‘Children were forced to march in circles’

THE 13 children found chained and malnourished in squalid conditions in a California home were forced by their parents to march around the house in drill formation in the dead of night, a neighbour has claimed.

Mike Clifford, a 60-year-old aerospace machinist, lived opposite David and Louise Turpin for three years in Murrieta, where the couple rented a six-bedroom home between 2011 and 2014.

Described by their extended family as “deeply religious”, the Turpins home-schooled their children and the siblings were rarely seen outside the house.

“We thought they were mentally handicapped kids, so they kept them in,” said Mr Clifford, who worked late shifts and would catch sight of them in the evenings.

“The kids would be walking in circles like they were marching for hours at a time. It was military-like.”

In 2014, the family moved up the road to Perris, from where the alarm was raised by their 17-year-old daughter, who escaped and called the police on a stolen telephone on Sunday morning.

Mr and Mrs Turpin will appear before a judge in Riverside today, facing possible torture and child endangerment charges.

Matthew Alex Padilla, a 20-year-old former Marine, said he was sickened to learn that the woman he served pizza to had a house full of starving children.

Mr Padilla has worked at Leonardi’s Pizza inside the Winco supermarket for about a year, and told The Daily Telegraph that he last saw Mrs Turpin a week or so ago.

“Louise was in here every other day,” he said. “We knew of each other and would chat – she was normal, if maybe a bit reserved. I’ve seen her buy food and eat, and yet there were 13 hungry kids at home? That’s messed up.”