Captive kids share story with investigators slowly
RIVERSIDE, Calif. — The California children who authorities say were tortured by their parents and so malnourished that their growth was stunted are slowly providing valuable information to investigators, a prosecutor said Wednesday.
“Victims in these kinds of cases, they tell their story, but they tell it slowly. They tell it at their own pace,” Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin said. “It will come out when it comes out.”
David and Louise Turpin are accused of abusing their 13 children — ranging from 2 to 29 — before they were rescued on Jan. 14 from their home in Perris. They have pleaded not guilty to torture and other charges.
Prosecutors say the Turpins punished their children by beating and choking them, tying them to beds for weeks or months at a time, depriving them of food and forcing them to stay up all night and sleep during the day.
The charges against each defendant include 12 counts of torture and 12 counts of false imprisonment, seven counts of abuse of a dependent adult and six counts of child abuse.
David Turpin was also charged with one count of a lewd act on a child under the age of 14.
On Wednesday, a judge signed a protective order prohibiting the parents from contacting any of their children, except through attorneys or investigators.
“It protects everyone involved, including my client,” David Turpin’s attorney, David Macher, said about the order. “I don’t want my client exposed to accusations that he attempted to harass or threaten a witness.”
Louise Turpin’s attorney declined to comment after the hearing.
The couple, who are in custody in lieu of $12 million bail each, were told to stay at least 100 yards away from their children unless they are in court. They were also barred from having firearms if they were to be released.
“You must have no personal, telephone or electronic or written contact” with the children, Judge Emma Smith told each of the Turpins. The order is set to expire Jan. 24, 2021.
Before the brief hearing, Louise Turpin looked at her husband and smiled.
All of the children remained hospitalized and were relieved to be out of the home that authorities have described as a torture chamber, Hestrin said.
Deputies arrested the husband and wife after their 17-year-old daughter climbed out a window and called 911. Authorities found the siblings in the family’s filthy home, with three of them shackled to beds.
Investigators have learned that the children were isolated from each other and locked in different rooms in small groups, Hestrin said.
The children did not have access to televisions or radios but were able to read and write and expressed themselves in hundreds of journals that were seized from the home, the district attorney said.
“It appears to me that they lacked any kind of understanding about how the world worked,” Hestrin said.
One of the older boys had taken a variety of classes at Mt. San Jacinto College, a community college, but his mother took him to the campus and waited outside class for him, Hestrin said.
The college confirmed that one of the Turpins had been a student but refused to provide additional information, including some that is generally releasable under federal privacy laws.
Earlier this week, Louise Turpin’s half-brother, Billy Lambert, told several news organizations that she had aspired to have a reality television show focusing on their large family.
But Hestrin said investigators have uncovered no evidence indicating the couple was seeking media attention or a show.