Las Vegas police officers Linda Turner and Paul Wojcik, who are engaged, have taken under their wing Las Vegas twins whose mother was murdered in California. The officers did not want their faces shown to protect the privacy of the 16-year-old twins, who are in foster care and whose mother and two stepsisters were slain years earlier. Photo illustration by Samantha Clemens.

The two cops couldn't help but worry about the 12-year-old twins.

Ever since their first meeting in that squalid mobile home off Boulder Highway, Las Vegas police officers Linda Turner and Paul Wojcik felt a bond with the boy and girl. They were sweet, polite and adorable despite the filthy conditions that surrounded them.

They had no idea their mother and two teenage stepsisters had been slain eight years earlier. They had no idea their father was the prime suspect. They had no idea police were about to take away the only family they had left.

"We used to sit there and think about what's going to happen to these kids," Turner said. "They were about to have their lives turned upside down."

The two knew then this was a case that would stick with them for a long time to come.

In February 2003, Turner, 34, and Wojcik, 33, were working for the problem-solving unit in the Southeast Area Command when a call came in from a detective with the Downey Police Department in Southern California.

He had a missing persons case that had gone cold. He suspected foul play and thought the man responsible was living in Las Vegas.

The case involved the disappearance of Luz Maria Mucino and her two daughters, Edith Mucino Gonzalez and Gabriela Mucino Gonzalez, who had not been seen since November 1994.

Mucino's husband, Estanislao Prado Gonzalez, and their twin children also vanished about the same time.

Police found blood in the family's abandoned apartment but needed more evidence to make a murder case.

Downey police Sgt. Gil Toledo had run Gonzalez's name through his computer and found a match in Las Vegas. Soon he was in Las Vegas with Turner and Wojcik, headed to the Gonzalez home to get more information.

The officers pretended to be social workers, so they wouldn't spook Gonzalez. Toledo interviewed Gonzalez while Turner and Wojcik talked to the twins.

Turner and Wojcik were touched by the children's innocence.

"It really put a face on the case when we saw these kids," Turner said.

When the officers asked the children about their mom, they stared blankly and said they didn't have one. Turner and Wojcik left with heavy hearts.

The conditions were so bad -- rotting food, dog feces, exposed wires -- they wanted to take the kids right then and there. But they couldn't jeopardize the murder case, and they left without them.

Gonzalez had told Toledo his wife left him years ago, but Toledo didn't believe him.

"The minute I talked to him and saw him face to face ... I knew he was responsible for the murders," he said.

A few weeks later, Turner and Wojcik met the children at a Boys & Girls Club. Still posing as social workers, the officers collected saliva from the children's mouths to use in DNA tests. If the DNA matched the blood in the apartment, Toledo could confirm the blood belonged to the twins' mother.

The DNA matched, and soon Toledo was on his way to Las Vegas with an arrest warrant for Gonzalez.

Police surprised Gonzalez in a parking lot and arrested him. Turner and Wojcik took the children to a McDonald's and tried to explain what had happened.

"What do you say to kids when you're arresting their dad for murdering their mom and sisters?" Turner said.

Turner and Wojcik revealed they were police officers and explained to the twins, as gently as possible, why their father was arrested. The twins cried and worried about their father.

Gonzalez was extradited to California, where he pleaded guilty to the murders. After prosecutors promised not to seek the death penalty, Gonzalez told them he had buried the bodies in Las Vegas, off Hollywood Boulevard on the east side of the valley.

The bodies had been found in 1994 but remained unidentified until the confession.

Meanwhile, the twins were placed in the county child welfare system.

Turner and Wojcik made regular visits to the children while they stayed at Child Haven, a children's shelter. They bought them clothes, DVD players and other items to ease their transition.

"We tried to provide what we could to make them more comfortable," Turner said.

They took the twins on field trips, such as bowling and miniature golf, because they had never gone. When the twins were placed in foster care, Turner and Wojcik continued their visits, solidifying the bond that started months before.

Through the years Turner and Wojcik have become like a big brother and sister to the twins, who are now 16. The officers did not reveal the twins' names at the request of their foster parents.

Turner and Wojcik, who are now engaged, said the twins are part of their family. They still meet at least several times a month for dinner, shopping trips and other fun family stuff. The officers serve as sounding boards for typical teenage problems, and they offer support when the pain of the past overwhelms the twins.

Turner and Wojcik even arranged a funeral service for the twins' mother and stepsisters.

"I've seen police put time into kids," Toledo said, "but this was extraordinary."

Good and bad, the relationships have become more than Turner and Wojcik ever imagined.

"It reaffirms why I became a police officer," Wojcik said.

Turner can't help but get giddy when she thinks about the twins. Like a proud parent, she talks about how they are getting their driver's licenses and planning for high school graduation.

"Those kids are now a part of my life that I wouldn't give up for anything," she said.