Parents charged with holding siblings captive

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A southern California couple have been charged with torture after 13 malnourished siblings, ranging in age from 2 to 29, were rescued by police from a house where some of them had been chained to beds, officials said on Monday.

Police made the discovery after a 17-year-old girl escaped the house in Perris, about 70 miles (113 km) east of Los Angeles, and used a cellular phone she had found in the house to call them, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement released online.

Louise Ann Turpin appears in a booking photo provided by the Riverside County Sheriff's Department, January 15, 2018. /Riverside County Sheriff's Department/Handout via Reuters

“Deputies located what they believed to be 12 children inside the house, but were shocked to discover that seven of them were actually adults,” police said in a statement. “The victims appeared to be malnourished and very dirty.”

The girl, who officers had initially thought was about 10 years old, contacted police on Sunday after escaping. The children’s parents, David Allen Turpin, 57, and Louise Anna Turpin, 49, were arrested and each charged with nine counts of torture and 10 counts of child endangerment. They were ordered held on 9 million US dollars bail, police said.

David Allen Turpin appears in a booking photo provided by the Riverside County Sheriff's Department, January 15, 2018. /Riverside County Sheriff's Department/Handout via Reuters

Six of the couple’s children are minors, while the other seven are over 18, police said.

The siblings told officers that they were starving, police said. The police in a statement did not detail the parents’ motive for holding the children hostage, and a police spokesman said he had no further details.

The parents are expected to appear before a court on Thursday.

(With input from Reuters)