After what is described as a lifetime of imprisonment in a cramped, squalid home near Riverside, California, seven of the 13 siblings who were allegedly held captive by their parents got their first taste of freedom last week, ABC News has exclusively learned. 
 
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 The newly freed siblings -- who are now adults -- were discretely whisked away Thursday from the Corona Regional Medical Center, where they had been nursed back to health after police rescued them in January. After being described as on the brink of starvation, the survivors were taught the basics about a world police say they never quite experienced. 
 
 But now, the young adults, ages 18 to 29, were taken by their attorney and public guardian from the carefully controlled ward of the hospital to an undisclosed rural house they now call home. 
 
 David Allen Turpin/Facebook 
 
 ABC News has interviewed several people who’ve spent time with the siblings -- whose lives until recently had been lived in near-complete isolation. Their native intelligence, coupled with their naiveté and complete lack of guile, makes them utterly charming, say those who’ve interacted with them. 
 
 Their lawyer, Jack Osborn, who specializes in clients with special needs, described it as their birth into the real world. 
 
 “The adult siblings want to be known as survivors, not victims,” said Osborn. 
 
 It’s the reason he said they don’t dwell on their anger, but on the long process of recovery ahead. 
 
 David Allen Turpin/Facebook 
 
 “They're joyful, warm, considerate. It's not all about them. They want to hear what's going on with you and me and my family," he said. "It's just really fun. It's fun to be around them. Of course, they're really full of joy about their life and the things they get to experience right now." 
 
 Gina Ferazzi, Pool via Getty Images 
 
 David and Louise Turpin, the parents of the children, are accused of abusing them, including shackling and starving them routinely, authorities said. The victims weren't released from their chains even to go to the bathroom, prosecutors have charged. 
 
 Riverside County Sheriffs Department 
 
 All the children except for the youngest, a toddler, were severely malnourished, prosecutors said. The eldest victim -- a 29-year-old woman -- weighed only 82 pounds when rescued, according to authorities. 
 
 ABC News has learned through several sources with access to the siblings and interviews with police and social services that what little food the siblings ate was predominately frozen food at home. 
 
 Frederic J. Brown, Pool via AP 
 
 The parents were arrested in January after the couple's 17-year-old daughter scrambled out of their home's front window, called 911, and showed police pictures of her siblings in shackles, said the District Attorney Mike Hestrin. That 17-year-old had somehow accessed the internet in the weeks before her harrowing escape. ABC News has discovered that she had accounts on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube -- where she performed what she called original songs with titles like “Where is the Key?” 
 
 David and Louise Turpin each face dozens of counts of torture, false imprisonment and child endangerment. Prosecutors say they would punish infractions like washing above the wrist with punishments like being hogtied or being shackled to a bed, sometimes for months at a time. 
 
 Now, the seven siblings who are free have enjoyed getting relative privacy for the first time in their lives -– including receiving their own bedding and having their own closet space, Osborn said. 
 
 In their first 24 hours since their release from the hospital, the older siblings picked citrus for the first time. They also made their first ice cream sundaes and prepared Mexican food, apparently all firsts, Osborn added. 
 
 “They pretty much love any food that is fresh. They love fruit, pasta and soup,” said Osborn. 
 
 Mark Uffer, the chief executive officer of the Corona Regional Medical Center, where some of the siblings were being treated, confirmed to ABC News in a statement that the Turpin siblings had been discharged from their facilities. 
 
 Uffer added that they "wish these brave siblings continued strength as they take the next steps in their journey." 
 
 Beyond tasting new food, the siblings spend their time doing various kinds of occupational, physical and psychological therapy. They also watch movies. A lot of them. 
 
 Osborn believes they didn’t have much access to movies despite their parents’ trove of thousands of DVDs. The siblings' favorite movies so far have been anything associated with the "Star Wars" series. 
 
 While several of them have been of driving age for about a decade, their lawyer says none has ever driven a car. Trips in a vehicle at all seemed to be a rarity, Osborn said. 
 
 The prospect of driving a car one day was, in fact, so novel that the boys joked that they’d need to wear football helmets for safety. 
 
 Meanwhile, the siblings are aware of their parents’ legal jeopardy, but have no idea how much interest their story has drawn, Osborn said. 
 
 He added that they all hope to lead normal lives, with spouses and careers, including being nurses and doctors. 
 
 “Some asked whether they could be nurses without having to give injections or seeing much blood,” he said, smiling. 
 
 His clients, he said, “want to be independent." 
 
 "They want to do things for themselves and they want to start having independent lives where they're responsible for themselves," he added. "That's the goal and that's what everyone is working toward.” 
 
 ABC News' Duan Perrin contributed to this report ||||| (CNN) A couple was arrested after police discovered that their 13 children had been held captive in their California home in filthy conditions, some shackled to beds with chains and padlocks, officials said Monday. 
 
 The victims ranged in age from 2 to 29, the Riverside County Sheriff's Department said in a statement. 
 
 A 17-year-old girl managed to escape from the residence in Perris, California, on Sunday and called 911 from a cell phone she found in the house, police said. 
 
 The girl claimed her 12 brothers and sisters were being held captive inside the home by her parents, some of them bound with chains and padlocks, the Riverside County Sheriff's Department said. 
 
 The 17-year-old "appeared to be only 10 years old and slightly emaciated," the Riverside Sheriff's Department said. 
 
 Sheriff's deputies responded to the home and found the 12 other victims, who "appeared malnourished and very dirty," authorities said. All of them looked like children, police said, and officers were surprised to learn that seven of them were adults. Several were shackled to their beds "in dark and foul-smelling surroundings," the sheriff's department said. 
 
 David Allen Turpin, left, and Louise Anna Turpin, right. 
 
 David Allen Turpin, 56, and Louise Anna Turpin, 49, were charged Sunday with torture and child endangerment, the Sheriff's Department said. The couple was taken to the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside. 
 
 Bail was set at $9 million for each, the Riverside County Sheriff's Department said. 
 
 It was not immediately clear if the suspects had attorneys or whether they had entered a plea. 
 
 The six children -- including the 17-year-old who escaped -- are being treated at Riverside University Health System Medical Center in Moreno Valley. The seven adults are being treated at Corona Regional Medical Center in Corona, authorities said. 
 
 David and Louise Turpin with their children 
 
 Home listed as a school, state records show 
 
 David Turpin is listed as the principal of the Sandcastle Day School, according to the California Department of Education website. It was operated out of his home, the same nondescript, suburban residence where the 13 victims were found. The day school opened March 21, 2011, and was described as a private school serving grades 1-12. According to the website, the status of the school is "active." 
 
 Neighbors said they knew a large family lived there, CNN affiliate KABC reported, but they never saw any of the younger children. 
 
 One neighbor told the station that she saw the parents being arrested early Sunday. The children were taken from the home in their pajamas, she said. 
 
 "They were very, very pale-skinned, almost like they've never seen the sun," the neighbor said. 
 
 "And it was mostly girls ... kind of small-framed," the neighbor said. 
 
 David and Louise Turpin with the children at one of the couple's vow renewals. 
 
 Court records: David Turpin had worked as an engineer 
 
 The Turpins moved into the Perris home in 2010, public records show. 
 
 The next year, they filed for bankruptcy in California, according to court records. 
 
 Ivan Trahan, an attorney who represented the couple at their bankruptcy hearing, told CNN "there was nothing out of ordinary" about the couple when he worked with them in 2011. 
 
 David Turpin made about $140,000 per year working as an engineer at Northrop Grumman, according to the bankruptcy documents. His wife's occupation was listed as "homemaker." 
 
 They listed about $150,000 in assets, including about $87,000 from 401k plans from Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, according to court papers. The documents listed debts of about $240,000, which included mostly credit card debt and a foreclosed farm in Rio Vista, Texas, valued at $40,000. 
 
 Trahan said neither of the Turpins seemed upset they were going through bankruptcy. 
 
 "They came with a lot of debt. We just knew there was no way they could make their payments," Trahan said. 
 
 The attorney said the couple "spoke lovingly of their children and even showed me their photos from Disneyland." 
 
 'This is a highly respectable family,' suspect's mother said. 
 
 David Turpin's mother, Betty, told CNN the couple usually took vacations with the entire family in tow. They have 13 children, she said, and they usually dressed alike when they went out for safety reasons. 
 
 "They were very protective of the kids," she said. When they went out, the couple would line the children up according to age, and the parents took their positions at the front and back of the line, she said. 
 
 "It was easier to keep up with the kids" that way, she said. 
 
 "This is a highly respectable family," she added. 
 
 A series of videos on social media showed the couple renewing their vows at the Elvis Chapel in Las Vegas, Nevada. They appear to have renewed their vows several times in recent years, in 2011, 2013 and 2015. 
 
 In the first video, an Elvis Presley impersonator sang "Love Me Tender" as he walked a smiling Louise Turpin down the aisle to reaffirm her commitment to her husband after 26 years together. 
 
 "I offer you this ring," David Turpin said, repeating after the impersonator, "as a symbol of my love, baby, baby." 
 
 Then, they danced to Presley's "I Can't Help Falling in Love with You." 
 
 The couple's children joined them for the 2013 and 2015 renewals. 
 
 In one ceremony, the girls, wearing matching plaid dresses, lead the processional, and the boys, wearing dark suits, stand with their father. 
 
 An emotional David Turpin can be seen repeating his vows in the video. The children laugh along with the Elvis impersonator, and the couple kisses as their daughters clap. 
 
 CORRECTION: This story has been updated to give the correct spelling of Northrop Grumman and the correct age for David Turpin, who is 56.
– The 13 siblings rescued from captivity in a California home were so badly treated that mental and physical recovery is likely to take a very long time, experts say. Corona Regional Medical Center CEO Mark Uffer says his staff was horrified by the condition of the seven adults in the group, who were so malnourished that they were mistaken for children. Sophia Grant, medical director of the child abuse unit at Riverside University Health System, tells the Press-Enterprise that such stunting of growth would have required malnourishment over a long period. She says recovery will be a gradual process for the siblings, who have likely suffered psychological damage from being deprived of normal interaction and from being mistreated by the parents who were supposed to provide for them. In other developments: Home-schooling. Father David Turpin, a former engineer at the Northrop Grumman aerospace company registered to run a private school out of his home, was required only to submit a form every year. Advocates for greater oversight of home-schooling in California say the abuse could have been exposed much earlier if the children had been required to have annual checkups from doctors and teachers, the Los Angeles Times reports. "Current law provides nothing to stop families like the Turpins from using home-schooling to isolate and imprison their children," says Rachel Coleman of the Coalition for Responsible Home Education.