'Chained around her torso': Photos reveal children's torture in 'House of horrors'
It looked like a normal suburban home but photos shown in court present a picture of the traumatic ordeal 13 children endured inside the Turpin family’s ‘House of Horrors’.
The 13 children of David and Louise Turpin – aged from 2 to 29 – were shackled to their beds and freed by officers after a 17-year-old escaped from the home and phoned 911 in January.
The parents were arrested in a case that has drawn worldwide attention to years of severe neglect that was hidden behind the neatly kept facade of their home in Perris, 113 kilometres southeast of Los Angeles.
In the desperate 911 call, the teen, who sounded childlike, told the 911 dispatcher two younger sisters and a brother were chained to their beds.
The El Paso Times has described graphic photos presented as evidence in court at the preliminary hearing for the parents for the first time last week.
One photo showed a girl with a chain around her torso with long hair covering her face as she sits on a grubby mattress.
In another photo shown to the court, a girl is seen chained to a bedpost, her wrists are also shackled.
The Turpin parents have pleaded not guilty in Riverside County Superior Court to torture, child abuse and other charges. They have been ordered to stand trial on multiple counts of child abuse and false imprisonment and are being held on US$12 million bail each.
The 17-year-old who called 911 had planned her escape for two years and police said the house reeked of human waste and the oldest adult child weighed just 37 kilograms.
The children were locked up as punishment, beaten and denied food, authorities said.
After her escape, the 17-year-old said she had not bathed in about a year.
“Sometimes I wake up and I can’t breathe because of how dirty the house is,” she said in the 911 call.
The children mostly were locked in their rooms and only allowed to leave to eat, use the bathroom and brush their teeth.
