Parents Arrested for Holding Their 12 Children Captive

Parents Arrested for Holding Their 12 Children Captive

Bruce Stanfield

photo credit:  Bruce Stanfield // Shutterstock

California parents David Allen Turpin, 57, and Louise Anna Turpin, 49, were arrested and charged on Sunday for holding their 12 children captive in their home under filthy conditions.

One 17-year-old girl was able to get free and call 911 using a cell phone in the house. She told police her 12 brother and sisters were being held captive by their parents  Once police arrived, they found 12 victims, 7 of them being adults, who “appeared malnourished and very dirty” with several shackled to their beds “in dark and foul-smelling surroundings.” The children ranged from ages 2 to 29.

Both parents have been charged with torture and child endangerment, bail being set for $9 million each. The court hearing is Thursday.

In photos on social media the family can be seen on yearly vacations, dressing alike, seemingly happy. David Turpin’s mother says the two parents were very protective of the children, making sure they dress alike, and lining them up in order from youngest to oldest with one parent at each end of the line when out in public.

According to CNN, neighbors says they never saw any of the younger children. Occasionally some of the children would come out together to do lawn work, and would go back in together as well, appearing “very pale-skinned, almost like they’d never seen the sun.”

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