Perris Torture: Classmate Details Turpin Child In Somber Post

RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA -- Jennifer Turpin, one of 13 victims rescued earlier this month, was designated as the "cootie kid" when she attended Meadowcreek Elementary in Fort Worth, Texas, a former classmate said. In a heartbreaking Facebook post, Taha Muntajibuddin detailed how peers teased Jennifer for looking frail and wearing clothes that looked "as though they had been dragged through mud."

Jennifer and her siblings have been in the national spotlight recently after Riverside County deputies announced they had been rescued from a "prison house" where their parents, David Allen Turpin and Louis Ann Turpin, tortured them. The parents are accused of depriving them of food and showers, and even chaining them to furniture.

Muntajibuddin said Jennifer had been designated the "cootie kid."

"She was a frail girl, had pin-straight hair with bangs, and often wore the same purple outfit," Muntajibuddin wrote. "She was often made fun of by the other third graders because her clothes would sometimes look as though they had been dragged through mud, which she would also smell like on most days. I distinctly remember my entire third-grade class scoffing at her one day because our teacher had asked her to discard a scrunchy she had used to tie her hair out of a discarded tin foil wrapper from an old Hershey's bar."

Muntajibuddin, who told the Associated Press he is now a pediatrics resident doctor, said he thought about Jennifer years later but couldn't find her on social media.

"I also thought somewhere, somehow, Jennifer was probably living her best life, showing up all of us gawky third graders in Mrs. Llano's class how far she'd come," Muntajibuddin wrote. "She was going to be that person at the reunion looking completely flawless and making six figures while the rest of us tried to conceal our receding hair lines and minimum wage jobs."

After news broke about the Turpin family earlier this month, Muntajibuddin said he couldn't help "but feel an overwhelming sense of guilt and shame."

"The resounding lesson here is a simple one, something that we're taught from the very beginning: be nice," Muntajibuddin said. "Teach your children to be nice. If you see someone that's isolated, befriend them. If you see someone that's marginalized, befriend them. If you see someone that's different, befriend them."

Jennifer and her siblings, whose ages range from 2 to 29, are currently in the care of county Child Protective Services and Adult Protective Services staff. The county is seeking custodial rights over them.

David and Louise Turpin are each being held in lieu of $12 million bail at the Robert Presley Jail in Riverside and are facing 94 years to life in state prison if convicted.

--City News Service contributed to this report; Photo: Neighbor Rilee Unger, 3, plays with a toy after dropping off a couple of her own teddy bears on the porch of a home where police arrested a couple on Sunday accused of holding 13 children captive in Perris, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Also See:

Perris Torture: DA Says Officials Need To 'Do A Better Job'

Perris 'House of Horror' Parents Plead Not Guilty

How You Can Help 13 Siblings Of Perris 'Prison House'