The Turpin family.Photo: David-Louis Turpin/Facebook
The story of theCalifornia House of Horrorswould shock the nation, and PEOPLE reported on the abuse parents David and Louise Turpin inflicted on their children.
Recently, two of theTurpin siblings spoke outon ABC’s20/20— including the sister who, at 17, who called 911, which led to the siblings' rescue.
Reprinted here is PEOPLE’s cover story from its Feb. 5, 2018 issue. Since its publication, the Turpin siblings — who at the time of their rescue ranged in age from 2 to 29 —have been recoveringfrom years of abuse as they adjust to their newfound freedom.
David-Louis Turpin/Facebook
Early-morning darkness still blanketed the streets of suburban Perris, Calif., on Sunday, Jan. 14, as a window began to creep open at the brown stucco-and-stone house at 160 Muir Woods Road. A 17-year-old girl and her younger sibling slipped out into the yard, armed with a deactivated cell phone—their only hope for salvation. Terrified, the younger child soon turned back home, but the older pressed on, determined to see through a desperate plan she had painstakingly devised with her brothers and sisters for more than two years. At 5:53 a.m. she punched 911 and told the dispatcher that her 12 siblings were being held inside their home against their will and that some of them were chained. When police met up with her, they were shocked at the teen’s thin, frail appearance—and even more shocked when they saw the photos she showed them on the phone. Officers dispatched to her home saw the unspeakable abuse firsthand: Three children had been shackled to beds and furniture, while 10 other victims—ages 2 to 29—were in cramped, foul-smelling rooms.“It was very dirty, and the conditions were horrific,” Riverside County Sheriff’s Department captain Greg Fellows said at a press conference. “If you can imagine being 17 years old and appearing to be a 10-year-old, being chained to a bed, being malnourished … I would call that torture.”
The Turpin family.Courtesy Billy Lambert
To keep the alleged abuse hidden, the family slept all day and awoke at night, with some neighbors saying they could see the children marching on the second floor of their home in the middle of the night. David, an engineer, and Louise, who did not work outside the home, set up the Sandcastle Day School in their home, registering it as a private K-12 school with the California Department of Education, so the children rarely had to leave the house.
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Neighbor Glenn Valdez says that many on the block were unaware how many people lived in the house: “I thought there were only three girls and one boy; that’s all I saw.” Another neighbor tells People that she noticed a couple of things missing from the Turpin family routine. “I never saw them get a ton of groceries and bring them in,” she says. “With 13 kids, I never saw one person visit. To me that is weird.”
The questions remain: How were the Turpins able to control their children so absolutely, especially when the oldest victims were in their 20s and at least one son was even enrolled in college? The answers, like much about the couple’s backgrounds, are shrouded in mystery. Louise was just 16 when she left her West Virginia home and crossed the state line to Virginia to marry David, whom she had met at church and who was seven years her senior. David, who had been a member of the Bible club in high school, was quiet and withdrawn and seldom warmed up to new people. “I never knew him to get in trouble,” says onetime classmate Michael Gilbert. “He was a homebody.” As their family grew, the Turpins moved frequently, living in Texas and California and gradually distancing themselves from Louise’s family, says her half brother Billy Lambert, 30.
A Elvis Chapel in Las Vegas
From left: David and Louise Turpi.Riverside County Sheriff’s Department (2)
source: people.com
