California torture house wasn’t inspected, officials say

Louise Anna Turpin and David Allen Turpin. Riverside County Sheriff’s Deparment

“The Turpins failed to contact the City of Perris regarding the operation of the school and never sought a business license from the City,” the spokesman said, adding that the state recommends that “private home-based school operators check with local authorities regarding local business licenses but does not mandate fire inspections.”

All 13 of the Turpin children, ages 2 to 29, have been admitted to hospitals for treatment for severe malnutrition.

The Turpins had little contact with their family back in West Virginia, and shocked relatives have told NBC News that they had no idea what they were allegedly doing.

“They were just like any ordinary family,” said Betty Turpin, the 81-year-old mother of David Turpin. “And they had such good relationships. I’m not just saying this stuff. These kids, we were amazed. They were ‘sweetie’ this and ‘sweetie’ that to each other.”

Betty Turpin and her husband James Turpin of Princeton, West Virginia, visited her son’s family for five days at their previous home in Murrieta, California.

Betty Turpin told the Southern California News Group on Wednesday that they are still in shock from the news.

She said her son told her he had so many kids because God wanted him to and that he shared her Pentecostal Christian faith but wasn’t affiliated with a church in California.

“I feel they were model Christians,” she said. “It’s hard to believe all of this. Over the years, the Lord knows what happened.”

James Turpin said during their visit, “they all looked to me well-adjusted. They weren’t skinny or nothing. They were joyous to see us.”

He said they were dealing with social workers in attempting to connect with their grandkids, who are hospitalized as they recover from their years-long ordeal.

“We always thought she was living the perfect life,” Teresa Robinette, Louisa Anna Turpin’s sister, said in an interview conducted in Knoxville, Tennessee. “She would tell us they went to Disneyland all the time, they would go to Vegas.”

The secret of the house on Muir Woods Road began to spill out on Sunday when the Turpins’ 17-year-old daughter escaped through a window and called 911,

the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department reported.

“Further investigation revealed several children shackled to their beds with chains and padlocks in dark and foul-smelling surroundings, but the parents were unable to immediately provide a logical reason why their children were restrained in that manner,” the statement read.

It was only after freeing them that deputies discovered that seven of who they thought were severely emaciated kids were actually adults “ranging in age from 18 to 29.”