2 arrested after police find dead children in Northern California storage unit

Dec. 15, 2015: A commercial storage unit facility is shown where two children were found dead in Redding, Calif. (Andreas Fuhrmann/Record Searchlight via AP)

A child abuse investigation led police in Northern California to the bodies of two young children inside a commercial storage unit and a starving, injured 9-year-old girl at a house about 140 miles away, authorities said Tuesday.

A 3-year-old girl and 6-year-old boy were found dead on Friday at the storage facility in Redding, about 300 miles north of San Francisco. Homicide detectives were investigating and autopsies were planned for Wednesday. The names of the children were not released.

The investigation started with a call about possible child abuse in the small town of Quincy. Authorities found the 9-year-old at the Quincy home, Plumas County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release Friday. The unidentified girl was taken to a hospital. Her condition as of Wednesday remains unknown.

Officials later arrested a 17-year-old boy and a 39-year-old woman on abuse allegations related to the 9-year-old. Each remained jailed Tuesday on $1 million bail.

The investigation then led authorities about 140 miles northwest to the Redding storage facility where they found the two bodies.

Redding Police Lt. Pete Brindley wouldn't say whether the two children were killed in the storage unit or elsewhere.

Meanwhile, south of San Francisco, authorities searched a home in Salinas, where the teen and woman most recently lived. They did not say whether they found anything.

Social services had investigated the 39-year-old and her family within the last year for general neglect, said Elliott Robinson, director of social services for Monterey County.

KSBW-TV reported the woman’s 12-year-old twins were taken in by Child Protective Services upon her arrest.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.