Nearly two weeks after an emaciated 17-year-old girl called police to tell them her siblings were being held captive by their own parents, people who knew the Turpins are still reeling from allegations they starved, tortured and shackled their children to their beds.
They are now recalling every detail from their interactions with the family and wondering how in the world they could have missed the warning signs.
Salynn Simon, who lives across the street from the Turpin home in Perris, California, said neighborhood was still in shock.
She said: “I just thought they were really private and that maybe they did most of their playing in the backyard.”
Every now and then, Mrs Simon would approach the Turpin’s front door with her daughter to sell Girl Scout cookies.
She said: “Louise would never open the door all the way but I would see children jumping up and down behind her because they were so excited for cookies.”
She once told the oldest boy, who was in his 20s: “You look like you’re a teenager, not in your 20s!”
She said he just smiled and nodded in response.
Julie Olah and Sharon Ontiveros, who also live in the neighbourhood, said they were devastated by the revelations about the Turpins.
They said neighbours had put together 13 large duffel bags with toiletries, hand-crocheted blankets, toys and “all the necessities” and hope to hand them over the Turpin children when they are discharged from Child Protective Services.
Ms Olah said: ”We’re doing this with love in our hearts just to let them know that we do care about them.”
Schoolmates also said they had noticed strange behaviour.
A former classmate of one of the Turpins’ daughters described ”a frail girl” who “often wore the same purple outfit.”
She said the girl was “often made fun of by the other third graders because her clothes would sometimes look as though they had been dragged through mud”.
While most of the Turpin children were apparently home-schooled, one of the older boys attended classes at Mount San Jacinto College in the fall of 2015 and spring of 2016.
Former student Angie Parra said she remembered a “sweet, but odd young man” in her music class who wore the same clothes every day and never made eye contact.
Ms Parra said: “I could see sadness in his face.”
Relatives of the Turpins said they were also in the dark and said attempts at forging bonds with the family were always rejected.
Louise Turpin’s sister Elizabeth Flores said she begged to see her nieces and nephews but was never allowed to.
She said: “When that happens for 20 years, and it was before the kids even were there, you don’t think it’s abnormal.
“If it had been like two years ago that she cut us off, then we might think, wow, something’s not right. But this has been going on before they even had children.”