The brave 17-year-old girl who escaped from the House of Horrors shared videos of herself singing on YouTube. Photo / Good Morning America
The brave 17-year-old girl who escaped from the House of Horrors to raise the alarm that she and her 12 siblings were being abused, had shared videos of herself singing on YouTube.
The teen, who posted the clips under an alias, posted multiple videos of herself on the video-sharing website, offering an insight into life inside the Perris, California, home where the 13 siblings were starved and subjected to horrific abuse.
In one clip, obtained by GMA, a huge pile of dirty clothes are seen in the corner of the room while dirty smudges are seen up the door, the Daily Mail reports.
The girl is also seen playing with two small Bichon Frise dogs. Investigators say that the dogs were found relatively well fed and in good health in stark contrast to the condition of the children, who were all found in a state of malnutrition.
In another video, the girl was seen performing one of her own songs, direct to camera. Good Morning America states that the most recent video was posted just seven days before she escaped the home.
She also had an Instagram page where she shared selfies and pictures of her life.
Her parents, David and Louise Turpin, are in jail while they wait for the next court date on March 23 for a status proceedings hearing.
They have both pleaded not guilty to more than 40 charges, including torture, false imprisonment, child abuse, and abuse of a dependent adult. David Turpin also denied one count of lewd conduct with a minor. They could both face up to life in jail.
The Turpins are being represented separately: David by David Macher of the Public Defender's Office and Louise by Jeff Moore of local law firm Blumenthal Law Office's.
The couple are accused starving, choking and beating their children, aged between two and 29, and keeping many of them chained to their beds and keeping them locked in their rooms. They also reportedly only let them shower once a year.
After the 17-year-old escaped and called 911, police rescued their 13 children who were all severely malnourished. The eldest child weighed just 82 pounds and others looked much younger than their real ages.
All 13 were taken to hospital for treatment after their release. They have been taken into care and several individuals have come forward to offer to adopt all the siblings.
District Attorney Michael Hestrin revealed some of the harrowing details of how the children were tortured.
He told how they kept the children up all night and slept during the day in a suspected attempt to avoid any outsiders witnessing the abuse.
They were regularly beaten and occasionally strangled, Hestrin alleged in the press conference in January.
The only activity the children - who said they were chained up for months at a time - were allowed was to write journals. Hundreds were recovered from the home and they are likely to be used as evidence against the parents.
None of the children have ever seen a dentist and none have seen a doctor for four years, Hestrin said.
Some of the children did not know what a police officer was when they were rescued and many are mentally impaired as a result of what prosecutors called "severe, prolonged and pervasive abuse".
While the children starved, the parents bought food including pumpkin and apple pie and kept it out on worktops for them to look at and desire, Hestrin said.
One of the children, a boy, was allowed out of the home to attend college classes but Louise accompanied him.
When they lived in Texas, the children at one stage lived alone and were held hostage in a property which their parents allegedly visited only to occasionally drop off food.
The only child who was safe from their torture was their two-year-old, according to prosecutors. She showed no signs of malnutrition.
According to Hestrin, the abuse began in 2010 and has intensified ever since. At the time, the parents would tie the children up as punishment with rope, he said. One child recalled being "hogtied".
When they managed to escape, they moved on to using chains and padlocked.
Prosecutors did not elaborate on the physical condition of each child other than to say that they were severely malnourished and some have suffered mental impairment. Officers previously said that the children were all covered in feces and urine.
It was also claimed that the couple had three children tied up when police first knocked on the door.
As they waited to be allowed in, Louise and David untied two of the children from furniture.
When they entered the home, the only child who remained shackled was a 22-year-old, according to the responding deputies.
Among the most shocking claims of abuse are:
- The children were made to stay awake all night and sleep all day, often going to bed at between 4am and 5am
- Their only permitted activity was to keep journals - hundreds of which were recovered and will likely be used as evidence
- David Turpin is accused of a lewd act against one child - one of his daughters, under the age of 14
- The children had been planning to escape for two years before they were rescued
- The 17-year-old daughter who raised the alarm left the house with another sibling but that child became frightened and turned back
- The parents began using chains and padlocks to tie the children to their beds after one escaped with rope. They would sometimes be chained up for months
- One of the older boys was allowed out of the home to attend college classes but his mother accompanied him there, waited for him until it finished then accompanied him home
- The couple's youngest child, a two-year-old, was the only one they did not starve
- The 29-year-old woman who was rescued weighed just 82 lbs
- The children were tied up or beaten if they washed their hands "above the wrist" because the parents said it amounted to them "playing in the water"
- The Turpins kept toys that were still in their boxes at the house but never gave any to the children
The alleged abuse began when they were living in Texas, in 2010, and photos of that property after they moved showed the filthy conditions the family lived in.
The Turpins lived in the Lone Star state from 1999 to 2010, and they initially lived in a 2,300-square-foot home on the property. The family that bought the property after the bank foreclosed on the home, claim it was left in complete squalor.
Nellie Baldwin and her son Billy told The Mercury News they found feces on the walls, a rotting bathroom floor, knocked in doors and trash strewn everywhere.
They say they found scratch marks on the back of doors and that the carpet was covered in disgusting dirt stains and filth, and think closets may have been used as rooms to lock up the children.
After several years at the property, the Turpins had moved into a trailer home on the 36-acre property.
Nellie said the mortgage company or realtors brought two dumpsters to haul trash from the mobile home, and then took the trailer from the property. She also said a neighbor said he saw a dead cat on the trailer's stove.
She said she and her son poured gallons of bleach on the floor of the house to kill the "nasty" smell, and said she scrubbed the kitchen cabinets countless times.
Billy said squatters never lived in the house after it was abandoned.
The Baldwins, who now rent the house, also said after moving in they found Polaroid pictures someone had left behind, that showed kitchen counters and floors covered with trash and a garbage-filled room that had desks lined up, like in a classroom.
And in one photo, rope can be seen tied to a bed's metal railing. The Turpins are thought to have tied children to beds with rope initially, before eventually upgrading to chains with padlocks, according to prosecutors.
Baldwin also told WFAA that she found unusual vents in the master bedroom closet when she moved in after the Turpins left in 2010.
"There are two vents in the closet and they are covered up now," she said.
She believes the couple's children may have been locked in there.
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