(CNN) For years, the 13 starving children lived in squalor, shackled with padlocks while their parents taunted them with pies left on the counter of their California home, authorities say.
David and Louise Turpin lived with their children between ages 2 and 29 in Perris, southeast of Los Angeles.
What started as neglect escalated into years of horrific torture, authorities said, with the parents allegedly depriving the children of water and feeding them small portions of food on a strict schedule.
They'd sleep during the day and stay awake at night, sometimes chained to their beds and not allowed to use the restroom, according to authorities.
After years of alleged abuse, one teenage girl escaped Sunday and called 911. Investigators went to the house and freed the children, prompting days of investigations that led to a series of charges Thursday.
"As a prosecutor, there are some cases that haunt you," Riverside County district attorney Mike Hestrin said Thursday. "Some deal with human depravity, and that's what we're dealing with here."
Here's what we know:
The family
David and Louise Turpin, along with their 13 children.
David and Louise Turpin are both from Princeton, West Virginia, relatives say. Of their 13 children seized from the home, six are minors.
The reclusive family has lived in their suburban Perris neighborhood since 2014, but neighbors said they didn't see them much.
Neighbor Kimberly Milligan said one of those rare encounters occurred in 2015 and especially stood out.
Milligan said she was checking out Christmas decorations on nearby homes when she saw the older Turpin children putting up a Nativity scene outside their house and complimented their decorations.
Turpin wedding video screengrab.
"They just froze," Milligan recalled. "They immediately shut down. You could tell they were terrified."
The children were thin and appeared malnourished, Milligan said.
Before the Turpins moved to Southern California, they lived in Texas, where a former neighbor said they kept to themselves.
The alleged torture
The siblings showered once a year and were chained to their beds for weeks at a time, Hestrin said.
They were allegedly punished when they washed their hands above their wrists, and beaten regularly, according to the prosecutor. The parents would buy toys, the prosecutor said, but keep them in the packaging. They were allowed one meal a day and one shower a year, Hestrin said.
"Circumstantial evidence in the house suggests that the victims were often not released from their chains to go to the bathroom," he said.
The escape
Before police arrived to set them free, one teenage daughter made a dash for freedom Sunday by crawling out of a window at the home and calling 911 using a deactivated phone, authorities said. Another sibling came with her, but got scared and returned home.
It was a plan the 17-year-old and her siblings had planned for two years, according to Hestrin.
When police arrived, some of the children were still shackled to their beds, but the parents had unchained two, Hestrin said. Some of the victims' growth was so stunted, they looked younger than their ages, according to officials.
"If you can imagine being 17 years old and appearing to be a 10-year-old, being chained to a bed, being malnourished and injuries associated with that, I would call that torture," Riverside County Sheriff's Capt. Greg Fellows said.
One of the victims is age 12 and is the weight of a 7-year-old while the 29-year-old was 82 pounds, Hestrin said.
When authorities went to the house, the mother appeared "perplexed" on why they were there, according to Fellows.
The investigation
David and Louise Turpin look on Thursday as attorney David Macher speaks during their court arraignment in Riverside, California.
David Turpin, 56, and Louise Turpin, 49, were charged with 12 counts of torture.
"We are not charging torture on the 2-year-old," Hestrin said. "The 2-year-old ... was getting enough to eat. The basis of torture charge is not just one thing, it's severe abuse over time."
Other charges include seven counts of abuse of a dependent adult, six counts of child abuse or neglect and 12 counts of false imprisonment. David Turpin was also charged with a lewd act on a child by force or fear of duress, Hestrin said.
The Turpins pleaded not guilty on all counts and a judge set bail at $12 million for each defendant. Their next court date is February 23.
If convicted of all charges, they face a maximum sentence of between 94 years and life in prison.
"What we would like the public to know is that our clients are presumed to be innocent, and that's a very important presumption," said David Macher, a public defender for David Turpin.
What next?
As the criminal case proceeds, the future of the children will likely be decided in another courtroom.
"When there are serious allegations of child endangerment, most likely child protective services will recommend a fast track to adoption," said Amy Heilman, director of foster care and adoption at the Children's Bureau in Los Angeles.
"However, there are times where the court may not want to make that ruling until it's further on in the criminal case."
The process to terminate parental rights is determined in dependency court, and birth parents have the right to contest the termination, she said.
In the short term, the children will be placed in foster care, she said. Foster care parents can opt to become the adoptive parents.
Meanwhile, the children are being cared for at local hospital, and face a long road of mental and physical treatment.
As a result of the alleged mistreatment and trauma over a long period of time, they could suffer from complex post-traumatic stress disorder, said psychiatrist Dr. Frank Ochberg
"We can assume that there could be depression and nightmares," Ochberg said.
He was optimistic about the possibility of recovery down the road.
"While there can be a number of complicated and interrelated medical, social and psychological disorders, there have been amazing and heartwarming examples of people who are survivors," Ochberg said.
Police chief: 'I would call that torture'
A California police chief says three of the 13 siblings were found shackled after one girl escaped.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption David Turpin (R) and his wife Louise Turpin (L) deny charges of torture
The parents accused of holding their 13 children in shackles at a California home have pleaded not guilty.
David Turpin, 56, and Louise Turpin, 49, are facing charges of torture, abuse and false imprisonment.
They were arrested after one daughter escaped from their home, where police later found some siblings chained to beds and severely malnourished.
The couple appeared in court hours after prosecutors detailed the horrific abuse allegations against them.
Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin said the couple had allegedly punished their children by tying them up - first using ropes and later chaining them to their beds with padlocks.
He said the alleged punishments would last weeks or months, and intensified over time.
Prosecutors said circumstantial evidence showed the children were not released from their chains to go to the toilet.
The teenager who escaped and alerted police to the house where her siblings were held captive had been hatching a plan to leave for two years, Mr Hestrin added.
He detailed some of the gruesome allegations against the parents at a news conference on Thursday.
The shocking claims include:
The children were accustomed to frequent beatings, including strangulation
They were only allowed one shower a year
The children would stay awake all night until going to sleep at four or five in the morning and slept during the day
They were not allowed to play with any toys but many were found inside the house in their original packaging
If the children washed their hands above the wrist they were subjected to punishments, allegedly accused of "playing with water"
The Turpin parents allowed their children to eat only one meal a day but the parents would sometimes buy food, like pumpkin pies, and place it where the children could see it but not eat it
They have never seen a dentist and haven't visited a doctor in over four years
The children lack basic knowledge of life, and did not know who a police officer was
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Shackled siblings: What we know about their lives
A grievous betrayal
James Cook, BBC News, Riverside, California
This case has sent waves of revulsion across the US and beyond, and the small courtroom was packed as the defendants appeared.
David and Louise Turpin were smartly dressed. They occasionally glanced at each other across a table weighed down by a copy of the California penal code and a sheaf of paper related to the case against them. A lawyer sat between them.
Mr Turpin, with a distinctive mop of grey hair, was chained around the waist, his stomach protruding from beneath the metal links. His wife's mouth was turned down in a glum expression.
The couple spoke only briefly and softly to confirm that they understood and accepted procedural details relating to their next hearing.
The charges they deny are among the most serious any parent could face: amounting to a grievous betrayal of their own children, a betrayal which prosecutors allege went on for years, if not decades.
The siblings themselves are said to be doing well but at least some of them have almost certainly suffered irreparable damage, both physical and mental from their ordeal.
The children, who are aged between two and 29 , have been treated in hospital since being freed on Monday.
The two-year-old was of normal weight but the other children were severely malnourished, authorities said.
The 12-year-old weighed as much as an average seven-year-old and the 29-year-old weighed only 82lb (37kg).
Several of the children have cognitive impairment and "neuropathy, which is nerve damage, as a result of this extreme and prolonged physical abuse", Mr Hestrin said.
Image copyright Reuters Image caption District Attorney Mike Hestrin said the couple chained their children as a form of punishment
Though little is known about their education, some of the children were able to read and write. Mr Turpin also registered a private school in their California home, known as Sandcastle Day School.
Police have obtained hundreds of journals that the children were allowed to write in and are looking through them for evidence.
Before moving to California, the family lived in Texas.
At one point, the parents allegedly lived in a different house from their children and would drop off food from time to time, officials said.
If found guilty of the dozens of charges against them, the couple face 94 years to life in prison, Mr Hestrin added.
Mr Turpin also faces one count of "lewd act on a child under 14 years of age".
Can anyone open a school at home in California?
The 13 children were found in an emaciated state in their filthy, foul-smelling house, police revealed earlier. Officers had at first thought all the children were minors but later realised some were frail and malnourished adults, they said.
Mr Hestrin said that when officers arrived, three of the couple's children were chained to their beds.
The charges against David and Louise Turpin:
Police chief: 'I would call that torture'
A California police chief says three of the 13 siblings were found shackled after one girl escaped.
