White parents accused of shackling, starving 13 kids lived in dungeon-like California house
White parents accused of shackling, starving 13 kids lived in dungeon-like California house
When investigators entered the filthy dungeon-like California house of David and Louise Turpin, they found three children in shackles, nine other siblings emaciated and a mother who seemed puzzled over all the fuss.
“There were three individuals chained to some type of furniture inside the residence,” Riverside County Sheriff’s Captain Gregory Fellows said a press conference Tuesday.
“It seemed that the mother was perplexed as to why we were at that residence,” he said of the Sunday encounter.
Fellows said there was no immediate indication the parents suffered from mental illness or were part of a religious cult.
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He praised the bravery of the 17-year-old daughter who escaped the house of horrors and called 911 to report the abuse of all 13 kids at the suburban home in Perris, a city southeast of Los Angeles.
Fellows said the children, ranging in age from 2 to 29, were the biological offspring of the Turpins and that it’s way too soon to know whether any sexual abuse took place.
“We have a substantial amount of interviews still to conduct, so we hope to get to the bottom of that as well,” Fellows said.
He said investigators were working hard to prepare the torture case for prosecutors.
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“If you can imagine being 17 years old and appearing to be a 10-year-old (girl), being chained to a bed, being malnourished and injuries associated with that, I would call that torture,” he said.
A hospital official gave the first description of how the starving and neglected children were faring after receiving some medical attention.
“We have seven of the adults. It’s hard to think of them as adults when you first see them because they’re small, and it’s very clear they’re malnutritioned,” said Mark Uffer, CEO of Corona Regional Medical Center.
“They’ve gone through a very traumatic ordeal. I can tell you that they’re very friendly, they’re very cooperative and I believe they’re hopeful that life will get better for them after this event,” Uffer said.
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“They’re stable, they’re being fed,” he said.
Police offered no details at the press conference on what precipitated the 17-year-old girl’s escape.
In an interview with ABC News, David Turpin’s parents said he and Louise believed “God called on them” to have so many children. The grandparents said they were “surprised and shocked” by the couple’s arrests on suspicion of child endangerment and torture.
They said the children were raised in a “very strict homeschooling” environment and had to memorize long Bible passages.
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Some children tried to memorize the Bible in its entirety, they told the station.
David Turpin, 57, and Louise Turpin, 49, were being held on $9 million bail Tuesday.
The couple posted photos of their brood on social media in the past but seemed to go radio silent over the past year and a half.
Their last posts in mid-2016 involved a vow-renewal ceremony with an Elvis impersonator in Las Vegas. They posted photos and videos showing their small-framed kids attending the event, wearing matching outfits.
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Louise Turpin’s sister told the Daily Mail she had grown concerned about her reclusive sibling.
Elizabeth Jane Flores said she wasn’t invited to visit her sister in California and was never allowed to speak with her nieces and nephews by phone.
“Something didn’t seem right about her parenting, but never would I have expected it to be like this,” Flores said.
“We have been so worried about them because it’s been so strange, but there was nothing we could do. They wouldn’t let anyone visit and we didn’t know their address. I haven’t seen her in 19 years. We would talk on the phone from time to time, but every time I would ask to talk to her kids, she wouldn’t let me,” the sister said.
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Flores said their parents even flew out to visit the family, but Turpin would not give them an address.
“My parents booked several flights to go see them, but when they got there they wouldn’t tell them where to go and my parents left crying every time. They died before they got to see them again. It’s just heartbreaking,” she said.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/children-found-chained-starving-parents-torture_us_5a5d3471e4b0fcbc3a12bbeb?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009
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