The six minors who were found shackled in a California home with their seven adult siblings will be split up into two foster homes, CBS News reports. Riverside County will be granted conservatorship over the seven adult siblings and they will be transferred to an assisted living facility for adults.
A source close to the investigation told CBS News last week that the siblings specifically asked social workers if they could stay together after being freed.
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Nearly two dozen people, some nurses or mental health professionals, have volunteered to take care of all 13 siblings so they would not be split up, according to Riverside County Department of Public Social Services spokeswoman Mary Parks.
The Riverside University Health System, where the younger children were treated after their rescue, has collected more than $120,000 from 1,500 people and put the money in a trust for the kids, hospital rep Kim Trone said.
Parents David and Louise Turpin face up to 94 years to life in prison if convicted of all 38 charges of torture, child abuse and false imprisonment brought against them. David Turpin was also charged with one count of a lewd act on a child under the age of 14 by force, fear or duress. They have pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors are now looking to prevent David and Louise Turpin from having contact with their alleged victims.
Prosecutors are set to appear in court Wednesday afternoon to request a “no-contact criminal protective order,” John Hall, public information officer for the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office, said in an email to ABC News.
The district attorney’s office is asking for “no direct or indirect contact with the victims” and “no written or electronic contact either directly or through a third party,” Hall said.
The 13 siblings were discovered by authorities after a 17-year-old girl escaped from the house through a window and called 911 from a deactivated cell phone. Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin said the siblings were found malnourished and living in their own waste.
The siblings were permitted to shower only once a year and were restricted to one rationed meal per day.
All the victims except for the toddler were severely malnourished, Hestrin said, adding that the eldest victim — a 29-year-old woman — weighed only 82 pounds when rescued. He said another child, a 12-year-old, was the weight of an average 7-year-old.
Hestrin said in addition to hog-tying and padlocking their children to furniture, the parents would buy food including pies and “leave it on the counter, let the children look at it, but not eat the food.”
When found, they hadn’t been to a doctor in over four years and had never been to a dentist, he added.
