2 children found dead inside storage unit in Northern California

Police in Redding, Calif., have identified two children who have been reported missing but stopped short of identifying them as the victims found dead in a storage unit in the city on Monday.

Sheriff's officials then arrested a 17-year-old boy and a 39-year-old woman on suspicion of felony child abuse, torture and mayhem.

The Plumas County Sheriff's Office responded to a possible case of child abuse there and found a severely malnourished and abused child. The couple had arrived several days before six hours to the south, from Salinas, with the 9-year old girl and two 12-year old twins - a a girl along with a boy - who local media identified as the biological kids of Huntsman.

Tami Huntsman and Gonzalo Curiel were taken into custody from this apartment that same day.

"When you see what's been done to a lovely small 9-year old girl", Sheriff Hagwood told the Sacramento Bee before pausing to fight back tears. Huntsman and Curiel stayed at the Motel 6 in Dunnigan, CA on November 28, 2015.

"The System failed my niece and nephew", Laura Garcia Miranda wrote on a GoFundMe site set up to pay for their funeral expenses and for the care of a 9-year-old sibling found abused and in Huntsman's care last week. Redding is located in Plumas County and is about 300 miles from San Francisco.

A third abused child was hospitalized with undisclosed injuries, KSBW-TV reported. Their names haven't been released, and no charges have been filed in their deaths.

They were booked into the Plumas County Jail on charges of: Felony child abuse, torture and mayhem. They remained jailed Tuesday on $1-million bail. No other details were released. Child protective services in Salinas had investigated her family this year for "general neglect", said Elliott Robinson, director of social services for Monterey County.

Attorneys Douglas Prouty, who represents Huntsman, and Robert Zernich, who represents Curiel, both declined to comment, according to the AP.

Huntsman and Curiel, who had recently moved to Quincy from Salinas, have not been charged with murder in the deaths of the children, found Sunday in a unit at the AAA Enetrprise Store-All on Tarmac Road.

Officials are now searching a Salinas apartment belonging to an extended relative of the children. He declined to comment further.

She said it was about two weeks ago when she stopped seeing them around.

"The police came and they talked to us and asked us if we knew the three little kids", Sanchez said.