‘Normal’ parents hid abuse

THE US couple accused of starving and imprisoning their 13 children tried to present a happy family image, speaking warmly of their children and posting photos of girls in pink and boys in blue smiling with Mickey Mouse at Disneyland.

David Turpin, 57, a floppyhaired engineer, and his wife Louise, 49, smiled in the pictures and shared a kiss, laughing next to Tinkerbell in one and renewing their marriage vows in Las Vegas in another.

They had given little indication of the horrors police would find in their home on a housing estate in Riverside County east of Los Angeles, family members and authorities said.

“We always thought she was living the perfect life,” Louise Turpin’s sister, Teresa Robinette, told NBC News from Knoxville, Tennessee.

“She would tell us they went to Disneyland all the time.”

The Turpins face nine counts of torture and 10 of child endangerment, authorities said. Their offspring, aged 2 to 29, were receiving food and care.

Police raided the home in Perris on Sunday after one child escaped through a window and called 911.

They found some of the young adults shackled to their beds, in filthy conditions.

But so well did they tell their story to themselves, that Louise had seemed perplexed when police arrived, Captain Greg Fellows of the sheriff’s department said.

Turpin’s parents, James and Betty, of West Virginia, said the family was deeply religious, home-schooling the children and making them memorise long passages from the Bible.

A former employer of Turpin’s said the couple had spoken warmly of their many children. But neighbours said there were clues that all was not well.

The house was run-down, and when family members were out, they avoided contact with neighbours, Julie Olha said.

The couple were reportedly Elvis fanatics who believed “God called on them” to have so many children.

Family members were reportedly kept away, with the children’s grandparents saying they had not seen them for five years and an aunt saying she had not visited for 19 years.

Louise’s sister, Elizabeth Flores, said she had never been allowed to speak to her nieces and nephews. “They wouldn’t let anyone visit. We didn’t even know their address.” – Reuters, The Telegraph