Captive kids slowly providing information to investigators

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 told The Associated Press on 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.

On Wednesday, a judge signed a protective order prohibiting the parents from contacting any of their children, except through attorneys or investigators.

Before the brief hearing, Louise Turpin, who wore a white button down shirt and jacket, 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.