. juvenile-dependency court decided to bypass family reunification for Silvia Zhang and Guojun Xuan, the couple at the center of a surrogacy scandal, according to an update to an investigation by Ava Kofman in The New Yorker that was published on May 11.

Per the report, 21 children, born to dozens of surrogates, were removed from the couple’s custody last year and will remain in foster care until they are placed into guardianships or adopted, likely by their foster families.

The case began in May 2025, when four detectives responded to a call about a 2-month-old named Walter who had been hospitalized with severe head injuries.

Upon entering the couple’s $3.2 million home in Arcadia, California, officers discovered what Sergeant Mario Castro of the Arcadia Police Department described to the outlet as something he had “never seen before” — a house filled with CCTV cameras, cribs, and classrooms where children, nearly all under 3 years old, sat at desks with shaved heads, per The New Yorker.

Zhang and Xuan told police all the children were theirs, conceived through surrogates across the United States recruited by their own agency, Mark Surrogacy. The couple was arrested last May on suspicion of child endangerment after surveillance footage from the home revealed alleged abuse by caregivers, according to The New Yorker‘s reporting. A dependency petition filed by the county alleged the parents knowingly allowed an environment of violence while delaying medical treatment for Walter.

What makes the case even more staggering is that since their arrest, the couple has had at least six additional children through surrogates in California, Georgia, Virginia, and Pennsylvania — bringing their total to 27, according to the report. Those newborns have also been placed in foster care across multiple states, the outlet reported.

Despite the graphic evidence collected from the home’s own cameras, no criminal charges have been filed. Arcadia Police Captain Kollin Cieadlo told the outlet that his priority remained getting “justice for Baby Walter,” but the case has yet to be resubmitted to the district attorney’s office, per the report.

Former surrogates who carried children for the couple have expressed horror at the revelations. Alexa Fasold, a Pennsylvania surrogate who gave birth in October 2025, told The New Yorker the ordeal still haunts her. “What we know right now is that he’s safe,” she said of the baby she carried. “He’s being taken care of.”