Jordan Turpin Breaks Silence on Foster Care Trauma After Captivity

Table Of Content

• LATEST NEWS
• HOSPITAL OFFICIAL: 'VERY SOBERING EXPERIENCE TO SEE'
• Turpin House Of Horrors: Timeline Of How 13 Siblings Suffered Years Of Torture And Abuse
• Jordan Turpin details making 911 call moments after she escaped family's 'house of horrors'
• From a Desperate Escape to Revelations of Shocking Abuse: How House of Horrors Case Unfolded

The exterior of their home appeared neatly kept and neighbors rarely saw the kids outside the home. "I never intended for any harm to come to my children," the statement said. "I'm sorry if I've done anything to cause them harm. I'm glad we were able to resolve this case without my children being forced to testify."

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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. “I don’t really have a way to get food right now,” Jordan said in the interview about the time after she was abruptly released without warning from extended foster care. "That was my only chance,” Jordan said. "I think it was us coming so close to death so many times. When they were eventually rescued, the children were so malnourished that they were all assumed to be under 18, although seven were adults.

HOSPITAL OFFICIAL: 'VERY SOBERING EXPERIENCE TO SEE'

"I was always terrified that if I called the cops or tried to escape, I would get caught, and then I knew I would die if I got caught," Jordan, now 21, told ABC News' Diane Sawyer in an exclusive interview. "But at the end, when I saw all my younger siblings, I knew that's what I had to do." Growing up, they often chained their children to filthy beds and forced them to live in squalor for years. David and Louise Turpin were later sentenced to 25 years to life in prison after they pled guilty to holding captive and torturing their kids. The suit comes less than two weeks after an outside investigation into the care of the 13 Turpin siblings found that the siblings had been "failed" by the social services system that was supposed to care for them and help transition them into society. The heartbreaking video was shown for the first time on ABC News Friday night, during an episode of 20/20 where two of the siblings, Jennifer and Jordan Turpin, detailed the staggering abuse at the hands of their parents.

Turpin House Of Horrors: Timeline Of How 13 Siblings Suffered Years Of Torture And Abuse

The dispatcher asked Turpin during the call about how her parents abused them. Jordan hopes to have a family of her own one day — she wants three kids and 10 dogs — but for now, she’s enjoying being a mom to two Pomeranians. "The best thing that can happen to me is seeing that I made someone's day. Sometimes I get comments like, 'I can relate to this,' and that makes me so excited," she says. "I'm very thankful and blessed that I can be there to help others and make a difference." "It was so cool because I've never been around people my age other than my siblings," says Jordan, who used a different last name at the time for confidentiality reasons. "I made friends within two weeks. Every time someone would ask me questions [about my past], they'd say, 'She's too shy. She won't answer!' I loved it."

"I’ve told all my siblings the story more than once,” she told him. “And I’m just so thankful because you saved all of us. Thank you so much." 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. Jordan said the officer asked her if they went into the house would they see her siblings chained up.

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“This is among the worst, most aggravated child abuse cases I have ever seen," Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin said at a morning press conference. The Turpin children were deprived of many things by their parents including regular meals, access to lavatories, and daily showers. The children were allowed to shower no more than once a year and none had “ever” seen a dentist, he said.

How did the Turpin family escape the "House of Horrors?"

On July 20, Jordan and those siblings (identified as Jane and John Does) filed lawsuits against Riverside County and ChildNet Youth and Family Services, a private foster care agency. Jordan, who was 17 when she made a daring 2018 escape and dialed 911, said she feared she and her siblings would eventually die if they stayed. She said she climbed out a window and called police using an old cellphone. Vinyard said that the Turpins first lived in a brick house across the street from him. In time, though, the family moved out of that home and into a double-wide trailer, which was parked on the same lot. A former neighbor of the Turpins told PEOPLE that one of the family’s kids tried escaping years ago when they lived in Rio Vista, Texas.

Turpin sisters who escaped California house of horrors speak out about abuse

Louise’s half-brother Billy Lambert told PEOPLE she met David in church and the two “ran away” together to get married when she was 16 but were returned home to West Virginia by police, at which point Louise’s father signed off on the nuptials. Authorities have said the violence “intensified” as the family moved first from the area of Fort Worth, Texas, to Murrieta, California, in 2010, and then to Perris in 2014. Authorities said in January that two dogs found in the Turpin home are healthy and trained, at odds with the conditions of the children around them.

From a Desperate Escape to Revelations of Shocking Abuse: How House of Horrors Case Unfolded

In 2021, Jordan Turpin, who escaped in 2018 and made the 911 call, opened up for the first time on ABC's 20/20 about what it was like in the household, saying she thought she was "going to die." THE Turpin family made headlines in 2018 after it was revealed that there was a severe case of child maltreatment within the household. "This was a home that ChildNet was representing was a safe place to put children. And it simply wasn't at all," said Roger Booth, the attorney representing the four youngest siblings. “They literally used the bible to explain their behavior to us,” Jennifer said, describing how she and her siblings were thrown across rooms, put in cages and beaten with sticks for disobeying their parents or eating their food. Once inside, officers encountered mounds of garbage, feces, moldy food, and swarms of dirty, pale and extremely skinny children. On Jan. 14, 2018, Turpin found the courage to make the call in an effort to help save her 12 siblings who remained in the house where their parents held them in captivity.

An ABC documentary broadcast in November found that life had not improved much for most of the 13 Turpin siblings after they were removed from their parents' residence in January 2018. After a Nov. 9 meeting of the county's Board of Supervisors, Chairwoman Karen Spiegel, the county's top elected official, declined to discuss specifics about what has transpired with the Turpin children since they were rescued. The five children had even been adopted by that family in October 2019, the same time-period in which the alleged abuse was occurring. ChildNet declined to provide details about the vetting of the family, citing confidentiality laws. Five Turpin children remained in that home for three years while the alleged abuse took place.

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"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. Authorities said only one child, a son, was allowed to leave home to attend classes at a community college but was always accompanied by his mother. District Judge Stephen Larson and staff attorneys from his Los Angeles-based law firm to conduct an investigation of the agencies, which is expected to conclude in May. "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.

When the couple returned to the same chapel for another vow renewal on Sept. 2, 2013 — and yet again on Oct. 31, 2015 — their children joined them. He said the Turpins’ name immediately leapt out at him following reports of the parents’ arrest because he recalled their large collection of kids — and David’s unusual haircut. A 22-year-old son was chained to a bed and two girls had just been set free from their shackles. The house was covered in filth and the stench of human waste was overwhelming. Before the 17-year-old escaped from the home in a middle-class section of the city of Perris, about 60 miles southeast of Los Angeles, the Turpins had lived largely out of view. Turpin read the final portion of the statement himself, saying he hoped his children succeeded in school and later, in their chosen professions.

Investigators found that the toddler had not been abused, but all of the children were hospitalized after they were discovered. "My whole body was shaking. I couldn't really dial 911, because --" Jordan said through tears, recalling the day of her escape and why she felt she had to make an attempt to run to safety. "I think it was us coming so close to death so many times. If something happened to me, at least I died trying." Starved, beaten and chained for months at a time, those are just some of the abuses endured by the children of the Turpin family.

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"Sometimes, I still have nightmares of things that had happened to us, such as my siblings being chained up or getting beaten. But that is the past, and this is now." Nearly four years after their dramatic escape and rescue, the Turpin sisters said they are ready to move on with their life -- and reshape their public image. According to investigators, Marcelino allegedly kissed the victims and told them not to wear undershirts. There were other alleged acts of touching the children, whom the defendants also encouraged to fight, according to court documents. "Have there been other issues that have come to light in the many foster care homes in which the minor Turpin children have been placed?" Scott asked Donaldson. California's Department of Social Services has yet to provide additional records and documents related to ChildNet that were requested by ABC News.

But in a shocking turn of events, in what should’ve been a new, fresh start to the rest of their lives, the Turpin kids are still struggling today despite being rescued three years ago from the squalid California home where they were chained, beaten and starved. Jordan and her eldest sister Jennifer Turpin told their story on the 2021 ABC special Escape from a House of Horror, in which Jordan shared that secretly watching Justin Bieber music videos as a kid inspired her to want to escape to the outside world. In February 2019, David and Louise Turpin pleaded guilty to torture and years of abuse of their children. Her remarks came during a joint interview with younger sister Jordan Turpin, 21, that marked the first time any of the siblings have spoken publicly since they were rescued two hours after Jordan’s 911 call. Jordan lights up when she talks about her brothers and sisters and how far they’ve come in four years. When Jordan escaped from her parents' home in 2018, she didn’t even know what medication or pills were.

David and Louise renew their vows in front of an Elvis impersonator and the couple’s children at a wedding chapel in Las Vegas in October 2011. The following year, the family spends the day together at Disneyland, again posing for photos wearing similar clothing. "We have inside jokes and have so much fun together," she says of her brothers and sisters, who all joined her at a Justin Bieber concert this past March. "After everything that happened, and after escaping, I'm so protective over each one. They always know they have me."