THE LORD HATH DEALT BOUNTIFULLY WITH THEM ….. UNFORTUNATELY!

13 captive siblings, some chained to beds, rescued from Perris house; parents arrested

By Brian Rokos and Shane Newell

The Press-Enterprise
January 16, 2018

In a discovery that has stunned both authorities and neighbors in a suburban Riverside County neighborhood, 13 brothers and sisters who appeared to have been held captive by their parents in a Perris house were found early Sunday, Jan. 14, after one of them escaped and called 911.

Some of them were chained and padlocked to their beds inside the dark and foul-smelling house in the 100 block of Muir Woods Road, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department said.

“The parents were unable to immediately provide a logical reason why their children were restrained in that manner,” sheriff’s officials said in a news release.

The victims appeared dirty and malnourished, the release said, and were so emaciated that deputies were shocked to discover that while all looked like children, they actually ranged in age from 2 to 29; six of them were minors and seven were 18 or older.

David Allen Turpin, 57, and Louise Anna Turpin, 49, were each arrested on suspicion of nine counts of torture and 10 counts of child endangerment, online jail records show. Bail was set at $9 million each. Neither suspect has a documented criminal record in Riverside County, Superior Court records show.

In a bankruptcy filing from 2011, when the couple lived in Murrieta, records state that David Turpin was an engineer at Northrop Grumman and that his wife was a homemaker.

David Turpin also was listed in California Department of Education records as principal of a private school with the same address as their house. While it’s not clear that the school’s six enrolled students as of last year were the Turpins’ own children, parents who intend to homeschool their children are required to file a Private School Affidavit, according to the state Department of Education website.

Neighbors Zinzi and Ricardo Ross expressed disbelief Monday afternoon at the situation on Muir Woods Road. The couple has lived nearby for more than two years.

“It’s very shocking,” Ricardo Ross said. “Very devastating.”

Zinzi Ross agreed. “It’s crazy. I can’t believe this is going on,” she said.

An escape and plea for help

Early Sunday, a 17-year-old girl — who investigators said looked like she was only about 10 — managed to escape from the home with a cellphone that she used to 911, the sheriff’s news release said. She said her 12 brothers and sisters were being held captive.

Deputies went to the home, where they found the other victims along with the parents, David and Louise Turpin.

The victims, who “claimed to be starving,” were fed and admitted to local hospitals, the release said. Child Protective Services and Adult Protective Services assisted in the investigation.

There was no answer at Child Protective Services’ main offices on Monday, the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. A supervisor at the child abuse hotline said he could not provide any information.

It wasn’t clear how long authorities believe the children may have been kept in those conditions. The Sheriff’s Department made no further information available Monday beyond the news release but scheduled a rare news conference for 10 a.m. Tuesday.

Investigators asked that anyone with information on the case contact Master Investigator Tom Salisbury at the Perris station at 951-210-1000 or PerrisStation@RiversideSheriff.org.

‘Mommy loves me’

The horrible allegations against the Turpin parents contrast sharply with the impression given by their joint Facebook page. Several dozen photographs, posted publicly, show a smiling family having fun in places such as Disneyland and Las Vegas.

David and Louise Turpin appear to have had marriage-renewal ceremonies at least three times, in 2011, 2013 and 2015, at the Elvis Chapel in Las Vegas.

The couple posted photos from the Halloween 2015 ceremony on their Facebook page throughout spring 2016. Louise wears a white wedding gown and David wears a tuxedo; Elvis is in a gold jacket. There’s a baby in a frilly pink dress and nine other girls in matching pink and purple plaid dresses, while three boys have on black suits and magenta ties, their hair cut in mop-tops like David’s.

Other pictures show the family in matching outfits on other group outings. And there are lots of pictures of the baby, including one in which she wears a “Mommy loves me” T-shirt.

Many of the children appear thin in the photos but not obviously unhealthy. And like the sheriff’s deputies who found the victims Sunday, someone seeing the pictures may be surprised any of the children were in their 20s.

Attempts to reach relatives of the Turpins were unsuccessful Monday.

A comment on one of the family photos indicates the couple moved to California around 2009. They purchased their current house in Perris — a four-bedroom, three-bathroom, 2,388-square-foot home that was built in 2013 — in August 2014 for $351,000, county property records show.

That house at 160 Muir Woods Road is also the address of Sandcastle Day School, a private school founded in the 2014-15 school year, according to state records.

In the 2016-17 school year, it had an enrollment of six: one student in each of the fifth, sixth, eighth, ninth, 10th and 12th grades.

The school is within the boundaries of the Perris Union High School District, said Candace Reines, the district’s deputy superintendent for business services. However, as a private school, Reines said, Sandcastle has no association with the public district.

“Private schools, they don’t have to get any approvals from the local school district,” she said.

Instead, their operators — including a parent who wants to run a private homeschool — file a Private School Affidavit with the state Department of Education.

‘No idea this was going on’

The Turpins’ middle-class neighborhood — where their frequently unkempt lawn was one of the things neighbors had noticed most about it — was abuzz Monday afternoon as news spread of what had authorities found inside.

More than two dozen people gathered in groups on the sidewalk, and motorists drove by the house, some slowing down and pulling out their cellphones to capture the scene. A helicopter flew overhead and news reporters poured in to try to gain insight on the family, but few of the people who were outside had had much interaction with the Turpins.

Andrew Santillan, who lives around the corner, heard about the case from a friend.

“I had no idea this was going on,” he said as he stood in a nearby driveway and watched the scene. “I didn’t know there were kids in the house.”

Neighbor Andria Valdez said she first saw four cop cars outside the Turpins’ house about 8:15 a.m. Sunday. She said officials stayed all day — one deputy was there until 10 p.m., and a truck with a camper shell that said “Riverside Services” stayed overnight, she said.

Valdez said her family had previously joked the family at that house reminded them of the fictional Cullen family from the “Twilight” book and film series.

“They only came out at night,” she said. “They were really, really pale.”

Jonte McLaurin also saw about four or five sheriff’s cars Sunday morning.

He said he used to mow lawns in the neighborhood, and several years ago he tried knocking on the door to offer his lawn services, but the family declined.

“They were all weird about it,” he said

He said he noticed they at one point let their grass die and then put bales of hay in the front yard.

A few years ago, Robert Perkins said he and his mom saw a few family members constructing a Nativity scene in the Turpins’ front yard. Perkins said he complimented them on it.

“They didn’t say a word,” he said.

EDITOR’S NOTE: According to the New York Post, Louise Turpin kept smirking and spitting during her arrest. Coughing and spitting are used in exorcism rites of some Pentecostal traditions, according to several books on the movement.

Perris was a sleepy little town when I worked in law enforcement. I remember investigating a couple of narcotic cases there.

According to the Post, the Turpins, who practice Pentecostal Christianity, felt “called by God” to sire the 13 children. Amen!