CA - 13 victims, ages 2 to 29, shackled in home by parents, Perris, 15 Jan 2018 #4

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  • #561
Also, as to why some neighbors might not hAve contacted law enforcement, it could have been fear of retaliation from DT or LT. for example, when I was 10, my mom and I briefly lived in a duplex. The guy downstairs would beat his wife. My mom called the cops, and then, after the couple sent the cops away (it was always just "a misunderstanding"), the guy started threatening my mom for having called. Once he even slashed her tires. We did not stay there long after that, but I remember how terrified both she and I were before we were able to move. It's made me hesitant to call the cops on my neighbours ever since.
 
  • #562
‘He Was Famished': Former College Classmate of Tortured Child Describes Encounter

https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/...r-Sharing-Music-Class-With-Him-470086943.html

Angie Parra took a music class with one of the older children of the brood at Mount San Jacinto College. She described the young man as a "sweet, but odd introvert" in an interview with NBC4.
Parra also said he was "famished" and recalled when he scarfed down food at a school potluck.
"He stood by the table and didn’t sit down," Parra said. "He literally ate plate after plate after plate."

:(. It's that kind of detail that both enrages and breaks one's heart.
 
  • #563
Wow LT looks thin in that FB photo from 2013 and it appears to be in some fast food place to boot. I wonder if the children received 1 meal per day because that would be the only meal that DT was present for as he may have eaten 2 meals per day at work? I think it wasn't used so much as punishment as it was just so routine for the children to not have enough to eat. The bankruptcy papers listed $2500 for food per month yet we know that cannot be true. It is interesting that was the biggest expense for the monthly bills - maybe the parents justified not feeding more than 1 time per day was a way they could afford to have their cars, DVD's, unopened toys, and items of luxury for themselves?

There was a photo at Krispy Kreme with LT holding the infant and oldest son was to the side and turned to camera area. Both infant and boy had the little KK hats on. Someone other than LT took photo but she was posing for it.
 
  • #564
I'm surprized any of the children had a bedroon facing the front of the house.

It seems surprising that a child managed to escape, until you realize just how much constant, consistent effort and vigilance it would actually take to keep 13 people constantly controlled and under surveillance. It was likely only a matter of time before one or both parents 'messed up' (leaving a door or window open, leaving some children unshackled) so that a child could make a concerted escape effort.
Just thank god and everything else that this attempt was actually successful.
 
  • #565
What does their future hold?
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jan/19/california-turpin-13-children-rescued-future
The other question hovering over the case will take years, if not decades, to answer: what next for the Turpin children?

Trauma experts are divided over the siblings’ prospects.
Susan Curtiss, a University of California, Los Angeles, linguistics professor who worked closely with other abused children, said the Turpins needed unconditional love and support and to be kept together.


“They are emerging from their own horrible world to a world they know nothing about. One thing they do know is each other. That’s the only constant other than their own parents.”


Curtiss recommended a small team of carers. “The same one or two people should be there all day every day, touching them softly, a loving, gentle presence ... to lead them into society.”
The professor feared authorities would bungle treatment, as happened with Genie in an infamous case from the 1970s when squabbling scientists and carers undermined the child’s treatment and recovery.


Curtiss, who befriended Genie, feared a repeat of poorly designed tests, inadequate foster homes and bureaucratic in-fighting. “I have no confidence in any of the governmental systems. There probably will be a tug of war because this is the kind of situation that can make people famous. Many people want to be well known and publish papers ... that’s what they’re after.”


Other experts acknowledged pitfalls but were more hopeful.
Nora Baladerian, an LA-based clinical psychologist and licensed counsellor, said those responsible for the Turpins would have to choose between different treatment options.


“They may not have any idea of what normal is. They may not know that one does not normally live chained. It’s going to be a huge, long term adjustment just in daily living.”


Baladerian advised keeping the siblings together and exposing them to positive experiences such as scenic nature and beautiful music. “They have to heal from the separation of their parents and the knowledge of what their parents did to them. They need to acquire self-esteem and skills for future life. If they live in the memory of their suffering rather than hopes and dreams for the future, they won’t do so well.”

John Fairbank, co-director of the National Center for Child Traumatic Stress, said carers would need to carefully assess the relationships between the siblings. “Some may have served as surrogate parents, some may have bonded in critical pairings, and some may have aggressed on each other.”


He also leaned towards keeping all 13 together or near each other. “Worry, guilt, and fears may be exacerbated with the ‘not knowing’ and ‘not seeing’ their siblings. Given their reported experiences, there is little reason for these children to trust an adult who tells them their siblings are all OK.”
 
  • #566
I do want to point out that many, many of my friends use profile pics that are 5 and even 10 years old. I've even seen them upload very old pics for new profile pictures. So there is no proof of when this photo was taken.

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I'm guilty of this, by the way, partly because there are very few photos of me, it never seems like an event was really 5 years ago already, and sometimes when I miss the child who is like my God-child and is in another state, I upload a picture of her and me when she was a toddler and was holding my face in her hands while looking at me with adoration. (Now I miss her again!)

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  • #567
I am posting this again, because the train of misinformation has left the station....

There is NO family that is adopting all 13 on Monday!!!! It was misreported in print.
There are TWO potential homes lined up, one for Adults survivors, one for minor survivors.
This will be finalized in the next couple weeks.
Source: this video from CBS: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?sto...d=108679513654

I'm trying to catch up and 20 pages back the discussion was all about this, I just zoomed forward to comment on it and found your well-timed post.

The siblings can't be adopted yet as the parental rights need to be terminated first (which I've learned from the Sherin Mathews case) and that in itself is a long process. I believe what they'd be looking for is some kind of foster home, perhaps with the potential to become an adoptive home.

Before seeing your post I was thinking perhaps some multi-millionaire had offered an 8-bed house to the family and that it would be done up for the siblings and they could have nursing care there initially to enable them to move sooner and that maybe the donor would ultimately become a guardian after the courts (CPS/APS give up guardianship, which will take a long time imho).

I agree with so many comments about the siblings not being moved from the hospital prematurely, being extremely careful where they go and who with, because there's a fear in me, and I presume others of you share this fear, that I don't want them to go somewhere and have a failure in care and a new parent decide they can't cope after all. Seeing as this is currently a major 'case' with huge publicity, I think there will be a lot of support for future carers and guardians for the siblings and that there will be ongoing outside support, medical, physical, emotional, and educational.

I also think that whomever takes on this challenge is going to have difficult times, but wonderful times with these young people. The so-called parents missed out on so much good stuff...laughter, fun, the pride in your child having a new achievement under their belt. With these 13 siblings/survivors seeing them achieve new things is going to be ongoing for years and it's going to be wonderful to see and share with them, I am envious of the lucky people who get to share those moments with them. I've never had children, that's something I have missed out on, and as someone who dearly wanted children I feel it being missing.

Eventually I see the siblings as part of a pretty normal and healthy household, with a ton of laughter, singing, music, sibling fighting, pictures they've drawn on the walls, Christmas dinners, Thanksgivings, birthday parties! The achievements they will have, educational achievements, learning to drive, gardening and watching seedlings they planted turn into thriving flowers (just as the siblings will).

But they will also need to learn things like how children should be cared for. Watching good parenting of the 2-year old will be invaluable for the older ones. Learning positive interactions between adults and children, children and children, and adults and adults, I think is going to be a totally new world for them.

There's just so much that every single one of them has missed out on, I agree with those who say they deserve to have a proper 'childhood' as they develop away from LT and DT. I want them to have music classes starting off with learning that it's okay to shout and scream and bang on saucepans and clash pan lids together like cymbals, and I want them to fall on the floor laughing at the noise they're making and the 'freedom' in it. I want the older ones to experience swings and roundabouts and playing ball games, riding a bike, every little thing they've missed out on. And eventually getting a part-time job, earning their own money to buy their own things, and to buy little gifts for each other...I think they will love that so much. Despite what they've gone through, every one of them has an inherently 'good people' look about them, and I sincerely hope they will finally have the help to bring that out in wonderful ways.
 
  • #568
Agreed. I suspect what is required is a single large property of the sort of size that would be used for a group home. In reality this group is as large as would fill a medium sized child residential facility anyway. What single foster family could accommodate them unless they owned a hotel?

2 houses right next door to each other, one for the adults managed like their own apartment, one for the kids, with hyper-homey atmosphere. All free to hang out at one or the other. I would think they could get helpers to manage this.

There shouldn’t be anyone in either home that is seen as a substitute parent, no foster parent, aunt, cousin, housemother, dad, grandma. Everyone in the capacity of a relative has failed the youngsters, traumatically failed them. They should NEVER be required to utter those names, or they’ll be traumatized all over again.
 
  • #569
  • #570
The pic with the white tarp as a back drop probably at the home.

I wonder if the matching clothes/shoes were returned after the photos.

Looks like someone who takes photos professional to me. Even as a side business or hobby. My point others had access to them as parents aren't taking photos. UNLESS into photography and set up and took with timer on/or remote camera.
 
  • #571
Here's what I don't get. HOW IN GOODNESS did this not go recognized? Just looking through the Facebook pictures (albeit after the reports) I got a creepy feeling. You mean to tell me that your neighbor has a 29 year old kid dressed like a toddler and you don't think to ask questions?

How would the neighbor know its a 29 yr old....they wouldnt. that 29 yr old adult looks like a kid.

I often think that they are also dressed alike because you could move some in and out of the house and nobody would really be able to tell how many kids there really are unless they are ALL seen together. they are all too close in shape/size/looks. couple outside doing yard work. bring them in, send a couple of others out. it would look like the same kids. IMO some neighbors didnt know kids lived there, others knew but had no idea how many.

dressing alike in outings, I can understand. If one goes missing you know exactly what they are wearing. my child's charter school does this - they have to wear their uniforms on field trips so if one is missing - they can easily describe the child to LE.
 
  • #572

I'm so glad you posted a link to this Guardian story! I read it earlier today but using my phone to read & research & post means not being able to post links.


It's a really good article & has good info about Genie, but I found it entirely alarming to read that academics might well try to get their hands on the journals, and worse- on the survivors themselves.
 
  • #573
Did anyone notice in the radar pictures, the one looking into two windows with a heart pillow outside on the ground, that it would appear that there are two cribs? One in each window? Was one was converted into a toddler bed for the other children? I have an almost five year old, and while she has her own full sized bed in her own room, we have the toddler bed still in our room because she often sleeps downstairs with us and we are joking that we are going to have to get bunk beds because she is too big to co sleep and she is rapidly outgrowing the smaller bed. So it’s hard to imagine anyone much taller/bigger to be able to fit in that bed...so sad to even think about.


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  • #574
  • #575



Snipped for space.


Really great post. A lot of interesting points.


The only way I can imagine adults who saw those kids or the videos/photos and didn't think something was wrong is if the parents stated the kids had disabilities of some sort.


However, if that had been the case I think the family members interviewed would've mentioned that.


And someone a couple threads ago posted a link to a photo of the kids (in blue shirts maybe?) which showed breast development in the older girls that later disappeared. Wth? How could relatives not see something was wrong and question?


But I do think they were swayed by the apparent religiosity and "wealth" of the family and it blinded them to signs that something was terribly wrong.




Is there a link? I read a few posts about that but never got to see the link.






I have had the intense feeling from the beginning that these kids need to be kept the hell away from all those family members.



Way too much something going on with all of them.

Happily, I don't think they have a chance of getting to mess with them prior to trial and in order to get custody of the minors they'd probably have to come out here to hearings.



I don't think they should even be able to contact those kids until they've recovered physically and are stable emotionally.


The family makes me angry.

I also was wondering what was up with the grandparents seeing the family and thinking that all was well. I know they are older, and come from a background where maybe it was less common for kids to go right to college, and girls live at home until they are married - but wouldn't they wonder about young people in their 20's not working, in school, or married? (The technical term is "NEET" - not in education, employment or training: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NEET ) I would definitely worry if I was a relative, if I had a grandchild or niece who was over 18 and not in school, not working, nothing.

They could very well have been told that the older ones, especially, had disabilities. Though more and more young adults with disabilities are in day programs or supported employment. A lot of employers in my area hire developmentally disabled adults to stock shelves, bag groceries, work in fast food, etc.

My own opinion - the turpitudinous Turpins are white, "good Christians," professional class people, and "this sort of thing doesn't happen to people like us!" and denial are powerful. And for all we know, people have tried to call and help, but social services were overloaded and the family fell through the cracks, as often happens.

And I think: people need to be nosy! They need to be prying neighbors, when kids, the elderly, pets, are involved. Dependent people and companion animals need us to speak up for them.
 
  • #576
How would the neighbor know its a 29 yr old....they wouldnt. that 29 yr old adult looks like a kid.

On your first point, I agree with you to an extent. However, maths would dictate that if the younger girls are about 7 or 8 (they'd have to be at least that I'd say, going by their height, hair length, etc in the pics) then the oldest children would have to be in the 18+ range, just going by a simplified one child every year or two type of deal.
 
  • #577
  • #578
Didn't the abuse escalate in the past 5 years? That and the 2 year old baby makes me wonder..
Honestly, I'm not sure there was a trigger. I see that these people have just been escalating over the years anyway. In Texas, the two oldest could actually play with a neighbor for awhile. That ended. Things just seem to have escalated as the years went by.

Possibly it's almost like an opiate addiction. You level out on the current dose and it quits doing it for you so you have to increase the dose, again and again. Unfortunately, I think these people got their kicks from it.

As the children began to accept whatever the current situation was, they may not have been as pained by the current deprivations. If the monsters got their kicks out of their pain (and I think they did - they are sadistic), then they would need to inflict new deprivations, new harm, and actual pain eventually to get any kind of reaction out of the kids.

The problem is that we are looking for a reason that might make us unreasonable with our kids, maybe spank them or ground them unnecessarily. These people are not normal. We know that, but we are still looking for a logical reason why what might result in unwarranted punishment from a more normal person would result in chains for them. But we're never going to find an answer because they are sadists. Honest to God, I think they were addicted to it and had to escalate it every year or so.

I mean, there are other signs that they have addictive personalities when you look at the big picture: addictive teenage type relationship between the two, over the top spending habits, weird collections of both valuable things like Disney and possibly some other hoarding issues, addicted to being pregnant, etc.

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  • #579
Is their joint Facebook page still up? I never could access it.

Oops - never mind. Just saw the answer.
 
  • #580
In the photo where LT is dressed like Snow White with baby #13, she does appear to have fading finger-mark bruises on her right upper arm. I do think it's possible DT is less passive and more controlling at home behind closed doors. That said, I can't imagine LT being innocent of everything that went on in that household. We've already got reports of her being seen supervising them exercising or doing manual labor in the middle of the night. If Dad did the graveyard shift then mom would be responsible for the waking hours while he was gone. Clearly she enforced whatever discipline was the norm in the home.
 
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