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Thirteen siblings found chained in California home; parents charged

By Mike Blake

 

The home of David Allen and Louise Anna Turpin in Perris, California, U.S., January 15, 2018. REUTERS/Mike Blake

 

PERRY, Calif. (Reuters) - A California couple has been charged with torture after police rescued their 13 malnourished children from a home where some of them had been chained to beds, and neighbours on Monday described the family as shut-ins who shunned social contact.

 

Police made the discovery after a 17-year-old girl escaped the house in Perris, about 70 miles (113 km) east of Los Angeles, and used a cellular phone she had found in the house to call them, the Riverside County Sheriff's Office said on Monday.

 

"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 2 to 29, police said.

 

The girl, who officers had initially thought was about 10 years old, contacted police on Sunday after escaping the one-story house.

 

The parents, David Allen Turpin, 57, and Louise Anna Turpin, 49, were arrested and each charged with nine counts of torture and 10 counts of child endangerment. They were ordered held on $9 million bail each.

 

Neighbours said the Turpins and their children rarely emerged from their unkempt home in the new built development of closely spaced single-family houses.

 

Wendy Martinez, a 41-year-old housewife, said her only contact with the Turpins came as she passed the house at night in October. Four children were installing sod in the yard while the mother watched from the door, and none responded when Martinez said hello.

 

"They were very, like, afraid," she said of the children. "Like they had never seen people before."

 

Police said six of the couple's children were minors, while the other seven were over 18.

 

The siblings told officers that they were starving and police did not give the parents' motive for holding the children captive.

 

A Facebook page that appeared to have been created by the parents showed the couple dressed in wedding clothes, surrounded by 10 girls in matching purple plaid dresses and three male children in suits.

 

California state records list David Turpin as the principal of the Sandcastle Day School, with its address at the Turpin house.

 

Records show the Turpins filed for bankruptcy in 2011. Nancy Trahan, who works in the Temecula, California, law office that handled the bankruptcy, said the couple were friendly and spoke highly of their children.

 

"They seemed like very nice people," she said by telephone.

 

The Turpins are due in court on Thursday.

 

(Reporting by Scott Malone in Boston and Ian Simpson in Washington; Editing by Leslie Adler and Lisa Shumaker)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-01-16

[khwaibah]

Acute case of lead poison between the eyes of the parents with no trial.

Edited January 16, 2018 by khwaibah

[Get Real]

I am very curious how far human creatures can go to make stupid and evil things to the ones they should love.

This is really a perfect example of to parents just taking up space and breathing the air others need.

[scorecard]

14 minutes ago, Get Real said:

I am very curious how far human creatures can go to make stupid and evil things to the ones they should love.

This is really a perfect example of to parents just taking up space and breathing the air others need.

 

And to my mind it brings back the open discussion whether some folks should be barred from having / taking care of children. And I do realize that's a very complex argument.

 

 

[Get Real]

16 minutes ago, scorecard said:

 

And to my mind it brings back the open discussion whether some folks should be barred from having / taking care of children. And I do realize that's a very complex argument.

 

 

Yeah, but I will argree 110%. Doesn´t matter how hard you push it in cases like this.

[Scott]

Troll post and reply removed.  

[soalbundy]

A case for eugenics 

[webfact]

Starved California siblings treated after rescue from 'horrific' home

By Alan Devall and Bob Mezan

 

Members of the news media stand outside the home of David Allen Turpin and Louise Ann Turpin in Perris, California, U.S. January 15, 2018. REUTERS/Mike Blake

 

PERRIS, Calif. (Reuters) - The 13 siblings found starving in a filthy California home, some of them shackled to furniture, were getting food and treatment after being rescued from a "horrific" ordeal that could leave them scarred for years, authorities said on Tuesday.

 

Police were investigating the circumstances under which the parents - David Allen Turpin, 57, and Louise Anna Turpin, 49 - had subjected their children to abuse behind the doors of their darkened, foul-smelling home, Captain Greg Fellows of the Riverside County Sheriff's Department said.

 

The couple, who three times had travelled to Las Vegas to renew their wedding vows at an Elvis chapel, was arrested on Sunday. Each was charged with nine counts of torture and 10 counts of child endangerment and held on $9 million bail, with a court hearing scheduled for Thursday.

 

Authorities were alerted after one of the children, an emaciated, 17-year-old girl, called police after escaping through a window of the house in Perris, a city about 70 miles (115 km) east of Los Angeles.

 

"I wish I could come to you today with information that would explain why this happened," Fellows said, explaining the investigation was ongoing. "But we do need to acknowledge the courage of the young girl who escaped from that residence to bring attention so they could get the help they so needed.”

 

The teen used a deactivated cellphone to call police, Fellows said. Cellphones deactivated for service can still make calls to the 911 emergency number, police said.

 

Police said they found three of the couple's 13 children, who range in age from 2 to 29, chained inside the filthy residence in a suburban housing tract.

 

Police noticed the children were malnourished, Fellows said, calling conditions "horrific." Even so, he said, the mother appeared "perplexed" about why the police were there.

 

"If you can imagine being 17 years old and appearing to be a 10-year-old, being chained to a bed, being malnourished, and injuries associated with that," Fellows said. "I would call that torture."

 

Authorities were seeking court authorization to take custody of the children. The state Child Protective Services agency was assisting in an investigation.

 

Some of the children were being fed and were in stable condition at a hospital, officials said.

 

The family has lived at the house since 2014, where the parents home-schooled their children, Fellows said. Six of the couple's children are minors, while the other seven are over 18, according to neighbours, meaning they are adults under the law.

 

Kimberly Milligan, 50, who lives across the street from the family, said she only saw the infant in the mother's arms and three other children since she moved in across the street two years ago, describing them as small and pale.

 

"Why don't we ever see the kids?" Milligan said she asked herself. "In hindsight, we would have never thought this. But there were red flags. You never don't hear or see nine kids."

 

Two years ago, while walking around the neighbourhood admiring Christmas lights, Milligan said she had encountered three of the Turpin children and complimented them on the manger with a baby Jesus set up outside the house. She said the children froze, as if by doing so they could become invisible. 

 

"Twenty-year-olds never act like that," she said. "They didn't want to have a social conversation."

 

Nicole Gooding, 35, who has lived in the neighbourhood for three years, said the first time she saw the family was two months ago when the mother and children were cleaning up their yard, which was full of weeds and overflowing trash cans.

"I had never seen them at all until that day," she said.

 

MARRIAGE RENEWAL VOWS

 

The parents home-schooled the children strictly and required them to memorize long passages from the Bible, David Turpin’s parents, James and Betty Turpin of West Virginia, told ABC News.

 

The California Department of Education gave the Turpin address as the location of the Sandcastle Day School, with David Turpin as principal.

 

In 2010, David Turpin left his job at Lockheed Martin Corp <LMT.N>, a company spokeswoman said. He also worked as an engineer at Northrop Grumman Corp <NOC.N>. Both are aeronautics and defence companies.

 

Unable to keep up with the family's expenses, Turpin filed for bankruptcy in 2011, an attorney who represented him, Ivan Trahan, told Reuters on Tuesday.

 

At the time, the lawyer said, the couple spoke highly of their children. A Northrop spokesman declined to say whether Turpin was currently employed there.

 

"We are deeply troubled by the nature of the allegations against Mr. Turpin," Northrop's Mark Root said in a statement.

 

David and Louise Turpin appeared to have had marriage-renewal ceremonies at least three times, in 2011, 2013 and 2015, at an Elvis Presley-themed chapel in Las Vegas, according to the chapel's YouTube page. One video shows the couple exchanging renewal vows in front of an Elvis impersonator.

 

Another video showed 10 female children in matching purple plaid dresses walking down the aisle ahead of Louise towards David, who waited anxiously at the altar with two male children in suits.

 

A third male child dressed in a suit appeared later in the video during various dance performances with the Elvis impersonator and the family.

 

An Elvis Chapel representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

 

A joint Facebook page that appeared to have been created by the parents showed the couple at the same chapel dressed in wedding clothes, surrounded by the 13 children.

 

David Turpin's parents told ABC News they were "surprised and shocked" by the allegations, saying they could not understand "any of this."

 

(Additional reporting by Chris Kenning in Chicago, Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee and Gina Cherelus in New York; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Jonathan Oatis)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-01-17

[malibukid]

evidently they where good Christians

[JAG]

evidently they where good Christians

Well evidently they practised what they regarded as a form of Christianity. As it appeared to involve renewing marriage vows every two years, in front of an Elvis impersonator in an Elvis themed "chapel" (the mind boggles) I don't think it can be regarded as being particularly closely related to any of the more conventional teachings of the faith!

 

Perhaps their "Christianity", "good" or otherwise, is of little relevance?

 

 

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