Why didn't the grandparents of the 13 Turpin "children," and the doctors, notice

[pnwmom]

anything was wrong?

The grandparents stayed with the family for 5 days when the oldest was 23 years old. She is 29 today and 82 pounds. Why has no one noticed that the "children" haven't been growing?

And they did know how old the "children" were. One of the sisters stayed for a few months with them when they only had a few very young children.

http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/18/us/turpin-family-investigation/index.html

David and Louise Turpin's abuse of their children started when they lived in the Fort Worth, Texas, area and intensified when they moved to California in 2010, Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin said Thursday.
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.

[struggle4progress]

1. The paternal grandparents live in WV and last saw the grandkids in CA nearly six years ago.

The maternal grandparents seem never to have been allowed any visit (despite a trip to CA for that purpose), and I think both are now deceased

[pnwmom]

11. That's no excuse. The paternal grandparents saw the 29 year old when she was 23.

They should have wondered then why all the children, including the oldest, were so tiny -- and why they looked and dressed like preadolescents.

[struggle4progress]

19. The paternal grandparents are now 84 and 81. They would have been in their mid-to-late 70s

when they went there. A trip across the country for a short visit to a small house,m where they would have been the sixteenth and seventeenth people might have been a lot to absorb, especially if they had any medical problems of their own or if either had some sensory or cognitive deficits, which is not impossible at that age

[pnwmom]

21. I have known many people in that age group, and none who wouldn't have noticed

that a 23 year old look like a 12 year old -- and that NONE Of the adults looked like an adult. The grandparents didn't have advanced Alzheimers or they wouldn't have been able to travel on their own -- and they wouldn't be giving interviews now.

[struggle4progress]

25. Well, here's what the grandmother says -- and it doesn't sound to me

like she knew knew how to combine her realistic view of ordinary kids with what she actually witnessed:

... "They are the sweetest family," said Turpin, 81, of Princeton, W.Va. "They were just like any ordinary family. 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.

"We never heard those kids arguing," Turpin said in a phone interview Wednesday with the Southern California News Group. "Some (now) say they were told to behave. But you take a household of kids over five days, they’re going to be themselves. It was wonderful" ...

https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/01/18/grandparents-of-13-siblings-found-captive-in-perris-they-are-the-sweetest-family/

[leftstreet]

2. But they're all good fundy Christians!

The whole thing is sickening. Interviews with the grandparents are disgusting. Their son is a good Christian!

Looks like the charge are:

12 counts of torture
12 counts false imprisonment
1 count of lewd act on a child (husband)
7 counts of abuse of a dependent adult
6 counts of child abuse

Apparently the baby was the only one fairly healthy



And for some reason, this is the sickest thing:

Link to tweet

So the dogs are in 'good condition'

[struggle4progress]

3. I find no news reports so far of any recent visits to doctors

[pnwmom]

12. It's been 4 years, but why not in the years before then? These "children'

have been through many years of deprivation. It didn't just happen now.

[NCDem777]

4. Because they didn't wanna notice

Nobody wants to be the guy that calls CPS

[Ilsa]

23. Some people are mandated reporters to the state,

including medical personnel, teachers, school nurses, counselors, ministers, etc. I guess no one within these professions ever saw the kids.

[malaise]

5. Great question

Just heard that they slept in the day and stayed up all night. The cildren were allowed to bathe once or twice a year. If they attempted to wash above their hands, they were chained.

The parents would buy food including pies and let them look at it but only look at it. They were given one meal a day.

Throw away the keys.

[Hekate]

6. I hope none of them get sent to relatives, in that case

I seriously doubt any doctors saw those kids, except when (I'm struggling very hard to not call their mother, oh to hell with it) that sow expelled yet another poor baby to add to her litter.

[Lee-Lee]

7. People get blind to the realities of who family members are

It’s very common. Parents don’t see the evil in their children because they don’t want to or feel if woudl be admitting failure in some way.

Parents don’t want to see that their adult child is abusive to their spouse and will side with the abuser.

Parents don’t want to see that their teenage child is a budding criminal and will just insist he is “misunderstood” or “with the wrong crowd” or “just too bright and misunderstood”

Parents don’t want to believe a child of any age has psychological issues or difficulties and will resist any attempts to get them care until the problem has gone way past where there should have been intervention.

These are not always true, but it’s very, very common.

[Farmer-Rick]

8. They were beaten and strangled

Some of their cognitive problems are due to the beatings not the malnurishment.

Why go through the hassle of giving birth if you are only going to destroy them with abuse? You wonder why God allowed these children to suffer so much for so long? Where were their Angels?

This is why I do not believe in a god.

[LisaL]

9. From what has been reported, they haven't been to a doctor in over four years.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42741049

[pnwmom]

13. True, but 4 years ago the oldest was 25. With the damage they're all showing now,

it would have had to be evident 4 years ago.

[struggle4progress]

15. There's no reason to think all the children saw a doctor four years ago: the family

seems to have been both mobile and secretive:

... David Allen Turpin has a 401(k) from Lockheed Martin, records show, and the family has unpaid medical bills out of Johnson and Tarrant Counties <TX> ...
http://www.wfaa.com/news/crime/ca-couple-charged-with-chaining-up-kids-lived-in-north-texas/508417055

... Riverside <CA> District Attorney Michael Hestrin said during a press conference that the alleged abuse and neglect began when the family lived in the Fort Worth <TX> area, "with the parents at one point living apart from the most of the children and dropping off food from time to time" ... In 2001, while the family lived at a residence along Hill County Road 1123, one of their children was bitten by a dog and was taken to Cook’s Children’s Hospital in Fort Worth, said Rick White, chief deputy in the HIll County Sheriff’s Office. Two years later, some of the Turpins’ pigs got loose and ate 55 pounds of a neighbor’s dog food, but White said those two instances were the only contact Hill County law enforcement ever had with the family. White said David Turpin paid for the dog food and no report was filed in connection with the loose pigs ... Then in 2010, Johnson County Sheriff’s deputies served the family civil documents related to a mortgage foreclosure on April 5, 2010, Johnson County Sheriff Adam King said ...
http://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/community/fort-worth/article195422789.html

... Louise Turpin, 49, reported a suspected intoxicated driver in Burleson <TX> in 2008, according to Burleson police records. Her driver's license at the time indicated she lived in Rio Vista along with her husband, David. Records state the Turpins rented a postal box in Burleson from 1986 to 2003 ... Court records state the Turpins filed for bankruptcy in 1992 in the Northern District of Texas and again in 2011 in California ...
http://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/community/fort-worth/article194876984.html

... Wells Fargo seized the family’s Rio Vista, Texas, farm in 1999 because of an outstanding $40,000 mortgage. Five years later, their mobile home was repossessed ... During that time, Turpin worked the second shift earning more than $11,000 a month ... But after leaving Lockheed, <they> became crushed under a pile of credit-card and department-store debt. A dozen collection agencies pursued him for debts, including $700 in unpaid medical bills and a $400 pest-control invoice ...
https://nypost.com/2018/01/16/shackled-kids-dad-fought-to-keep-muscle-car-in-bankruptcy/

... the couple filed for bankruptcy in 2011 and stated they were $100,000 to $500,000 in debt. David Turpin worked, at the time, as an engineer for defense contractor Northrop Grumman and was paid a $140,000 annual salary ... His wife was listed as a homemaker ...
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/california-couple-charged-torture-brought-13-kids-along-when-they-n838026

... Their bankruptcy lawyer, Ivan Trahan, told the Times he never met the children ... "We remember them as a very nice couple," Trahan said ...
https://www.centralmaine.com/2018/01/15/teenager-leads-deputies-to-california-house-where-12-siblings-were-locked-up/

[pnwmom]

17. Fine. So, by an amazing coincidence, the only child that needed medical attention

was one who looked and sounded normal for his or her age?

[struggle4progress]

20. Since the infant is the only one receiving appropriate care, that seems possible

[pnwmom]

22. The 2 year old wasn't alive 4 years ago. So the doctor saw one of the starving older children

and didn't report anything.

[struggle4progress]

27. If they have six children in the 2-17 age range, then it's a reasonable guess that the youngest

alive four years ago was quite small. And since only the youngest has recently been receiving appropriate care, it is plausible that four years ago only the youngest then was receiving appropriate care

[pnwmom]

29. I think the odds are great that over all these years, SOME adults saw that something was going on

and did nothing. The sisters were concerned but did nothing. The neighbors saw odd things but did nothing. The grandparents spent 5 days with them and somehow didn't notice that all of the ADULTS were underdeveloped and acted like well-behaved children.

You think it was possible that no one in all that time saw anything that should have been reported. I don't. I think other adults failed the "children," not just their parents.

[struggle4progress]

30. I think it would be more courteous of you not to put words in my mouth

I have posted several links on this board about people ignoring warning signs

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1218267305#post16
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1218267305#post18
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1218267305#post22

but not reporting

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1218267305#post12

[WhiskeyGrinder]

10. Denial is so, so powerful.

[leftstreet]

14. Just saw they both are pleading not guilty

denial everywhere

[crazycatlady]

16. I believe the grandparents were cut off from the children

[pnwmom]

18. One set of grandparents stayed with them for 5 days when the oldest was 23.

It should have been obvious that something was wrong when even the oldest "children" looked like preadolescents. Instead, the grandparents said how polite and well-behaved all the "children" were.

[Ilsa]

24. How do these parents justify depriving their children of the ability to

grow up and learn to take care of themselves? I guess the parents thought they would live forever, and could keep their kids forever.

[pansypoo53219]

26. the extended family needs to be charged too.

[enid602]

28. Aunt

The kids' maternal aunt was on TV yesterday AM. She said she's upset that the kids have been abused, but was 'real proud' of her sister for gettin' saved. I think the aunt was from TX.

[customerserviceguy]

31. This whole family

is a train wreck, except for possibly the one who did escape. The survivors all need to be separated, and surrounded by only normal people from here on in. And the "parents" need to be in general population in prison, where they know how to deal with these kind of abusive fucks.