Turpin family captivity/torture case

apologies if there is already a topic about this. i couldn't see one. this is the case of the 13 children who were recently rescued from being kept in captivity in California. seriously disturbing case. the children were chained to their beds, starving and living in filthy conditions, unable to use the bathroom and having to urinate and defecate where they were. they were severely malnourished. the oldest was a 29-year-old weighing only 82 pounds (37kg).

one detail i found particularly noteworthy was that the parents would allegedly bring food such as apple pies into the house and put it in front of the starving, chained-up children. apparently they also found brand new toys in the house, that had never been taken out of the packaging. that suggests a type of sadism i find difficult to comprehend.

also very interesting was that the children were allowed (or encouraged?) to keep journals. hundreds of handwritten journals were taken into evidence. i can't imagine what sort of things they must contain.

even more bizarre are the photos of the children in matching outfits at Disneyland and in Las Vegas. the parents would regularly renew their marriage vows (with an Elvis impersonator). they would dress the children up and take them with them to the ceremony.



apparently the children lacked basic knowledge of the world, but get this - one of them was allowed to attend community college and was a straight A student. the mother would wait in the car for him while he went to school. it's all so bizarre. i didn't think anything could surprise me after all the crime stuff i've read over the years, but this case keeps getting weirder and weirder. they have pleaded not guilty, so should be a fascinating trial.

It's so surreal. Especially that community college part.

InsaneIntruder wrote:

It's so surreal. Especially that community college part.

right? like, what went through the kids heads when they were in the outside world and saw people walking around freely? the boy that went to college, was he chained up in the filthy conditions before and after school? he must have realised that his classmates were living entirely different lives than he and his siblings. also, the fact that he was a straight A/honor roll student is so strange.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] "He earned A’s in many classes, including algebra, guitar, public speaking, English fundamentals and freshman composition."

it's so hard to imagine him doing public speaking assignments at school, then going back to the squalid conditions where his siblings were being starved and chained to their beds for months at a time. apparently the children were talkative, friendly and well-spoken after being rescued. it's all so weird. i really hope they release those journals someday.

rkp wrote:

InsaneIntruder wrote:

It's so surreal. Especially that community college part.

right? like, what went through the kids heads when they were in the outside world and saw people walking around freely? the boy that went to college, was he chained up in the filthy conditions before and after school? he must have realised that his classmates were living entirely different lives than he and his siblings. also, the fact that he was a straight A/honor roll student is so strange.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] "He earned A’s in many classes, including algebra, guitar, public speaking, English fundamentals and freshman composition."

it's so hard to imagine him doing public speaking assignments at school, then going back to the squalid conditions where his siblings were being starved and chained to their beds for months at a time. apparently the children were talkative, friendly and well-spoken after being rescued. it's all so weird. i really hope they release those journals someday.

I wonder why he didn't tell any students? Also I hope they release them too.

I am currently following this case as well. A very sad and strange one indeed. The parents don't seem to think they have done anything wrong.

ShadowedGoddess wrote:

I am currently following this case as well. A very sad and strange one indeed. The parents don't seem to think they have done anything wrong.

Just like Hitle-

Literally no bad person ever thought they were a bad person.

STK wrote:

Literally no bad person ever thought they were a bad person.

i don't know about that. probably the majority of bad people don't think they are bad, but i think there are a fair few that are well aware and quite upfront about it. a few serial killers come to mind. your average obnoxious asshole on the street, no, but really twisted sadists, a lot of them know exactly what they are.

it will be very interesting to learn more about the Turpins. i read that the mother seemed perplexed when the police arrived (confused about why they were there). they certainly didn't look remorseful in their court appearances. some sorta wacko religious stuff was going on, for sure.

another weird thing was that they found two dogs in the house, that were well fed and looked after. the youngest child, a toddler, also escaped the abuse. very, very strange.

It's always makes me wonder why parents ever want to do such things to their child. I find this very disturbing, because more or less you still have some sort of feeling to your child. I know people who don't love their children that much, but they never had an idea to have another one.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]


Glad they are doing so well considering what they have lived through.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

A 17-year-old girl who managed to escape squalid conditions inside her family's Southern California home managed to post videos and photos online while still inside the residence.

One of the 13 children of David and Louise Turpin somehow found a way to upload a series of videos on YouTube under an alias where she sang songs she wrote about her life at home, according to ABC News.

ABC News reports that the teen also had a secret Instagram account, where she posted mostly selfies and photos of Justin Bieber.

How the teen maintained a social media presence remains unclear, given that her parents had seemingly cut her and her siblings off from society completely.

Her most recent post went up just seven days before she escaped through a window of her Perris home in January to alert police that she and her siblings were being held captive by their abusive parents.





Just a strange case all around.

Although I am left questioning why she didn't ask for help sooner if she had found some way of getting on social media?