![]() She was rescued in March 2003 after passersby spotted her on a street and alerted authorities. Held captive for nine months, she was initially chained to a tree and raped repeatedly by her abductor, who forced her to wear long robes, veil and a wig when he and his wife took her out in public. In a case that drew widespread media attention, she was kidnapped at knife-point from her bedroom in suburban Salt Lake City at age 14 by a homeless street preacher. Smart, 30, was speaking from unique personal experience. The siblings were reported to be receiving medical care, but their location has not been disclosed. The grim situation was discovered after an emaciated daughter escaped through a window of the home, which the parents had registered as a home school for their children, and called for help, police said. The couple were arrested on Sunday at their foul-smelling tract house east of Los Angeles on charges of torture and child endangerment. Psychiatrists and child abuse experts said intensive therapy would likely be required for the children of David Allen Turpin, 57, and Louise Anna Turpin, 49. "The human spirit is incredibly resilient, so I do believe each one of them can go on to live a full life, to reclaim what's been taken from them," she told Reuters in a telephone interview from her home in Utah. Smart, abducted as a teenager from her Utah home in 2002, nevertheless expressed optimism that the siblings, ages 2 to 29, could eventually overcome the trauma of physical confinement, malnourishment and social isolation. LOS ANGELES, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Thirteen siblings whose parents locked them away for years inside the family's California home suffered the "ultimate betrayal" and will likely find it difficult to trust others, kidnapping survivor and advocate Elizabeth Smart said on Wednesday.
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