The California house of horrors family left their home in Texas just days after one of the 13 tortured siblings escaped in a failed bid for help, a former neighbor claimed.
Davis and Louise Turpin had lived in a home in Fort Worth, Texas from around 1999 to 2010 before leaving it suddenly and moving to Murrieta, California, Nellie Baldwin, a former neighbor who later bought the home told The Mercury News.
The couple apparently lived in that home for a few years – but trashed it so badly, leaving feces on the walls, a rotting bathroom floor, knocked in doors and trash strewn everywhere, that they had to move into a trailer home on the 36-acre property.
And in 2010, the end of roughly six or seven years they lived in the trailer, one of the children allegedly tried to escape and find help. She said one of the daughters ‘went walking down the road’ but didn’t get too far when a neighbor spotted her and took her home.
‘All of a sudden they just disappeared,’ the 78-year-old said.
‘No one ever saw them again.’
Parents David Allen Turpin, 57, and Louise Anna Turpin, 49, were arrested and charged with torture and child endangerment
Davis and Louise Turpin had lived in a home in Fort Worth, Texas from around 1999 to 2010 before leaving it suddenly and moving to Murrieta, California, Nellie Baldwin, a former neighbor who later bought the home told The Mercury News
The couple apparently lived in that home for a few years – but trashed it so badly, leaving feces on the walls, a rotting bathroom floor, knocked in doors and trash strewn everywhere, that they had to move into a trailer home on the 36-acre property
And in 2010, the end of roughly six or seven years they lived in the trailer, one of the children allegedly tried to escape and find help. She said one of the daughters ‘went walking down the road’ but didn’t get too far when a neighbor spotted her and took her home. Pictured is the bathroom at the Rio Vista home after it had been partially cleaned out
Baldwin’s son, Billy Baldwin, and his mother brought the property in 2011, about seven months after the mortgage company foreclosed on the abandoned property. Pictured is the state of the bathroom when they bought it in 2011
When they were in the process of purchasing it he said neighbors told them a young girl had escaped the trailer and asked the neighbor who picked her up a lot of questions. Neighbors said they think the Turpnis left because they thought authorities would come to check up on the home, Billy told Mercury News
The Baldwins said they found strange scratch marks on doors, and that the ground was covered in filth. Pictured is the ceiling where Nellie said she thinks some of the children may have been imprisoned at one time
Before moving into the double-wide mobile home on the middle of the property, the Turpins lived in a 2,300-square-foot home on the property. And the Baldwins claim the home was left in complete squalor
The Baldwins, who now rent the house, also said after moving in they found Polaroid pictures someone had left behind, that showed kitchen counters and floors covered with trash and a garbage-filled room that had desks lined up, like in a classroom. And in one photo, rope can be seen tied to a bed’s metal railing. The Turpins are thought to have tied children to beds with rope initially, before eventually upgrading to chains with padlocks, according to prosecutors
She said that before taking her home, the daughter told the neighbor to take her to a telephone. Baldwin said she isn’t sure where the neighbor took her, but thinks the girl called 9-1-1.
‘It wasn’t until about a few days later that they left,’ she told Mercury News.
‘They just disappeared. He didn’t make any more payments on that place or anything.’
The Turpins are currently facing 75 felony charges, including torture, imprisonment, and cruelty towards their children in Riverside County, California after their 17-year-old daughter escaped through a window and called 911 on Sunday, January 14.
Riverside County sheriff’s deputies then rescued her siblings and arrested the parents, who have pleaded not guilty to charges of mistreating their children, aged 2 to 29.
Baldwin’s son, Billy Baldwin, and his mother brought the property in 2011, about seven months after the mortgage company foreclosed on the abandoned property.
When they were in the process of purchasing it he said neighbors told them a young girl had escaped the trailer and asked the neighbor who picked her up a lot of questions. Neighbors said they think the Turpnis left because they thought authorities would come to check up on the home, Billy told Mercury News.
Though they lived nearby for the 10 or 11 years the Turpins lived on the property, Baldwin said she never met the couple.
‘Nobody around there had anything to do with them, because they were loners,’ she said.
Billy said neighbors told them the prior owners were ‘strange’ when they bought the house. He said people told them ‘They homeschool their kids and don’t let them out.’
While the Turpins were at the Hill County Road property, deputies were called to the house twice. They were first called in 2001 when a four-year-old child was bitten in the face by a dog and needed stitches.
That dog didn’t have a rabies vaccination and had to be put down, Chief Deputy Rick White said.
Two years later police were called again because the family’s pigs got out and ate 55 pounds of dog food at a neighboring property, White said.
Riverside County District Attorney said the neglect and abuse of the 13 children began while the family was living in the Fort Worth area. At one point the parents even lived in a different home than most of their children, dropping off food for them on occasion.
Before moving into the double-wide mobile home on the middle of the property, the Turpins lived in a 2,300-square-foot home on the property.
And the Baldwins claim the home was left in complete squalor.
The current owner of the Rio Vista home, Nellie Baldwin, believes the couple’s children may have been locked in this closet in the bedroom. This image was taken on Tuesday and shows the new owner’s belongings
Baldwin described finding two strange vents in the closet that are now closed up. She believes they may indicate the children were held there
Baldwin said she found two vents in the bedroom closet that were covered up. She believes the couple’s children may have been locked in there
Baldwin who now lives in the Rio Vista home she found unusual vents in the master bedroom closet when she moved in after the Turpins left in 2010
They say they found scratch marks on the back of doors and that the carpet was covered in disgusting dirt stains and filth, and think closets may have been used as rooms to lock up the children.
Nellie Baldwin said the mortgage company or realtors brought two dumpsters to haul trash from the mobile home, and then took the trailer from the property. She also said a neighbor said he saw a dead cat on the trailer’s stove.
Baldwin said she and her son poured gallons of bleach on the floor of the house to kill the ‘nasty’ smell, and said she scrubbed the kitchen cabinets countless times.
Billy Baldwin said squatters never lived in the house after it was abandoned.
The Baldwins, who now rent the house, also said after moving in they found Polaroid pictures someone had left behind, that showed kitchen counters and floors covered with trash and a garbage-filled room that had desks lined up, like in a classroom.
And in one photo, rope can be seen tied to a bed’s metal railing. The Turpins are thought to have tied children to beds with rope initially, before eventually upgrading to chains with padlocks, according to prosecutors.
Baldwin also told WFAA that she found unusual vents in the master bedroom closet when she moved in after the Turpins left in 2010.
‘There are two vents in the closet and they are covered up now,’ she said.
She believes the couple’s children may have been locked in there.
Neighbors have also revealed the children were not allowed to tell people their names and described the home in Rio Vista as a ‘religious compound’.
Before the Turpin family moved to the 36-acre property in Rio Vista, they lived in another home from around 1992-1999 in Fort Worth, which was left in a similar squalor.
The owners of that home, who didn’t want to be identified, say they found scratch marks on the back of doors and that the carpet was covered in disgusting dirt stains and filth.
In 2010 the Turpins moved to California. Louise gave birth to at least one child, who is now aged two, after the move.
The Turpins lived in this home in Fort Worth from around 1992 to 1999 before they lost it in a foreclosure. It is pictured above boarded up after they left
The people who moved into David and Louise Turpin’s home in Fort Worth, Texas in 1999 took photos of the filthy carpets caked in dirt
The people who bought the Fort Worth home initially thought scratch marks on doors were caused by animals, but now believe it could be something more sinister following the arrest of the parents
The new owners took photos of the dirty walls and carpet inside the Fort Worth home prior to them moving in
The Turpins were charged with torturing and keeping their 13 biological children – ranging from 2 to 29 years of age – captive in their Perris, California home
David and Louise Turpin, seen renewing their vows at an Elvis Chapel in Las Vegas in 2015, have been arrested after 13 of their children were found shackled to beds inside their home in Perris, California on Sunday
Police found the siblings inside their family home (above) after the 17-year-old girl managed to escape through a window and call 911 with a cell phone she had found in the house
Police said the 17-year-old girl bravely managed to escape through a window of the home and notify authorities. She told police she was scared her parents would kill her if they caught her escaping, according to the Mirror
Details of their harrowing plight have started to emerge since the California couple pleaded not guilty last Thursday to nearly 40 counts including torture, false imprisonment, abuse on a dependent, and child abuse. David faces an additional charge of a lewd act on a child under 14.
They denied the charges despite evidence showing how they kept their 13 children in locked in their rooms, chained to beds and allowing them to shower no more than once a year.
The Turpins also starved their children, their 29-year-old daughter weighed just 82lbs, and taunted them with slices of pie.
Among the most shocking claims of abuse are:
- The children were made to stay awake all night and sleep all day, often going to bed at between 4am and 5am
- Their only permitted activity was to keep journals – hundreds of which were recovered and will likely be used as evidence
- David Turpin is accused of a lewd act against one child – one of his daughters, under the age of 14
- The children had been planning to escape for two years before they were rescued
- The 17-year-old daughter who raised the alarm left the house with another sibling but that child became frightened and turned back
- The parents began using chains and padlocks to tie the children to their beds after one escaped with rope. They would sometimes be chained up for months
- One of the older boys was allowed out of the home to attend college classes but his mother accompanied him there, waited for him until it finished then accompanied him home
- The couple’s youngest child, a two-year-old, was the only one they did not starve
- The 29-year-old woman who was rescued weighed just 82 lbs
- The children were tied up or beaten if they washed their hands ‘above the wrist’ because the parents said it amounted to them ‘playing in the water’
- The Turpins kept toys that were still in their boxes at the house but never gave any to the children
Cadaver dogs are being sent into the home to look for the bodies of any children who did not survive the ordeal and DNA tests are being conducted to determine if any of the children have died and are buried in David and Louise’s house of horrors, according to a new report.
DISNEY-OBSESSED PARENTS ARRESTED FOR IMPRISONING 13 CHILDREN
The parents accused of starving and keeping their 13 children chained up inside their home had an obsession with Disneyland, according to the multiple family trips they took to the theme park and their ‘DSLAND’ car license plates.
David Allen Turpin, 57, and Louise Anna Turpin, 49, were both arrested at their home in Perris, California on Sunday after their 17-year-old daughter managed to escape and call 911.
But the shocking allegations made against David and Louise are in stark contrast to the life they publicly portrayed on their joint Facebook page.
David and Louise are pictured above smiling with their children and Disney Princess Jasmine. The photo was posted in 2012
Photos posted on Facebook between 2010 and 2012 show that the couple took their children to Disneyland on at least two separate occasions.
David and Louise are pictured smiling with their children in front of the theme park’s iconic castle and posing with Disney characters, including Mickey Mouse, Princess Jasmine and Winnie the Pooh’s Eeyore.
Just like all of their family photos, the children are pictured wearing matching outfits.
Photos posted on Facebook between 2010 and 2012 show that the couple took their children to Disneyland on at least two separate occasions
Just like all of their family photos, the children are pictured wearing matching outfits
Some of the younger children wore the same Disney-themed outfits on both family trips to the theme park. The trips occurred prior to the birth of their youngest daughter, who is now aged two.
Meanwhile, two of the four cars parked outside the family’s home in Perris when they were arrested also appear to have licence plates linked to Disneyland.
One of the plates on a Volkswagen Beetle reads ‘DSLAND’.
The other, which is also on Volkswagen, says ‘DL4EVER’. There has been speculation that the second plate could also mean David and Louise forever.
One of the plates on a Volkswagen parked outsdie their home reads: ‘DL4EVER’. There has been speculation that the second plate could also mean David and Louise forever
One of the personalized plates on a Volkswagen Beetle reads ‘DSLAND’
Disney-themed statues were spotted in the yard of the family home in Perris on Tuesday