From NBC News:
Kayla Elliott thought she was helping a family who couldn't conceive by birthing a surrogate child for a couple in Southern California.
Instead, she said, she was caught in a web of deceit that led police to uncover 21 children, who were born to different surrogate mothers, living in the home of Silvia Zhang and Guojun Xuan in Arcadia, a suburb northeast of Los Angeles.
Zhang and Xuan were arrested in May on suspicion of felony child endangerment and neglect after a local hospital called police to report that a 2-month-old baby had arrived with head injuries, Arcadia police said in a statement.
A nanny who worked with the couple is suspected of violently shaking the child, causing the baby to lose consciousness. According to police, the parents were aware of the abuse but failed to seek timely medical help.
A warrant has been issued for the nanny, whom police haven’t been able to locate, police said.
Elliott said Wednesday that she was dumbstruck when she learned the child she bore was among them.
“I was a bit hysterical,” she said. “You just don’t expect that you’re going to go through a pregnancy and a delivery and then hand the baby over to their parents and then all of a sudden find out that there was abuse and neglect going on.”
Watch the news story here.