Turpin House Of Horrors: Neighbors Tell All On 'Cult-Like' Family
Jan. 16 2018, Updated 5:04 p.m. ET
One day after David and Louise Turpin were arrested for holding their thirteen children hostage in their own home, RadarOnline.com has learned exclusive details about the "cult-like" family.
After news broke of the Perris house of horrors, shocked neighbors opened up about the recluse parents and their rarely-seen kids. They told RadarOnline.com that the clan always seemed creepy and isolated – but no one ever thought to question them.
"They were very, very pale. They were cult-ish, all about their isolated world. It was weird.," Kimberly Milligan, 50, a neighbor who lives in the house opposite of the one owned by the Turpins, told RadarOnline.com exclusively.
Explaining that the Turpins were complete outcasts in the neighborhood, Milligan continued: "We have Halloween here and all the kids take part - I'm handing out candy for three hours. But not them, that was the one house you didn't go to. Something was weird."
She said that when she moved into her home, the realtor told her there was a family with thirteen children living opposite. "But the only ones I saw were a boy and two girls, who I thought were teenagers and the infant, but I only saw her twice," said the neighbor.
As RadarOnline.com previously reported, local residents claimed the Perris house was a model home – and the Turpin family seemed like a model family. The house was valued at $300,000, making it one of the most expensive ones on the block. David had a good income and everyone simply assumed they were a standard middle-class family.
Milligan continued: "We saw the mom and dad, they used to have Ford Mustangs and drive off independently. They always had a van too, but that didn't move very often."
"At Christmas 2015 we saw a boy and a girl in the front yard putting up a manger with the baby Jesus, so we said 'Oh that looks really great'. They gave us a look which was like they were terrified. It was like they were children who were invisible and weren't allowed to be seen, she recalled. "They had an aura about them, like 'don't bother me.' Not in a mean way, just 'you do your thing and I'll do mine.'"
She added that the creepy family always reminded her "of the Ariel Castro house of horrors in Cleveland." She added, "They're from West Virginia, the Appalachians. Its a different culture to California. I thought maybe they were religious of they wanted to keep their eyes on their kids. You just did everything in your head to justify them. But you always thought about the fact you never saw the kids, that was the thing I questioned in my head."
Another neighbor, Bonnie, told RadarOnline.com that the only time they saw the entire Turpin family was once at 10:30 pm when they were cleaning up the front yard. The strange event came after authorities left a notice instructing the parents to improve the appearance of their house, as it looked to be in disarray.
"They looked like they were stuck in the 70's. Kind of dingy," said the second neighbor.
Others admitted that the Turpins always appeared backward. Some locals even described them as being like the Addams family, while David Turpin was often compared to Jeff Daniels' character Harry Dunne in Dumb and Dumber because of his distinctive haircut.
As RadarOnline.com readers know, David, 57, and Louise, 49 are currently being held by Riverside Sheriff's department after law enforcement found 12 of their children aged between two and 29 malnourished and shackled to beds at their family home in Perris, California. The sheriff department launched their investigation after the couple's 17-year-old daughter escaped and made a desperate 911 call, alerting officials to the horrendous crime.
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