New details have emerged about the 13 malnourished siblings — aged 2 to 29 — allegedly held captive by their parents in their own home in California.
Speaking with NBC News, a law enforcement official with knowledge of the case said the Turpin brothers and sisters were permitted to shower only twice a year and were served just one rationed meal per day.
The source added that rooms inside the brown-and-beige four-bedroom house were filled with urine and the children were shackled to furniture when authorities found them.
All the siblings are currently recovering in hospital and receiving antibiotics, vitamins and nutrients for severe malnutrition, the law enforcement official told the outlet. There are concerns the sudden influx of nutrients could send the children into shock.
The kids’ parents are expected to appear in court in California on Friday, Australian time.
WATCH: David and Louise Turpin were arrested after locking up their 13 children inside their home in Perris, California. Post continues…
David Allen Turpin, 57, and his wife, Louise Anna Turpin, 49, were arrested after police rescued their 13 children, who were being held captive in their own home in Perris, California. The couple have since been charged with nine counts of torture and 10 counts of child endangerment.
According to the New York Times, a 17-year-old managed to escape the house of horrors and call 911, alerting the authorities to the unimaginable conditions she and her 12 siblings were forced to endure.
Seven of the children are aged over 18, though looked no older than teenagers.
The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department confirmed that some of the children were being held with chains in a statement: “several children were shackled to their beds with chains and padlocks in dark and foul-smelling surroundings.”
The statement went on to say,”the parents were unable to immediately provide a logical reason why their children were restrained in that manner.”
Seven of the children recovered from the ‘horror house’ are aged over 18, though looked no older than teenagers. Image via Facebook / David Allen Turpin.
An aunt of the 13 siblings recently revealed shocking details about the family, including the disturbing way their father behaved towards her.
Elizabeth Jane Flores, sister to the children’s mother Louise Turpin, said her brother-in-law, David Turpin, would watch her shower when she briefly lived with the family in Texas more than 20 years ago.
“He did things that made me feel uncomfortable,” she told ABC News’ Good Morning America. “If I were to get in the shower, he would come in there while I was in there and watch me, and it was like a joke. He never touched me or anything.”
David and Louise Anna Turpin have since been charged with nine counts of torture and 10 counts of child endangerment.
Flores also said she had strict “rules” to follow and was “treated like one of the kids” when she lived with her sister.
“I thought they were really strict, but I didn’t see any type of abuse,” she said of the parents. “Now that I’m an adult, I look back, I see things that I didn’t see then.”
Both David and Louise Anna Turpin are being held in jail with bail set at $9 million each.
