Revealed: Shocking ordeal of the House of Horror kids
Parents facing torture charges Neighbours shocked by family
THIRTEEN “tortured” children were called the Vampire family by neighbours – because they were so pale and only came out at night.
Locals saw the brothers and sisters scavenging in bins for food before they were rescued.
Three were found chained to beds when police raided the squalid home of deeply religious parents David Allen Turpin, 57, and Louise Anna Turpin, 49.
All the children, aged two to 29, were malnourished and dirty. They were so small that police did not realise the older siblings were adults. It is not thought they were sexually assaulted.
The Turpins have been charged with nine counts of torture and 10 counts of child endangerment after a 17-year-old girl escaped the “foul-smelling” house in Perris, California, and phoned officers.
Neighbour Andria Valdez said she had seen the kids, but joked they were like a vampire family because they were “really, really pale” and “only came out at night”.
Kimberly Milligan added: “The older kids, I thought they were, like, 12, because they looked so malnourished, so pale.” Perris Police said: “The victims appeared to be
malnourished and very
Parents held as 13 kids rescued from hell home REPORT The Mirror yesterday
dirty. The victims were provided with food and beverages after they claimed to be starving.”
The parents of David Turpin said they were “surprised and shocked” at the allegations.
James and Betty Turpin, of West Virginia, said the couple had so many children because “God called on them”. They were given “very strict homeschooling” and would memorise long passages of the Bible.
The family took regular holiday trips, often going to Disneyland, and the couple renewed their wedding vows three times with an Elvis Presley impersonator at Las Vegas, the last time in 2016.
David Turpin was a computer engineer who had worked for General Dynamics in Texas.
The couple filed for bankruptcy in California in 2011, owing between £72,000 and £363,000.
At that time, Turpin worked as an engineer at defence contractor Northrop Grumman earning £101,000 a year.
Bankruptcy lawyer Ivan Trahan said they spoke fondly of their children.
“We remember them as a very nice couple,” he said. “This is shocking.”