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Californian Couple Charged with Torture of Their 13 Children

  • A 17 year old daughter managed to escape the home and notify police describing a state of torture, starvation and forced captivity.

    A 17 year old daughter managed to escape the home and notify police describing a state of torture, starvation and forced captivity. | Photo: Facebook/David-Louise Turpin, Edited by The Independent

Published 16 January 2018
Opinion

“They seemed like very nice people,” Nancy Trahan a bankruptcy agent managing the family's account said.

A Californian couple has been charged with torture and child endangerment after police discovered their 13 emaciated children chained to their beds in the family home in Perris.

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A 17-year-old daughter managed to escape the home and notify police this weekend describing a state of torture, starvation and forced captivity, adding that some of her siblings were “bound with chains and padlocks.”

The Riverside County Sheriff’s Office said they first thought the girl was ten years old and were shocked as they realized the seriousness of the situation and state of malnutrition in which the family was living.

“Deputies located what they believed to be 12 children inside the house, but were shocked to discover that seven of them were actually adults,” police said in a statement. “The victims appeared to be malnourished and very dirty.”

The children ranged in age from two to 29, police said.

Parents, David Allen Turpin, 57,  and Louise Anna Turpin, 49, were arrested and each charged with nine counts of torture and ten counts of child endangerment. They were ordered held on US$9 million bail each. The couple’s attorney has not revealed any motive behind their actions.

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Neighbors said they had minimal contact with the family and the children were rarely seen outside the home.

However, a family facebook account shows the Turpin’s enjoying various family vacations to Disney world and to Los Vegas to renew the parent’s wedding vows in 2011, 2013, and 2015. From the photos, the family, dressed in identical clothing seems happy and healthy, the Independent reports.

According to state records, the California Department of Education granted David Turpin the right to open a private school, the Sandcastle Day School, which was located within the family’s home.

Despite Turpin’s work as an engineer, where he reportedly earned US$140,000 per year, the family declared bankruptcy in 2011 due to over US$240,000 in credit card debt. Louise Turpin was registered as a homemaker.

The 13 children are currently being treated in local hospitals. The adult family members have not yet been identified. The Turpins are due in court on Thursday.

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