Couple charged with torture of 13 kids found chained and starved in California home
After a teenage girl called 911 in Southern California to report that she and 12 of her siblings were being held captive in their parents’ Perris home, police went to that residence on January 14 to find the kids chained, padlocked and malnourished. The 17-year-old girl that called police had escaped what’s now being referred to as a house of horrors and made the call with a cell phone stolen from the home. Riverside deputies arrested bad parents David Allen Turpin, 57, and Louise Ann Turpin, 49, on Sunday and charged the pair with torture and child endangerment, according to NBC News. Both are now in jail and being held on $9 million bail each.
When investigators with the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department first met with the escaped teen, they believed her to only be about 10-years-old due to her emaciated and malnourished state. After conducting their interview, officers went to the girl’s home where they discovered her siblings, ranging in ages from 2 – 29, being held captive in “dark and foul-smelling surroundings.” Some of the kids were found “bound, shackled or padlocked to beds,” according to CNN.
Many of the victims seemed to be malnourished and that officers provided them with food and drinks “after they claimed to be starving,” police said. All 13 people were admitted to nearby hospitals for treatment. ~ NBC News
Investigators said that the parents, who were ultimately transported to the Robert Presley Detention Center, could not provide any explanation as to why the children were being held captive in such deplorable conditions. The children were all presumed to have been home schooled at their Perris home as the father is listed as the principal of the Sandcastle Day School being run at the home’s address. Neither parent has a criminal record.
The BBC reports that the father, in addition to being the principal of the school listed inside his home, is also employed as an engineer at Northrop Grumman. The mother is listed in public records as being a housewife.
Outwardly, the California couple accused of torturing and endangering their 13 children seemed to preside over a happy American family. If the photographs the couple posted on Facebook are anything to go by, the Turpin children enjoyed trips to Disneyland and Las Vegas, where their parents renewed their vows several times. On the family pictures, the children appear dressed in identical outfits, pale but smiling. ~ BBC
The Turpins filed for bankruptcy in 2011. Records show that the father earned over $140,000 that year, but that the family’s expenses exceeded his take-home pay by more than $1,000 per month. The lawyer who represented the Turpins in that bankruptcy case was quoted by the BBC as saying that, “To me and my wife, Nancy, who was with me during the interviews, we always thought of them as very nice people who spoke highly of their children.”
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Written by: Richard Webster, Ace News Today
