D.A. Details Life Inside House Of Detention For 13 California Children

We are learning more about the horrific abuse 13 children and adults suffered over the course of several years, perhaps for some of them, their whole lives. David and Louise Turpin are charged with 12 counts of torture and false imprisonment, six counts of child abuse and David Turpin also faces one charge of performing a lewd act on a child.

The children were found in their Perris, California house earlier this week after one of the children, a 17-year-old, escaped and called the police. Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin said the teenager had planned the escape for two years.

Hestrin gave a detailed account Thursday into some of what life was like for these siblings. It is hard to imagine what they must have lived through. Hestrin says the whole family slept all day and was up at night. He says all of the children, except for the two-year-old were slowly starved, “All the victims were and are severely malnourished, specifically severe caloric malnutrition associated with muscle wasting. To give you an example, one of the children at age 12 is the weight of an average 7 years old. The 29-year-old female victim weighs 82 pounds. Several of the victims have cognitive impairment and neuropathy which is nerve damage as a result of this extreme and prolonged physical abuse. None of the victims were allowed to shower more than once a year.”

Much of their lives was spent chained to their beds, where they would sometimes be restrained months at a time.  Hestrin says, “One of the reasons for these punishments of being chained up to a bed, were that, and by the way, the punishments included frequent beatings and even strangulation. One of the reasons for the punishments were if the children were found to wash their hands above the wrist area they were accused of playing in the area and they would be chained up.”

The children are now undergoing intense psychiatric help.

Today public defenders entered not guilty pleas on behalf of the Turpins. Bail has been set at $12 million for each defendant. They are back in court next month.