The 17-year-old girl who alerted authorities to her and her 12 siblings being held captive by their parents had long been planning her escape, authorities say.
During a Thursday press conference announcing the formal charges against David and Louise Turpin, Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin said she had planned her escape for two years.
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David and Louise Turpin face up to 94 years to life in prison if convicted of a number of charges filed, Hestrin said. Torture, child abuse and false imprisonment are among several of the charges filed against them, ABC 7 reports. A charge was also filed against father David Allen Turpin of one count of a lewd act on a child.
Bail has been set at $13 million for the Turpins in Riverside County, California.
“All the victims were and are severely malnourished. The 29-year-old female victim weighs 82 pounds,” Hestrin said.
He also confirmed that the siblings would “sleep all day and be up all night” and that “none of the victims were allowed to shower more than once a year.”
“This is severe physical and emotional abuse we’re talking about,” Hestrin said. “It breaks our hearts, but we’re professionals and have to seek justice.”
On Wednesday, investigators served search warrants to the home, spending about seven hours combing through evidence, and walked out with several boxes, two safes and pieces of wood that appear to have been part of bed frames.
David and Louise Turpin were arrested Monday on suspicion of torture and child endangerment.
When police raided the Perris, California “horror house” on Sunday, some of the 13 siblings bound and shackled were found lying in their own feces.
“The smell was terrible,” Deputy Mike Vasquez of the Riverside Sheriff’s Office told the Daily Mail. “Feces and urine everywhere.”
A police source close to the investigation told NBC News that the children showered only twice a year and ate one rationed meal per day.
All 13 kids are receiving IV treatments in the hospital, and officials say they are malnourished to the point where they could go into shock.
Hospital officials say that the kids are so malnourished, that the five legal adult children look “half their age.” Ranging between 18 and 29, the five female and two male captives of their parents are malnourished but in good spirits as they receive treatment at the Corona Regional Medical Center. The six underage siblings were sent to a different facility as their elder siblings.
The Corona Chamber of Commerce and Riverside University Health System were gathering donations for the siblings.
Child Protective Services received thousands of calls from people who want to help the children and adults.
The Riverside University Health Center Foundation set up a fund to accept donations and the chamber of commerce created a page listing clothing sizes and items needed for the victims. You can access the page by clicking here.
