Photo: AP

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In this Oct. 29, 2011, image made from a video provided by A Elvis Chapel, David Allen Turpin, left, and his wife, Louise Anna Turpin, right, celebrate a renewal of their wedding vows with Elvis impersonator Kent Ripley in Las Vegas. The couple was arrested Sunday, Jan. 14, 2018, after authorities found their malnourished children in their home in suburban Perris, Calif., 60 miles (96 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles. The couples' children were so emaciated the older ones still looked like children. less

Photo: AP

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These Sunday, Jan. 14, 2018, photos provided by the Riverside County Sheriff's Department show Louise Anna Turpin, left, and David Allen Turpin. Authorities say an emaciated teenager led deputies to a Perris, Calif., home where her 12 brothers and sisters were locked up in filthy conditions, with some of them malnourished and chained to beds. Riverside County sheriff's deputies arrested the parents David Allen Turpin and Louise Anna Turpin on Sunday. The parents could face charges including torture and child endangerment. less

Photo: AP

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In this Oct. 29, 2011, image made from a video provided by A Elvis Chapel, David Allen Turpin, left, and his wife, Louise Anna Turpin, center, celebrate a renewal of their wedding vows with Elvis impersonator Kent Ripley in Las Vegas. The couple was arrested Sunday, Jan. 14, 2018, after authorities found their malnourished children in their home in suburban Perris, Calif., 60 miles (96 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles. The couples' children were so emaciated the older ones still looked like children. less

Photo: AP

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Detective walks next to a home Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2018, where police arrested a couple on Sunday accused of holding 13 children captive, in Perris, Calif. Authorities said an emaciated teenager led deputies to the California home where her 12 brothers and sisters were locked up in filthy conditions, with some of them malnourished and chained to beds. less

Photo: Alex Gallardo, AP

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Members of the media work outside a home Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2018, where police arrested a couple on Sunday accused of holding 13 children captive, in Perris, Calif. Authorities said an emaciated teenager led deputies to the California home where her 12 brothers and sisters were locked up in filthy conditions, with some of them malnourished and chained to beds. less

Photo: Alex Gallardo, AP

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In this grab taken from video provided by KABC-TV on Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2018, the exterior of the home where police arrested a couple accused of holding their 13 children captive, in Perris, east of Los Angeles. Authorities say an emaciated teenager led deputies to a California home where her 12 brothers and sisters were locked up in filthy conditions, with some of them malnourished and chained to beds. less

Photo: AP

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In this Oct. 29, 2011, image made from a video provided by A Elvis Chapel, David Allen Turpin and his wife, Louise Anna Turpin, kiss while celebrating a renewal of their wedding vows in Las Vegas. The couple was arrested Sunday, Jan. 14, 2018, after authorities found their malnourished children in their home in suburban Perris, Calif., 60 miles (96 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles. The couples' 13 children, ages 2 to 29, were so emaciated the older ones still looked like children. less

Photo: AP

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In this Oct. 29, 2011 image made from a video provided by A Elvis Chapel, David Allen Turpin and his wife, Louise Anna Turpin, kiss while celebrating a renewal of their wedding vows with Elvis impersonator Kent Ripley, at right, in Las Vegas. The couple was arrested Sunday, Jan. 14, 2018, after authorities found their malnourished children in their home in suburban Perris, Calif., 60 miles (96 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles. The couples' 13 children, ages 2 to 29, were so emaciated the older ones still looked like children. less

Photo: AP

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Captain Greg Fellows, Riverside County Sheriff's Department Perris Station Commander, answers questions from the media regarding the case involving 13 captive siblings in a Perris, Calif., home on Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2018, in Perris. California authorities say the mother of 13 children kept locked in filthy conditions was "perplexed" about why police came to their home. Fellows described the reaction of 49-year-old Louise Turpin but didn't know the reaction of the father, 57-year-old David Turpin. less

Photo: Stan Lim, AP

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Dr. Sophia Grant, medical director of Child Abuse and Neglect at Riverside University Heath System, prepares to speaks to the media regarding the case involving 13 captive siblings in a Perris, Calif., home during a press conference on Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2018, in Perris. less

Photo: STAN LIM, AP

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Riverside County Sheriff's Department Capt. Greg Fellows speaks with reporters during a news conference in Perris, Calif. on Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2018. A 17-year-old girl called police after escaping from her family's home where she and her 12 brothers and sisters were locked up in filthy conditions, some so malnourished officers at first believed all were children even though seven are adults. less

Photo: Amy Taxin, AP

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This photo shows the exterior of the home where police arrested a couple accused of holding their 13 children captive, in Perris, Calif., Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2018. Authorities said an emaciated teenager led deputies to the California home where her 12 brothers and sisters were locked up in filthy conditions, with some of them malnourished and chained to beds. less

Photo: Alex Gallardo, AP

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Photo: AP

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David Allen Turpin appears in court for his arraignment in Riverside, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 18, 2018. Prosecutors filed 12 counts of torture, seven counts of dependent adult abuse, six counts of child abuse and 12 counts of false imprisonment against Turpin and his wife, Louise Anna Turpin. Authorities say the abuse left the children malnourished, undersized and with cognitive impairments. (Terry Pierson/The Press-Enterprise via AP, Pool) less

Photo: Terry Pierson, AP

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Louise Anna Turpin, left, with her attorney Jeff Moore, and her husband David Allen Turpin, second from right, appears in court for their arraignment in Riverside, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 18, 2018. Prosecutors filed 12 counts of torture, seven counts of dependent adult abuse, six counts of child abuse and 12 counts of false imprisonment against Turpin and his wife, Louise Anna Turpin. Authorities say the abuse left the children malnourished, undersized and with cognitive impairments. (Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times via AP, Pool) less

Photo: Gina Ferazzi, AP

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Photo: Terry Pierson, AP

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Louise Anna Turpin and her husband David Allen Turpin appear in court for their arraignment in Riverside, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 18, 2018. The parents of 13 siblings who were allegedly held in captivity in their family's Southern California home were charged Thursday with committing years of torture and abuse that left their children malnourished, undersized and with cognitive impairments. (Terry Pierson/The Press-Enterprise, Pool) less

Photo: Terry Pierson, AP

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Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin takes questions from the media at a news conference Thursday, Jan. 18, 2018, in Riverside, Calif., regarding a couple accused of starving and torturing their 13 children. Authorities say David and Louise Turpin could face charges including torture and child endangerment. less

Photo: Damian Dovarganes, AP

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Louise Anna Turpin appears in court with her attorney Jeff Moore in Riverside, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 18, 2018. Prosecutors filed 12 counts of torture, seven counts of dependent adult abuse, six counts of child abuse and 12 counts of false imprisonment against Turpin and his wife, Louise Anna Turpin. Authorities say the abuse left the children malnourished, undersized and with cognitive impairments. (Terry Pierson/The Press-Enterprise, Pool) less

Photo: Terry Pierson, AP

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Photo: Damian Dovarganes, AP

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RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) — A California couple tortured a dozen of their children for years, starving them to the point that their growth was stunted, chaining them to their beds for months at a time and forbidding them from showering more than once a year or using the toilet, a prosecutor said Thursday.

"The victimization appeared to intensify over time," Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin said in announcing charges. "What started out as neglect became severe, pervasive, prolonged child abuse."

David Turpin, 56, and Louise Turpin, 49, were charged with multiple counts of torture, child abuse, dependent adult abuse and false imprisonment. David Turpin was also charged with performing a lewd act on a child under age 14.

The litany of physical and emotional abuse was enough to invoke a house of horrors that apparently went unnoticed for years in California and Texas until Sunday, when a 17-year-old girl managed to escape and call 911.

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In one of many surreal details that emerged in the investigation, the 13 children who were held captive in their home took part of their parents wedding renewal in a Las Vegas chapel with an Elvis Presley impersonator. (Jan. 17)

Media: Associated Press

The girl and her siblings had plotted the escape for two years, Hestrin said. Another girl who escaped out a window with the teen turned back out of fear.

Hestrin did not say what finally triggered the girl to act.

When deputies arrived at the four-bedroom, three-bathroom house on a dead-end street in Perris, about 60 miles southeast of Los Angeles, they were shocked by what they found.

Malnutrition was so severe that it was consistent with muscle wasting and had led to cognitive impairment and nerve damage, Hestrin said. The oldest child, a 29-year-old woman, weighed 82 pounds. A 12-year-old was the weight of a typical 7-year-old.

Some of the 13 children had been isolated so long they did not know what a police officer was.

The victims range in age from 2 to 29. The torture and false imprisonment charges do not include the 2-year-old, who was not malnourished. All the children's names begin with the letter J, according to court documents that didn't provide their full names.

The parents were jailed on $12 million bail each after pleading not guilty Thursday at their first court appearance. If convicted, they could be sentenced to life in prison.

David Turpin's lawyer, deputy public defender David Macher, had only begun to investigate the allegations, but said the case was going to be a challenge.

"It's a very serious case," he said. "Our clients are presumed to be innocent, and that is a very important presumption."

Judge Michael B. Donner rejected Macher's request to ban cameras from the courtroom, saying he didn't see how news coverage of a case already so highly publicized could harm the Turpins.

"I am told that coverage of this case literally spans the globe," the judge said.

David Turpin's father, James, the grandfather to the children, said from his home in Princeton, West Virginia, that he did not believe the reports about the abuse.

"I'm going to talk with the children, find out the real story on this as soon as I can get a call through to them," James Turpin told The Associated Press.

The charges date to 2010, when the couple moved to Riverside County from outside Fort Worth, Texas.

The abuse began in Texas with the children being tied to beds with ropes and then hog-tied, Hestrin said. When one child was able to wriggle free, the couple began restraining them with chains and padlocks — for up to months at a time, Hestrin said.

At one point while the couple lived in Texas, the parents lived in a separate house from most of the children and dropped off food to the others from time to time, Hestrin said.

When not restrained, the children were locked in different rooms and fed little on a schedule.

Punishments included being beaten and choked, Hestrin said.

On Sunday, three children had been shackled to beds, though the parents freed two of them — ages 11 and 14 — when officers knocked on the door, Hestrin said. Deputies found a 22-year-old chained to a bed.

Evidence of human waste on the floor indicated the children were prevented from using the toilet. Sheriff's deputies said the stench in the house was overwhelming.

The children never received dental care, and they had not seen a doctor in more than four years. When the girl who escaped was asked if any pills were in the home, she did not understand what medication was.

The children, who were schooled at home, were rarely seen outside the house, though the parents posted photos of them smiling together at Disneyland and in Las Vegas, where the couple renewed their wedding vows.

In addition to raising them largely in isolation, the parents may have been able to hide the abuse by functioning while other families slept. The children were reared on the graveyard shift, with the family staying up all night and going to bed shortly before dawn, Hestrin said.

While the children were deprived of food, the parents ate well and even taunted the children by putting apple and pumpkin pies on the kitchen counter, but not letting them have any, Hestrin said.

Similarly, the children were not allowed to play with toys, though many were found throughout the house — in their original packaging.

"This is depraved conduct," Hestrin said. "It breaks our hearts."

One of the only things the children were allowed to do was to write in their journals.

Investigators were combing through hundreds of journals found in the home, Hestrin said. They are expected to provide powerful evidence against the parents.

___

Melley reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press writers Michael Virtanen in Pittsburgh and Michael Balsamo, John Antczak and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

Prosecutor: Parents who tortured children were 'depraved'

Updated 6:17 pm, Thursday, January 18, 2018

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