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Summary: Police arrested a couple for allegedly torturing their 13 children.
Police arrested a Southern California couple after one of their children escaped the home and notified authorities that her siblings were being held captive.
Authorities raided the Perris home of David Turpin, 57, and Louise Turpin, 49, and they found twelve children locked inside, some shackled to beds. The kids’ ages ranged from 2-29, according to Fox News.
The Turpins are each being held on $9 million bails, and they are being accused of torture and child endangerment.
Riverside County authorities said they began an investigation after one of the children, 17, allegedly escaped and called 9-1-1 on Sunday. The girl looked like she had been starved, and police said that upon initially looking at her, they thought she was 10.
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The girl said that her 12 brothers and sisters were imprisoned by their parents. When the police went to the Turpin house, they found children shackled to beds with chains and padlocks, and rooms that were “dark and foul-smelling.”
The police said that they believed all of the children were minors, but to their surprise, they learned that some were over 18. When questioned why the kids were kept in the way they were, police said the Turpin parents were unable to provide a logical reason.
After being rescued, the children were taken to two hospitals for treatment. The sheriff’s office said they all appeared “malnourished” and “dirty.”
The family lived 60 miles southeast of Los Angeles, and they had previously resided in Texas. The Los Angeles Times reported that the Turpin’s home address was listed as a private school and David Turpin was named the principle.
A neighbor told the New York Times that everyone assumed the kids were home-schooled and people didn’t see them out much.
“I thought the kids were home-schooled,” neighbor Kimberly Milligan told the Times. “You know something is off, but you don’t want to think bad of people.”
David and Louise Turpin had filed for bankruptcy in 2011, according to the New York Times, and they owed six figures. During that period of time, Turpin worked as an engineer and had a salary of $140,000. His wife was a homemaker.
According to CNN, the family often posted pictures of them going on outings such as a vacation to Disneyland. David Turpin’s mother said that the family liked to dress identically in order to keep track of the everyone.
“They all dressed alike when they went out,” Betty Turpin told CNN.
Betty Turpin said that the family was “respectable.” Their bankruptcy attorney said to CNN he thought the Turpins seemed to love their kids a lot.
