‘House of horrors’: Louise Turpin ‘obsessed’ with witchcraft, Ouija boards

LOUISE Turpin’s sister has claimed the woman who allegedly starved, abused and hid her 13 children from the world was dabbling in “the dark arts”.

A NEW book by the sister of Louise Turpin has detailed how the accused “house of horror” child abuser was obsessed with witchcraft.

“She told me she was messing around with witchcraft. It just really freaked me out,” Louise Turpin’s sister, Elizabeth Flores, told the New York Daily News in an interview about a book she has written about her sister and the case.

In her book, Sisters of Secrets, Ms Flores detailed encounters with Louise, and her husband, David, who both face a slew of abuse charges after their 13 children were released from the family home when police swooped in January.

The couple allegedly kept the 13 children, who ranged in age from two to 29, shackled as punishment, denied them food and toys and hid them from the world.

When they were found, many were malnourished after years of alleged starvation and torture.

Ms Flores said she had no previous knowledge of the house of horror where the malnourished children were found, but she feared Louise’s obsession with Satanic rituals, Ouija boards and witchcraft from 2008 to 2010 may have fuelled the alleged child abuse of her 13 children.

David Allen Turpin, 57, and Louise Anna Turpin, were arrested after their 13 children were found imprisoned and emaciated in their California home. Picture: Supplied

“She brought the Ouija board to my home and I wouldn’t let her bring it in my door,” Ms Flores said.

Louise claimed the Ouija board foretold she would have another child, according to Ms Flores. She said her sister was obsessed with the “dark arts” and at one point tried to convince her to join a snake handling festival.

“Louise was attracted to that, like women dancing with rattle snakes around their necks,” she told the Daily News.

In her book, she added, Louise “was reading that snakes give you power”.

Ms Flores said she feared her sister was dabbling in witchcraft and now wonders if it could have played a role in how the couple is claimed to have abused their 13 children.

“I do know witchcraft is very serious and demonic,” Ms Flores said.

“If she did get deep into that, I do think it could have led her to do what she did because you’re basically selling your soul to the devil.”

“She told me she was messing around with witchcraft,” said Elizabeth Jane Flores. Picture: Supplied

Ms Flores detailed that during her visit to the Turpin home after the couple’s arrest, she noticed they kept a statue of a snake “near the front door”.

The bulk of Ms Flores’ book is set before the so-called “house of horrors” was exposed when police swooped in January this year, shocking the world.

In the book, she detailed the childhood of Louise, and claims her sister “changed” when she met David Turpin aged just 15.

She said she finds “hard to fathom” how an older sister who was so protective of her when they were growing up could have become capable of allegedly inflicting such misery on her own children: “You don’t want to believe that your sister would torture anybody.”

In January, Ms Flores revealed David Turpin would watch her in the shower when, aged 20, she briefly lived with the Turpins and several of their children in Fort Worth.

She recalled being puzzled by some of the house rules like the children having to ask to use the toilet, and being limited from having contact with Ms Flores, but said she didn’t notice any obvious signs of abuse.

Ms Flores said she hadn’t had “a sister relationship” with Louise for about 20 years “other than maybe a call every once in a while and sometimes those calls were like a year apart”.

She has also previously claimed that she, Louise and their cousins were routinely sexually abused as children by a close family member, and that talk of the molestation was “swept under the rug”.

Louise and David Turpin are being held on $12 million bail of multiple charges of torture and abuse. Both have pleaded not guilty.

The cover of Elizabeth Flores’ book, Sisters of Secrets: The Story of Sisters Leading Up to the Turpin Case Arrest.

Originally published as ‘House of horrors’: Louise Turpin ‘obsessed’ with witchcraft, Ouija boards