Names and faces
World-famous cellist Yo-Yo Ma held a special concert for the California siblings who authorities said were starved and shackled to their beds by their parents.
Karen Spiegel, the mayor of Corona, Calif., said Ma performed Friday at the Corona Regional Medical Center. The hospital posted a photo of Ma on Twitter and thanked him for sharing his love of music with the siblings. The children’s parents, David and Louise Turpin, have pleaded innocent to torture and other charges. The Turpins were arrested in January after their 17-year-old daughter escaped from their home in the city of Perris. Authorities said the home reeked of human waste and the evidence of starvation was obvious, with the oldest of 13 siblings weighing just 82 pounds. An attorney for the adult siblings didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The 4-year-old daughter of a Tony-award winning actress was killed along with a 1-yearold when a driver apparently lost control of her vehicle and slammed into them as they crossed a Brooklyn street. Ruthie Ann Blumenstein, who goes by the stage name Ruthie Ann Miles, was injured in the incident Monday in the Park Slope neighborhood. Her daughter Abigail was killed. Blumenstein, who won a featured actress Tony in 2015 for her role as Lady Thiang in a revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The King and I, is pregnant. She was walking with friend Lauren Lew, who had 1-year-old Joshua in a stroller. He died and Lew was also injured. A 46-year-old man was also struck by the car and was expected to survive. He and the two women were hospitalized. The driver, a 44-year-old woman from Staten Island, is seen on surveillance footage in a white Volvo stopping at the big, busy intersection on Ninth Street and Fifth Avenue. But the car slowly starts moving before it speeds up and strikes people in the crosswalk. Photos of the scene show the black stroller mangled on the roadside and the car wrecked after striking a parked car. Broadway stars, including Kristin Chenoweth of Wicked and Hamilton star Lin-Manuel Miranda, took to social media to express sympathy and draw support to fundraising pages to benefit Blumenstein’s and Lew’s families. The driver hasn’t been charged; police are looking into her medical history and driving record. A law enforcement official not authorized to speak publicly said authorities tested the driver and she was not drunk at the time.