This is depraved conduct,' DA says of California couple accused of torturing kids

 A California district attorney painted a horrible picture of physical and emotional abuse as he announced torture charges Thursday against a Riverside County couple accused of keeping their 13 children captive and malnourished in their home.

David Turpin, 56, and Louise Turpin, 49, were charged with 12 counts of torture, he said. David Turpin, he said, also was charged with a lewd act on a child by force or fear of duress.

"This is severe, emotional, physical abuse. ... This is depraved conduct," Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin said.

Of the victims, Hestrin said: "They're relieved. ... Their health is being looked at. They're in good hands. As far as where they're going to end up, I don't know."

Other charges include seven counts of abuse of a dependent adult, six counts of child abuse or neglect and 12 counts of false imprisonment. Hestrin did not say whether both suspects face the last three sets of charges.

They were scheduled to appear in court Thursday afternoon for their arraignments, and Hestrin was asking that bail be set at $13 million each. It was not immediately clear whether the Turpins had attorneys. They could face 94 years up to life in prison.

Most of the Turpin children suffered from severe caloric malnutrition, and several have cognitive impairment as a result of abuse, Hestrin said.

Hestrin said he is filing 12 counts of torture, as opposed to one count for each of the 13 children, because the 2-year-old child appears to have been getting enough to eat.

David and Louise Turpin would tie up or chain their offspring as punishment, both the minor children and the adults, Hestrin alleged.

"Punishment would last weeks or even months at a time," Hestrin said. Evidence, he added, suggests the victims often were not released from their chains to go to the bathroom.

It "started out as neglect" and became severe, pervasive child abuse, Hestrin said.

The torture included beatings and chokings, the DA said.

The children were allowed to write in journals, and hundreds have been taken into evidence.

David and Louise Turpin's alleged abuse of their children started when they lived in the Fort Worth, Texas, area and intensified when they moved to California in 2010, the prosecutor said. The charges cover alleged acts in Riverside County from 2010 to the present.

Pointing to the children's malnourishment, Hestrin said that a 12-year-old has the weight of an average 7-year-old, and a 29-year-old daughter weighs 82 pounds.

David Allen Turpin, 56, and Louise Anna Turpin, 49.

Besides suffering severe caloric malnutrition associated with muscle wasting, several have cognitive impairment and "neuropathy, which is nerve damage, as a result of this extreme and prolonged physical abuse," Hestrin said.

The Turpins have been in police custody since Sunday after authorities said they found their children -- ranging in age from 2 to 29 -- appearing "malnourished and very dirty," with three of them chained to furniture, at their home in Perris, southeast of Los Angeles.

Teen escaped and called 911, police say

Investigators arrived at the home, they say, after a 17-year-old girl crawled out of a window at the home Sunday morning and called 911 using a deactivated cellphone she had grabbed from the house.

Hestin said Thursday that the 17-year-old had been working on an escape plan with her siblings for more than two years. The girl initially escaped with another sibling, but that sibling became frightened and returned home, he said.