House of Horrors
The Turpin 13 Wednesday, 10pm Channel 5
On 14 January, an emaciated 17-year-old girl escaped from her home and told the police that she and her siblings were being abused by their parents.
Shocking crime
Investigators arrived at the home of David and Louise Turpin in Perris, California, to find 12 severely malnourished children aged between two and 29, living in filth.
Some had even been chained to their beds, and the oldest was so starved she weighed just five and a half stone.
It was a crime that shocked the world.
‘I’d always known David and Louise were a little odd – but not that they were abusive monsters,’ says Louise Turpin’s estranged sister, Teresa Robinette, in this documentary about the shocking case.
She says her sister became distant and began acting strangely several years ago, eventually preventing any contact with the children.
Though Louise and
David Turpin face 94 years in prison for multiple counts of false imprisonment, torture and abuse, the police are still no closer to discovering their motive.
Future hope
‘My main hope is that the children can all lead some sort of normal or happy existence and that I can put my arm around them and tell them they have family that loves them,’ says Teresa. ‘But Louise no longer exists to me. She and David are dead to me.’
David and Louise Turpin tortured and starved their 13 children, but how did they get away with it for so long?