Parents accused of holding 13 children captive charged with torture, child abuse

“They immediately shut down”.

The children were thin and appeared malnourished, Milligan said.

He said they were dealing with social workers in attempting to connect with their grandchildren, who are hospitalised as they recover from their ordeal.

The California district attorney painted a stunning picture of physical and emotional abuse Thursday. Hestrin says when officers arrived and knocked on the door, three children were chained to their beds inside the house. They also received vacation photographs of the family taken at venues like Las Vegas. “They weren’t allowed to have friends over – the normal things that kids do”, the children’s aunt, Teresa Robinette, told NBC’s “Today” show.

Prosecutors said the Turpin parents starved and tormented the children by putting apple and pumpkin pies on the kitchen counter, but not letting them have any.

Deputies said some siblings were shackled to furniture in the foul-smelling home in suburban Riverside County. That sibling got scared and went back inside – but that didn’t derail the plan.

The arrests came after a 17-year-old daughter who looked closer to 10 jumped out a window and called 911.

“You don’t need to learn what a police officer is from going to school, you learn that from just being out in the world”, said Patricia Costales, chief executive of The Guidance Center, a Long Beach, California-based nonprofit that provides mental health therapy to thousands of children. Some of the victims’ growth was so stunted, they looked younger than their ages, according to officials.

According to a report via The Press-Enterprise, City of Perris spokesman Joe Vargo told of pair of 1-year-old Maltese mixes that belonged to Louise were in “good condition” when Turpin handed them over to animal control following her arrest on Sunday.

The oldest child, a 29-year-old woman, weighed only 82 pounds and a 12-year-old was the weight of a typical 7-year-old, Hestrin said. They weren’t allowed to shower a couple of times a year, and were subject to beatings. David Turpin was also charged with one count of a lewd act on a child under the age of 14.

Judge Michael Donner ordered each defendant to remain held on $12 million bail and set the next hearing in the case for February 23. Head prosecutor Mike Hestrin said he trusts they will be extremely huge to the coming court case and will give “solid confirmation of what happened in that home”.

They both deny the allegations against them and face up to 94 years in prison if convicted of the charges.

Hundreds of journals – writing was one of the activities the children were allowed – were found in the house, and prosecutors expected to find strong evidence against the parents. The parents lived apart and would deliver food to the children from time to time. Foster care parents could end up being the adoptive parents.

After their rescue, all of the children were been admitted to hospitals and are now receiving treatment for severe malnutrition.

Authorities are said to have found their 13 kids had been “starved, tied up with chains and shackled for months”.

“We can assume that there could be depression and nightmares”, Ochberg said.