2 Questioned; Fugitive in Twins’ Beating at Large

San Diego County sheriff’s investigators stopped two men Friday in San Marcos for questioning in connection with the beating of twin boys, but neither turned out to be fugitive Charles Thomas McCoy, authorities said.

Sheriff’s spokesman Lt. Bob Trevino said the pair had been under surveillance at a home and were stopped driving Camaros similar to the one McCoy drives. He is wanted in connection with the beating and abandonment of twin 2 1/2-year-old boys who were found March 25 at a Del Mar hotel.

One of the cars stopped was identified from its vehicle identification number as McCoy’s, but it had been repainted and the license plates had been removed, Trevino said.

The two men, who know the 27-year-old McCoy, were questioned and the cars were impounded, Trevino said.

A warrant has been issued for the arrest of McCoy, of North County or Phoenix. He is believed to have checked in with the twins at the hotel, authorities said.

The twins’ mother, Dorothy Denise DeSimone, was formally charged Wednesday with child abuse, child abandonment and inflicting corporal injury on a child. She is being held in County Jail at Las Colinas on $250,000 bail.

Meanwhile, the twins were released from Children’s Hospital Friday to a Juvenile Court-appointed emergency foster family, hospital spokesman Mark Morelli said.

The twins were in good spirits and played briefly outside in the hospital’s playground before the family picked them up, Morelli said.

The family asked to remain anonymous, Morelli said.