Page 5 - ARUBA TODAY

A5
U.S. NEWS Wednesday 17 January 2018
California couple’s ordinary home held torture chamber

By AMY TAXIN
JOHN ROGERS
Associated Press
PERRIS, Calif. (AP) — From
the outside, the brown-
and-beige four-bedroom
home looked fairly orderly.
The couple who owned it
had purchased the house
new in 2014 and soon ar-
rived in this Los Angeles sub-
urb with their 12 children.
They lived there quietly for
at least three years and
had another baby. Then on
Sunday, one of the children
jumped out of a window,
called 911 and led authori-
ties to what they described
as a torture chamber.
Sheriff’s deputies said they This combination photo shows suspect David Allen Turpin (left) and Anna Turpin. Authorities say
an emaciated teenager led deputies to a California home where her 12 brothers and sisters were
found 13 children ranging locked up in filthy conditions, with some of them malnourished and chained to beds. Riverside
from 2 to 29 years old, some County sheriff’s deputies arrested the parents David Allen Turpin and Louise Anna Turpin on
of them chained to furni- Sunday. The parents could face charges including torture and child endangerment.
ture, all of them thin and (Riverside County Sheriff’s Department via AP)
malnourished. The 17-year- Fallows said, explaining the most recently on Halloween Turpin is listed as principal.
old girl who escaped was possible charge. 2015. An Elvis impersonator In the 2016-17 school year
so tiny that deputies initially He said there was no indi- performed the ceremony it had an enrollment of six
mistook her for a 10-year- cation any of the children between songs. Most of the with one student each in
old. were sexually abused, al- children, dressed in match- the fifth, sixth, eighth, ninth,
When authorities confront- though that was still being ing outfits, took part. 10th and 12th grades.
ed the girl’s mother, Louise investigated. Numerous photos on the Fellows told reporters there
Anna Turpin, sheriff’s Capt. Neither sheriff’s deputies couple’s Facebook page is no indication any student
Greg Fellows said she ap- nor child-welfare officials show the children dancing other than the couple’s
peared “perplexed” about received a single call over at the ceremony, visiting children were enrolled
why officers had come to the years about the Turpin an amusement park that there. He said six of those
the home. home, he said. appears to be Disneyland children are under 18.
Turpin, 49, and her hus- The investigation, still in its and going on other out- No state agency regulates
band, David Allen Turpin, early stages, has already ings, looking thin but often or oversees private schools
57, were jailed on $9 million begun to unravel a bizarre smiling. in California, and they are
bail. They were scheduled tale of a couple married Although their home ap- not licensed by the state
for an initial court appear- 32 years who dressed their peared nondescript from Education Department. Pri-
ance on Thursday, and au- children alike, kept them the outside, it was a stinking vate school operators are
thorities say the pair could away from outsiders and mess inside, Fellows said. required to file an affidavit
face charges of torture cut most of the boys’ hair Deputies reported that the with the state annually, list-
and child endangerment. in a Prince Valiant-style re- home was very dirty and ing the number of students,
“If you can imagine being sembling that of their gray- reeked — a condition that staff members and infor-
17 years old and appear- ing father. Fallows called “horrific.” mation about the school’s
ing to be a 10-year-old, Videos posted on YouTube State Department of Edu- administrators.
being chained to a bed, show the couple renewed cation records show the Private schools are also
being malnourished and in- their vows at the Elvis Cha- home’s address is the subject to an annual in-
juries associated with that, pel in Las Vegas at least same as the Sandcastle spection by state fire offi-
I would call that torture,” three times in recent years, Day School, where David cials. q

Lawyer:

Charges possible in connection with Vegas shooting

By KEN RITTER charges might be possible tion?” Clark County District referred to.
Associated Press depending on the results of Court Judge Elissa Cadish Officer Laura Meltzer, a Las
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Charges an ongoing investigation. asked Crosby as he argued Vegas police spokeswom-
could be filed in connec- Sheriff Joe Lombardo and to keep police search-war- an, said the department
tion with the deadliest mass the FBI have said they be- rant records sealed. is “investigating possible
shooting in modern U.S. his- lieve Stephen Paddock “Yes,” said Crosby, who criminal charges related
tory, even though the gun- acted alone to carry out represents the Las Vegas to items discovered during
man responsible for killing the Oct. 1 shooting that Metropolitan Police De- the service of search war-
58 people is dead, a lawyer also injured hundreds be- partment, which Lombar- rants.”
for Las Vegas police told a fore killing himself. do leads. She said she could not
judge Tuesday. “Without naming names, “There are charges being specify the type of charges
Attorney Nicholas Crosby there are potential charg- investigated.” or what was found with-
did not identify new evi- es against others as a result The attorney declined out- out compromising the
dence or suspects but said of the ongoing investiga- side court to say whom he investigation.q