California couple’s ordinary Perris home held torture chamber
PERRIS — From the outside, the brown-andbeige four-bedroom home looked fairly orderly. The couple who owned it had purchased the house new in 2014 and soon arrived in this Los Angeles suburb with their 12 children.
They lived there quietly for at least three years and had another baby. Then on Sunday, one of the children jumped out of a window, called 911 and led authorities to what they described as a torture chamber.
Sheriff’s deputies said they found 13 children ranging from 2 to 29 years old, some of them chained to furniture, all of them thin and malnourished. The 17-yearold girl who escaped was so tiny that deputies initially mistook her for a 10-year-old.
When authorities confronted the girl’s mother, Louise Anna Turpin, sheriff’s Capt. Greg Fellows said she appeared “perplexed” about why officers had come to the home.
Turpin, 49, and her husband, David Allen Turpin, 57, were jailed on $9 million bail. They were scheduled for an initial court appearance on Thursday, and authorities say the pair could face charges of torture and child endangerment.
“If you can imagine being 17 years old and appearing to be a 10-yearold, being chained to a bed, being malnourished and injuries associated with that, I would call that torture,” Fallows said, explaining the possible charge.
He said there was no indication any of the children were sexually abused, although that was still being investigated.