PRINCETON, W.Va. — An elderly couple in southern West Virginia were working to contact their 13 grandchildren this week after learning about how police had found them malnourished and living in filthy conditions at their California home.

Police went Sunday to the home of 57-year-old David Allen Turpin, and Louise Anna Turpin, 49, in Perris, a community approximately 70 miles southeast of Los Angeles after a 17-year-old called and found 12 other children being held in filthy conditions. They were shackled to beds with chains and padlocks, investigators with the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department said.

David and Louise Turpin pleaded not guilty Thursday to multiple counts of torture, child abuse, dependent adult abuse and false imprisonment. David Turpin also pleaded not guilty to performing a lewd act on a child under age 14.

They were jailed on $12 million bail each.

James Turpin, David Turpin’s father, said he planned to call authorities in California to try to contact his grandchildren. He lives in the Princeton, West Virginia, area with his wife, Betty.

“We don’t know any more about this than what I’ve seen on the news,” James Turpin told the Bluefield Daily Telegraph this week. “I haven’t even been able to talk to them yet.”

David Turpin grew up in West Virginia’s Mercer County. Old yearbooks from Princeton High School showed Turpin participated in chess, science and Bible clubs. Former classmate Mike Gilbert, 56, described him as an intelligent student who earned good grades.

“Yea, I haven’t see the boy since 1979,” Gilbert recalled Wednesday. “For lack of a better word, he was kind of nerdy. He was always kind of a quiet guy and very intelligent. He always did real well in school, had real good grades. We went to Glenwood Junior High together and on from there to Princeton High School. He dressed nice and he wore bow ties on occasion.”

Turpin moved away when he finished school at Virginia Tech, his father said.

“He was a fine person,” James Turpin recalled. “He did an outstanding job and worked in school, and the last time we were out there was about six years ago. The kids were fine. They were healthy and nothing was wrong.”

David and Louise Turpin would take the family on vacations to places like Las Vegas and would send photographs to his parents after the trips, James Turpin stated.

“I cannot understand,” James Turpin said of the situation. “I’m going to talk to the kids as soon as they let me. I’m getting ready to make a call.”

James Turpin referred additional comments to his attorney.

Attorney Paige Flanigan with the Flanigan Law Office said she was been working with the Turpins. They had tried to contact Child Protective Services in California, and Flanigan was attempting to contact California CPS workers on their behalf.

“Their primary concern is their grandchildren,” Flanigan said.

After the teenager contacted authorities, investigators learned that several children were shackled to their beds with chains and padlocks in dark and foul-smelling surroundings, according to a press release from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department.

Deputies located what they believed to be 12 children inside the house, but were shocked to discover that seven of them were actually adults, ranging in age from 18 to 29. The victims appeared to be malnourished and very dirty.

Greg Jordan writes for The Bluefield (West Virginia) Daily Telegraph. The Associated Press contributed to this report.