Parents accused of holding 13 kids captive charged with torture
PERRIS — A couple in Perris beat, strangled and shackled their children for years, the abuse escalating from neglect to torture over time, prosecutors said Thursday.
Formal charges were announced Thursday against the parents accused of abusing their 13 children inside their Perris home.
David Turpin, 56, and Louise Turpin, 49, were charged with multiple felony counts of torture, child abuse, abuse of dependent adults and false imprisonment, Riverside County District Attorney Michael Hestrin announced. David Turpin also was charged with one count of a lewd act on a child by force. If convicted, the couple faces up to 94 years to life in prison. They were arrested this week on suspicion of torture and child endangerment.
“As a prosecutor, there are some cases that haunt you,” Hestrin told reporters Thursday. “Some deal with human depravity, and that’s what we’re dealing with here.”
The Turpins’ 13 children, ranging in age from 2 to 29, were captives in the couple’s tract house on Muir Woods Road and appeared to have undergone years of abuse and starvation, authorities said. Some were shackled to their beds.
Hestrin said the children were forced to sleep during the day and were awake only at night. He said that the teenage girl who escaped from the home and alerted police about conditions inside had been “working on a plan to escape this abuse for more than two years.”
The parents would buy food for themselves, but not allow the children to eat it, Hestrin said. The couple would buy apple pies that only he and his wife ate and toys that sat unopened, he said.
The children were barely allowed to bathe and had not seen a doctor in four years, he said. None of them had ever been to a dentist. If the children washed their hands above their wrists, they were accused of playing with water and would be chained up, Hestrin said. They were shackled and fed on a set schedule.
The parents are charged with 12 counts of torture although there were 13 children because the 2-yearold was getting enough to eat, Hestrin said.
Many of the children did not know what a police officer was, or what medications or pills were, he said. They are all hospitalized and are extremely malnourished. Several have cognitive impairment and neuropathy from sustained physical abuse, he said.
The abuse, Hestrin said, started when the family lived in Fort Worth, Texas. At the time, the parents lived apart from the children and dropped off food for them from time to time, he said. They lived in Texas for 17 years before moving to California.
“The abuse and severe neglect intensified over time and intensified as they moved to California,” Hestrin said.
Prosecutors are looking for more information about what happened in Texas.
“Someone must have seen something. Someone must have noticed something. We need your help,” Hestrin said.