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.

That the children ended up in such a situation was largely the result of a stalemate between Tokyo and the U.S. Embassy. Tokyo has been unable to provide long-term care for the six children who are in obvious need of public protection, and the embassy has claimed it is legally impotent to help them.

For the past decade, the family reportedly has led a nomadic existence, coming in and out of Japan dozens of times on 90-day tourist visas.

The most concrete legacy of their life here is a martial arts group Beamon established and taught in a makeshift gym in the couple's Shinagawa Ward apartment.

However, officials suspect the group was largely a facade behind which the couple spread a philosophy centered on black Islamic rule.

Followers include young Japanese in their late teens and early 20s who have lived in a commune environment, first in Shinagawa and, until recently, Saitama.

Five of the children have been living with some of these followers since October. The sixth, a toddler, remains in a public care facility.

Officials say the children have never attended school and may have been physically abused, both by their parents and cult members.

Neighbors of both the Kasukabe and Shinagawa apartments have complained to police about loud crying and screaming at night, apparently by the children.

In addition, the parents of a young female follower have also filed complaints, claiming their child has been physically abused, officials said.

After their parents' arrest, the six children were initially placed in a temporary care facility run by the city of Tokyo. However, with long-term facilities here operating at over 90 percent of capacity, it was impossible to accommodate all the children at one facility, said Toshiaki Tashiro of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's Center for Children's Welfare.

Officials thus sought help from the U.S. Embassy, which responded by arranging care with relatives in the United States. At the last minute, however, Beamon demanded that his children be handed over to his followers instead, another embassy official said.

Beamon still has legal authority over his children, the official explained. "He's got his own pretty strong religious philosophies and probably believes they are in better hands."

Metro officials consented, on condition that they could continue monitoring the children. Welfare official Tashiro, however, said he was "disappointed" at the embassy's response.

"Having them stay with the followers was not the most desirable option. It was chosen because it was expedient," he said. The disappearance of the children was something that had been feared from the beginning, he added.

The embassy official said: "As long as (Beamon's parental control) is not terminated by a court-competent jurisdiction, we have no legal authority to take the children from their current situation."

Toshitaka Kudo, a lawyer representing Beamon, said his client had ordered the removal of his children from the facility because he believed they were being abused there.

The embassy also tried to secure care for the children in Japan through a U.S. citizen living in the Tokyo area, the official said.

The U.S. man, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he had visited the children about 10 times during their 14-week stay in the temporary facility, but had eventually decided he could not take them into his care. All looked malnourished, and some were "physically not as they should be," he said, adding that some showed signs of being "deformed."

"They looked frightened, angry, confused. I wouldn't be surprised if they had suffered abuse."

An official at the U.S. Embassy said Beamon had told him Feb. 9 that he knew the children had been removed from the Saitama apartment. "He said . . . he was not concerned about their welfare and that they had visited him (since)."

The official did not, however, ask him about the children's location. "After their parents, the responsibility for their welfare resides with the authorities."

Beamon's group has not responded to repeated inquiries by The Japan Times about the children's safety. But Tokyo welfare officials have already taken action. Before the children disappeared, they obtained confirmation from the Justice Ministry that they could deport the children for overstaying their visas without obtaining the parents' consent, thus ensuring they can be removed from the group.

According to the ministry, while there is no precedent for deporting children whose parents are standing trial in Japan, it is possible if the consent of the children is obtained, a suitable place for them to stay is secured and the metropolitan government is willing to foot the bill.

The steps, if taken, promise another round of controversy. "I find it surprising because I don't think any of the children are old enough to have consent," the U.S. official said.

For now, however, metro officials have no means of confirming the children's safety. And the ongoing trial of the parents, the result of which will naturally influence the children's fate, is not likely to be concluded soon.

While hearings have been set until Aug. 22, the case is likely to drag on much longer because of the significant time gap between the incident and the trial, said lawyer Kudo.

"It's not just uncustomary, it's unnatural for charges to be pressed six years after a death," Kudo said.

Initially, investigators found insufficient evidence to prove the death was the result of abuse. The reopening of the case may have been the result of another incident in 1999, in which an American member of Beamon's group died during so-called training.

Beamon was questioned, but not charged in connection with the death, which was reportedly caused by a 19-year-old Japanese follower.

A key witness in the current trial -- the doctor who received one of the children, in critical condition, at a hospital on Oct. 20, 1994 -- said during a hearing Feb. 5 that X-rays taken of the boy revealed broken bones. His body also was bruised badly, she said.

When the child, who was 4 at the time, was admitted, Curtis told the doctor that the boy's condition had declined after taking a bath. Defense lawyers have been trying to show the death was caused by hospital malpractice.

Meanwhile, five of the six remaining siblings remain missing, with the only indications of their presence being drawings they made during their time in the temporary facility in the summer.

One shows a child neck-deep in a pool, arms raised. A bubble above simply reads: "Help!"