The sister of the mother who starved and abused her 13 children in a California house of horrors has told how she was obsessed with witchcraft and Ouija boards.
Louise Turpin remains in custody on multiple charges of child abuse along with her husband David.
They were arrested in January after one of their emaciated children escaped their home and asked for help.
Louise’s sister Elizabeth Flores, who claims to have been cut off from the pair for years before they were arrested, has since written a book about the case.
In it, she describes how Louise became obsessed with witchcraft and Ouija boards before the abuse of her children began.
Louise Turpin’s sister Elizabeth Flores (right in an interview earlier this year after her sister’s arrest) said she became fascinated with witchcraft in 2008 and 2010. Turpin is seen (left) during a recent court appearance
At some time between 2008 and 2010, Turpin went to her sister’s home in Texas and brought a board with her, Flores said.
She told her sister that it told her she would have another baby.
‘She told me she was messing around with witchcraft. It just really freaked me out.
She brought the Ouija board to my home and I wouldn’t let her bring it in my door,’ Flores told The New York Daily News on Thursday as she promoted her new book, Sisters of Secrets.
Afterwards, she tried to convince her to join a snake handling festival and believed the reptiles would give her ‘power’.
‘Louise was attracted to that, like women dancing with rattle snakes around their necks.
The 13 children were aged between two and 29 when they were found in January. Some had never been to a dentist and all were severely starved
Turpin stands accused of gross child abuse along with her husband David. They are seen together in a May 4 court appearance
‘She was reading that snakes give you power,’ Flores said.
Flores believes that it played a role in her sister’s treatment of the children who all required hospital care when they were saved because they had been starved and mistreated so severely.
Turpin’s sister Elizabeth has written the book Sisters of Secrets to, she says, give her nieces and nephews a ‘voice’
‘I do know witchcraft is very serious and demonic.
‘If she did get deep into that, I do think it could have led her to do what she did because you’re basically selling your soul to the devil.
‘Maybe she was the mastermind behind all of this. Maybe it wasn’t David,’ she said.
Flores, who did several interviews after her sister’s arrest in January, said she wrote the book to give their abused children a ‘voice’.
‘I want them to read the book and know they do have a voice.
‘My nieces and nephews didn’t know they had a voice,’ she said.
She is not the only one of her siblings to speak out since the pair’s arrest made national news in January.
Teresa Robinette, their other sister, has told how their own mother allowed a pedophile to rape them when they were children in return for money.
Turpin and her husband both deny the 50 charges of abuse they stand accused of.
This was the home where the children were found chained to their beds after one of the siblings escaped and asked for help
When their children were found in January, some were chained to their beds. Some had never been to a dentist and they were severely malnourished.
Turpin and David remain in custody on $2million bail.
They had moved around for years before the children were found, displacing them from state to state which is how authorities believe they evaded detection.
In a recent court appearance, David Turpin denied perjury for allegedly lying to authorities by claiming the children were enrolled in school.