It was a routine visit for Tokyo metropolitan child-care officials when they checked on five American children early this month. Only this time, the Kasukabe, Saitama Prefecture, apartment where they had been living since November was empty.
The siblings have been a source of concern for metro officials since June, when they were separated from their parents, Terry Beamon and Jewel Curtis, after police arrested the couple for allegedly beating to death another of their children in 1994.
Those concerns intensified in October when officials were forced to hand over care of the children, whose ages range between 14 months and 14 years, to a cultlike group established by the couple years ago. The cult is said to promote isolation in a regimented, commune-style environment and favor global rule by black Muslims.