Californian couple arrested after authorities find children ‘shackled to their beds’
A Southern California couple are in custody after one of their daughters contacted 911 and led authorities to their home and 12 of her siblings, including “several children shackled to their beds with chains and padlocks in dark and foul-smelling surroundings.”
The discovery in Perris, Calif., came after the 17-year-old daughter — who police described as emaciated and appearing to be just 10 — escaped the home of her parents, David Allen Turpin, 57, and Louise Anna Turpin, 49, and called police with a cell phone she found at the residence.
Riverside County sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to find the 17-year-old girl. When they saw her, they were struck by her small size and emaciated appearance. She looked to be only 10, according to the sheriff’s account released Monday.
The nightmarish scene deputies discovered when they entered the house on Muir Woods Road was as bad as the girl had described. They found “several children shackled to their beds with chains and padlocks in dark and foul-smelling surroundings,” the statement said.
The parents, David Allen Turpin, 57, and Louise Anna Turpin, 49, “were unable to immediately provide a logical reason why their children were restrained in that manner,” deputies wrote. The couple were arrested on suspicion of torture and child endangerment and each was being held Monday night in lieu of $9-million bail.
Public records indicate the couple have lived at the address for several years and lived in Texas for many years before coming to California. They declared bankruptcy twice, public records show.
Ivan Trahan, an attorney who represented the couple in their latest bankruptcy in 2011, said Monday he was shocked at news of the arrests.
“To me and my wife, Nancy, who was with me during the interviews, we always thought of them as very nice people who spoke highly of their children,” the attorney said. “They seemed like very normal people who fell into financial problems.”
