Turpin kids 'Horror House' rescue shown on bodycam footage

Table Of Content

• MORE: Turpin sisters on finding courage to develop plan for escape from imprisonment
• MORE: House where 12 children allegedly tortured by parents sells for $310,000
• Turpin Siblings
• vile ways Turpins abused their 13 kids from starvation to chaining to beds
• MORE: Turpin children speak out as parents are sentenced in torture case: 'I'm taking my life back'

Prosecutors said the punishment ranged from being beaten and choked to being shackled to their beds with no access to the bathroom for months at a time. The children were not the only beings in the home who were subjected to their parent’s cruel treatment. The family’s oldest child was once forced to watch her cat be mauled to death by feral dogs after she was caught taking food out of the pantry without permission. The family’s home was described as a “House of Horrors” by authorities and the public. The children were often chained up after “playing with water” (washing their hands higher than their wrists) and were often left in their own waste for hours.

MORE: Turpin sisters on finding courage to develop plan for escape from imprisonment

Authorities arrested David and Louise and charged them with 12 counts of torture, seven counts of abuse of a dependent adult, six counts of child abuse and 12 counts of false imprisonment. After the extent of David and Louise's crimes were revealed, several of the Turpin children — who ranged from 2 to 29 at the time of their rescue — were placed in foster care, where many of them were abused by their foster family. David and Louise were eventually convicted on 14 felony counts and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. The parents pleaded guilty to 14 counts each of torture, dependent adult abuse, child endangerment and false imprisonment in 2019. Jordan and her eldest sibling, Jennifer Turpin, are telling their story for the first time in an exclusive interview with Sawyer. They are the first of any of the Turpin children to share their stories.

MORE: House where 12 children allegedly tortured by parents sells for $310,000

Turpin Children's Lawyer Says Foster Care Was 'Worse' Than House of Horrors: 'Brought Their Confidence to a New Low' - PEOPLE

Turpin Children's Lawyer Says Foster Care Was 'Worse' Than House of Horrors: 'Brought Their Confidence to a New Low'.

Posted: Sun, 28 Jan 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]

Police and prosecutors said the Turpins shackled, beat, and starved the children in their California home. After their 2018 escape, the Turpins' minor children were placed in foster care, while the adult children had to learn basic life skills. Two sisters who grew up captive in David and Louise Turpin's "house of horrors," where 13 siblings were starved and abused, spoke out about their experiences for the first time in an interview with ABC's Diane Sawyer. The couple pleaded guilty in Riverside County Superior Court in February to torture and other abuse and neglect so severe it stunted their children's growth, led to muscle wasting and left two of the girls unable to bear children.

Turpin Siblings

In 2007, when Jennifer Turpin was about 18 years old, she said their parents moved 10 children into a trailer deeper into their Texas property and further from sight. Additionally, the Turpin family patriarch received an additional charge of perjury after affidavits he submitted to the California Department of Education were reexamined. The affidavits claimed the children were enrolled in a private school. Jordan and her siblings have been carving new lives for themselves ever since.

Melissa Donaldson, the Director of Victim Services in Riverside County, said some of the children told her they "felt betrayed" by the county. ABC News' investigation has yielded few answers from county officials. The Turpins' case remains shrouded in secrecy -- obscured from public view through sealed court records and a conservatorship, the same arrangement that recently ended for pop star Britney Spears. "That is unimaginable to me -- that we could have the very worst case of child abuse that I've ever seen," Hestrin said, "and then that we would then not be able to get it together to give them basic needs." The smartphone became Jordan Turpin’s first window into the outside world. She said she watched Bieber’s interviews, movies and used it to make videos of her singing her own songs to post on social media.

Two Brothers Were Found Guilty For 2019 Murder Of California Man On His Wedding Day

The department is aware of the charges against the foster family and has opened an investigation, according to its spokesperson, Scott Murray. Donaldson, through tears, explained that basic needs remain elusive, and the kids continue to struggle to navigate a complex and bureaucratic system they have no experience with, despite a global outpouring of support. She said the county dismissed inquires from numerous health care professionals offering free services for as long as the Turpins needed them. "Did we see kids having to not have a safe place to live or stay at times? Yes. Did they have enough food at times? They did not," Donaldson said.

Louise Turpin seemed to rack up huge credit card debts, according to bankruptcy documents. Jennifer and Jordan Turpin said their mother would buy children’s clothes, games and toys, but hoard them. Jennifer Turpin said one day she ran away, and got a ride into a town. There she attempted to find an apartment and a job, but with her limited education, she said she struggled to fill out an application. She said she worried about her siblings, and after one night away, she returned to her family.

MORE: Turpin children speak out as parents are sentenced in torture case: 'I'm taking my life back'

A county spokeswoman said the results will be released publicly when the investigation concludes in March. When ABC News attempted to meet up with her last week, she avoided cameras. The next morning, a county spokeswoman said Espinoza had not worked there since Aug. 21, declining to say anything more because of both personnel-confidentiality rules and the court's order of secrecy in the Turpin cases.

"When the case first broke, I obviously got thousands of offers of help … dentists, and doctors, and people saying, 'I will serve these kids pro bono. Please send them my way,'" she said. "I had to pass on those referrals to the Child Protective Services workers and the hospital. And none of them were utilized." Reports detailing the children's well-being, records accounting for the hundreds of thousands of dollars raised by strangers, and other documents in the court filing remain sealed. After being in the hospital, Jordan said the first place she went to was a park with two of her sisters. An 11-year-old child was so malnourished that her arm circumference was the equivalent of a 4-and-a-half month old baby, investigators said.

Jordan Turpin Opens Up About Life After Escaping 'House Of Horrors' - OK!

Jordan Turpin Opens Up About Life After Escaping 'House Of Horrors'.

Posted: Tue, 21 Nov 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]

They say that the very people responsible for actively caring for the Turpins simply did not do their jobs. "They're living in squalor," Hestrin said, referring to some of the adult children. "They're living in crime-ridden neighborhoods. There's money for their education -- they can't access it," Hestrin said. The most outspoken of the Turpin siblings, Jordan has been focused on healing from her horrific experiences with both her parents and foster parents. She moved into a new home in 2023 with her four guinea pigs and four dogs. In November, she opened up to PEOPLE about her past year and hopes for the future.

The California Department of Social Services tells TODAY.com through a spokesperson that it cannot comment on specific cases. "At first it was scary. It's expensive, and you're not aware of how much you're gonna need," Jordan — who saved herself and her 12 siblings from a lifetime of parental abuse — tells PEOPLE exclusively in her first interview since leaving the foster care system. Hestrin said the abuse the couple’s children faced intensified over time, as the family moved first from the Fort Worth area in Texas, in 2010, to Murrieta, California, and then to Perris in 2014. “What started out as neglect became severe, pervasive, prolonged child abuse,” Hestrin said. Uffer told PEOPLE the adult children — five girls and two boys between the ages of 18 and 29 — “are actually pretty stable” considering what they have been through. “We are keeping them all together; we have tried to recreate a positive family environment for them so they are with their siblings, and they appear to be doing well in that environment,” he said.

But some officials and some of the Turpin children are now speaking out to say they still do not have access to many of the resources and services guaranteed to them. An ABC News investigation has found that some of the Turpin children continue to face challenges and hardships since they were rescued and placed in the care of the county. "We are confident, given what they've been through and how resilient they are, that they're going to be really successful," said Jack Osborn, a court-appointed attorney for the seven adult children, after their parents' sentencing in 2019. By 2018, David and Louise Turpin had moved to chaining some of their children to their bunk beds, sometimes for months at a time, according to investigators. When their parents were out of the house, Jennifer Turpin said she and her siblings would sometimes secretly watch movies or listen to music.