A 17-year-old girl who said she was being held captive by her parents escaped from her Southern California home on Sunday and alerted authorities, who rescued her 12 siblings from the residence, some of whom were shackled to their beds and malnourished.
The girl, who fled from the house Sunday morning, used a cell phone to call 911 and tell police her brothers and sisters were being held captive in their Perris, California, home and were “bound with chains and padlocks,” the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department said.
When officers arrived at the home, they discovered “several children shackled to their beds with chains and padlocks in dark and foul-smelling surroundings.” The parents, David Allen Turpin, 57, and Louise Anna Turpin, 49, could not explain why the children were tied up, the sheriff’s department said.
The couple were arrested and booked on torture and child endangerment charges. Their bail has been set at $ 9 million each.
Police said that, despite being 17, the girl who alerted them appeared around 10 years old and was “slightly emaciated.”
Although authorities at first believed they’d found 12 children inside the filthy home, they were “shocked” to discover seven were actually adults. They ranged in age from 2 to 29, and appeared malnourished and very dirty, police said.
Once freed, the victims told officers they were starving, and were given food and drinks. They were later admitted to hospitals for treatment.
It’s unknown how long the children were held captive.
State records show a private K-12 school was registered to the suburban family home in March 2011, with David Turpin listed as the principal. Last year, six children were enrolled in grades five through twelve, the records said.
Shocked neighbors said they did not know much about the children or parents, although several noted that their front yard was badly kept.
Neighbor Andria Valdez told the Press-Enterprise her family joked that the Turpin family were like vampires from the Twilight series.
“They only came out at night,” she said. “They were really, really pale.”
Another neighbor, Robert Perkins, told the paper that he and his mother once saw members of the family constructing a nativity scene on the front lawn.
Perkins complimented the scene, but “they didn’t say a word,” he said.
