Alexa Fasold thought she was a substitution for a couple with fertility problems and was ready to give birth to a little boy this fall, after wearing an embryo transferred since January. She then learned that the agency she worked with was under investigation.
A couple behind the Arcadia agency, in California, was accused by substitutes for having directed a potential scam in which several women across the country transported embryos without knowing the same couple at the same time. Fasold first realized that something hurt only when the agency, Mark Mandorgacy Investment LLC, suddenly ceased to answer legal questions in May.
The couple, Silvia Zhang, 38, and her husband, Guojun Xuan, 65, residents of the Maison d’Arcadia and owners of Mark’s substitution maternity, were arrested this month suspected of endangering children and negligence, police announced. They were not charged and were released on bond while waiting for the investigation, police said.
“We were supposed to finish a family or help a family to start. And it turned into this horror film. ”
Alexa Fasold
According to the police, they discovered 21 children, mainly born of substitutes, linked to the couple. Fifteen of these children, the age of which varied from 2 months to 13 years, were found in the Arcadia home. The agency, which dissolved in June according to the public archives, was registered at this same address.
Six other children linked to the couple were found in family care and friends. All the children were recovered by the authorities following a call to the local hospital to the police to point out that a 2 month old baby had arrived with injuries to the head. Children are now in police custody.
Fasold, 26, said she was devastated and uncertain of what was going to happen to the baby she would wear. She could try to promote for a period, she said, and worked with a lawyer she kept in the early stages of the substitution maternity process.
“We have a broken heart for the baby and his future,” said Fasold, a bus coach bus driver based in Pennsylvania. “We were supposed to finish a family or help a family to start. And it turned into this horror film. ”
Fasold, who is married to children, is one of the many mothers who recently presented themselves to say that they also worked with the agency. Fasold said that she could not share the identity of the child’s parents she carries because her contract with Mark Warchacy lists a confidentiality clause.
Kayla Elliot, a 27 -year substitution For Zhang and Xuan, who delivered a baby in March, told NBC News that Mark Watchacy had told him that the couple had a teenager and had given up trying to have a second after 10 rounds of failed fertility treatments. Elliot said that she had learned that the baby she had been born was one of those who are currently with a host family.
Even if the agency’s details have surfaced, Fasold said that she had received an email from them recently that more than a week ago. The email, seen by NBC News, asked her for details on the hospital where she plans to deliver the baby. Fasold did not respond to the email.
“I understand that there is an investigation, but our main objective is now who will take the baby?” Where is the baby going to be? ” Fasold said. “We still don’t know where, but it’s a race against time to understand what it might look like.”
Attempts to reach Zhang and Xuan failed. He was not immediately clear if Zhang and Xuan had kept a lawyer who could speak on their behalf.
The Pennsylvania Ministry of Social Services did not immediately respond to the request for comments from NBC News. The Los Angeles District Prosecutor’s Office did not respond immediately.
The Department of Children and Family Services of the County of Los Angeles said in a statement that he could not share details on the “life of children and families that come to our attention”.
Video evidence recovered from the Arcadia home show that some of the young children were “subject to physical and emotional violence,” said a spokesman for the Arcadia police department last week. The authorities say they believe that Zhang and Xuan were aware of the abuses and “let this happen”.
Police is expected to submit the case again after examining the evidence to the district prosecutor in the following two weeks, Lieutenant Kollin Cieadlo told NBC News. An arrest warrant was issued in the case of the case for a 56 -year -old nanny, who said that the authorities were seen on the camera that trembled violently and hitting a 2 month old baby. The baby lost consciousness and was hospitalized, the police said, and was the subject of the appeal which sparked the investigation in May.
Fasold has said that in recent weeks, she has been in contact with the FBI and the child protection services. Her contract with Mark’s substitution maternity, indicates that she would not fight for parental rights. But Fasold said that new circumstances mean that there is a probability that the baby has a foster family, and she examines the requirements to become a reception parent.
The maternity process of substitution of Fasold began more than a year ago, when it sought to help certain knowledge in their fertility course, she said. Things did not finally work with the maternity substitution agency, which told her that she was medically disqualified in relation, she said. Fasold suspects that her pregnancy with her youngest child, who involved surgery of the gallbladder, finally excluded it as a substitution with this private agency, but she always hoped to find another way to participate in the process, she said.
It was at this point that Fasold began to ask for advice on Facebook and publish in substitution maternity groups, she said. Fasold and her husband initially had their hearts on another agency, but Mark the substitution maternity found them through their publications on social networks and stretched out, she said.
“They asked us what we were looking for, if we wanted to allow them to compete with the agency we found, if they could compete with remuneration, or if there is something more than we are asking in a business,” recalls Fasold.
Fasold said that, in retrospect, it was suspect that the company accepted all the conditions she and her husband wanted. Among other things, they had to remain anonymous in the process, with limited contact with the baby’s planned parents and no direct communication line with them, she said. Nor did they want parents to have complete control over pregnancy.
“Everything we are looking for in a parent is essentially what we have obtained, everything we said in a way,” said Fasold. “Looking back now, it should have been a red flag, because it happens very, very rarely. There is generally a compromise.”
After months of discussion, Fasold and her husband signed a contract with Mark’s substitution maternity in May 2024. The substitution maternity process generally costs couples between couples between couples between couples between couples between couples between couples between couples $ 125,000 at $ 175,000, Stephanie Levich, founder and president of Family Match Consulting, said today. Substitution costs, including medical tests and baby’s transport and delivery, race between $ 30,000 and $ 60,000. Fasold did not disclose his compensation.
“Once this baby was born, and after a moment of healing … my husband and I plan to travel another substitution maternity trip.”
Alexa Fasold
“We have jumped the pistol a little,” she said. “We have somehow chosen them because of flexibility, communication being pretty and that they never left an unanswered question for us.”
Fasold said the majority of its communication with the company had been made between Facebook Messenger and Email, with weekly recordings before the first transfer of embryos. The only face -to -face interaction she had with the company was after the transfer of embryo in September 2024,, She said. Although she expected that the parents planned to appear in the procedure, Fasold said that she was told that the couple was dealing with health problems that prevented them from witnessing it. But two representatives of Mark’s substitution maternity ward have rather greeted them, she said.
“They brought us a gift basket during our first transfer,” said Fasold. “They were excited. They were happy. ”
This first embryo transfer was not unrolled, said Fasold, and she suffered a miscarriage. But the second transfer, which occurred in January, succeeded. The red flags began to arise in mid-May, when Fasold said that his lawyer had tried to contact the company. Although they were generally quite reactive by email, they did not respond to the lawyers of the lawyer, said Fasold.
“When she tried to call the agency directly, it actually brings her to” the future maternity substitution of spring “,” said Fasold.
It was at that time, said Fasold, that the lawyer discovered the investigation linked to Mark’s substitution maternity. And a few weeks later, the agency’s commercial license was terminated.
The news has been a lot to resume, said Fasold. But she added that despite everything that happened, she always believes that substitution maternity is a “beautiful thing” and that her experience is not representative of the norm.
“There are good agencies, and there are good people,” said Fasold. “Once this baby was born, and after a moment of healing … my husband and I plan to travel another substitution maternity trip.”
