In May 2025, a two-month-old baby was taken to hospital after suffering a head injury. The child's name was Walter and he lived in Arcadia, a wealthy area of California.
According to the police report, the woman, who identified herself as Walter's mother, said the child had accidentally fallen off the bed.
But the doctor did not find this right. He said that Walter's injuries were more like those caused by a car accident than by a fall from bed. Such injuries could have occurred even if the child was shaken too fast.
The doctor suspected that the child was being abused. After this the police searched the luxurious mansion where Walter lived.
Prosecutors described it as a 'house of terror'
Police briefly detained her parents, 66-year-old Guojun Xuan and 39-year-old Sylvia Zhang.
According to prosecutors, what was found inside the mansion could only be described as a "house of terror."
There were cameras installed throughout the mansion and there was a network of rooms inside. There lived 14 children aged six months to three years, who were born through surrogacy.
Prosecutors allege that these children were beaten every day.
Later the officials came to know that a surrogacy agency was also registered at the address of the mansion. This agency was run by Xuan and Zhang and through this they had selected many women for surrogacy.
The couple was arrested again in October this year. He has been accused of conspiring to abuse children.
Both have denied these allegations and are currently in custody. A bail amount of 20 million dollars i.e. 15 million pounds has been fixed for each of the two.
If found guilty, Shuan could face a maximum of 17 years and four months in prison. At the same time, Zhang can face a maximum punishment of 11 years and eight months.
What was found inside the luxurious mansion?
Xuan and Zhang were living in the same mansion in Arcadia since April 2021, where the police found 14 children born through surrogacy.
According to the online property listing, in the same year this mansion built in 10 thousand square feet i.e. 929 square meters was sold for 33 lakh dollars i.e. 24 lakh 80 thousand pounds.
This mansion has nine bedrooms, 11 bathrooms and a swimming pool with hot water.
This wealthy area located in the eastern part of Los Angeles has been named the "Chinese Beverly Hills" by the local media.
According to the most recent census of America, about 60 percent of the population here is of Asian and mainly Chinese origin. The income of the families living here is also much higher than most of the families in America.
But the government lawyers have made serious allegations regarding what the life of the children was like inside this luxurious mansion.
At a press conference in October after the charges were filed, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said, "So many young children were brought into this home through this process of surrogacy that this home can only be described as a 'house of horror' for these children."
According to the complaint, 32 cameras were installed in the mansion.
In the recordings of these cameras, small children were seen sitting near the tables for several hours.
There was no camera installed in one room of the mansion. But in the recordings of other cameras, the women taking care of the children were seen taking them inside that room.
After this, sounds of children screaming were heard from inside that room.
How did Walter get hurt?
The entire matter came to light after the injury of two-month-old Walter, who lived in the same mansion.
Government lawyers claim that these injuries were caused to Walter by his caretaker, a woman named Chunmei Li.
Lee has been accused of child abuse under circumstances that could have resulted in serious injury or death.
Lee is still absconding and has not been arrested.
However, the couple's lawyer Michel Krems has questioned the way the allegations were presented.
He said that based on the evidence he has seen so far, these allegations have been misrepresented.
According to the BBC's US news affiliate CBS News, Krems said his client Shuan is innocent.
CBS News quoted the lawyer as saying, "She is being targeted for exercising her constitutional right to have a large family."
How did this couple come to have so many children?
After finding so many children inside the mansion, a big question arose that how did all these children come to this couple.
The answer to this question is related to the system of surrogacy in America and the people coming from other countries for it.
America has become one of the major destinations for surrogacy in the world.
Surrogacy means that a woman carries and gives birth to a child in her womb for another person or couple.
According to a 2024 study conducted on data related to surrogacy in America, about one-third of the people who became parents through surrogacy between 2014 and 2020 came from other countries.
Surrogacy is banned in China. According to the study, most of the international customers came from China.
About 42 percent of those who came to America from abroad and wished to become parents through surrogacy were Chinese.
One reason for this is that such services related to reproductive technology are available in America, which many people in China do not have easy access to in their country.
Single women and people from the LGBTQ community in China often face difficulties in accessing services like IVF and preserving their eggs.
There are some couples who were affected by China's one child policy that lasted for several decades.
This policy ended in 2016, but by then it had become physically difficult for some of them to conceive on their own.
For this reason some people chose the path of surrogacy in other countries.
Couple's own surrogacy agency
Xuan and Zhang also took the help of many women to have children. But in this case the relationship between the surrogacy agency and the couple is under question.
Court documents show that the women who gave birth to Xuan and Zhang were initially skeptical of their demands.
Many of these women were selected through an agency named 'Mark Surrogacy'.
Generally, a surrogacy agency is considered a third party separate from the parents and the woman giving birth to the child.
But later it was revealed that Mark Surrogacy was run by Xuan and Zhang only.
According to two lawsuits filed against the couple by some women involved in surrogacy, this information was not always told to the women.
In the company's registration document, Sylvia Zhang has been described as the manager of Mark Surrogacy.
In the same document, the Arcadia mansion where the police found the children is mentioned as the company address.
At a hearing held on October 16, Deputy District Attorney Mackenzie Cameron Taimuri told the judge that Xuan and Zhang ran the surrogacy agency from their home.
According to him, this agency never introduced any other person or couple to the surrogate woman.
What allegations did the women make?
Some women who gave birth to children for the couple have alleged that they were not given complete information about this surrogacy arrangement.
One of the women, Tronderica James, filed a lawsuit against the couple in 2025.
He made several allegations, including fraud and deliberate misinformation, and sought damages.
James alleges that in the initial phase, Zhang did not inform about her relationship with Mark Surrogacy.
She says that if she had known the truth about this arrangement, she would not have gone ahead with it.
James did not respond to the BBC's request for an interview.
Later the couple sought dismissal of the case.
He said that James did not have sufficient grounds to file a lawsuit.
This matter is still pending in the court.
Apart from this, five other women also filed a separate lawsuit against Guojun Xuan and Sylvia Zhang in August.
The names of these women are Stacey Raelynn King, Evelyn Senolos Areja, Kayla Elliot, Hailey Hernandez and Vanity McGovern.
These women also alleged that they were treated in a similar manner.
The lawsuit alleges that Zhang did not tell them about his and Xuan's relationship with the agency.
He also did not give information about how many children he already had.
"Each woman was led to believe that she was the only woman carrying a child for the couple and that she was helping a family have their only and much-loved child," the women's complaint said.
Help taken from other agencies also
Xuan and Zhang did not just arrange surrogacy through their agency.
The couple had also taken the services of an external agency named 'Babytree Surrogacy' of California.
BabyTree founder Patrick Yu told the BBC that Shuan had contacted him in 2018.
According to Yu, Xuan had told him that he wanted a big family.
The agency put Shuan in contact with many women. These women gave birth to at least four children.
Yu said, "When we saw on the news that he was being investigated, that's when I first learned that he had so many children. We immediately stopped working with him."
But by then another woman had moved forward in the surrogacy process through the agency.
The agency had contacted the couple with this woman in 2024. When news of Walter's injuries emerged in May last year, she was already pregnant.
Authorities had placed the couple's 21 children under government protection during a police investigation into alleged child abuse.
Yu told the BBC that he had arranged for the couple and the woman, who was recently pregnant at the time, to meet.
According to him, the couple confidently assured the woman that they take good care of the children.
After this the woman decided to continue the surrogacy process and gave birth to a child in early 2026.
Where is the deficiency in surrogacy law?
After this matter came to light, questions were also raised on the rules related to surrogacy.
According to Dr. Liang Yu, program director of reproductive clinical sciences at Old Dominion University, there is no limit in law on the number of times a person wishing to become a parent can apply for surrogacy.
There is no obligation to provide such information under the law.
Dr. Liang is also the vice president of the 'Chinese Special Interest Group' of the 'American Society for Reproductive Medicine'.
He says that some banks or agencies may set such conditions at their own level, but there is no requirement for it in the law.
This means that a couple may be working with several different agencies at the same time.
He can do this even without giving his complete information to every agency.
Dr Liang says, "This creates a gap in the law and the rules of this business on which the situation is not clear."
He said that because of this gray area he has seen many such cases involving wealthy customers. These do not include only people from China.
But due to privacy protections and confidentiality agreements made with doctors and fertility clinics, most cases do not come to the public's attention.
She says, "In other words, behavior like Shuan has happened before."
The BBC contacted Xuan and Zhang's lawyers to get their views on these allegations.
Michel Krems, representing both, did not respond.
Matt Kouhanim, representing Zhang, said the case would be addressed through the proper legal process.
Who are Xuan and Zhang?
With such a large family and relations with many surrogacy agencies, the economic and social background of the couple also came to light during the investigation.
In the hearing held on October 16, Taimuri told the judge that in 2025, the couple's net worth was much more than $ 100 million, or seven and a half million pounds.
Taimuri also told that three passports of Shuan have been found. These include passports of Mexico, China and America.
According to local Chinese media, Xuan was born in 1959 in Zhejiang, eastern China.
At the age of 18, he started working as an accountant in a government grocery company in Urumqi.
In 1997, he became the representative of the People's Congress of Urumqi.
After this, in 2008 he became the representative of Xinjiang Autonomous Region. This post was like a representative of a state in the provincial level legislative body.
Even after going to America, his activism in public life did not end.
He became the President of 'US Xinjiang Chamber of Commerce' and Vice President of 'China America Federation'.
Wang had accepted the serious crime charges leveled against him.
Little information is available about Zhang. She worked as a real estate agent.
According to court documents, Xuan and Zhang were never married.
Zhang was married to another man, from whom she was divorced in 2022.
What will happen to the children now?
Amidst the ongoing cases against the couple, the biggest question is about the children who are related to this family.
In the hearing held earlier this month, Taimuri told the judge that a total of 26 children belong to this family.
According to the complaint, till May 2025, Zhang had recorded the information of a total of 21 children in a spreadsheet.
These children have been removed from the couple and kept under government protection.
BBC's American affiliate CBS News had reported in January 2026 that five more children were born after this.
A baby girl born through surrogacy is still living with the woman who gave birth to her in Virginia.
The name of this woman is Melissa Apps and the couple had chosen her for surrogacy.
When Epps learned about the investigation last year, she was pregnant.
After this he decided to keep the girl with himself.
The couple filed a lawsuit accusing Apps of breaching the surrogacy agreement.
Along with giving back the girl, he also demanded 1 million dollars from Apps.
Initially, Epps did not have a lawyer and had to present his case in court himself.
Later, Virginia Legal Aid Society lawyer Pamela DeCamp took over his case.
Apps refused to give an interview to the BBC.
In a statement to the BBC, their lawyer DeCamp said they were "extremely grateful for the efforts of the District Attorney of Los Angeles, California to bring justice to these young children."
This case will continue till March next year.
The girl is under the protection of the Department of Social Services, but is currently living with Epps. Recently he celebrated his first birthday.
DeCamp said, "She is safe and happy in Virginia. We are confident that she will remain so in the future."
