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Thirteen Siblings Found Chained up in a California Home

Their parents have been charged with torture.
The family home. Image via Google Maps

Police have rescued 13 malnourished, unwashed siblings from a home in Perris, about two hours east of Los Angeles. Their parents—David Allen Turpin, 57, Louise Anna Turpin, 49—have been charged with nine counts of torture and 10 counts of child endangerment. They’ve been held on a US$9 million bail each.

The discovery happened when a 17-year-old girl escaped the house and called police on a mobile phone she had found in the home, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.

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David Allen Turpin in a mugshot supplied by Riverside County Sheriff's Department - Perris Station

"Deputies located what they believed to be 12 children inside the house, but were shocked to discover that seven of them were actually adults," the statement read. “Further investigation revealed several children shackled to their beds with chains and padlocks in dark and foul-smelling surroundings, but the parents were unable to immediately provide a logical reason why their children were restrained in that manner.”

They victims—ranging in age between two and 29—were taken to the Perris Police Station and interviewed. When they claimed to be starving, Child Protective Services and Adult Protective Services provided them with food and drink.

Little is known so far about the parents or why their 13 children were being kept in this way. According to the ABC, neighbours said the Turpins and their children spent nearly all time inside their relatively new, housing estate home. Records show that the Turpins filed for bankruptcy in 2011.

Relations of the Turpins in West Virginia admitted they hadn’t seen the family for five years. They did, however, describe them as a good Christian family.