Dogs found in Turpin ‘torture home’ to be raffled

Combined with the physical and emotional weakness, it robs prisoners of the will to escape, he said. “This is depraved conduct”, Hestrin said.

Fifty-seven-year-old David Allen Turpin and 49-year-old Louise Anna Turpin have been charged with torture and abuse. David Turpin was additionally charged with one count of a lewd act on a child under age 14. They ranged in age between 2 and 29.

Baths were reportedly reserved to just once per year and hand-washing that extended beyond the wrist was considered worthy of punishment, authorities say.

Each defendant’s bail is set at $13 million, Riverside County District Attorney Michael Hestrin said at a news conference. He alleged that David and Louise Turpin would punish their children by keeping them chained to their beds for weeks or months at a time. “Being molested, watching my mom being beaten and raped and being abused myself as a child combined to cause the fear of people, especially men”.

The Turpins made headlines after their 17-year-old daughter escaped from the house and alerted police to the plight of her siblings. The siblings, who were schooled at home, were rarely seen outside the house, though the parents posted photos of them smiling together at Disneyland and in Las Vegas, where the couple renewed their wedding vows. He went on to acknowledge that they had been through a “traumatic ordeal” (to say the least!) but were “very friendly and cooperative” with the staff.

Jaycee Dugard was kidnapped as an 11-year-old and repeatedly raped over 18 years by convicted sex offender Phillip Garrido in California.

Mr Turpin’s parents told ABC News that the homeschooling was “very strict” and that they were expected to memorise long Bible passages. “The whole family- I’ve asked for 20 years to be able to Skype them…” “And they had such good relationships. That’s not just spur-of-the-moment anger, I’m not changing that view”. “And we were anxious about the kids”. “They were “sweetie” this and “sweetie” that to each other”.

Billy, 30, a self-employed remodeler of mobile homes who lives in Hixson, Tennessee, said he was the last family member to speak to Louise. The teen contacted authorities, who responded to the home in Perris and took the parents into custody on suspicion of torture.

Social workers had never visited either, said Susan von Zabern, director of the county Department of Public Social Services. “It’s hard to believe all of this”.

The children, who are aged between two and 29, have been treated in hospital since being freed on Monday. They weren’t skinny or nothing. “We help each other whenever we can – I think if someone had know anything they would have spoken out”.

Parents have the right to educate their own children; they don’t have the right not to educate their children or to use home-schooling as a cover for abuse and neglect.

Authorities say the Turpins ended up in Perris, California, near Los Angeles. Investigators removed dozens of boxes, what appeared to be two safes and pieces of a bed frame.

The kids were in their four-bedroom home.

Flores explained that six years ago, her father tried to fly out and see the family in California, but Louise told him not to come.

Such behavior is not uncommon even in cases of extreme deprivation.

“This happens all the time”. BuzzFeed reports that according to medical professionals treating the children, they were subjected to “prolonged” periods of starvation and malnutrition.