State report details history of murdered children's home life.

At the time Delylah and Shaun Tara were allegedly tortured and abused to death in the East Salinas home of Tami Huntsman, the Monterey County Department of Social Services had received five referrals of suspected child neglect to the home.

One of those cases, however, appeared in the system as an open case, even though the investigation into the allegations had been completed. This was an administrative issue, Monterey County Social Services Director Elliott Robinson notes.

Considering state law requires investigations on child abuse and neglect to be completed within 30 days after Social Services first contacts a family, this was jotted down as a crucial mistake in a report by California Department of Social Services Deputy Director Gregory Rose on how the Monterey Social Services department handled the cases of 3-year-old Delylah Tara, and her 7-year-old brother, Shaun, whose bodies were found stuffed in a plastic bin at a Redding self-storage unit.

That referral appeared in the system as an open case for more than 100 days. 

This is among the hundreds of revelations made in the state report.

Huntsman, 39, along with her 17-year-old companion Gonzalo Curiel, are accused of murder and torture in the child killings, as well as abuse, mayhem and torture of a 9-year-old girl who was found locked in a car in Plumas County. Prosecutors are deciding whether to seek the death penalty against Huntsman, whom officials confirmed is currently pregnant. Curiel, who turns 18 today, is not eligible for the death penalty.

A court hearing will be held in the coming weeks to decide whether Curiel will remain in juvenile hall or be transferred to Monterey County Jail.

The state report, dated Feb. 16, was released today to the Weekly and at least one local television station in response to a Public Records Act request.

As previously reported, Monterey County Social Services received five “referrals,” meaning that on five occasions officials were asked to investigate reports of child neglect at the Huntsman home. In addition, Salinas Police received at least two anonymous calls reporting abuse or neglect at the home.

The murdered children’s father gave Huntsman, the cousin of the murdered children’s mother, custody of the children and their 9-year-old half-sibling. The children’s mother was killed in a car accident in 2013, and the father was incarcerated at the time he gave informal Huntsman custody of the children.

Shaun and Delylah's interactions with Social Services officials were numerous in their short lives. From 1998 to 2015, their families had at least 53 social referrals, in San Bernardino, Monterey, Los Angeles and Riverside counties. Huntsman has two referrals in 1997 and 1998—before the murdered children were born—in her record.

Those referrals cover not just Shaun and Delylah, but also the other children.

Other findings, according to the 7-page executive summary and 140 pages of investigative reports:

• In one instance, a social worker failed to physically observe one of the alleged victims; an aunt indicated one child was sick and there’s no documentation on the location of the other two victims;
• In another instance, a social worker did not conduct a detailed body check on each child after physical abuse was disclosed by the children. This means that a social worker didn’t remove the clothing of to check if the children had any obvious physical injuries;
• During a second referral, body checks were performed on two children, but not on the child who was allegedly physically abused. “The family was evasive, preventing the social worker’s physical evaluation,” the report states.

In August 2015, a social worker was unable to complete her assessment due to the family becoming evasive. The only observations of possible neglect was that the children were "really skinny," that Delylah was "infested with lice," and the house was "infested with cockroaches."

After this visit, Social Services' final recommendation was to do nothing, unless the family came back to the attention of the department.

Still, a dozen attempts in September by social workers to contact Huntsman and do follow-up checks on the family, were unsuccessful. 

The next time the department would be made aware of possible neglect, was in December 2015, when an anonymous caller reported the children missing. Days later, the children's bodies were found decomposed in the storage unit.

Social Services workers had access to the complete family history, including the home of the Taras' biological parents from before they moved in with Huntsman.

The long referral history for the family spans 12 pages, which were attached to a social worker’s April 9, 2015 write-up about the latest referral, when a neighbor called in reporting small children were left outside unattended all day.  

That history is a long list of dates, allegations, and findings on multiple children. Alleged physical abuse and neglect on Nov. 15, 2010: “inconclusive”; alleged neglect on Jan. 19, 2011: “substantiated”; alleged neglect on July 31, 2013: “unfounded”; alleged neglect on Aug. 28, 2014: “unfounded.”

And that's just for Shaun and Delylah.

The names of the other children have been redacted to protect their privacy, but there are dozens of referrals pertaining to those children as well.

Alleged emotional abuse on June 2, 1998: “substantiated”; alleged neglect on June 13, 2010: “unfounded”; alleged sexual abuse on Aug. 4, 1998: “substantiated”.

“One of the tragic things about child abuse is that it too often jumps generations,” says Robinson.

Check back for updates; this story will be updated. 

Nic Coury contributed to this report.