While adoptive parents Rafael and Mirabel Loera are sitting in jail, accused of letting a child die in their care, another parent is coming forward.
Priscilla Marquez said the remains found in the Loera's Phoenix home last week were her biological daughter.
"Her birthday just passed," Marquez explains.
"She was supposed to be 13 and I’m never going to hold her in my arms again," she said through tears.
This all unfolded on January 20 when Phoenix police went to a home near 59th Avenue and Camelback Road for a welfare check.
They say an 11-year-old girl called for help after she was left home alone. DCS took that girl away and 8 days later came back to take a 9-year-old boy and 4-year old girl.
Investigators said about an hour after that, the home was set on fire. When crews came to put it out, they found the remains of another child.
The children's adoptive parents, Rafael and Maribel Loera, were arrested on multiple charges. They're accused of child abuse, letting a child die in their care and setting the home on fire to cover evidence up.
Marquez said the remains found and the 11- and 9- year-olds were her biological children.
Marquez says DCS took her kids from her in 2012, admitting she had problems with drug addiction. She said for years she never knew where her children were and wasn't allowed to try and contact them.
"Never in a million years did I think they were going to be in hell," Marquez said.
"It hurts me," she added. "There’s no words to describe the pain. My babies were hurt. They were tortured."
Court records say the girl, believed to be Charisma, had been dead since 2017, her body wrapped in a blanket and stashed in the attic for more than two years.
They say the other children were beaten with cords and had burn scars, cuts, bruises and whip marks.
"How were my babies wiped off of this earth? It feels like ... no one knew about them."
DCS told 12 News that families are heavily vetted before adoptions, but after adoptions are complete, there's no follow-up.
Even so, court records say the Loera's were able to adopt that other child, unrelated to Marquez, after the other child in their care was already dead.
"Her birthday just passed," Marquez says. "She was supposed to be 13. And I’m never going to hold her in my arms again."
As she works to get more answers, Marquez says her family is trying to get the remains found in the home so they can give her daughter a proper burial.
Rafael and Maribel Loera are each facing several counts of child abuse and charges for concealing a dead body. They're being held in jail in Maricopa County.