Sister of California mom accused of holding her 13 children captive: “I don’t agree with what she did and her actions have made the whole family suffer. And I want her to know that I’m praying for her salvation.” https://t.co/uXh0y8nGLf pic.twitter.com/zcufPmYRcV
— Good Morning America (@GMA) January 17, 2018
Louise Turpin, matriarch of the “horror house” family in Perris, California, has had little contact with her side of the family for the past 20 years, yet her sister, Elizabeth Jane Flores, made an appearance on TV on Wednesday to discuss the case.
Flores described a brief period of a few months when she lived with her sister and her brother-in-law, David Turpin, at their previous home in Texas. The couple had only a couple of children at that point, and Flores described them as “strict,” but said she didn’t see any signs of abuse.
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“I was treated like one of the kids, kind of,” she explained. “I had rules.”
Still, she told Robin Roberts that her brother-in-law “made her uncomfortable.”
“If I went to get in the shower, he would come in while I was in there and watch me — it was like a joke,” she said. “He never touched me or anything. I was young. I was scared. I was in Texas where I knew nobody, had no family.”
In her teary-eyed interview, Flores explained how her sister and Turpin’s isolation was a gradual process, which was why the rest of the family had no idea about the horrors her nieces and nephews were enduring. She recalled how calls from Louise became fewer and farther between, and how her requests to Skype with the kids were constantly denied.
David and Louise Turpin were arrested on Sunday, and are being held on suspicion of torture and child-endangerment. Police say they found 13 of the Turpins’ offspring being held in their house, ranging in age from 2 to 29 years old. They were emaciated and malnourished, and some were chained to beds and other pieces of furniture.
Flores said that she still loved her sister, and was “praying for her salvation.” However, her main concern seemed to be getting in contact with her long-lost nieces and nephews.
“I want to reach out to the kids,” Flores said. “For years, we begged to see them, I’ve asked for 20 years to be able to Skype them. I want them to know they have family that love them, whether they know us or not.”
Flores added with a touch of pride that she believed the 17-year-old who escaped the house and contacted police was named after her.
“If I did the calculation on my hand right, I think it was the one that was named after me that did that,” she said. “I’m so proud of her.”
Here is How to Help the California ‘Horror House’ Victims, if you are interested.
