[Sesay:] Hello, everyone. The California couple accused of holding their 13 children captive in their home will stand before a judge at a court hearing on Thursday. Authorities say the siblings' condition indicates they were subjected to abuse for prolonged period of time. CNN's Dan Simon has more on this extremely disturbing story.
[Dan Simon, Cnn Correspondent:] We know that when authorities first arrived at the house behind me that the mother, 49-year-old Louise Turpin, she was said to be perplexed as to why deputies were even there. We don't know what the father, 57-year-old David Turpin, was taking but of course the question is being asked what was going on in their lives to make them think that this kind of parenting was OK. We know that authorities were alerted to this whole situation by one of their daughters, a 17-year-old, escaped through a window very early Sunday morning. She called police, 911, just before six in the morning and when deputies came and met her, she said that she was being held against her will, that her siblings were also being held against their will. She showed them some photos on her cell phone and what that did is it made authorities believed the story that she was telling them. They came to the house and they saw the horrid condition. They saw that at least three children were being chained to some furniture. They were all evacuated from the house. They were taken to various hospitals. Their psychological well being as well as their physical well being being looked after. And of course the couple now in jail. Both being held on $9 million bail, charged with torture and child endangerment. Dan Simon, CNN, Perris, California.
[Sesay:] Just terrible. Judy Ho and Bobby Chacon join me now. Judy is a clinical and forensic psychologist and Bobby is retired FBI special agent. Welcome to you both. Bobby, I want to start with you. This is truly awful. The children were found in shocking state and the conditions in the house were described as horrific. Talk to me about the process of building a picture of what happened in this home.
[Bobby Chacon, Retired Fbi Special Agent:] Right. So this is going to require a series of interviews with the children. They are the victims and really the only witnesses that we have. So you have the two parents who are the suspected criminals in the case, and now you got 13 witness victims. And so really it is going to these interviews are not going to be easy to conduct. You know, there is a lot of emotion involved. That is going to be conducted by experts who have expertise in interviewing children in these circumstances. And so it may take a series of interviews to actually sort out what was happening. The prosecutors and the investigators are going to have to sort all that out and figure out what criminal violations we actually have here. The obvious ones are kidnapping and child abuse. But you have to get the evidence to support that. That is going to have to come from those children.
[Sesay:] Judy, to bring you in, how difficult is that going to be? You heard that neighbor say when she said something completely innocuous and pleasant, the children froze.
[Judy Ho, Psychologist:] Right.
[Sesay:] How do you begin to unpack this?
[Ho:] And because of the prolonged abuse that they probably suffered, they were not exposed to other people outside of the family to socialize, to have conversation, and that is why they acted so strangely. I am also concerned for the cognitive development of these children because if they have been malnourished for all of this time, it is very likely that a lot of their executive function centers didn't develop and that's why they couldn't make good complex decisions. This is why it is so wonderful that this 17-year-old somehow got the wherewithal to actually break out and have the skills to do that. But I am really concerned about how these interviews are going to go, how much they can even recall, because their learning and memory are probably impaired as well.
[Sesay:] Yes. Bobby, I do want to come to the question that we always ask in these moments. How did neighbors, how did family members not suspect, not know something allegedly I mean, there is no allegations the kids were found in terrible conditions. Who did it? You know, you can pause that, but that something terrible was happening in the house?
[Chacon:] The biggest thing is isolation. So they kept them out of the public eye. They were home schooled. They didn't go out socially. So nobody had contact with these children. So that was the biggest thing that they did, they isolated these children. Some of these children, some of them have never had a conversation with anyone outside that house. You know, this 29-year-old daughter may have never talked to another adult in her life. Some of these children may not know bad things were happening to them because they don't know those things are bad.
[Sesay:] But the children were seen in videos. The children were seen at their parents renewing their vows. These children I mean, they were
[Chacon:] They lined them up. If you see some of those videos, they were always lined up, very regimented, very controlled. So even when they were in public, they were under control of those parents, mainly the father.
[Ho:] And the key is the control here.
[Sesay:] Yes.
[Ho:] The fact that they really kept it under such scrutiny and there are reports that they were basically not allowed to go outside of the house unless it was dark and only a few at a time. And I think to Bobby's point, some of these children because they don't know any better, this is their normal and they were potentially probably even told by their parents that they were doing this to protect them. I mean, we don't know what kind of messages these parents are sending. And so of course my biggest concern now is the psychological development of these children and what is going to them because this type of abuse is much more likely because this is prolonged lead to much bigger issues as they get older.
[Sesay:] What kind of issues?
[Ho:] Things like dealing with social development, having relationships with other people. We know that from research 30 percent of people who have been abused themselves will repeat that cycle of abuse. And whether or not they are going to be able to even hold a job or understand that people can out of basic level still be trusted. All of those thing have to be sorted out and they need to get professional care as soon as possible.
[Sesay:] I want you both to weigh in on this issue. To me, it was just incredibly striking. I want your expert view. When the police got to the home, the mother was puzzled that they were there. And even as they went into the home where, according to authorities, they found some of the children shackled
[Ho:] Right.
[Sesay:] She was still kind of puzzled.
[Ho:] And this is where I believe that there might be a piece where either of the parents or maybe both was carrying on some type of a delusional thought process. Maybe a paranoia where they actually thought what they were doing was in the good interest of the children, and that is why the mom was so surprised, because somehow in her mind she had it twisted that this is actually how you take care of your kids.
[Chacon:] I am sure that is the case. I am sure that the mother did not think they were doing anything wrong. As warped as that sounds, I think the mother at least probably thought that she wasn't doing anything wrong and she was doing what was best for her children.
[Sesay:] Let me ask you this again, back to the question of who knew what, when, if anyone did, if someone did know, if it is proven that other people knew that these children were being abused, are we looking at potential extension of prosecution of those individuals?
[Chacon:] Sure, I mean, the only one I've seen is the grandmother speaking and she said they were the perfect family. So I don't know if there is going to be many other people that were involved with exposure to these children. I think the success that they have if you want to call it success in carrying this out for so long has been the isolation, has been keeping them from other people.
[Sesay:] I am going to ask questions that I know our viewers have at home. How did child welfare, how did I mean, this was registered as a school, this home. How did the authorities or officials didn't have contact?
[Chacon:] California law does not require private schools to be inspected.
[Ho:] Right. And that is really scary because they're not really subject to any of the laws or the policies but the other part of it is it's probably hard for people who have witnessed some weirdness, some secrecy to say I'm going to step forward and actually report them for a welfare check. But I just think this is a good lesson for all of us that hey the worst thing that could happen to you is be a little embarrassed but hey, you can really be saving lives. And we know that one in every single day about five children in America die of child abuse and maltreatment. And so if there's any potential in preventing that many people can just be a little bit, we're just going to go ahead and report it and see what happens.
[Sesay:] Yes, I mean, cross that line. If it is going to save lives cross the line. Judy Ho, Bobby Chacon, great conversation. I thank you.
[Chacon:] Thank you.
[Ho:] Thank you.
[Sesay:] Coming up. Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fled a brutal military crackdown in Myanmar but soon they may be going home. Details next.