by John Glatt
“It was compelling to hear Jordan’s 911 call yesterday,” said the judge. “To talk about the fact that she barely, if ever, was able to get out of the house. She didn’t even know her own address. She knew nothing about the neighborhood, because she basically had never been out of the house.”
He also addressed defense attorney Jeff Moore’s request to lower the choking charge against Louise Turpin to a misdemeanor.
He noted that after Mother told Jordan she was going to die, the young teenager believed she would. And that “quite severe” physical force had been used, which hurt her neck for two days.
“[This] is sufficient to show that this was infliction of force likely to cause great bodily injury and may have caused great bodily injury.”
Finally, Judge Schwartz addressed the eight counts of perjury against David Turpin regarding his nonexistent private school.
“The documents submitted by David Turpin in the private homeschool affidavits,” said the judge, “basically says that the children are getting full schooling as if they were in public school. And the reality here is they were getting no schooling, or virtually no schooling. These children were left unattended for their ability to be able to learn and be educated during the formative years of their life. And so it’s clear to the court … that the schooling was not being given to these children in accordance under the law.”
Schwartz ruled that there was probable cause to believe both defendants had abused and tortured twelve of their thirteen children. He ordered them to stand trial on more than four dozen felony counts each.
He set an arraignment date for Friday, August 3, with a trial date within sixty days of that.
“Is that acceptable to you, Mr. Turpin?” asked the judge.
“Yes, sir,” David replied.
“And Mrs. Turpin?”
“Yes,” she said in a soft whisper.
Then the defense attorneys asked Judge Schwartz to seal the audio recording of Jordan’s 911 call and the two photographs she had taken of her sisters in chains.
“We’ve had enough adverse publicity in this case,” said David Macher. “I don’t think we need more. I don’t think we need those photographs to be circulating.”
Later, the District Attorney’s Office announced that it would not release the audio tape or the two photographs, as it was a pending criminal case.
Outside the court, Press-Enterprise reporter Brian Rokos asked David Macher if he planned to request a change of venue and move the trial out of Riverside County.
“Probably,” he replied, “if we go to trial.”
EPILOGUE
At 8:30 a.m. on Friday, August 3, 2018, David and Louise Turpin were back in Riverside County Superior Court for their rearraignment. Before the proceedings began, Judge Bernard Schwartz was handed a written request on behalf of the thirteen Turpin children, for their birth certificates, IDs, and a camera that had been seized by police. It was a sign that they were trying to move on with their lives. As neither prosecutors nor the defense lawyers opposed it, the judge signed an order to return their personal items. Then he adjourned the arraignment for a further four weeks.
On August 31, Judge Schwartz denied a motion by Defense Attorney David Macher to sever David Turpin’s eight perjury charges from the other forty-one. Deputy District Attorney Kevin Beecham told the judge that his sham home school was an integral part of the neglect the seven adult children had suffered, rendering them unable to care for themselves. The judge agreed.
“The lack of education is part and parcel to the entirety of the case,” he said.
Then both the defendants reentered pleas of not guilty to all eighty-eight charges against them.
At their next court appearance on October 5, Jeff Moore announced that Louise had now been diagnosed with histrionic personality disorder, asking the judge to release her from jail to undergo mental-health treatment under a pretrial diversion program.
“The actions that underlie the charges,” explained Moore, “were motivated or caused by the mental-health disorder. Mrs. Turpin does not pose a threat to the public. She is amenable to treatment in a noncustodial setting.”
Deputy DA Beecham argued that the defense had not established that the personality disorder was responsible for Louise’s actions. “She is an unreasonable risk to the public,” he told the court.
Judge Schwartz agreed and turned down the defense request.
At the end of November, Judge Schwartz set a trial date for September 3, 2019.
* * *
On Friday, February 22, 2019, David and Louise Turpin dramatically agreed to plead guilty to fourteen felony counts each, including torture, false imprisonment, and child endangerment. The couple had originally faced nearly fifty counts each, but prosecutors had agreed to drop many of them.
At the hearing, Louise cried and dabbed her eyes as she admitted to each charge while David appeared stoic without a hint of emotion. The couple now face spending the rest of their lives behind bars.
Under the reduced charges, the Turpins each admitted to at least one crime for each of their twelve children. No charges were ever filed for their now three-year-old daughter.
“Those pleas will result in life sentences,” declared Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin at a press conference after the hearing. “I think it’s fair that the sentence was equivalent to first-degree murder.”
* * *
Two months later, on Good Friday, April 19, 2019, David and Louise Turpin were sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after twenty-five years. During the emotional hearing, Jennifer and Joshua Turpin stepped out in public for the first time to deliver heart-wrenching impact statements to their parents. They were comforted by a Labrador support dog called Raider.
“My parents took my whole life from me, but now I’m taking my whole life back,” said Jennifer, now thirty, in a shaky high-pitched voice. “I saw my dad change my mom. They almost changed me, but I realized what was happening. I fought to become the person I am. I’m a fighter, I’m strong, and I’m shooting through life like a rocket.”
Then Joshua, now twenty-seven, walked up to the stand and thanked his parents for teaching him about God and faith. Now at college studying to be a software engineer, he told them that he still has nightmares about being chained up and beaten.
“That is the past and this is now,” he told the court. “I love my parents and have forgiven them for a lot of things that they did to us. I have learned so much and become independent.”
Joshua also read out a statement from his sister Jessica.
“Although it may not have been the best way of raising us,” it said, “I’m glad that they did because it made me the person I am today.”
David Turpin’s attorney then read out his statement to the court.
“I never intended for any harm to come to my children,” it said. “I’m sorry if I’ve done anything to cause them harm. I hope and pray my children can stay close to each other since their mother and father cannot be there for them.”
Finally Louise Turpin addressed the court.
“I want them to know that Mom and Dad are going to be okay,” she declared, dabbing her eyes with a tissue. “I’m blessed to be the mother of each of them. I also want them to know I believe God has a special plan for them. I’m sorry for everything I’ve done to hurt my children. I love my children so much.”
Before handing down sentence, Judge Bernard Schwartz told David and Louise Turpin, “Children are indeed a gift. They’re a gift to their parents, they’re a gift to their family, to their friends, and they’re a gift to society. They are a gift to their parents in the sense that a parent should be joyful of firsts in their child’s life. The first day of school, first date, first graduation, first job, marriage. All of those things should be enjoyed by the parents and child alike.”
Judge Schwartz told the defendants that their “selfish, cruel and inhumane treatment” of their children had permanently altered th
eir ability to learn and thrive.
“It delayed their mental, physical, and emotional development,” he said. “To the extent that they do thrive, and we’ve learnt today that a couple of them are, it will be not because of you both but in spite of you both.”
John Taylor, Louise’s grandfather, was a handsome war hero when he returned to Princeton in 1944, ready to make his fortune.
(Courtesy of the Mercer County Historical Society)
The Princeton Church of God, where David Turpin first set eyes on Louise Robinette during prayers.
(Courtesy of John Glatt)
David Turpin’s yearbook photo from his freshman year at Virginia Tech, typical of the late 1970s, shows no hint of the obsessively controlling man he would become. He graduated with honors, but frequently returned to Princeton to visit his then-underage girlfriend, Louise.
(Courtesy of John Glatt)
In this photo from the 1984 Princeton High School yearbook, Louise Turpin smiles for what would be her last school picture—an image that shows an innocence that is absent in later photos. She eloped with David a few months later and would never graduate. She was sixteen years old.
(Courtesy of John Glatt)
In early 1990, David and Louise moved into this spacious house at 3225 Roddy Drive in Fort Worth, Texas, with their two-year-old daughter, Jennifer.
(Courtesy of John Glatt)
David and Louise loved going to Billy Bob’s rodeo in the Fort Worth Stockyards.
(Courtesy of John Glatt)
It was at their new house at 595 Hill County Road in Rio Vista, Texas, that David and Louise started abusing their children as they shut themselves off from the world. Their next-door neighbors, the Vinyard family, eventually gave up trying to befriend the Turpin family. They had no idea of the horrors that were going on behind closed doors.
(Courtesy of John Glatt)
In June 2010, fleeing from creditors, David and Louise moved their twelve children to Murietta, California, where the torture and abuse escalated.
(Courtesy of John Glatt)
David and Louise forced the children to sleep during the day and stay up all night. Neighbors would see the twelve children marching back and forth for hours in the upstairs hallway.
(Courtesy of John Glatt)
David and Louise loved taking their children out for photo opportunities, which they would then post on Facebook to portray themselves as the perfect family.
(Courtesy of Facebook)
In 2014, the Turpins moved into a model home in a prestigious new development in scenic Perris, California, an up-and-coming bedroom community halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego.
(Courtesy of John Glatt)
The Turpins pose with Mickey Mouse at Disneyland.
(Courtesy of Facebook)
David and Louise and their twelve children pose with Princess Jasmine during one of their trips to Disneyland. According to child-trauma expert Allison Davis Maxon, it must have been terrifying for the children to suddenly leave their dark world of deprivation.
(Courtesy of Facebook)
David and Louise sang and danced with “Elvis” at all their wedding renewals, while their “dazed-looking” children watched.
(Courtesy of A Elvis Chapel)
David and Louise share a romantic slow dance at one of their three wedding renewals in Las Vegas.
(Courtesy of A Elvis Chapel)
In 2013, Louise opened a new Facebook account under her maiden name, prompting speculation that she was seeking sex online.
(Courtesy of Facebook Court)
David Turpin’s mugshot, taken hours after his arrest in January 2018.
(Courtesy of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department)
Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin shocked the media when he shared the details of the Turpin children’s abuse at his press conference, just days after Jordan’s heroic escape.
(Courtesy of David McNew/Getty Images)
Louise seems to be smirking in her mugshot.
(Courtesy of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department)
Scores of well-wishers signed this card of support for the Turpin children, which was left outside 160 Muir Woods Road.
(Courtesy of John Glatt)
David Turpin at his arraignment at the Riverside Hall of Justice.
(Courtesy of Mike Blake / Getty Images)
David’s two public defenders, David Macher and Allison Lowe.
(Courtesy of John Glatt)
Louise shares a joke with her defense attorney, Jeff Moore.
(Courtesy of Digital First Media / The Riverside Press Enterprise / Getty Images)
Louise’s sister, Elizabeth Flores, and her cousin, Tricia Andreassen, attended a court hearing in March 2018, along with Dr. Oz Show crime correspondent Melissa Moore.
(Courtesy of John Glatt)
ALSO BY JOHN GLATT
My Sweet Angel
The Lost Girls
The Prince of Paradise
Love Her to Death
Lost and Found
Playing with Fire
Secrets in the Cellar
To Have and to Kill
Forgive Me, Father
The Doctor’s Wife
One Deadly Night
Depraved
Cries in the Desert
For I Have Sinned
Evil Twins
Cradle of Death
Blind Passion
Deadly American Beauty
Never Leave Me
Twisted
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
English-born JOHN GLATT is the author of more than twenty-five books, which include The Lost Girls and My Sweet Angel, and has over thirty years of experience as an investigative journalist in England and America. He has appeared on television and radio programs all over the world, including Dateline NBC, Fox News, A Current Affair, BBC World News, and A&E Biography. You can sign up for email updates here.
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CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Prologue
PART ONE: THE SEEDS OF EVIL
Chapter 1 King Turpin
Chapter 2 “He’s So Creepy”
Chapter 3 The Honor Student
Chapter 4 The Runaways
PART TWO: THE FAMILY
Chapter 5 “I Thought Their Life Was Perfect”
Chapter 6 Meadowcreek Elementary School
Chapter 7 Rio Vista
Chapter 8 DL4EVER
Chapter 9 Lord of the Flies
Chapter 10 “Sow Those Wild Oats”
Chapter 11 Murrieta
Chapter 12 “So Many Little Bright-Eyed Dreamers”
Chapter 13 “Louise Turpin Is a Super Mom”
Chapter 14 Viva Las Vegas
Chapter 15 Perris
Chapter 16 “May You Be Blessed with More Children”
Chapter 17 Things 1 to 13
Chapter 18 “Where Is the Key?”
PART THREE: THE MAGNIFICENT THIRTEEN
Chapter 19 Rescue
Chapter 20 God Called on Them to Have So Many Children
Chapter 21 “I Would Call That Torture”
Chapter 22 “This Is Depraved Conduct”
Chapter 23 “We Stand United with the Turpin Children”
Chapter 24 Family Secrets
Chapter 25 Learning to Fly
Chapter 26 “She’s Living in a Fantasy World”
Chapter 27 A New Life
Chapter 28 “My Two Little Sisters Are Chained Up!”
Chapter 29 “She Was Terrified o
f Her Mother”
Chapter 30 “Cruel and Unusual Punishment and Extreme Pain”
Chapter 31 “There’s a Plethora of Evidence”
Epilogue
Photographs
Also by John Glatt
About the Author
Copyright
First published in the United States by St. Martin’s Press, an imprint of St. Martin’s Publishing Group
THE FAMILY NEXT DOOR. Copyright © 2019 by John Glatt. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Publishing Group, 120 Broadway, New York, NY 10271.
www.stmartins.com
Cover design by Timothy Scudds
Cover photographs of ripped paper © Autsawin Uttisin/Shutterstock.com; house and courthouse © AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes; Louise Anna Turpin and David Allen Turpin © Frederick M. Brown/Pool Photo via AP
The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
ISBN 978-1-250-20213-0 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-250-20214-7 (ebook)
eISBN 9781250202147
Our ebooks may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at 1-800-221-7945, extension 5442, or by email at [email protected].
First Edition: July 2019