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Authorities reveal new details on Perris prison home

Published June 20, 2018 12:50 PM

Riverside County sheriff’s officials had no prior contact with a Perris couple accused of starving and imprisoning their 13 children — some of them adults — inside their home, where at least three of
the siblings were shackled to furniture, a sheriff’s captain said Tuesday.

“We had no prior contacts at that residence regarding any allegations of child abuse or neglect,” sheriff’s Capt. Greg Fellows told a packed room of reporters at a mid-morning briefing.

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He noted that the children’s mother, 49-year-old Louise Ann Turpin, seemed “perplexed as to why we were at that residence.”

Louise Turpin and her husband, David Allen Turpin, 57, were arrested Sunday on suspicion of torture and child abuse. They remain jailed in lieu of $9 million bail at the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside.

Susan Von Zabern, director of the county Department of Public Social Services, said the agency “will be seeking court authorization to provide oversight and care (of the children) … including the adult children to the extent that’s necessary.”

According to sheriff’s officials, an investigation was initiated Sunday morning after a 17-year-old girl fled from the suspects’ residence in the 100 block of Muir Woods Road, near Goetz Road.

{“url”:”https://twitter.com/KWidnerCBSL2/status/953328120886538240″,”author_name”:”Katie Widner CBSL2″,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/KWidnerCBSL2″,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;16-year-old girl escaped through a window to get help. Called police off a deactivated cell phone. &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/KESQ?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;@KESQ&#lt;/a&#gt; &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/LocalTwo?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;@LocalTwo&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/p&#gt;– Katie Widner CBSL2 (@KWidnerCBSL2) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/KWidnerCBSL2/status/953328120886538240?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;January 16, 2018&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;n”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″}

The victim, whose identity was not released, used a mobile phone to call 911, reporting that her 12 brothers and sisters were imprisoned within the home and in need of help, according to the sheriff’s department. Fellows said the girl escaped through a window of the home.

Read: California family projected happy, wholesome image on social media

Deputies spoke with the girl, who appeared to be much younger than her teenage years, possibly due to under-development from malnutrition, then proceeded to the house to speak with the Turpins. Fellows said the girl had photos and showed them to the deputies to back up her story about what was going on in the house.

“Further investigation revealed several children shackled to their beds with chains and padlocks in dark and foul-smelling surroundings, but the parents were unable to immediately provide a logical reason why their children were restrained in that manner,” according to a sheriff’s department
statement.

“Deputies located what they believed to be 12 children inside the house, but were shocked to discover that seven of them were actually adults, ranging in age from 18 to 29. The victims appeared to be malnourished and very dirty.”

Several of the victims told deputies they were starving. Fellows said at least three were shackled to furniture inside the home.

The six younger children were taken to Riverside University Medical Center in Moreno Valley for treatment, officials said. The seven older children were taken to Corona Regional Medical Center.

Mark Uffer, CEO of Corona Regional Medical Center, said that while the patients are all technically adults, “it’s hard to think of them as adults when you first see them because they’re small.”

“They’re comfortable and they’re in a very safe and secure environment, and I think that’s the most important thing for them right now,” Uffer said.

Dr. Sophia Grant of RUMC said cases of malnutrition need to be treated carefully because there can be negative reactions during the “refeeding” process. She would not discuss the children’s conditions specifically, but said, “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.”

The 13 individuals removed from the home ranged from 2 to 29 years old. They were placed in protective custody, under the care of either county Child Protective Services or Adult Protective Services personnel.

Fellows said the family has lived in Perris since 2014, and the children were home-schooled. The family ran a school known as Sandcastle Day School out of the home, with state records indicating it had just six students. Fellows said there is no indication any students or children from outside the
family were in the home.

Read: Arrest of Perris couple highlights lack of private school oversight

David Turpin, a former engineer for Northrop Grumman, was listed as the principal of the school.

Anyone with information on the case was asked to call the sheriff’s Perris station at (951) 210-1000.