Turpin sisters describe living in 'house of horrors': 'I thought I was going to die'

Table Of Content

• Lady Gaga cancels sister’s bachelorette party at LES club The Box after pressure over sex harassment suit
• ‘House of Horrors’ survivor Jordan Turpin speaks out: ‘There’s hope. You can heal’
• Years After Jordan Turpin Rescued Siblings from House of Horrors, a Look Back at Her PEOPLE Interview
• news Alerts
• Perris Foster Family Who Took in Rescued Turpin Girls is Accused of Abusing Them

Following their discoveries at the Turpin home, authorities took parents David and Louise (left and right) into custody and charged both with a dozen counts of torture, among other criminal accusations, to which they pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors said the deal would likely keep them in prison for the rest of their lives and spare the children from testifying. According to prosecutors, the children were given only one rationed meal a day and allowed to shower once a year. They would get in trouble for things like playing in the water while they washed their hands.

Lady Gaga cancels sister’s bachelorette party at LES club The Box after pressure over sex harassment suit

By 1999, Jennifer Turpin said they had moved to an isolated home in Rio Vista, Texas. As more children were born, Jennifer said neglect from their parents turned into physical abuse, and they would use parts of the Bible to explain their behavior. “I knew I would die if I got caught," said Jordan Turpin, now 21. "I think it was us coming so close to death so many times.

‘House of Horrors’ survivor Jordan Turpin speaks out: ‘There’s hope. You can heal’

Speaking to Diane Sawyer for ABC, Jordan Turpin, 22, and her sister, Jennifer Turpin, 33, revealed vivid details of the horrors they suffered inside the home by their parents, David and Louise Turpin.

Turpin siblings 'digging in' for legal showdown with California foster system that failed them, lawyer says - Fox News

Turpin siblings 'digging in' for legal showdown with California foster system that failed them, lawyer says.

Posted: Tue, 30 Jan 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]

Years After Jordan Turpin Rescued Siblings from House of Horrors, a Look Back at Her PEOPLE Interview

Jordan and Jennifer Turpin, who are now 21 and 33, told Sawyer they ate only one meal a day, were almost never allowed outside, didn't bathe for months, and were frequently chained up for days or weeks at a time. The couple agreed to plead guilty as part of a plea deal with prosecutors. In Feb. 2019, David and Louise Turpin pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including torture.

The Turpin children have been relocated several times, according to county officials working on the case and the children themselves. One foster family now faces criminal charges in connection with their alleged mistreatment of several of their foster children, including one of the Turpin minors. Throughout the course of ABC News' reporting, Vanessa Espinoza's name came up over and over. They pleaded guilty to charges including torture and false imprisonment. The kids were imprisoned in a true “House of Horrors.” They were routinely physically, verbally, and mentally abused, chained to their beds, and deprived of food and the ability to exercise. As the details of what the Turpin children survived were shared with the public, many began to wonder how two parents could be so horrible to their own children.

Growing up, Jennifer Turpin attended public school from first to third grade but then her parents took her out. From then on, the parents claimed to be homeschooling their children but weren’t in reality. The children were rarely allowed to leave their home when the family lived in Texas and then in California, they said they were never allowed outside without their parents. Jordan’s bravery that day in January 2018 freed herself and her siblings from a life of horrific abuse and captivity at the hands of their parents, David and Louise Turpin, who are now in prison for beating, shackling and starving 12 of their 13 children. She told the dispatcher that she and her siblings desperately needed help. They were beaten, starved and often shackled to furniture for months at a time.

Secret YouTube Video Shows Life Inside Turpin Family "House Of Horrors"

Lynchburg Police are seeking the public’s help in locating a vehicle connected to the Waffle House shooting that occurred early Sunday. Authorities discovered some of her 12 siblings were bound with chains and padlocks, while others were starving, the Riverside County Sheriff's Department told the outlet. "He went with me to get my hair done yesterday and it was just so sweet," she added, "because he, like, stayed the whole time." Colace gave the credit to Jordan, telling her he was glad she took that photo of her sisters in chains. In another bedroom, police found a boy with thick chains on his wrists and ankles, tied to a bed railing. Riverside County Sheriff’s reinforcements headed to the Turpins' door and knocked for over two minutes before David and Louise Turpen finally opened it.

Perris Foster Family Who Took in Rescued Turpin Girls is Accused of Abusing Them

The parents also engaged in repeated physical abuse, resulting in injuries. The conditions were uncovered in January 2018 when one of the Turpin girls, then-17-year-old Jordan Turpin, escaped through a window and called 911. According to court papers, two of the girls belonging to David Allen Turpin and his wife, Louise Ann Turpin, were placed with the foster care parents and their daughter in 2018, within a few months of their removal from the Turpin home in the same city. Marcelino Camacho Olguin, 63, Rosa Armida Olguin, 58, and Lennys Giovanna Olguin, 37, were arrested and charged in November with nearly a dozen offenses, including child cruelty, false imprisonment and witness intimidation. Van Wagenen initiated the investigation on Oct. 28, one day after ABC News requested an interview with him to discuss the problems the Turpin children had faced in the four years since they were rescued, his office told ABC News on Friday. ChildNet is part of a larger county social services system that experts say had a history of failing to protect abused children even before the Turpins entered the picture in 2018.

After Rescue From Perris ‘House of Horrors,' Riverside County Asks ‘Where are the Siblings Now?'

"They had to go to churches and eat because they didn't know how to manage money … and some without housing at times." State law mandates confidentiality on all juvenile court proceedings, effectively shielding the records of the minor Turpin children. But in the probate court overseeing the adult Turpin children's cases, a blanket sealing order has been issued as well-- an unusual move enacted right after the children were rescued in order to protect them from the onslaught of media coverage. "They have been victimized again by the system," Mike Hestrin, the Riverside County district attorney, told ABC News' Diane Sawyer in an interview for the 20/20 special event, "Escape From A House Of Horror." Jordan Turpin said she was in a room where two of her little sisters had been chained to their beds for as long as four months. Seeing them in agony, she decided she was going to escape to get help.

Osborn, an attorney for the older Turpin kids, told ABC that in March his clients moved from the hospital to a home in rural California in an undisclosed location, where they were to be reunited with their family dogs and able to make decisions for themselves. The older and younger Turpin children were housed in separate facilities but they connected via Skype, according to Jack Osborn, an attorney representing the adult siblings. Other than an occasional family trip to Las Vegas or Disneyland, they rarely left the home. "I cannot describe in words what we went through growing up," he said, crying.

In their interview, the Turpin daughters described physical abuse and being deprived of food, hygiene, education and health care for years. In their legal complaints, the children also allege that the officials charged with overseeing their care "failed to report" the "severe" abuse and neglect when warned of it. In 2018, a teenager in California named Jordan Turpin phones 911 with a harrowing tale. She tells the dispatcher she has escaped her family’s home, and she begs for authorities to rescue her 12 siblings, claiming they are being held captive by their parents, Louise and David Turpin. The extent of the abuse Jordan and her siblings endured over the years slowly comes to light and shocks the nation. Ahead, a timeline of David and Louise Turpin’s life and their parental torture.

In November 2021, a ChildNet spokesperson would not answer ABC News' questions about the Turpin case because of confidentiality laws, saying only, "We take our work very seriously, including the extensive vetting of parents." The suit comes just weeks after an outside probe into the siblings' care. “[I want people to see] They’re strong; they’re not weak; they’re not broken; they’ve got this,” Jennifer said. Several of the adult Turpin siblings continue to be exposed to dangerous living conditions, and lack basic needs, despite pledges of support and government benefits, the ABC report said.

Beyond 'House of Horrors': Jordan Turpin reflects on her experience with new brand 'Braveness' - FOX 11 Los Angeles

Beyond 'House of Horrors': Jordan Turpin reflects on her experience with new brand 'Braveness'.

Posted: Sat, 25 Nov 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]

They last saw a doctor more than four years ago, he said, and were fed very little. A California hospital official told PEOPLE shortly after their rescue that the siblings faced a long road to recovery. Reacting to the news, James and Betty Turpin, David’s parents, spoke to ABC News of their disbelief. They said they talked to David once or twice a month, though they had not visited their son or their grandchildren in four or five years. The paternal grandparents of the Turpin children soon spoke out to say they were “surprised and shocked” by the charges against David and Louise.

After being assessed at a third-grade level when she escaped her family home in 2018, Jordan went on to earn a high school diploma. Jordan lives in a light-filled Los Angeles-area apartment with a stocked refrigerator. The walls are decorated with motivational quotes and there are splashes everywhere of purple, Jordan’s favorite color. In the early hours of Jan. 4, 2018, Jordan Turpin quietly slipped out of a window of her family’s home, where she and her 12 siblings had been held in captivity for years. Police arrest David and Louise on suspicion of child abuse around 9 p.m. David and Louise Turpin were sentenced to prison after admitting they starved, beat, and chained up their children.

Both David and Louise were charged with multiple counts of torture, false imprisonment and child abuse. On Jan. 14, 2018, 17-year-old Jordan escaped from her family’s home in Perris, Calif. and called authorities. After police arrived, they discovered that Jordan's parents, David and Louise, had been severely abusing their 13 children to varying degrees for years. After 17-year-old Jordan Turpin escaped her family’s home in California and called 911 to report unfathomable abuse, the public soon learned the awful truth of what David and Louise Turpin inflicted on their 13 children for years. Back in 2018, Jordan made headlines for her bravery when she snuck out of parents David and Louise Turpin's home in Perris, Calif., and walked outside for the first time in her 17 years of life.

"Over this last year, I have learned a lot about mental health and everything. It was a really rough year," Turpin said. "The last few months it's been really good because I've really learned so much about mental health [and] why everything has affected me the way it affected me." Additionally, the siblings have had trouble accessing the $600,000 that was donated by strangers to help them after their parents were busted. Riverside County officials would not provide ABC with any information about the trust set up for the Turpin siblings, nor say how much has been distributed to them.