{"id":56835,"date":"2018-01-18T07:55:23","date_gmt":"2018-01-18T07:55:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=56835"},"modified":"2018-01-18T07:55:23","modified_gmt":"2018-01-18T07:55:23","slug":"in-perris-a-house-of-horrors-hidden-in-plain-sight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/news\/in-perris-a-house-of-horrors-hidden-in-plain-sight.html","title":{"rendered":"In Perris, a house of horrors hidden in plain sight"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Perris, a house of horrors hidden in plain sight<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

It was usually after midnight when Mike Clifford spotted the children from the house across the street.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some nights, he\u2019d see about six children \u2014 none of whom looked older than 15 \u2014 getting into a passenger van with their father and wonder where they could possibly be going at such an hour. Other nights, he\u2019d see them through a second-story window in the Murrieta house, walking in circles for long periods of time.<\/span><\/p>\n

Clifford, an aerospace machinist who works late shifts, tried to make sense of what he saw. Maybe the children had special needs. Maybe the repetitive circling was therapeutic. Maybe it was just their routine.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was kind of strange,\u201d he said. But \u201cthere was never anything to say, \u2018Oh, my God. I should call somebody.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It was a pattern of thinking followed by neighbors, 20 miles to the north in Perris, who a few years later caught similarly strange glimpses of the small, pale children of David and Louise Turpin.<\/span><\/p>\n

After seeing them working under floodlights late at night to put sod in the family\u2019s yard a few months ago, neighbors said it was odd but not so unsettling that they needed to call police.<\/span><\/p>\n

The reality was far worse than anything they imagined.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Turpins\u2019 13 children, authorities said, were captives in the couple\u2019s tract house on Muir Woods Road and appeared to have undergone years of abuse and starvation. Some were shackled to their beds.<\/span><\/p>\n

Authorities learned of the horrors inside the house after a 17-year-old girl called 911 early Sunday, saying she had escaped through a window from her parents\u2019 house, where she and her siblings had been trapped. She\u2019d used a deactivated cellphone to make the call, Riverside County Sheriff\u2019s Capt. Greg Fellows said at a news conference Tuesday. She had photos to back up her claims.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sheriff\u2019s deputies were shocked by the girl\u2019s small size and emaciated appearance, thinking she was only 10.<\/span><\/p>\n

When deputies arrived at the house, it was \u201cextremely dirty,\u201d Fellows said. There was a strong, foul stench. Three young people were in chains. And yet, Fellows said, the children\u2019s mother seemed surprised to see authorities.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt seemed that the mother was perplexed as to why we were at the residence,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

No prior law enforcement contact<\/span><\/p>\n

Sheriff\u2019s deputies had no prior contact with the Turpins or calls for service at their house, Fellows said. Likewise, the Police Department in Murrieta, where the family lived from 2010 to 2014 after moving to California from Texas, had no interactions with them, said a spokesman for the agency.<\/span><\/p>\n

Perris Mayor Michael Vargas said his heart went out to the children.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI can truly say that I am devastated at this act of cruelty. \u2026 I can\u2019t even begin to imagine the pain and suffering that they have endured.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

David Turpin, 56, and Louise Turpin, 49, were arrested this week on suspicion of torture and child endangerment. Each is being held in lieu of $9-million bail.<\/span><\/p>\n

The youngest of their children is 2. Deputies at first assumed from the children\u2019s frail and malnourished appearance that all of them were minors but later determined that seven of them were adults ages 18 to 29, according to the Sheriff\u2019s Department.<\/span><\/p>\n

County adult and child protective service workers and medical professionals are assessing the siblings, Fellows said. The parents, he said, showed \u201cno indication of mental illness at this time\u201d that could explain what they did to their children.<\/span><\/p>\n

Susan von Zabern, director of the Riverside County Department of Public Social Services, said county children\u2019s service officials are seeking court authorization to care for the siblings, \u201cincluding the adult children to the extent that that\u2019s necessary.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Von Zabern said the 911 call received Sunday, which was cross-reported to social workers, was \u201cthe first opportunity we had to intervene.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Although it is too early to know how long the siblings have been malnourished or subjected to abuse, she said, \u201ctheir condition indicates it has been a prolonged period of time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Social workers, as is custom, will try to identify relatives who could care for the children, Von Zabern said. They would \u201cbe subject to all kinds of background investigations to make sure they\u2019re suitable and stable.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018Hopeful that life will get better\u2019<\/span>
\nMark Uffer, chief executive of the Corona Regional Medical Center, said seven of the adult Turpin children \u2014 five females and two males \u2014 are patients at his hospital and are staying in a secured area where they are being treated together.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to think of them as adults when you first see them because they\u2019re small and their malnutrition,\u201d Uffer said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re very friendly. They\u2019re very cooperative, and I believe very hopeful that life will get better for them after this event.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Sandcastle Day School<\/span>
\nLike many California families who choose to home-school their children, the Turpins registered their home with the state as a private school. They called it Sandcastle Day School.<\/span><\/p>\n

During the last school year, the school was listed in state records as a private, nonreligious, co-ed institution that first appeared on the state registry in 2010, when the family lived in Murrieta. There were six students enrolled: one each in the fifth, sixth, eighth, ninth, 10th and 12th grades.<\/span><\/p>\n

David Turpin, who was listed as the principal, submitted paperwork each year, but the information sought by the California Department of Education \u2014 like the address, type of school and enrollment numbers \u2014 likely offered authorities scant insight into the children\u2019s lives.<\/span><\/p>\n

The annual paperwork is all that California law requires.<\/span><\/p>\n

Neither the Department of Education nor the local school districts had any legal responsibility to knock on the Turpins\u2019 door, review their curriculum or assess their children\u2019s academic performance. While state law requires private school employees to submit to fingerprinting and background checks, there is no such demand placed on parents teaching their own children.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe really knew nothing about them,\u201d said Grant Bennett, superintendent of the Perris Union High School District. \u201cIf they were in home school from the beginning, they wouldn\u2019t have even been on our radar.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018It hit me like a ton of bricks\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

Authorities said they have reviewed a Facebook page belonging to David and Louise Turpin. A joint account that appears to belong to the couple is filled with recent images of the large family, wearing matching outfits and smiling at Disneyland.<\/span><\/p>\n

Photos posted in May 2016 depict an apparent marriage vow renewal ceremony between David and Louise, with an Elvis impersonator in a gold suit jacket. Their 13 children surround them \u2014 the girls in pink-and-purple plaid dresses, the boys in black suits.<\/span><\/p>\n

In all of the photographs, the children are thin and short in stature. It is difficult to tell which ones are adults.<\/span><\/p>\n

Eric Aguirre, the family\u2019s former landlord in Murrieta, was shocked when he first saw news reports about the family.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was scrolling through Facebook going, \u2018Why do I know these people?\u2019 Why do I know these people?\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cThen it hit me like a ton of bricks.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Aguirre said the family rented their former five-bedroom house \u201csight unseen\u201d after moving from Texas.<\/span><\/p>\n

He interacted with the family only once, when he came over to perform routine maintenance. The children slept in bunk beds, he said, but nothing about their behavior or the condition of the house seemed out of the ordinary, he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-\u00a0http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/local\/lanow\/la-me-perris-house-children-20180117-story.html<\/span><\/p>\n

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