TWILIGHT CHILDREN
The bizarre case of the Turpin family
Neighbours of David and Louise Turpin in the affluent southern Californian town of Perris, Riverside County, expressed shock and surprise when the devoutly Christian couple were found guilty of the systematic starvation and torture of all but one of their 13 home-schooled children in April 2019. Despite the Turpin family having lived in Perris, 70 miles (113km) southeast of Los Angeles, for nearly a decade, little was known about them until January 2018, when one of their daughters escaped from the family home by climbing out of a window. The 17-year-old girl, who had been plotting her escape for two years, called 911 to raise the alarm. She told emergency services that “two of my sisters and one of my brothers… they’re chained up to their bed. Sometimes I wake up and I can’t breathe because how dirty the house is [sic]”.
The girl did not know her address, the year or month, nor the meaning of the word
“medication”. Neither she nor any of her siblings had ever seen a dentist, and none had seen a doctor in four years. Police later discovered her emaciated brothers and sisters, aged between two and 29 at the time of the raid, living in filthy conditions amidst their own human waste. At least three, including a 22-year-old man and a 29-year-old woman, were shackled to their beds. It was later determined that the parents, David Turpin, 57, an engineer, earning $140,000 a year for US defence contractors Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, and his wife Louise, 50, described as a homemaker, had been keeping their children in squalor and administering various “punishments” for at least nine years. Hundreds of journals kept by the children were discovered and used as evidence at the subsequent trial. The children, whose names all begin with the letter ‘J’, were kept indoors except for Hallowe’en and family trips to Disneyland or Las Vegas. They had no access to TV or radio.
In 2014, David Turpin had registered himself as head of the ‘Sandcastle Day School’, based at his home address. Three years earlier, he had filed for bankruptcy with debts of $500,000. Consultant psychiatrist David Canter has suggested that this may have been a factor: “Is it possible that, as the Turpins’ finances cycled ever more out of control, they became increasingly coercive in their attempts to handle the situation they had created for themselves?”
The couple were sentenced to life imprisonment and are expected to spend the rest of their lives behind bars unless granted parole in 25 years’ time. They wept as victim impact statements from four of their children were read to the court. “I cannot describe in words what we went through growing up”, said one child. “Sometimes I still have nightmares of things that happened such as my siblings being chained up or getting beaten”, but he concluded by saying “I love my parents and have forgiven them for a lot of things they did to us”. Several others also forgave the parents. “I love my parents so much”, said one girl. “Although it may not have been the best way of raising us, I am glad that they did because it made me the person I am today”. Another, asking for leniency, said her parents had believed that “God had put in their hearts” to homeschool them.
Not all the children were so forgiving. “My parents took my whole life from me”, said one daughter, visibly shaking, “but now I’m taking my life back. I’m a fighter”. Her statement also contained a suggestion that some of the children may have been brainwashed. “I saw my dad change my mom. They also changed me, but I realised what was happening”.
David Turpin’s lawyer read a statement on his client’s behalf: “My home schooling and discipline had good intentions. I never intended for any harm to come to my children. I love my children and I believe they love
me”. Amidst the squalor, dirt and human faeces, eight small desks, a blackboard, and alphabet and number posters were discovered in the living room. A former neighbour of the Turpins at a previous address in Rio Vista, Texas, described it as “waistdeep in filth”. Ricky Vinyard, a tree feller, claimed “there were dead dogs and cats in there”, further stating that “everything had locks on it: the closet, the toy chest, the refrigerator”. He also recalled the house being full of religious material, “stuff like preparing for Armageddon. It looked like a cult house”. Another former neighbour, Mike Clifford, 60, a machinist who had lived opposite the Turpins at Murrieta, California, remembers seeing the children being forced to walk in circles “like they were marching for hours at a time”. Mr Clifford’s wife recalls two of the girls speaking together in a monotone. She referred to them as “the clones”.
Louise Turpin, who, according to a Riverside County sheriff’s captain, had seemed “perplexed” at seeing police officers in her home at the time of the raid, told the court she was “truly sorry” and that she loved her children “so much”, adding “I really look forward to the day I can see them, hug them and tell them I’m sorry”. The couple, Elvis Presley fans, had renewed their marriage vows in Las Vegas with an Elvis impersonator on three occasions.
The court was told that the Turpins would buy apple or pumpkin pies and leave them within sight of their children but forbid them to eat any. Judge Bernard Schwarz berated the pair for their “selfish, cruel and inhuman treatment”, telling them that the only reason their sentence was less than the absolute maximum allowed (life without parole) was that they had accepted responsibility for their crimes early on in the proceedings, thus sparing their children from “having to relive the humiliation and harm they endured in that house of horrors”. The deeply religious couple told the court that they believed God had called upon them to have this many children. Louise Turpin’s brother Billy Lambert claims the pair were planning on having a 14th child so they could be the subjects of a reality TV show. He told reporters that his sister believed the public would be fascinated by their lives, and that they could make millions. This, Mr Lambert says, was their reason for moving to California – to be close to Hollywood.
Family photos show the children all dressed alike, the sons in black suits with red ties and the same puddingbowl haircut as their father, the daughters all having long centre-parted hair and wearing the same pink plaid dresses. According to David Turpin’s mother Betty, the parents dressed their children in identical clothes “for safety reasons”.
Neighbours, who described the Turpins as extremely private, were shocked to learn that seven of the 13 children were adults; their malnourished diet and lack of exercise had stunted their growth. Apparently the Turpins were known locally as “the vampire family” due to their pallor and the fact that they were only seen at night when they scavenged through neighbouring houses’ bins. One neighbour, Andrew Santillan, denied knowing there were any children in the outwardly smart, terracotta-painted bungalow. Another, Wendy Martinez, who lived directly behind the Turpins, recalled seeing four of the children in 2017 kneeling on the front lawn, looking “very thin and very albino”. When she tried talking with them they did not respond. They were “very afraid”, she said, “like they had never seen people before”.
The children would be made to sleep during the day (presumably to prevent them from being seen), becoming active for a few hours at night. Dubbed ‘the twilight children’ by journalists, they were only allowed to shower once a year and were fed once a day. The parents also kept two Maltese dogs that appeared in better condition and better fed than the children. When rescued, all 13 were admitted to hospital with severe malnutrition and muscle wastage. The eldest, a 29-year-old woman, weighed just 70lb (32kg). The children were forced to memorise lengthy passages from the Bible, the parents administering frequent beatings and hog-tying their children with ropes as further punishment. After some learned how to escape, the Turpins began using chains and padlocks. Psychologists said that due to the abuse, some of the children were suffering from cognitive neuropathy, so that their mental ages were far lower than normal. The 17-year-old girl who raised the alarm, for example, has a reading age of seven.
Photographs circulated for public consumption on Facebook depicted an apparently happy family. But Louise Turpin’s younger sister Elizabeth Jane Flores told journalists that she and other relatives had known something was wrong. However, their attempts to intervene had been rebuffed. Offers to visit were repeatedly rejected; she hadn’t visited in 19 years, and the grandparents said they hadn’t seen the children for five years. The Turpins kept their address a secret, and wouldn’t allow relatives to speak to the children if they telephoned. David Turpin’s mother Betty said her son was “a very good man”, despite not having been allowed to see her grandchildren for so long, adding: “He is very protective of the kids”. Ivan Trahan, another of the Turpin’s neighbours, described them as “a very nice couple”. Around 20 people across the USA, including nurses and psychologists, have offered to care for them. independent.co.uk, 16 Jan; D.Mail, 17 Jan; Metro, 17+26 Jan; E.Standard, 16+17+19 Jan; D.Telegraph, 17-19 Jan; S.Mirror, 21 Oct 2018; BBC News, 19+20+22 April 2019. For some earlier family imprisonments, see FT37:51-55.