It started with a body on the front yard of a Southern California home.

When detectives investigating that unsolved July homicide went with a search warrant this month, they said they discovered something even more shocking inside: seven adopted children who recounted incidents of sexual abuse and beatings -- all living in a home that had been converted into a strip club.

Court documents called the pricey, two-story, terra-cotta-style home in the city of Perris' "Exotic Zone."

The lower level, authorities said, had been converted into a strip club with a platform, a dancing pole and a private room.

Five ecstasy pills lay on a kitchen counter within easy reach of the children, they said.

The kids, ages 6 to 11, told child protection workers they had seen parties at the converted strip club that stretched into dawn.

They said they were beaten with sticks, belts and a metal cane. They were locked in their bedrooms without food -- and threatened with a stun gun, authorities said.

A 7-year-old girl told authorities she was sexually abused on a bathroom floor. Several of the children said they saw it happen.