Arcadia, Kari. (KTLA) – Surrogates from Texas to Florida thought they were carrying babies for a Southern California couple who struggled to have a second child due to infertility. Later, the women discovered that they were all representatives of the same couple.
Twenty-one children, ages 2 months to 13, have acquired protective custody.
Kayla, 27, from Texas, was one of the women who decided to become her agent.
“I love getting pregnant, but I raised my own family so I thought of a better way to raise my family and experience pregnancy,” Kayla told WFLA sister station in the Los Angeles KTLA.
Through an agency called Mark Surrogacy, Kayla coincided with a couple in Arcadia, California. After a successful embryo transfer via IVF, she gave birth to the baby on March 13th.
Two months later, Kayla is shocked to learn that the baby she carried is no longer with the intended parents. The child was placed in foster parents.
“It was something I never expected to happen. It’s almost incredible unless you’re living it,” she said.
Kayla later discovers that the baby she had was not the only baby away from home. Several children were taken to protective custody.
KTLA spoke with three other women who also say they are representatives of the same Arcadia couple. One of the women who gave birth in Florida in June – tragically, the baby was stillbirth.
The two Los Angeles County deputies say they carried the couple, who gave birth in March, and the other for the couple, who gave birth to two babies in 2022.
Official records list the Arcadia home as the Mark Surrogacy Address and as Sylvia Chang’s residence. In early May, Arcadia police began investigating child abuse, responding to the same home after a two-month-old baby was hospitalized with head injuries.
Arcadia police say the baby’s legal parents Zhang, 38, and 65-year-old Guojun Xuan, were arrested on May 9 on suspicion of felony child risk/negligence and warrants. They were later released.
Police alleged that the nanny abused the baby, and parents delayed seeking medical care for two days. The Department of Children and Family Services examined and excluded all children, a total of 21 children, from the couple’s custody.
Police say children range from 2 months to 13 years old.
They also told KTLA that Silvia Zhang was able to show that she is a legal mama on all birth certificates.
Public records show that in recent months, Mark Surrogacy has filed paperwork to close the company.
However, a Pennsylvania surrogate who asked to remain anonymous due to contractual restrictions says she is currently pregnant with a child for Mark’s surrogacy.
“We are carrying it for Mark’s surrogacy and it’s 26 weeks,” she told KTLA. “When this was all over, it really hit me hard.”
Through a text message from the phone associated with Zhang, he told KTLA: “The allegations of fraud are misplaced and incorrect. We look forward to establishing such claims when lawsuits are filed and at the right time.”
The baby, allegedly abused in early May, remains hospitalized. While parents were arrested, police say they were unable to find the nanny accused of injuring the child.
Arcadia police claim that 56-year-old Nanny Chunmai Lee was captured on a home security video.
Of the 21 children taken away, 15 were from Arcadia’s home, and six from other places where they were raising children at the time.
Police also say there is evidence of additional abuse involving other nannies and plans to present their findings to the district attorney soon.
Kayla says she launched a legal fee GoFundMe campaign and was interviewed by the FBI so that she could try to gain custody of the children she delivered.
Experts from the surrogacy community told KTLA the importance that the case requires additional regulations. Currently, there are no federal regulations regarding surrogacy, and laws vary from state to state.
For example, in California, there is no licensing requirement to start Surgacy Hanson, the founder and president of the Surrogacy Agency.
