Christabel Duah
After a 17-year-old girl escaped her home to alert authorities to the disturbing conditions inside, reports from the current owner of the family’s previous home suggest the California home — described as a torture house — wasn’t their first stomach-turning residence.
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Photos from the Fort Worth, Texas, home previously owned by David, 57, and Louise Turpin, 49, indicate similar foul living conditions for the family nearly two decades ago. The current owner purchased the foreclosed home left behind by the Turpins 18 years ago. He told ABC News that, based on the conditions left behind, he’d believe the family destroyed the house as revenge for the foreclosure.
“They didn’t pick up and go,” he said. “They left a mess.”
He reportedly took photos of the property before renovating. According to him, the walls likely had remnants of human feces, while photos show severely stained carpets, filthy walls and showers. The owner reported being told by neighbors upon moving in that the family only used the back door to enter the home and lauded him for improving the features.
David and Louise Turpin used to live in Fort Worth. Moved out after foreclosure. Current owners still keep pics of what it looked like inside pic.twitter.com/E56stUObZP
— Jason Allen (@CBS11JasonAllen) January 16, 2018
The Turpins likely lived in the Texas home with seven of their now-adult children — ages 18-29 — then moved to another Texas residence, before ultimately ending up in Perris, California.
According to ABC News, an incident report listed an event in 2001 where the Turpin’s Border Collie bit their 4-year-old in the face. Authorities were not called to the home until a day after the attack. According to the document, she was transported to a hospital while the dog was put down.
The parents, David and Louise Anna Turpin, have been charged with torture and abuse for reportedly shackling their 13 children — between 2 and 29 years old — in the house and subjecting them to abuse. The couple is being held on a $12 million bonds each, reported ABC News.
On Thursday, an officer with knowledge of the situation told NBC that the victims were allowed to shower only twice a year and that they were fed only once each day. Some of the children were shackled to furniture and their homes were described as “urine-filled.”
If convicted, they face 94 years to life behind bars, according to KABC.
