Authorities said they were alerted after a 17-year-old escaped and called the police after finding a mobile phone in the house.
Police found several of the thirteen children of David Allen Turpin, 57, and Louise Anna Turpin, 49, “shackled to their beds with chains and padlocks in dark and foul-smelling surroundings”.
California police said: “Deputies located what they believed to be 12 children inside the house, but were shocked to discover that seven of them were actually adults.
“Further investigation revealed several children shackled to their beds with chains and padlocks in dark and foul-smelling surroundings, but the parents were unable to immediately provide a logical reason why their children were restrained in that manner.”
Who are the Turpin family of California?
David Allen Turpin, 57, and Louise Anna Turpin, 49 were arrested and charged with nine counts of torture and 10 counts of child endangerment.
The arrests were made after one of the 13 siblings called police and said her 12 brothers and sisters were being held captive.
David Allen Turpin’s parents, James and Betty Turpin, said they were “surprised and shocked” by the allegations against their son.
They said the children of the 57-year-old were given “very strict home schooling” and were made to memorise long passages of the Bible.
After the pair’s arrest, pictures emerged of the whole family posing on various day trips – including one of the couple and the kids at Disneyland, wearing matching T-shirts.
Another showed the Turpin’s getting married in a Las Vagas style ceremony, with the children gathered round the couple wearing matching dresses and suits.
Six of the children are minors, including the 17-year-old girls who police initially believed to be 10, and seven were over the age of 18.
All of the malnourished children have been hospitalised and have been freed from the house, local police revealed.
Were the Turpin family children tortured by their parents?
The 13 children chained to beds and “tortured” by their parents in California were called “vampires” by neighbours, as they were so emaciated and only came out at night.
They were barely seen in their neighbourhood in Perris, California, and many locals had no idea they existed.
Kimberly Milligan, 50, who lives across the street from the family, said: “Why don’t we ever see the kids? In hindsight, we would have never thought this, but there were red flags. You never don’t hear or see nine kids.”
She said two years ago, while walking around the neighbourhood admiring Christmas lights and decorations, she encountered three of the Turpin children and complimented them on their Christmas manger. She said the children froze if by doing so they could become invisible.
Ms Milligan said: “20-year-olds never act like that. They didn’t want to have a social conversation.”
Authorities learned about the children’s horrific ordeal after one of the siblings, a 17-year-old girl, escaped the house about 70 miles east of Los Angeles and called police.
Mum-of-seven Elizabeth Jane Flores – sister to the arrested mum – was banned from talking to the children, cut out of her sister’s life and admitted: “something didn’t seem right”.
She told Daily Mail TV: “Something didn’t seem right about her parenting but never would I have expected it to be like this.
“We have been so worried about them because it’s been so strange but there was nothing we could do.