California
couple have been arrested on charges of torture after authorities said
their 13 malnourished children were held captive in their home, with some
shackled to beds in the dark.
Authorities said they were alerted after a 17-year-old girl
managed to escape the house on
Sunday and call police using a mobile
phone she had found.
She was so emaciated that
officers said they originally thought she was just 10 years old.
The 13 siblings discovered at the house
in Perris ranged in age from two to 29, the Riverside County
Sheriff's Department said in a statement.
Their parents - 57-year-old David Allen Turpin and
49-year-old Louise Anna Turpin, were arrested on torture and child endangerment
charges, with bail set at $9 million.
The police
statement said: "Further investigation revealed several children
shackled to their beds with chains and padlocks in dark and foul-smelling
surroundings, but the parents were unable to immediately provide a logical
reason why their children were restrained in that manner.
"Deputies located what they believed to be 12 children
inside the house, but were shocked to discover that seven of them were actually
adults, ranging in age from 18 to 29.
"The victims appeared to be malnourished and very
dirty."
The sheriff's office said "the victims were provided
with food and beverages after they claimed to be starving".
The
Spanish-style stucco house where the siblings were allegedly held is in a
middle-class neighbourhood of Perris, a small city around 70 miles south
east of Los Angeles.
The home has three cars outside as well as a van with tinted
windows. One of the cars had a child's seat in the back.
There are indications that the children were allowed outside
the house in recent years, neighbours said.
A Facebook
page under the name of David-Louise Turpin includes pictures of the couple
attending various marriage or exchange of vows ceremonies from 2011 to 2016
with their children present.
In the latest set, uploaded in April-July 2016, Louise Turpin
wears a long white wedding gown while her husband is dressed in a suit.
An Elvis Presley impersonator holds a microphone and poses
with the couple and children in a scene reminiscent of a Las Vegas wedding.
Nine girls, all with long dark hair, wear matching fuchsia
dresses with white tights, while a baby girl is dressed in a bright pink dress.
Three boys, their dark hair in bowl cuts like David Turpin,
are dressed in suits with red ties.
An April 2016 photograph
shows the same smiling children and the couple wearing jeans and red t-shirts
that read "Thing 1," "Thing 2," "Thing 3" and so
on - a take on the mischievous siblings in the popular Dr Seuss book "The
Cat in the Hat."
In another September 2015
photograph, Louise Turpin holds a baby wearing a t-shirt reading "Mommy
loves me."
Neighbour Jamelia Adams, 39, was
among those to express shock at the claims by authorities.
"It's just really, really
sad," she said. "There's places that kids can go if you don't want
your kids, if you can't take care of them, and here's a beautiful neighbourhood,
brand new housing track, newer cars in the yard, and here's some kids from 29
to two that was just held captive and malnourished and filthy. It's just
heartbreaking."
US media reported that the
parents had previously filed for bankruptcy.
David Turpin is registered in
state records as head of a private school, but its address matches that of the
Turpins' home.
The school opened in March
2011 and only has six students, according to the latest state education
department data.
The Los Angeles Times said the
couple had lived at the Perris house since 2010, after a move from
Texas, adding they went bankrupt twice.
According to court papers
when they filed for bankruptcy in 2011, the couple said they accrued between
$100,000 and $500,000 in debt opening the school, The New York Times said.
The paper said the same year
David Turpin was working as an engineer for defence contractor Northrop
Grumman, earning $140,000 a year, while his wife was listed as a homemaker.
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