Kids Missing after Dad went to University

I sent my father sim off to live on campus and when he was gone his wife came to visit and died on the lot. He never got a message that the kids were taken away, but they are nowhere to be found. I tried to old-school it and get them back through adoption, but they're not there. Is there anyway to get his kids back. He had 5 of them with her. They still show up in his family tree, but they're not aging. They should be teenagers by now.