House of Horrors: The Turpin Family

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Warning: this post covers a case of prolonged and severe child abuse, so please proceed with caution. Out of respect for the Turpin children’s privacy, I will not be using their first names.

Few stories are as chilling as that of the Turpin family. Regardless of where you live, you likely remember this story dominating both national and international news in January 2018. The photos that appeared on our screens were staged to project an image of a big, happy family. The one that sticks with me is of the Turpin parents renewing their vows at a chapel in Las Vegas, surrounded by their 13 children who are all dressed identically - the ten girls wearing purple plaid dresses, white tights and white shoes, and the three boys wearing suits and purple ties. All are smiling at the camera. But something just feels off about the photos, something you can’t immediately put your finger on.

The reality could not have been further from what the parents, David and Louise Turpin, were attempting to convey in those photos. When the story broke of what was really going on behind the closed doors of their southern California home, impressions from the photos, that something just wasn’t quite right, were confirmed. It was all fake; a charade put on to hide the truth of just how depraved humans can be.

Perris, California

Perris is a suburban city home to just under 80,000 in the Inland Empire region of Southern California. Located in western Riverside County, it is about 70 miles southeast of Los Angeles and 20 miles south of Riverside.

The city attracts people with its affordable housing, but beyond that, there is not much that brings people there. Lake Perris, an artificial lake finished in 1973, is located in Lake Perris State Recreation Area. The recreation area boasts a range of activities popular during the summer, including hiking, rock climbing and horseback-riding.

The Mediterranean-style homes on Muir Woods Road in Perris sit side by side on palm-tree-lined streets, separated by no more than several meters. Given the hot, dry climate, there is little greenery, other than the small patches of lawn out front of each home.

Muir Woods Road is pretty typical of American suburbia. The homes are attractive and well-maintained, some proudly flying American flags, and many with basketball hoops set up in their driveways.

The Escape

Sunday, Jan. 14, 2018

Something sinister was going on at 160 Muir Woods Road, however. For two long, torturous years, the girl had been planning to escape from her family home, a place so squalid and miserable, it’s hard to imagine humans surviving in such conditions.

In one hand, she clutched a deactivated cell phone she had been hiding for months. With her other hand, she pried open the window and slid out as carefully and quietly as she could. At 17, she was small and emaciated, never receiving the nourishment required to sufficiently grow and develop.

A smaller girl, aged 13, slipped through the window after her. She was nearly identical to her older sister, with long, lank brown hair and skin so pale it was almost translucent. The two stood together amongst the weeds which grew rampant, smothering the already withered grass. It was 6 a.m. in mid January, so the sun had not yet risen. It was perfectly quiet and still.

The older of the two girls began making her way across the lawn, away from the house in which she had been imprisoned for so long. The younger girl stood frozen on the spot. The older girl was too anxious to stay and encourage her; she knew there was no time to waste. Glancing back over her shoulder, she realized her little sister had disappeared back into the house, back through the window they had climbed out of just moments before.

Now it was all on her. She dialed 911 on the cell phone and lifted it to her ear, her hand shaking violently.

"My parents are abusive," she told the dispatcher. The desperation in her voice was palpable. "My two little sisters right now are chained up... they're chained up to their bed."

David Turpin Before Louise

West Virginia, 1961 - 1985

David Allen Turpin was born Oct. 17, 1961 to Betty and James Turpin in Princeton, West Virginia. I couldn’t find much information about his early life, other than that his family were very religious. Otherwise, his childhood was a normal, uneventful one.

David attended Princeton High School, where he was very active in extracurricular activities, including the Bible club, chess club, science club and A-cappella choir. After graduating high school, David attended Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg, Virginia, where he studied electrical engineering.

David was extremely intelligent and would eventually land jobs in computer engineering at high profile defense technology companies, Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin (formally General Dynamics).

Louise Before David

Louise Anna Turpin (né Robinette) was born May 24, 1968 to Phyllis and Wayne Robinette in Princeton, WV, the oldest of six children. The family were devout evangelical Christians; Wayne was a preacher and Phyllis sang in the church choir, as well as working as a cashier at Walmart.

Childhood for the Robinette children was miserable. Wayne and Phyllis fought constantly, and were strict and unforgiving with the children. Louise, her sisters and her mother were sexually abused by a relative from a young age. Louise’s sister, Teresa, explained that the sexual abuse was a “big secret” in the family, always present but never spoken about.

Louise was very protective of her younger siblings, her sister Elizabeth later told People magazine. She described Louise as “loving, soft-spoken and sweet”, doing her best to calm them after their parents’ explosive arguments, as well as shield them from their predatory relative.

Louise and David Meet

When Louise was 15, she met 22-year-old David Turpin at church and the two began dating. The couple kept their relationship secret, fearing how Louise’s parents would react if they found out. Phyllis eventually learned of the relationship and accepted it, reasoning that David was from a good Christian household and she trusted Louise (despite the fact she was a child and he was an adult, which technically made David a pedophile). They continued to hide it from Wayne, however, sure that he would be furious.

In January 1985, 23-year-old David walked into Princeton High School, where he graduated from five years earlier, and where Louise was currently enrolled. He somehow convinced staff at the school to let him sign Louise out of class. Louise willingly left the school with David and the two of them began driving south with plans to elope. When Louise’s parents found out that she was gone, they called the police. The young couple had already made it to Texas (their final destination), before the authorities caught up with them. Surprisingly, without too much fuss, they agreed to return to West Virginia.

When they got home, Wayne and Phyllis were surprisingly calm. More than anything, Wayne was upset with Phyllis for allowing Louise to date David in the first place. But he realized there was little he could do to keep the clearly smitten couple apart, so he agreed to let his now 16-year-old daughter marry David Turpin. The two married in a small ceremony just across the border in Pearisburg, Virginia, on Feb. 11, 1985.

Two years later, Wayne and Phyllis separated and Wayne gave up preaching. He became the chief deputy assessor for Mercer County, WV, a role he would work in for 26 years.

Happier Times

Fort Worth, TX, 1990 - 1999

I named this section as so because it did actually seem as though the Turpins were doing well in the early days of their marriage.

According to Louise’s sister, Elizabeth Flores, Louise immediately began distancing herself from her family after marrying David. No longer constrained by her strict parents, she was determined to embrace her new found freedom.

In 1988, Louise gave birth to the couple's first child, a girl. About 18 months later, in 1990, David moved Louise and their baby daughter to Fort Worth, TX after he was transferred there by General Dynamics (which was soon taken over by Lockheed Martin).

The Turpins moved into a very nice home in the stylish neighborhood of Meadowcreek. David was making good money and the family were living well. Shortly after the move, Louise invited her family in West Virginia to come and visit.

Louise's family never had much money growing up. When her mother and siblings came to Texas, Louise evidently wanted them to see how well she was doing. She and David paid for everything, including their flights.

The following year, 1991, saw the arrival of Louise and David’s second child, a boy.

Everything Is Not What It Seems

In 1992, things began going downhill for the Turpins, but nobody on the outside looking in ever would have known. They appeared to be a thriving, perfect little family. But it was that year that David and Louise filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy; they were in a ton of debt, regardless of David’s six-figure salary.

But their money troubles did not deter them from living a lavish lifestyle they could not afford. Nor did they think twice about having more children. In 1993, Louise became pregnant with their third child, another girl.

As they had every year since David and Louise moved to Fort Worth, Louise’s family came to visit. Louise was determined they not find out that she and David were struggling financially, so they once again paid for all travel expenses and activities during their trip.

Louise’s sister, Teresa, would later recall that they had no clue that there was anything amiss in her sister’s life during that trip.

“That house was beautiful. It was fun and happy,” Teresa said.

The oldest Turpin girl, born in 1988, started the first grade (I believe in Sept. 1994) at Meadowcreek Elementary. She was showing obvious signs of neglect; she wore the same dirty clothes everyday, her hair was unbrushed and greasy and it was obvious that she was not bathing regularly. Her classmates teased and made fun of her for her poor hygiene.

In 1995, Louise and David’s fourth child, another boy, was born. The following year, the family of six travelled to West Virginia to see Louise’s family. As they did when her relatives came to Fort Worth, the Turpins were splashing the cash on this trip also, taking the family out for expensive meals every day. It seemed as though they had it all.

Louise’s Sister Visits

Elizabeth, Louise’s sister, returned with the Turpins to Fort Worth in 1996, after asking if she could spend the summer with them. On the way to Fort Worth they made a surprise stop at a casino in Louisiana. Louise asked Elizabeth if she could watch the kids while she and David went in to gamble. She also asked Elizabeth not tell anybody about what she was doing, especially their other family members.

Elizabeth was gobsmacked; this was not the Louise that she knew. Their strict Christian upbringing had taught them that frivolous activities like gambling were considered a sin.

The casino trip resulted in David and Louise getting into a bad argument in which David accused Louise of having a gambling problem and losing all his money.

During Elizabeth’s visit, she began to get the impression that life for the Turpins wasn’t really what Louse and David were making it out to be. David and Louise were extremely controlling of their young children, not allowing them to go to the bathroom, eat or drink without their permission. Elizabeth said that the entire time she was there, she could not remember David or Louise showing any affection towards the children at all.

David also had a tendency to wander into the bathroom and watch Elizabeth while she was showering. It sounds as though Elizabeth tried to laugh it off, despite how creepy and perverted it was.

"If I went to get in the shower, he would come in while I was in there and watch me. It was like a joke," she later told Inside Edition. "He never touched me or anything."

I don’t think Elizabeth went to stay with Louise and her family again after that.

Alarming Behavior

In May of 1997, Louise and David’s fifth child was born.

That September, when the oldest daughter returned to school, her hygiene even worse than before. Her teachers commented that she was “talking about things that could indicate sexual abuse”, and she was sent to the principal’s office to discuss her home life.

However, no action was ever taken to look into whether there was abuse going on in the Turpin home. There was no record of the Turpins with the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services.

More Children and More Debt

The sixth Turpin child, another girl, was born in 1998.

David and Louise were still going to casinos regularly. Their finances were a disaster, despite David’s highly paid job.

In the spring of 1999, the oldest daughter (aged 10 or 11 at this point), stopped attending school completely. None of the other children ever went to school. According to David and Louise, they were being “homeschooled”, but as we’ll find out a little later, this was not true. The oldest daughter’s third grade education would be the most advanced any of the children would receive.

It was around this time that the family moved out of their Fort Worth home after the bank foreclosed on it in late 1998. The home was a disgusting mess when they left; they clearly wanted to make sure it was in the most revolting condition possible for the new owners. There was a putrid smell coming from inside, dirt and stains on the walls that the new owners - who posted photos online (which you can look up if you feel so inclined) - believed to be excrement.

Just before moving to Rio Vista, TX in 1999, Louise gave birth to the seventh Turpin child.

According to the 2000 census, Rio Vista, located in Johnson County, Texas, had a population of just 656 people. It’s about 40 miles south of Fort Worth and very remote, which I’m sure played an important role in their decision to move there.

The Abuse Worsens

Rio Vista, TX, 1999 - 2010

Five more children were born in 2001, 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2007, while the Turpins lived in Rio Vista. This would bring the total number of children up to 12.

While the children were evidently suffering from neglect when the family lived in Fort Worth, it was not really clear whether they were physically/emotionally abused, and if they were, how bad the abuse was.

Looking back now, there were warning signs, in the behaviors exhibited by the oldest girl at school and the treatment of the children Louise’s sister Elizabeth observed during her visit.

When they moved to Rio Vista in 1999, however, the abuse became severe. The children were slapped, choked and whipped with belts for things like going to the bathroom without asking.

They were not allowed to shower or bathe more than once a year, and were fed only cheap frozen food and baloney sandwiches. David and Louise would buy food that looked delicious, like pies and fresh bread, but would not let the children eat it. They would make them sit and just look at the food as they starved. The children were so malnourished, their growth was stunted and their skin pasty and sallow. They appeared physically far younger than their actual ages.

The lack of socialization outside the home and psychological abuse resulted in delayed cognitive development.

I believe it was when the family moved to Rio Vista that Louise stopped inviting her family to stay. Instead, they began talking on Skype, according to Louise’s sister Teresa. The Skype sessions felt awkward and uncomfortable, as the children were only allowed to talk one at a time. Teresa got the idea that they were struggling as a result of being homeschooled.

"They didn’t hold a conversation well, I was always concerned that they weren’t going to be socially developed," she would later say.

Police would go to the Turpin home twice while they lived in Rio Vista, but never due to reports of child abuse or neglect. The first time was in June 2001, when the 4-year-old Turpin daughter was bitten by a dog. The second time was in February 2003 when the Turpin’s pet pig (yes, you read that right, I can’t for the life of me understand why they had a pet pig) escaped from the yard and ate 55 pounds of dog food belonging to a neighbor.

In 2004, an expensive looking mobile home appeared on the Rio Vista property. David, Louise and the 10 children abandoned the house and moved into the trailer (don’t ask me how they all fit in there) as the house was uninhabitable. There was garbage, dead rats and who knows what other filth lying around. I have no doubt that the children were all sick at this point from living in such disgusting conditions.

Louise and David’s Secret Escapades

In 2008, then 40-year-old Louise had an interesting conversation with her sister Teresa, in which she revealed the wild exploits she and David had been engaging in. They were no longer going to church*, she told Teresa, which she found very liberating, as it gave her freedom to explore different spiritual/religious practices. Furthermore, she no longer trusted the church, she added.

The fact that they stopped attending church was a big deal, as they had both grown up in such devout Christian households. They had pretty much done a one-eighty, and begun collecting books on Satanism and experimenting with Ouija boards.

Louise also confided in Teresa that she and David had begun swinging. They would leave the older children at home to look after the younger ones and go meet up with strangers they met online to have sex.

I also read it was just Louise that was having sex outside of the marriage, but that it didn’t bother David. In fact, he was quite happy to facilitate his wife’s hook ups, apparently driving her to hotels where she arranged to meet the men, and waiting around for her until she was finished.

Understandably, Teresa was shocked. When they were children, Louise, being the oldest, had always been the responsible one. She looked out for her younger siblings and almost acted as a second mother to them. Teresa could not fathom what had happened to her once nurturing, caring sister.

*Although they were not regularly attending church, they apparently still took part in some more outlandish religious practices such as snake-handling (associated with a small number Pentecostal Christian churches in Appalachia and the southeastern United States).

“DL4EVER”

Murrieta, CA, 2010 - 2014

In 2010, the Turpins left Rio Vista for Murrieta, located in southwestern Riverside County, in southern California. The population of Murrieta was 103,466 in 2010, so this was quite a change from tiny Rio Vista.

Photos would pop up regularly on Facebook of the Turpins enjoying themselves in various vacation spots. They always looked like they were having a good time.

Also worth mentioning is that David and Louise had a weird fixation with Disneyland and took many trips to the theme park in Anaheim with the entire family. As many Disneyland attendees do, they would dress the kids in matching Disney themed t-shirts and take photos in iconic parts of the park. These extravagant excursions also no doubt played a role in the massive amount of debt the family found themselves in. They were such Disneyland fanatics that they had vanity plates on their two cars which read “DL4EVER” and “DLAND”.

In 2010, the Skype conversations with Louise’s family stopped completely. Her sisters pleaded repeatedly with her to just let them have a short call with the kids, but they were either ignored or Louise told them they were too busy. Louise’s parents and siblings were hurt and upset, but they felt there was little they could do.

Louise would send family photos to her parents and siblings in which the children were all smiling happily. This gave them some reassurance, as the kids looked healthy enough, if not a little thin. They could not have known from looking at the photos of the absolute hell the children were living.

Sandcastle Day School

I’m not sure what the laws are regarding schooling in Texas, but California state law requires that children aged between 6 and 18 attend school.

According to a report on private schooling in California from the BBC:

“In California, private schools operate outside the jurisdiction of the education department and most regulations. They are directly accountable to students and their parents or guardians, and the state has no authority to monitor or evaluate them. Teachers at private schools in California also do not need to hold a valid state teaching qualification.”

In 2011, David Turpin opened a private school out of the Turpin’s Murrieta home, which he named Sandcastle Day School. He listed himself as the principal and administrator of the school, which had six students enrolled, each in different grades.

All he needed to do was complete a Dept. of Education affidavit stating that the children were enrolled full-time. As private schools do not fall in the jurisdiction of the Dept. of Education, the state did not have the authority to inspect the school as they would have with regular schools.

“House of Horrors”

Perris, CA, 2014 - 2018

In 2014, the Turpins made what would be their final move before their arrest in 2018. They relocated to Perris, CA, specifically 160 Muir Woods Rd., about 20 miles north of Murrieta in Riverside County.

By this point, the abuse was totally out of control. David and Louise Turpin were more violent with the children than they had been at any other time. They were tied with rope to their beds, and if they tried to escape, the rope was replaced with chains and padlocks.

They would spend up to twenty hours a day in their rooms. The air was so stagnant, thick and putrid smelling, it no longer felt as though they were breathing air into their lungs.

Then, in 2015, Louise gave birth to their 13th child.

The same year, the entire family travelled to Las Vegas where David and Louise planned to renew their vows for their 30th wedding anniversary. They would do this at the Elvis Chapel with Elvis impersonator, Kent Ripley. This is where those creepy photos were taken that I mentioned at the very beginning of this article.

In a video of the ceremony, David can be heard repeating the words of Kent Ripley to Louise:

"I offer you this ring as a symbol of my love, baby, baby."

Then they kiss. On cue, the children clap and smile.

The Rescue

Earlier in this article, I described the events which resulted in the release of the 13 Turpin children from imprisonment in their own home.

I can’t even begin to imagine the fear and terror that poor girl would have been feeling as she climbed through the window and called the police on that January morning.

As humans, we are programmed to survive, even in the most dire situations. The Turpin children survived their entire lives in a hell created by their own parents, but the girl no doubt knew that they could not go on as they were. She told the police during the 911 call that she thought she and her siblings needed to see a doctor. I’m sure she realized that living in that house was slowly killing them.

The 911 call lasted 20 minutes. The girl explained to the operator the sorts of conditions she and her siblings lived in, adding that she had photos of the inside of the house on the cell phone. When the operator asked if she was “around the corner from her house”, she replied:

"Yeah, I think. I've never been out. I don't go out much."

When police arrived on the scene, they spoke with the girl and looked at the photos she had taken of the inside of the house they now stood next to. Officers were shocked that she was 17, as she was so tiny and thin; when they first set eyes on her, they were sure she was no older than 10.

When they knocked on the door, a perplexed Louise Turpin answered.

On entering the home, a foul smelling odor hit them almost immediately. It only worsened as they progressed through the house.

The scene inside the home was truly horrifying. As the girl told the 911 operator, three of her siblings were shackled to their beds. The officers could not believe that seven of them were adults; they were all so small and sickly. The floors were coated with grime and garbage. The children who had been chained to their beds had clearly not been allowed up to use the bathroom for a while.

Police removed all 13 children from the home. The six minors were taken to Riverside University Medical Center in Moreno Valley and the seven adult children were taken to Corona Regional Medical Center.

Legal Proceedings

At 9 p.m. on Jan. 14, 2018, David and Louise Turpin were arrested on suspicion of child abuse and torture.

Four days later, they were each charged with the following: 12 counts of torture, 7 counts of abuse of a dependent adult, 6 counts of child abuse/neglect, 12 counts of false imprisonment. David Turpin was charged with one count of a lewd act on a child under the age of 14. The 2-year-old was the only who was not malnourished, nor had she been tortured or abused.

Both parents pleaded not guilty and were held on $9 million bail.

Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin held a news conference the same day, detailing the abuse the children suffered which resulted in these charges.

These abuse included (apologies for any repetition from earlier):

Being tied up with rope in dark, filthy conditions. If they escaped the parents would use chains and padlocks instead. Much of the time they were not freed from the chains to use the bathroom.
Physical abuse - slapping, strangling, being thrown down stairs.
They were not allowed to shower more than once a year.
They were taunted with food they were not allowed to eat.
They were routinely starved - the oldest daughter (aged 29) weighed just 82 lbs.
They had suffered nerve damage as a result of the prolonged physical abuse.
Many were cognitively impaired and lacked basic knowledge of life, for example, the definition of a police officer. They also did not know what medicine was.
It had been more than four years since any of them had seen a doctor. None of them had ever been to the dentist.
The parents bought toys, but they were kept gathering dust in their packages; the children were not allowed to play with them.
They were made to stay up all night, not being allowed to go to bed until four or five in the morning.

On Jan. 24, 2018, Riverside County Superior Court Judge Emma Smith ordered that David and Louise Turpin be barred from making any attempts to contact their children for three years. They are only allowed to contact them via their lawyer.

A judge declared on June 21, 2018 that the evidence was sufficient for David and Louise to stand trial.

However, on Feb. 22, 2019, both parents changed their pleas, each pleading guilty to 14 counts of torture, abuse of a dependent adult, child endangerment and false imprisonment.

Sentencing

At David and Louise’s sentencing hearing, many of the children faced them for the first time since their arrest and read statements they had written. Below is a clip from ABC News of the hearing:

The 27-year-old son said:

“Sometimes I still have nightmares of things that happened such as my siblings being chained up and beaten. I love my parents and I have forgiven them for much of what they did. I have learned so much and become very independent.

He went on:

"I live in an apartment and go to a nearby college. I am getting a bachelor's degree in software engineering, and after I get my bachelor's degree I'm going to get a job as a software engineer and go to school part-time to get my master's degree."

He then read a statement from one of his sisters:

"I love both of my parents so much. Although it may not have been the best way of raising us, I'm glad that they did, because it made me the person I am today. I just want to thank them for teaching me about God and faith. I hope they never lose their faith."

Her statement continued:

"I pray often for them. I am doing well. I'm going to college full time. I have an apartment ... we are not supposed to necessarily understand God's will. But we are only to follow and to trust in him."

After hearing from the children, David Turpin bawled like a giant baby, his puffy red eyes shadowed by his mop of grey hair. Being so emotional, he was unable to read his own statement and his lawyer attorney had to read it for him:

"I never intended for any harm to come to my children … I hope the very best for my children in the future.”

Louise was also emotional, but able to read her own statement in court:

"I'm sorry for everything I've done to hurt my children. I love my children so much. I want them to know that mom and dad are going to be OK."

Judge Bernard Schwartz, who oversaw the hearing, was less sympathetic towards David and Louise Turpin than their children were:

“Their lives have been permanently altered in their ability to learn, grow and thrive. You have delayed their mental, physical and emotional development. To the extent that they do thrive, and it appears from today that perhaps a couple of them are, it will be not because of you both, but in spite of you both.”

Judge Schwartz sentenced both defendants to life in prison with the possibility of parole in 25 years.

As of March 2021, Louise is 52-years-old and will be eligible for parole in 2036, when she is 67. She is currently incarcerated at Central California Women’s Facility, in Chowchilla, CA.

David Turpin is 59-years-old and will also be eligible for parole in 2036, when he is 74 years old. He is incarcerated at California State Prison in Corcoran, CA.

Hidden In Plain Sight

After the shocking, abhorrent details of the Turpin children’s captivity began flooding out in the days and weeks following their rescue, those who encountered the them over the years began looking back and thinking over whether there were warning signs that they missed. David and Louise Turpin had become experts at hiding the abuse of their children right under people’s noses.

Their neighbors just thought they were an odd couple with a lot of children who liked their privacy. They did not want to ask questions.

"In hindsight, we would have never thought this, but there were red flags. You never don't hear or see nine kids," one of the Turpin’s neighbors in Perris would later say.

A neighbor from Murrieta recalled seeing the Turpin children at night, walking around in circles (remember how I mentioned earlier that they were made to stay up all night and not go to bed until dawn?) This neighbor definitely thought it was strange behavior, but he didn’t think it was something he could report to police.

A man who attended Meadowcreek Elementary School in Fort Worth spoke to the Washington Post about his memories of the Turpin daughter who had been in his class. He remembered her as frail and always wearing dirty clothes. He recalled how she just stopped coming to school after third grade.

When he saw the Turpin family on the news in January 2018, he was horrified. He went to Facebook to express his feelings about what he learned:

“I can’t help but feel an overwhelming sense of guilt and shame. Of course, none of us are responsible for the events that ensued, but you can’t help but feel rotten when the classmate your peers made fun of for ‘smelling like poop’ quite literally had to sit in her own waste because she was chained to her bed. It is nothing but sobering to know that the person who sat across from you at the lunch table went home to squalor and filth while you went home to a warm meal and a bedtime story.”

Why So Many Children?

According to David’s parents, James and Betty Turpin, the couple’s reasoning behind having so many children was that “God called on them” to do so. In total, the Turpins would have 13 children, their names all beginning with the letter “J”.

I found some sources saying that they were adherents of the Quiverfull movement, but I’m not totally sure this is accurate.

The Quiverfull movement is a sect of conservative Christianity that promotes a traditional family structure in which males are dominant and women are subservient. Those who follow the movement believe that children are blessings from God. For this reason, they do not use any form of birth control (not even natural methods) or sterilization as this would be to deny God's will.

A definition from Wikipedia:

“The duty of the Quiverfull adherent is only to maintain an "open willingness" to joyfully receive and not thwart however many children God chooses to bestow.”

Part of me thinks that regardless of whether they did follow this movement, the Turpins really just wanted to have as many children as possible. They clearly loved the attention they got when they posted photos of their huge family on social media. It was a different story behind closed doors, however.

David and Louise’s Motives

I'm not going to try and explain what motivated David and Louise Turpin to abuse and torture their children for so many years. I’m not sure anyone can, even experts in the field of abnormal psychology. We can speculate, but we'll never really know the full extent of why they did what they did.

Often times child abuse and neglect are a result of drug or alcohol abuse and/or mental illness. It's commonly believed that parents who were abused as children are more likely to go on to be abusers; this actually isn't true, and it’s an unfair generalization in my opinion.

I think that substance abuse can be ruled out as a cause of the Turpin's abuse of their children. While they were said to have gone out drinking after getting married and they stopped going to church, I don't believe alcohol played a part in them abusing their children. I couldn’t find any mention of drug abuse either.

I’m not a psychologist, but I will say that a desire to feel in control was no doubt an huge motivator for them. David and Louise’s lives were falling apart; they were in so much debt, which leads to a range of other problems. The lack of control they felt in their own lives resulted in them feeling the need to fully control the lives of their children, who were completely reliant on them.

They isolated them, not putting them in school or letting them socialize with other children. They probably told them that they could not trust anyone outside of the family; that everybody wanted to hurt them or do them wrong. Because the children were almost never exposed to anything or anyone outside the home, they didn’t know any better. Nor would they dare question what their parents told them.

I’ve read several articles speculating that perhaps they thought they were doing the right thing in the beginning, protecting their children from a world they had convinced themselves was immoral and corrupt. But this doesn’t explain the treatment they received inside the home - being starved and beaten, not being allowed to use the bathroom and being forced to live in their own filth. These extremes came later, after David and Louise’s lives had been spiraling for a while and they felt the need to assert even more dominance.

I’m also kind of convinced David and Louise are sadists, who actually derived pleasure from their children’s suffering. This is the most frightening part to me. There is feeling the need to control your children, and then there is inflicting prolonged, sadistic torture on them. Because if they weren’t enjoying watching their children suffer...they would have stopped torturing them, right? Or better yet, they never would have started in the first place.

The Turpin Children Now

The children will never fully recover from the abuse and torture they endured at the hands of their parents. Despite this, during their parents’ sentencing hearing, many of them told their parents that they have forgiven them.

I don’t think this is something the vast majority of us (myself included) can understand; this was such a unique and incomprehensible situation that I imagine only people who have been in a similar position can grasp how the Turpin children could consider forgiving their parents.

I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that they have some form of Stockholm Syndrome, which is defined by Encyclopedia Britannica as:

“A psychological response wherein a captive begins to identify closely with his or her captors, as well as with their agenda and demands.”

It’s also worth noting that this isn’t what we think of as a typical kidnapping case in that the children were not actually snatched by some sick and twisted stranger as, for example, Ariel Castro’s victims were. David and Louise were their parents, the only authority figures they ever knew. Since they barely experienced life outside their home, they did not necessarily always know that what was being done to them was wrong. This could also contribute to their willingness to forgive.

The children appear to be doing extremely well after all they’ve been through. Attorney Jack Osborn, representing the seven adult children, went as far as to say they are “thriving”. He spoke of what kind, caring people they are, despite the relentless pain and suffering they had experienced up to that point.

After they were released from the hospital in March of 2018, Osborn said:

"They're joyful, warm, considerate. It's not all about them. They want to hear what's going on with you and me and my family. It's just really fun. It's fun to be around them. Of course, they're really full of joy about their life and the things they get to experience right now."

As of summer 2019, the seven adult children were living together, and the six juveniles were with guardians. While Superior Court Judge Emma Smith originally ordered in Jan. 2018 that their parents be barred from contacting them for 3 years, each child has since been allowed to decide how long the order lasts depending on their preference.

Many of them have started taking classes, making up for never actually receiving an education of any sort. From what I’ve read, they are highly intelligent and love to learn. They take nothing for granted, and are embracing everything the world has to offer. Things that seem ordinary and unremarkable to most of us, like being able to eat fresh food and go outside, are a blessing to them.

The oldest daughter, who was 30 at the time of her parents’ 2019 sentencing hearing, said:

“My parents took my whole life from me, but now I’m taking my life back...Life may have been bad, but it changed me for the better. I’m a fighter, I’m strong, and I’m shooting through life.”