Turpin siblings speak out in 1st interview about 'house of horrors'

Table Of Content

• Life
• Years After Jordan Turpin Rescued Siblings from House of Horrors, a Look Back at Her PEOPLE Interview
• What is the Turpin family “House of Horrors?"
• MORE: Turpin siblings speak out in 1st interview about 'house of horrors'
• El Camino Real Charter High School wins national Academic Decathlon
• Inside the House of Horrors: 2 Years After Escape, New Secrets Emerge About How Turpin Kids Survived

"But at the end, when I saw all my younger siblings, I knew that's what I had to do." Some of the children were bound to their beds and furniture by chains and padlocks and many of them told police they were "starving," according to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department. 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.

Life

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. Reports later revealed that the Turpin parents restricted the food their children could eat, left several of them in a home alone to fend for themselves, and imprisoned, beat, and strangled their kids. When the children were discovered, many of them were unable to communicate sufficiently and were not sure who the police were.

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

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. Beecham, who worked closely with the siblings and saw them twice a month when he was preparing a case against their parents, says at least five of the kids knew about the early-morning escape plan — and it wasn't their first plot to flee. In the early morning hours of Jan. 14, 2018, two Turpin siblings decided to flee their suburban house in Perris, Calif. Before she left, she faked a lump in her bed to make it look like she was still sleeping there. Her sister left two minutes later, from the same window, while two of her shackled siblings looked on.

What is the Turpin family “House of Horrors?"

Most of the funds have gone into a trust that is controlled by a court-appointed public guardian, but details about the guardian -- and the money -- are hard to come by. After their rescue, some of the younger siblings spent years in foster homes where there were accusations of child abuse -- including an accusation that at least one of the Turpins was a victim of such abuse, for which charges have been filed. Two of the older children have at times had to resort to "couch-surfing," one advocate said, and, in at least one case, another was assaulted. In February 2019, David and Louise Turpin pleaded guilty to 14 felony counts, including torture, false imprisonment and child cruelty.

MORE: Turpin siblings speak out in 1st interview about 'house of horrors'

Judge Bernard Schwartz called the couple's actions "selfish, cruel, and inhumane." Turpin read the final portion of the statement himself, saying he hoped his children succeeded in school and later, in their chosen professions. One asked in a statement for a lighter sentence because "they believed everything they did was to protect us." She also said she wanted to have contact with them again, and asked that they be incarcerated nearby. Some of the children, who were not filmed, described still struggling with moving on from the plight, but expressed joy at being able to live new lives and attend school.

El Camino Real Charter High School wins national Academic Decathlon

David and Louise found other ways to use food and gifts to torture their children. Sometimes they would leave pies out in front of the kids, but tell them they couldn’t have any or even touch the desserts. They also filled their home with unopened gifts at Christmas, never letting their children enjoy anything they brought into the home. Children said they were beaten, caged and shackled to beds if they didn't obey their parents. Investigators found that the toddler had not been abused, but all of the children were hospitalized after they were discovered. 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.

ABC News was there the first time Jordan reunited with that first "stranger" she ever met -- Deputy Anthony Colace -- who responded the day of her escape. She showed him the photos of her dirty, shackled sisters, explaining that the chains were punishment for taking food. "If we went to Oklahoma, there was a big chance that some of us would have died," Jordan said of her severely malnourished and frail siblings. After that incident, Jordan secretly talked to a couple of her sisters about trying to come up with a plan to escape. "We [weren’t] even allowed to stand up. We were supposed to be sitting down all the time," added Jennifer, now 33.

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]

For years, the Turpin children were rarely allowed to leave their home - first in Texas, and then in California. Jordan's plan to contact authorities was more than two years in the making and culminated as the family was planning a move from California to Oklahoma. “My plan was, okay, while we're on the trip and in a crowd, I’m going to sneak out and call 911," Jordan told PEOPLE. From the abuse they endured in the "House of Horrors" to their lives today, here's everything to know about the Turpin family. Colace noted that Turpin did not seem to know common words like "bruise" to describe the way she and her siblings were being treated.

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

The 17-year-old had only been outside a few times in her entire life and she was terrified. Her hands were shaking uncontrollably as she held a deactivated cell phone her parents didn’t know she had, but thinking of her siblings chained up inside the house, she worked up the courage to dial 911. It was a dire warning to their kids that set the abused children's escape plan into motion, authorities say. "David and Louise agreed that they were just going to chain all the kids up once they got to the new house in Oklahoma and they were about to move in the next few days," Riverside County Deputy District Attorney Kevin Beecham tells PEOPLE. As the adult children struggled under county guardianship, some of their seven younger siblings faced new hardships in the foster care system and the California-based agency contracted to run it by the county.

As part of the probe, an outside law firm "will be seeking" to interview the Turpin children, the office also said. Current employees will be "directed to participate in this investigation," but not required. "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. "They had to go to churches and eat because they didn't know how to manage money … and some without housing at times."

"I'm sorry for everything I've done to hurt my children. I love my children so much. ... I only want the best for them," she said. Colace gave the credit to Jordan, telling her he was glad she took that photo of her sisters in chains. Both Jordan and Jennifer declined to discuss their other siblings, wanting to protect their privacy and making it clear they were only sharing their own experiences. In another bedroom, police found a boy with thick chains on his wrists and ankles, tied to a bed railing.

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. The children spent most of their time in the house but would occasionally take family trips, including one where they went to Las Vegas for their parents' vow renewal. Two of the Turpin sisters, who along with their 11 siblings were held captive for years before escaping in 2018, are speaking out for the first time about the abuse they endured.

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. "You rarely hear folks like you speaking out publicly about your work. This is the exception," ABC News correspondent David Scott told Donaldson as she explained what the last four years have been like for the Turpin children. But advocates and several of the Turpins themselves have come forward to share troubling tales of their plight. Melissa Donaldson, the Director of Victim Services in Riverside County, said some of the children told her they "felt betrayed" by the county. "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."

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]

Within a year she had caught up to high school junior level — and at 18, she entered a school building for the first time. "Well I am not -- I don't have the information you're looking for," Spiegel told ABC News. "We're still in investigation stages, so I don't have anything to share with you." "We take our work very seriously, including the extensive vetting of resource parents which is subject to state law," said Brett Lewis, the ChildNet spokesperson. In a statement to ABC News, a ChildNet spokesperson said the company was limited in what it could say because of confidentiality laws, but they stood by their work.

Unfortunately for the Turpin children, who ranged in age from 2 to 29, those promises have fallen flat. On 14 January 2018, she realised time was running out when she heard her mother scream that the family were moving to Oklahoma. "[I told her] get pictures, anything to prove so they can't think you're a teenager looking for attention," Jennifer said, appearing alongside her sister on ABC's Escape from a House of Horror - A Diane Sawyer Special Event on Friday. In 2016, Jordan said she got hold of one of her parents' old smartphones, which opened up a whole new world when she eventually discovered Justin Bieber videos. They only ate once a day, usually peanut butter sandwiches, bologna or a frozen burrito and chips, while their parents taunted them with fast food.

Just four days after ABC News requested from the court an explanation for the sealing order, Judge Cahraman unsealed a few of the filings partially explaining the secrecy in the case. The newly available documents shed no light on the Turpins' care or lives since they were rescued, but the unsealing did mark a first for the case. 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. All 13 children were rushed to the hospital, where they were treated, given clean clothes, rooms and food. Now 21, Jordan and her sister Jennifer, 33, have spoken out about the horrific abuse they endured at the hands of David and Louise Turpin - who are now in prison for beating, shackling, and starving their children.