House of Horrors update: Attorney speaks of Turpin kids’ health one year on

One of the most horrific stories of 2018 was the House of Horrors discovery, where 13 children were found malnourished and shackled to their beds in a home in the United States.

David Turpin and his wife Louise were charged with imprisoning and torturing their 13 children, after their then-17-year-old daughter escaped and called police, telling them her siblings, who ranged in ages from two to 29, were being held captive in their home. Multiple media outlets at the time reported the girl looked smaller than her age and mistakenly believed she was only 10-years-old.

Police swarmed the home and allegedly discovered the 13 kids shackled to a bed, dirty and appearing malnourished. A year on from the discovery, attorney for seven of the Turpin children Jack Osborn has given an update on his clients.

Appearing on Today in the United States, Osborn explained the children didn’t really understand the magnitude of the situation, and aren’t bitter about what happened to them.

He said although their living conditions were utterly shocking, to them it was normal, so adjusting to their new life has been somewhat of a difficult transition.

“For really the first time they’re able to make their own decisions, and decide what they’re going to eat. They decide where they’re going to go, what they’re going to study,” Osborn told the show’s hosts. “They want people to know that they are survivors. They want to be independent now.”

While the children live separately with the older kids together in a home and the younger in foster care, the attorney said they maintain a strong bond and are in regular contact.

Read more: Parents of children ‘shackled up in home’ plead not guilty

With their parents out of the question, Osbourn claimed all 13 kids have a strong relationship and are helping each other as they continue to adjust to their new life.

“The older children are extremely protective of the younger ones,” he told Today. “So, when they do have time together, it’s a lot of nurturing. There is a lot of reassuring.

“And one of the things that they’re grateful for is they’ve got each other.”

Shortly after the children were discovered last year, neighbours of the family revealed they were shocked to find the couple had young children, having only seen the older siblings occasionally emerge from the house to mow the lawn and do chores.

One neighbour told CNN at the time, the kids appeared “very pale-skinned, almost like they’d never seen the sun”, while another said they looked “malnourished”.

This was followed by comments from Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin who revealed more horrific conditions the children were found in. Speaking in court at the time, he said: ““A case like that sticks with you and haunts you”.

According to CNN, Hestrin told the court three children were chained to beds when police swarmed the property. He claimed the kids had started getting tied up years ago, but the parents had allegedly swapped the ropes to padlocks and chains when one child tried to escape.

“Circumstantial evidence suggests the victims were often not released from their chains to go to the bathroom,” he reportedly added.

Hestrin claimed a female victim who was 29 at the time weighed just 37kg , while a 12-year-old was the size of an average seven-year-old.

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