RIVERSIDE COUNTY, Calif. (NBC) – The 13 children who were rescued from their abusive home in California this week say they were allowed to shower only once a year.
In a news conference Friday, the Riverside County District attorney called the treatment of 12 out of 13 of the children “simply torture.”
D.A. Mike Hestrin said the children were kept in chains for months at a time, only being allowed to write in their journals.
He intends to use those journals as evidence in the case against David and Louise Turpin.
He said the children were denied toys, but investigators found lots of new toys in their original packaging.
Hestrin said the couple began with child neglect when the Turpin family lived in Texas and ramped up to torture when they relocated to Riverside County.
District Attorney Mike Hestrin, said, “These individuals sleep all day and are up all night. All 13 of the victims including the defendants typically go to sleep around 4 or five in the morning, sleep all day and then be up all through the night.
“The evidence is that three victims were chained up at the time the police first knocked on the door at the home in Perris. The defendants were able to get two of the victims unchained before the police actually entered and an 11 and 14-year-old were unchained while the police stood at the door. A 22-year-old was still chained when the police entered the home.
“The 17-year-old victim that escaped had been working on a plan with her siblings to escape this abuse for more than two years. She escaped through a window and took one of her siblings with her. That sibling became frightened and turned back and went back into the house.
“All the victims were severely malnourished. Specifically severe caloric malnutrition associated with muscle waste. To give you an example, one of the children at age 12 is the weight of an average seven-year-old. The 29-year-old female victim weighs 82 pounds.
“One of the reasons for the punishment were if the children were found to wash their hands above the wrist area, they were accused of playing in the water and they would be chained up.
“This is severe emotional physical abuse. There is no way around that. This is depraved conduct.
“The abuse was horrific and over time. This was prolonged abuse that involved beatings and strangulation. Certainly, there was violence in the home, but we’re looking at kids being chained up to their beds.”
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