Mom who says her job is 'Being The Best Mom' arrested after children were found dead in a storage

6 year old boy and 3 year old girl, dead

A woman who was arrested after the bodies of a three-year-old girl and six-year-old boy were found shoved inside plastic tote containers hidden a storage locker said her career was: 'Being The Best Mom I Can Be'.

Tami Joy Huntsman, 39, and her 17-year-old boyfriend, Gonzalo Curiel, are behind bars and facing charges of felony child abuse, torture, and mayhem, after the gruesome discovery in Redding, California, on Monday night.

Police were led to the remains after they discovered a 'severely abused' nine-year-old girl at an apartment Huntsman was taken. The youngster was taken into surgery suffering multiple injuries.

 

Sheriff Greg Hagwood said she weighed about 40 pounds, had broken bones in her shoulder, broken fingers, a dislocated jaw, and teeth that were missing or loose. 

 

Neither them or the nine-year-old girl had been enrolled in local schools.

Huntsman is a relative of the two homicide victims but not their mother. Her Facebook page lists her work as "Being the Best Mom I Can Be."

When Huntsman, Curiel, and the young children moved from Salinas to a friend's house in Quincy, Calif., Plumas County Child Protective Services alerted the sheriff because agents found a tortured 9-year-old girl. The girl was starving and dying.  

"Due to the circumstances surrounding the incident, further investigation was required for possible additional victims. This led to the discovery of two deceased (kids) inside a storage unit in the city of Redding," Peay said.

Autopsies are pending, and it was not immediately clear where or when the two children died.

 

Robinson's Monterey County office filed death reports for the two children, indicating that the kids may have died in Salinas.

The two homicide victims and the abused 9-year-old girl were siblings. Friends said Huntsman was caring for the children who were slain because their mother died after she was struck by a car while walking, and the father gave up custody.

Huntsman's 12-year-old twins (a boy and a girl) were taken by Child Protective Services agents when she was arrested.

Curiel and Huntsman remain  jailed with bail set at $1 million each. Curiel will be tried as an adult, prosecutors said Tuesday.

 

According to Plumas News, Curiel tipped off investigators that they would find the missing children's bodies in the storage locker.

 

Tami Huntsman and her brother, Wayne Huntsman, grew up in Santa Cruz. Wayne Huntsman is currently in prison and accused of intentionally igniting a massive wildfire in a national forest.

The Plumas County Sheriff's Office, Redding Police Department, and Salinas Police Department are investigating further circumstances surrounding the children's death.

 

"We are still deep into the investigation," Salinas Police Chief Kelly McMillin said.

Plumas County Sheriff Greg Hagwood said:

"This is an unspeakable tragedy. I don't understand. And I don't think anybody can fully appreciate the measure of suffering and pain and terror that people inflict on one another."

Elliott Robinson, director of social services for Monterey County, told KBSW that Huntsman and her family had been investigated for the last year, suspected of abusing their children.

 

Curiel and Huntsman remain jailed with bail set at $1 million each. Prosecutors said on Tuesday that Curiel will be tried as an adult.

 

The identities of the children have not yet been released. Their cause of death is also not yet known.