Two parents have been arrested in California after police found 13 people allegedly being held captive at their home, including some “shackled to their beds with chains and padlocks”.<\/p>\n
David Allen Turpin, 57, and Louise Anna Turpin, 49, were held on charges of torture and child endangerment.<\/p>\n
The 13 people – aged between two and 29 – were found in a house in Perris, 59 miles (95km) south-east of Los Angeles, police say.<\/p>\n
They are all believed to be siblings.<\/p>\n
Officers were alerted by one of the victims, who on Sunday managed to escape and call the emergency number “from a cellular device she found inside the house”,\u00a0the Riverside Sheriff’s Department said in a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n The girl – who police said appeared to be “only 10 years old and slightly emaciated” – claimed that 12 of her siblings were being held captive by their parents.<\/p>\n Police officers later found “several children shackled to their beds with chains and padlocks in dark and foul-smelling surroundings”.<\/p>\n But the parents were unable to immediately provide a logical reason why their children were restrained in that manner, the police said.<\/p>\n The officers were “shocked” to discover that seven of those held in the house were actually adults aged between 18 and 29.<\/p>\n “The victims appeared to be malnourished and very dirty,” the police said.<\/p>\n All the victims are now being treated in local hospitals.<\/p>\n Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"