by John Glatt
Fifteen-year-old James was in the 0.01 percentile for his weight and 1.4 for his height. His muscles were so weak that he had an abnormal gait and difficulty walking. He had a vitamin D deficiency and visible scoliosis, his back curved into an S shape.
James also exhibited disturbing antisocial behavior, telling the doctor that he wanted to kill animals and believed his dreams could predict the future.
The doctor then examined Jordan, who weighed just over ninety-four pounds. She also suffered from protein calorie malnutrition and muscle wasting and had mild scoliosis. Dr. Massi found Jordan to be very childlike for her age, sending her for speech therapy, as she was so hard to understand.
The other three minors were treated by Dr. Sophia Grant, the medical director of the child abuse unit at Riverside University Health System. She found that Jolinda and Joanna suffered from severe malnutrition and muscle wasting. Thirteen-year-old Jolinda, with a body weight percentile of 0.04 and body height of 0.01, was very small and, due to malnutrition, showed none of the normal signs of puberty for a girl her age. Joanna, who had a body weight percentage of 0.01 and height of 0.81, also suffered from vitamin D and potassium deficiencies. In the ten days she spent at the hospital, Joanna would put on almost eight pounds, more than a normal girl of her age would gain in a year.
Dr. Grant also examined two-year-old Janna, who was the best fed of all the siblings. Her body weight percentile was 7.5, and her height was 7.18. The toddler weighed twenty-five and a half pounds when she was admitted and would gain a further three pounds over the next three months.
* * *
That afternoon, The Press-Enterprise broke the story online with the headline, 13 CAPTIVE SIBLINGS, SOME CHAINED TO BEDS, RESCUED FROM PERRIS HOUSE; PARENTS ARRESTED. Both authorities and neighbors were stunned by the discovery, Brian Rokos reported. He interviewed neighbor Ricardo Ross, who said he was in total disbelief.
“It’s very shocking,” he said. “Very devastating.”
Soon, dozens of people had gathered in groups along Muir Woods Road as a helicopter hovered overhead. A procession of motorists drove by the brown stucco house, where a van and three other vehicles, including two Volkswagens with vanity plates DL4EVER and DSLAND, were parked outside. One had a baby seat in the back.
A dozen television news crews had set up camp by the house. They would remain there for a week. Reporters went door-to-door, speaking to neighbors for any insight into the mysterious Turpin family. But few residents on the street could tell them very much.
“They looked very unnutritioned [sic],” said Wendy Martinez, who lived nearby. “Very white, like they never got any sun at all. I mean, they would never come out, and when they did, the lady would stand there watching them.”
Neighbor Andria Valdez said her family had joked that the family was just like the fictional Cullen family of vampires from the hit Twilight movies.
“They only came out at night,” she said. “They were really, really pale.”
* * *
Inside 160 Muir Woods Road, dozens of crime scene investigators sifted through the thick dirt, collecting piles of forensic evidence that was then packaged up and driven away for analysis. Cadaver dogs were also brought in, searching for human remains.
Officers videoed and photographed every inch of the house. In the garage, they found hundreds of DVDs, alphabetized and stacked up to the ceiling. These included every season of the Kate Plus 8 reality show, Disney cartoons, and a collection of horror movies, including Glass House: The Good Mother, about two seemingly ideal parents who torture and imprison their adopted children.
* * *
That evening, all three Los Angeles television networks led off with the sensational story, which would soon go national. They had easily accessed the David-Louise Turpin Facebook page, with all the family photographs of the couple posing with their twelve identically dressed children at Disneyland. There was also stunning video of the Las Vegas wedding renewals, showing the Turpins and their children posing with “Elvis.”
“Tortured, starved, and shackled,” declared the anchor of NBC4’s six o’clock news. “Thirteen brothers and sisters forced to live in filth. Tonight, their parents are accused of unthinkable crimes.”
Reporting live from outside the Turpin home, reporter Tony Shin canvassed the neighbors’ stunned reactions.
“They say they knew the family was a little strange,” said Shin, “but they didn’t think anyone was getting hurt.”
Julie Olha expressed horror that something like this could have happened in Perris.
“If we had known, we would have turned this in a lot sooner,” she told Shin, “because we take care of each other in this neighborhood.”
Araceli Olozagaste described David and Louise being led out of their house in handcuffs. She said David had been “crying uncontrollably” while his wife was acting very strange, smirking at the officers and then spitting twice on the ground.
KABC7’s newscast broadcast the first reactions from family members. Jim and Betty Turpin had learned what had happened to their grandchildren after getting a call from a reporter at their Princeton, West Virginia, home. When Bluefield Daily Telegraph reporter Greg Jordan learned there was a Princeton connection to the story, he found Jim and Betty Turpin’s number in the phone book and immediately called them.
“And [Jim] was gracious enough to talk to me for a few minutes,” said Jordan. “Of course, he did not believe the charges he was hearing. They were trying hard to contact authorities in California to find out what had been happening with the children.”
The elder Turpins told ABC News that they were “surprised and shocked” at the allegations and had last visited their son and his family in California about four or five years earlier. At the time, they appeared to be a “happy family,” said the grandparents, although the children seemed thin. Asked why David and Louise had so many children, they said “God had called on them” to do so.
To Greg Jordan, Jim Turpin described his son as “a fine person” who “did an outstanding job.” He told Jordan that when he’d last seen his grandchildren, “the kids were fine,” Jordan recalled. “They were healthy and nothing was wrong.”
It was a brief interview, as Jim wanted to get off the phone so he could get more details from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office.
“He was holding up as well as anybody could,” said Jordan. “He wasn’t hysterical, but he wanted to get on with the business of contacting the authorities and [talking] to the grandchildren themselves. He didn’t believe the charges and wanted to find out what was going on.”
A few hours later, Jim and Betty Turpin hired Princeton lawyer Paige Flanigan to represent them.
“James and Betty Turpin had no knowledge of the allegations that have been made regarding this matter,” read a statement issued by the Flanagan Law Office, “other than what they have seen in the media. [They] would ask the media to respect their family’s privacy at this time as they deal with this difficult situation, and their focus is solely on the safety of their son and grandchildren.”
Back in Tennessee, Elizabeth Flores learned what had happened when somebody posted a link to the story to her on Facebook, asking, “Is this your sicko sister?”
“My initial response was, ‘Oh my god! Oh my god!’” she remembered. “And I broke down. I knew my sister was strange, but never anything like this. And then not even five minutes later, I had a news reporter calling and wanting to interview me. And it began like that.”
Elizabeth called her sister Teresa Robinette and told her to sit down.
“I looked at the news and I just … I don’t really know how to describe the feeling to you,” Teresa told Fox News. “I felt like it wasn’t real. Then I just got mad. My next emotion was anger.”
When she turned on the television, she immediately saw her sister’s and brother-in-law’s mugshots.
“That in itself shocked me,” she said.
* * *
Quickly branded
“the House of Horrors,” the story of what had gone on behind closed doors at 160 Muir Woods Road spread like wildfire, shocking everyone who had ever come into contact with the Turpin family. Back in Rio Vista, Texas, Ashley Vinyard told a reporter that she finally knew why her old neighbors had been so secretive.
“I wanted to say I’m shocked,” she said, “but at the same time, it kind of all adds up when you’re looking back.”
Her father, Ricky, said he now wished he had alerted authorities.
“I found it very disturbing,” he said. “We should have done something. Today I still feel terrible about it. These people are shit.”
Elvis impersonator Kent Ripley, who remarried David and Louise three times in Las Vegas—twice with their children present—now found his interactions with the family disturbing.
“I would never have thought this,” he said, “and I feel so bad for the children.”
Ripley said he hoped that their two visits to Las Vegas had at least been a ray of light in the children’s otherwise dark existence.
“Were they free for a moment in the outside world?” he asked. “Do they look back and go, ‘Oh, that was great,’ or do they look back and say, ‘We got punished when we got back to the hotel’?”
That night, A Elvis Chapel removed all videos of the three Turpin marriage renewals from its website, and the David-Louise Turpin Facebook page was taken down.
21
“I WOULD CALL THAT TORTURE”
At 10:00 a.m. Tuesday morning, as police arrived at 595 Hill County Road in Texas with cadaver dogs to search for human remains, Captain Greg Fellows, the Perris chief of police, held a press conference. Scores of reporters and cameramen packed into a conference room at the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department.
“First of all,” he began, “I’m very saddened to report on such a heartbreaking case.”
Captain Fellows recounted how Jordan—whose name he withheld—had dialed 911 early Sunday morning, reporting that she and her twelve siblings were being held against their will, and some were chained up. The deputies and a supervisor had met the girl, who had showed them photos of her two sisters chained to their beds. Then they had gone straight over to 160 Muir Woods Road to conduct a welfare check.
“When they arrived inside the house,” he continued, “they noticed that the children were malnourished. It was very dirty, and the conditions were horrific. The biological parents and children were taken to the Perris Sheriff’s Station for further investigation.”
He emphasized that this was an ongoing investigation and that nothing would be ruled out.
“I wish I could come to you today with information that would explain why this happened,” he said with obvious emotion. “But we do need to acknowledge the courage of the young girl who escaped from that residence to bring attention so they could get the help that they so needed.”
The mayor of Perris, Michael Vargas, took the podium next.
“I can truly say that I’m devastated at this act of cruelty and heartfelt for the victims,” he said. “I can’t begin to imagine the pain and suffering that they have endured.”
Mayor Vargas thanked the police department for its “swift response,” saying he had faith that officers would do a thorough investigation.
“This is a very happy and tight, hardworking family community,” he said. “And I know that I speak on behalf of the residents of Perris, that our thoughts and prayers are with the victims as they endure the next few weeks that are coming up.”
Next, Dr. Sophia Grant, the medical director of the child abuse unit at the Riverside University Health System, addressed the immediate medical needs of the thirteen victims, including the three siblings she was treating.
“They would require stabilization,” she said, “and in cases of starvation, we would have to slowly start to feed them to avoid any problems that refeeding may cause. The long-term needs of these kids are going to be the psychological and psychiatric needs, due to the prolonged periods of starvation and maltreatment.”
Mark Uffer took over with an update on the seven adults’ progress at the Corona Regional Medical Center.
“It’s hard to think of them as adults when you first see them,” he said, “because they’re small, and it’s very clear that they’re malnutritioned.”
He told the audience that all seven were “stable” and being fed appropriately.
“They’re comfortable, and they are in a very safe and secure environment,” he said. “They’ve gone through a very traumatic ordeal. I can tell you that they are very friendly, they’re very cooperative, and I believe that they’re hopeful that life will get better for them after this event.”
Captain Fellows then took a few questions from the bustling crowd.
“Did the parents try and explain what was going on?” asked one TV reporter.
“I can’t get into the specific details of the conversation,” replied the captain, “but it seemed that the mother was perplexed as to why we were at that residence.”
Another reporter asked if law enforcement or Child Protective Services had ever been called out to 160 Muir Woods Road.
“No, sir. We had no prior contacts at that residence regarding any allegations of child abuse or neglect.”
ABC7 reporter Rob McMillan questioned whether religion had played any part in it. “I spoke to David Turpin’s parents last night,” he said. “They were a very religious family. They taught their kids the Bible [and] actually instructed them to memorize large sections of it. Could religion have caused this? Is this some sort of cult or an offshoot of religion that made them treat their children like this?”
“As of right now,” Fellows said, “I have no information regarding any religious organization associated with this matter. But again, we’re still in the very early stages of this investigation.”
A reporter asked for details on how the Turpin siblings had been tortured.
“I can’t get into the specifics of that,” he said again. “But if you can imagine being seventeen years old and appearing to be a ten-year-old. Being chained to a bed. Being malnourished and injuries associated with that. I would call that torture.”
Reporters then directed their questions to Dr. Grant, asking what was ahead for the children medically, physically, and psychologically.
“Well, you can imagine the post-traumatic stress disorder,” she replied, “if you’ve been deprived of nutrition for a prolonged period of time. If you’ve been deprived of normal childhood activities, normal interactions, and the people who should have been providing for you have failed to do so, that is going to cause some psychological damage. The psychological support is going to be ongoing and long term.”
Asked if there was any hope of full recovery after so many years of physical and psychological torture, she said, “I think there’s always hope. But you have to imagine that these kids are going to need a lot of support. This is going to be long term, and they’re going to need support and loving, supportive people in their lives to help them try to achieve any type of normal life.”
* * *
The discovery, first revealed by Press-Enterprise reporter Brian Rokos, that David Turpin had been running a private school to keep his children under the radar raised many questions about the lax regulations for homeschooling in California. On Tuesday morning, the California Department of Education issued a statement denying any responsibility for what had happened.
“We are sickened by this tragedy,” it read, “and relieved the children are now safe and the authorities are investigating. Full-time private schools are required to register with the state to record their students’ exemption from compulsory attendance at public schools. Under California law, the CDE does not have the authority to monitor, inspect, or oversee private schools.”
Since the story had broken, Rokos had begun researching private school licensing, discovering that all private schools should receive an annual inspection by the fire department. But in the seven ye
ars that David Turpin had registered his City Day School and then Sandcastle Day School, there had never been a single inspection.
The legislation makes it very specific that any day school that files the affidavit, as the Turpins did, would be subject to the annual inspection. “They never did one,” Rokos explained. “Restaurants and day care homes have to be inspected, but apparently not private schools.”
Local assemblyman Jose Medina decided that it was time to take action and tighten up regulations for private homeschools. The former high school teacher was shocked that David Turpin had been able to hide in plain sight under the guise of running a private school.
“He listed himself as the principal of the Sandcastle School,” said Assemblyman Medina, who chairs the California State Assembly’s higher-education committee. “That was striking to me. I am extremely concerned about the lack of oversight the State of California currently has in monitoring private and homeschools.”
The assemblyman called the CDE and the Office of the State Superintendent, looking for answers. He demanded an investigation into why the Turpin private schools had never received a fire inspection, and he also began drafting legislation to toughen up the regulations for opening a private school and monitoring the schools more closely.
“Perris is a great city and has many, many good things going on,” he said. “And I think when they move on past it, as they should, there’ll be some good that comes out.”
* * *
Soon after Tuesday morning’s press conference, eighty-one-year-old Betty Turpin gave a series of interviews, defending her son David and daughter-in-law Louise. She told CNN the couple had always been “highly protective” of their children, expressing “total shock” that they now faced torture and child endangerment charges.