The parents
of 13 siblings who were allegedly held in captivity in their family’s California home are charged with committing years of torture and abuse.
RIVERSIDE, Calif. — The parents of 13 siblings who were allegedly held in captivity in their family's Southern California home were charged Thursday with committing years of torture and abuse that left their children malnourished, undersized and with cognitive impairments.
“Severe, emotional, physical abuse,” Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin said in announcing numerous charges against David Turpin, 57, and Louise Turpin, 49. “This is depraved conduct.”
Prosecutors filed charges of torture, child abuse, dependent adult abuse and false imprisonment. David Turpin was additionally charged with performing a lewd act on a child under age 14.
The victims range in age from 2 to 29. The charges involve acts in Riverside County dating to 2010.
The torture and false imprisonment charges do not include the 2-year-old, Hestrin said, adding that apparently the toddler was getting enough to eat.
The district attorney said the children were beaten and chained as punishment. A punishment could be triggered by something like washing hands above the wrist, in which case they would be accused of playing with the water, he said.
A 17-year-old daughter who climbed out a window Sunday and called 911 on a cellphone had plotted her escape for two years, he said. Another sibling escaped with her but turned back out of fear.
Hestrin said all 13 victims were severely malnourished and as a result some have cognitive impairment and a lack of basic knowledge. He said a 29year-old female victim weighed 82 pounds.
The victims were not allowed to shower more than once a year, he said.
Hestrin said the victimization began when the family lived in the Fort Worth, Texas, area and intensified when they moved to California.
He described a bizarre situation in which the family slept all day and stayed up all night, going to bed at 4 a.m. He said that may have contributed to why the abuse went undiscovered for so long.
“None of the victims have seen a doctor in more than four years,” he said. “None of the victims have ever seen a dentist.”
The children were fed little, on a schedule, but the parents bought food for themselves and did not allow the children to eat it, he said.
The parents would set out pies that their offspring could see but not touch, he said.
“They were not allowed to have toys, although there were many toys found in the house that were in their original package and had never been opened,” he said.
The one thing the children were allowed to do was write in journals, and investigators were reviewing hundreds of them to gather evidence, Hestrin said.
The district attorney characterized the siblings as relieved but would not elaborate.
In an interview, grandparents of the children said their son’s family looked happy and healthy when they last visited California six years ago.
“They were just like any ordinary family,” said Betty Turpin, the 81-year-old mother of David Turpin.
Betty Turpin and her husband, James Turpin, of Princeton, W.Va., visited her son’s family for five days at their previous home in Murrieta, Calif.
Betty Turpin told the Southern California News Group on Wednesday that they were still in shock from learning that her son and his wife were arrested.
Betty Turpin said her son told her he had so many kids because God wanted him to. She said her son shared her Pentecostal Christian faith, but he wasn’t affiliated with a church in California.
“I feel they were model Christians,” she said. “It’s hard to believe all of this. Over the years, the Lord knows what happened.”