The Turpin case is a case of alleged child abuse and captivity discovered on January 14, 2018 in Perris, California, United States.
David and Louise Turpin have been charged with unlawfully imprisoning their thirteen children in their home. Police found some of the children shackled to their beds with chains and padlocks in a dark, foul-smelling room. The couple allegedly shackled, beat and strangled the children, allowing them to eat once per day and shower just once per year. The victims ranged in age from 2 to 29, with seven of the thirteen children being over the age of 18 at the time of the parents' arrest. According to investigators, the victims were so malnourished that they appeared to be much younger. The oldest victim, a 29-year-old female, weighed just 82 pounds (37 kg).
The couple was arrested on January 14, 2018 after one of the children escaped through a window and used a deactivated cell phone to call 9-1-1. The couple appeared in court on January 18, 2018 where they pled not guilty. They are due back in court on February 23, 2018. The case is considered "extraordinary for numerous reasons," such as the alleged abuse being done to multiple children by two parents (abuse against one child is more common) and according to Dr Bernard Gallagher, a University of Huddersfield expert in child protection, also because "you don't often get cases of children being tortured, where the abuse seems calculated." Some of the victims appeared to lack basic knowledge of the world, being unfamiliar with what medicine was.
Video Turpin case
Suspects
Suspects David Allen Turpin (born October 17, 1961) and Louise Anna Turpin (born May 24, 1968) were married in 1985 in Pearisburg, Virginia when David was 23 and Louise was 16 years old. The couple eloped, angering her father, church pastor Wayne Robinette.
David Turpin, according to his parents, is a computer engineer who graduated from Virginia Tech. In 1979, he graduated from Princeton High School in West Virginia. The school's 1979 yearbook listed him as the treasurer of the Bible Club, co-captain of the Chess Club, and a member of the Science Club and Acapella Choir. Louise Turpin's occupation was listed in court documents as a homemaker. The couple are adherents of the Quiverfull movement and Pentecostalism. According to David Turpin's parents, the couple kept having children because "God called on them" to have so many children. The children's homeschooling involved memorizing the Bible, and a few tried to memorize it in its entirety. David Turpin made about $140,000 per year at Northrop Grumman and had about $150,000 in assets. The Turpins declared bankruptcy in 2011, owing debt between $100,000 to $500,000.
The couple rented a postal box in Burleson, Texas, from 1986 to 2003. They owned property or had lived in Rio Vista and Fort Worth, and left the area in 2010. After the Turpins moved out of the house, neighbors visited the property and found feces throughout the home, beds with ropes tied to them, several dead cats and dogs in a trailer and large piles of garbage around the property. The neighbors did not report their findings to any authorities. In the California house, their yard was unkempt with overgrown weeds prompting a code violation. Neighbors in California reported seeing the children on occasion, they would freeze and stay silent when spoken to, "they were like children whose only defense was to be invisible", they would skip around rather than walk, appeared malnourished and pale, "You knew something was off. It didn't make a lot of sense," said one neighbor.
Maps Turpin case
Escape and rescue
The children had been planning an escape for more than two years. On January 14, 2018, two of them left the house through a window. One returned home out of fear, but a 17-year-old daughter got away. She was in possession of a cell-phone, and, though deactivated, she was able to call 9-1-1. When police met her, she showed officers photos of conditions in the home. Deputies of the Riverside County Sheriff's Department, the local police service, then converged on the house. They found the twelve other siblings, one of whom (aged 22) was shackled to a bed with chains. The deputies suspected that an additional two had also been shackled just prior to their entry into the house. The deputies described the siblings as having a malnourished and dirty appearance and looking to be younger than their ages. They had initially assumed that all in the group were minors, but they later determined that their ages ranged from 2 to 29, with 7 being legal adults (18 or older).
The Sheriff's Department said that Louise Turpin was "perplexed" when deputies entered the residence. They also said, "The parents were unable to immediately provide a logical reason why their children were restrained in [the manner that they were]." The six minors, ranging from ages 2 to 17, were transported to Riverside County Regional Medical Center from the sheriff's department, where they were admitted to the pediatrics unit for treatment. Corona Regional Medical Center said that the facility was treating the seven adult children, describing them as small and clearly malnourished, but stable, relieved and very friendly.
Arrest and legal proceedings
On January 14, 2018, David and Louise Turpin were arrested on suspicion of child endangerment and torture and held at a Riverside County jail on $9 million bail. Some sources reported that bail had been set as high as $12 million each. Police searched the Turpins' property on January 17, taking away black plastic bags of evidence. Hundreds of journals written by the children were recovered from the home. Although their admissibility in court is dubious, they are expected to provide unique insights into the experiences of victims of torture and long-term captivity.
The couple was charged on January 18 with twelve counts of torture, twelve counts of false imprisonment, seven counts of abuse on a dependent adult, and six counts of child abuse. David Turpin received an additional charge of a lewd act on a child under 14 years old. If convicted on all counts, the two could be sent to prison for 94 years to life imprisonment. Upon announcing the charges against the Turpins, Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin said, "The abuse and severe neglect intensified over time and intensified as they moved to California." The couple pleaded not guilty to the charges.
In a brief hearing on January 24, the judge accepted the prosecutors' request for a restraining order forbidding contact between the Turpin parents and their children for a period of three years. The parents are prohibited from coming within 100 yards (91 m) of any of their children or establishing electronic contact with them. Both defendants agreed to these restrictions.
Reaction of friends and extended family
On January 17, 2018, Louise Turpin's sister said that she begged for decades to see her nieces and nephews, even through Skype, but the couple would not let her. Another sister of Louise Turpin said she was concerned about the children's weights. Louise Turpin's aunt said, "With the pictures they put on Facebook, you thought they were one big happy family." David Turpin's parents said they were "surprised and shocked" at the allegations against their son and daughter-in-law. The couple's previous bankruptcy lawyer said that she met with the couple about four or five times in 2011 and described them as "just very normal."
In popular culture
Louise Turpin's sister revealed on the Megyn Kelly Today show that the couple had experimented with different religions and with swinging.
The television series Dr. Phil, episode: "Inside the California 'House of Horrors'", aired: January 2018, family, neighbors, and friends speak with Dr. Phil concerning the secrets that were allegedly occurring within the home. Kidnap survivor Michelle Knight shares a message for the children.
See also
- List of child abuse cases featuring long-term detention
References
External links
- "Turpin captivity case" topic on BBC News
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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