Turpin Family Names And Ages? 16 Most Favorite Answer

The horrific stories of the Turpin children were revealed in 2018 when it was discovered that their parents, Dav and Louise Turpin, had abused the 13 siblings for over two decades. Their parents abused, starved, sexually abused, and caged the 13 children, who ranged in age from 3 to 29 at the time.

Following the parent’s arrest in January 2018, the Turpin children underwent weeks of medical care for the abuse’s cognitive, neurological, and cardiac effects. Abuse was perpetrated against some of the older Turpin siblings as early as 1989.

For years, Dav and Louise Turpin’s children had been chained to dirty mattresses and forced to live in squalor. Toys and activities were taken away from them, and they were only fed once a day. Showering was only permitted once a year. As a result of their parents’ activities, they had been starved to the point where they had stopped growing and developed muscle atrophy. The youngsters ate bologna and peanut butter sandwiches as their parents ate takeaway, according to People.

While the parents ate luxuriously, the parents brutally tormented their starving children by leaving apple and pumpkin pies on the kitchen counter but not allowing them to eat any, according to Riverse County District Attorney Mike Hestrin. They had to sleep throughout the day and were only up for a few hours at night. The Turpins kept the ks in a house that appeared to be well-maintained on the exterior but was filthy and reeked of human waste on the inse.

Where Are The Turpin Children Now?

The Turpin siblings were placed in foster care after their parents were convicted in 2018. While the adults in the group were only placed in foster homes for a short period, six of the children were placed in two foster families.

The Turpin children’s journey with abuse d not end once they were rescued from Dav and Louise; at least one of them is sa to have been subjected to abuse after that. The abuse was allegedly committed by the foster family, which included five of the Turpin children. They were later apprehended.

Cops discovered the ks in a dark and foul-smelling home 70 miles east of Los Angeles on January 14, 2018. The victims had gone months without showering and were dangerously underweight. They claimed they had been abused, starved, and incarcerated. The ks stayed in their rooms for the most part. Authorities were astounded to find that they had been held captive at the house of horrors, where they were chained to furniture, starved, and refused access to a bathroom on a regular basis. Some of the sufferers were so far away that they had no concept what a cop or medicine meant.

According to police, the couple’s youngest child, a toddler, was the only one who was not molested. The Riverse County Sheriff’s Office reported in January 2018 that “deputies found what they thought were 12 children inse the house, but were appalled to discover that seven of them were actually adults.” The victims appeared to be unclean and underweight.” Photographs revealed filth-caked floors and scratched doors caused by the ks. All of the children’s names begin with the letter J, according to court records that d not reveal their full names.

Following their removal by cops, local organisations received more than $500,000 in donations for their care. The funds were utilised to prove medical and dental care, as well as educational support and other services, to the victimised siblings.

Turpin Children Names

The names of all of the Turpin family’s children have yet to be uncovered. According to reports, all of the children’s names begin with the letter J. Three of them are sons, while the other three are all daughters.

Among 13 children only 10 children names were available on the internet and the other three names aren’t listed on the internet. You see the names of the 10 children in the table below.

S. No
Names Of The Children

1.
Jennifer

2.
Joshua

3.
Jordan

4.
Jessica

5.
Jonathan

6.
Joy

7.
Julianne

8.
Jeannetta

9.
Jolinda

10.
Julissa

Turpin Children Ages

Turpin Family children range in age from 5 to 33 years old. When the case became public, the youngest was 2 years old, and the oldest was Jennifer, who was 29 years old at the time.

Jordan, who was 17 at the time and now 21, was the one who rescued all of her 12 siblings from their parents’ grasp. The youngest are now in child care, while others are attending college. Some of them are employed and content with their lives.

Jenifer, who is 33 years old, is the oldest child, while the youngest child could be as little as six years old. Apart from them, the Turpin siblings’ ages and entities are kept private for privacy concerns.

Escape And Rescue Of Turpin Children

The Turpin children had been plotting to flee their parents for more than two years by the year 2018. Two of the girls exited the resence through a window on January 14, 2018. Jordan, then 17, got some distance away and dialled 9-1-1 on a cell phone she had brought with her. The younger girl (age 13) grew afra and turned back, but Jordan, then 17, got some distance away and dialled 9-1-1 on a cell phone she had taken with her. She told the dispatcher that her parents were abusing her and her siblings, and that the situation was so horrible that she could scarcely breathe at times. Jordan handed the first police officer images of the conditions inse the resence when he arrived. 

The house was invaded by deputies from the Riverse County Sheriff’s Department, who sa they were there for a “welfare check.” The door was answered by Louise and Dav. Louise was “perplexed as to why we were at that resence,” according to the sheriff’s department. They entered a resence that smelled like human excrement, decaying rubbish, dead dogs, and mouldy food, with trash covering every surface. The remaining twelve children were later discovered; one had been shackled to a bed for weeks, and two others looked to have been bound until just before cops arrived. The children were discovered with bruises on their arms, weak, and caked in filth. The children were emaciated to the point where deputies assumed they were all under the age of 18, while in fact seven of them were over the age of 18. Hundreds of journals written by the youngsters describing their life may be found in the resence.

Also Read>> What Happened To The Turpin Parents? Where Are The Turpin Parents Now?

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Disturbing details about the Turpins’ post-rescue lives emerged in a new report from ABC’s 20/20, alleging that their past few years “have been marred by the county’s missteps and mistakes”

When 13 California siblings were rescued from imprisonment in 2018, they entered a previously unknown world filled with promise.

Jordan Turpin — who was 17 when she escaped her abusive parents’ “house of horrors” and got help for herself and her siblings — recalls the first place she visited after being freed: a park with two of her sisters.

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“I was so excited because I could smell the air, smell the grass,” she sa in an interview with Diane Sawyer on this week’s episode of 20/20. “I was like, ‘How could heaven be better than this?'”

Prior to their rescue, the Turpin children had spent most of their lives indoors — hden from the outse world — where they were regularly beaten and starved. At times, the children were chained to their beds or put in cages for breaking house rules, which included keeping their hands off their parents’ food and remaining seated unless directed otherwise.

turpin-5

Credit: Jae C. Hong/AP (2)

When the Turpin parents were arrested in 2018 and later convicted on 14 felony counts including cruelty to an adult dependent, child cruelty, torture and false imprisonment, the case that captivated the nation’s attention appeared to find its happy ending — but appearances and reality aren’t always in sync.

A new investigation from ABC News, featured on Fray’s episode of 20/20, reveals the rocky road that the Turpin siblings faced in the years that followed their rescue, valated by a few brave county officials aiming to expose a broken system.

“The public deserves to know what their government d and dn’t do, and how we failed these victims,” sa Riverse County District Attorney Mike Hestrin. “[It’s] unimaginable to me that we could have the very worst case of child abuse that I’ve ever seen, maybe one of the worst in California history, and that we would then not be able to get it together to give them basic needs, basic necessities.”

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The Turpin family

The Turpin family

| Credit: Dav-Louis Turpin/Facebook

After leaving the “House of Horrors,” the seven Turpin children who were minors were placed in foster homes. The six adult children were given a court-appointed public guardian to manage their health care, nutrition, safety, housing and education.

What reportedly followed were a series of new horrors. In one of the foster homes that several Turpins lived in, children were allegedly abused over an extended period of time. In another home, a foster parent told one of the Turpin girls that she understands why her parents chained her up.

The older siblings, who were sent out into high-violence neighborhoods with little-to-no life skills training, have allegedly been denied basic care from their public guardian. Speaking with ABC News, they reported that their guardian was often unwilling to offer simple support, such as teaching them how to use public transportation, cross the street properly, and access their health care benefits.

“When I would ask her for help, she would just tell me, you know, ‘Just go Google it,'” sa Joshua Turpin, now 29.

Some of the older children, including Jordan, have also struggled to find stable housing and continued to starve.

turpin-children-donations-2.jpg

Some of the donations that were collected in support of the Turpin siblings

Dav Scott, an investigative reporter for ABC News, noted that these poor living conditions persisted despite the Turpin siblings receiving more than $600,000 in donations from strangers following their release.

“Most of that money went into an official trust overseen by the court and hden from public oversight,” Scott sa. “County officials refused to tell us how much has been spent, or on what, but the Turpin we spoke to sa those funds are hard to access.”

“It horrifies me to think things like this are happening to people who have been abused in a system that was specifically set up to help them,” sa retired Superior Court of California Judge LaDoris H. Cordell. “Shamefully, the system failed this family.”

Fortunately, the Turpins know a thing or two about resilience. The youngest four children are now together in a foster home, where siblings say they’re finally happy. As for the others, they’re leaning on each other and learning to get by.

“It feels at home being with all of us,” Jordan sa. “Every time we’re together, it’s a very special moment because we always know at the end of the day, we’re always going to have each other.”

Jaycee Dugard, an author and activist who spent 18 years of her youth in captivity, has set up a new fund through her foundation to support the Turpin siblings, encouraging all who know their story to donate.

Diane Sawyer’s exclusive 20/20 interview with the Turpin sisters aired Fray night on ABC News. The episode, titled “Escape from a House of Horror,” is now available for streaming on ABC News’ digital platforms and Hulu.

If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.

In 2018, Dav and wife Louise Turpin became household names after one of their 13 children escaped their family home — described as a “house of horrors” — in Perris, California. Daughter Jordan, then 17, crawled through a window and called 911 on her parents, exposing a life of horrific abuse and maltreatment. In a home covered with filth, mold, and garbage, the police found beaten and starved children, some of which were shackled onto beds.

In 2019, Dav and Louise pleaded guilty to 14 felony counts, including child cruelty and torture and false imprisonment. They were sentenced to 25 years to life in prison, still remaining behind bars today. Now, sisters Jordan, 21, and Jennifer, 31, will recount their story in their first interview since their harrowing escape in a 20/20 exclusive, Escape From a House of Horror, with Diane Sawyer on Nov. 19.

Jennifer, who was 29 when police arrested her parents, is the oldest of the Turpin brood. While she’s largely kept to herself these last few years, she’ll break her silence along sister Jordan in the 20/20 exclusive. Below, five things to know about the eldest Turpin sibling.

Jennifer was the first to speak at her parents’ sentencing

During a court hearing in Riverse in April 2019, Jennifer was the first to read a statement against her parents. Despite the horrors she endured, the statement was full of hope, with the eldest Turpin child declaring that she’ll be taking her life back. “My parents took my whole life from me, but now I’m taking my life back,” she sa, eliciting tears from her parents. “I saw my dad change my mom. They almost changed me.” Jennifer added, “I’m a fighter, and I’m strong. I’m shooting through life like a rocket.”

Jennifer armed sister Jordan with advice to plot their escape

In a preview for the upcoming 20/20 special, Jordan sa she was emboldened to strategize an escape plan after two of her younger sisters had been chained to their beds for about four months. “I was so scared that one of us was actually going to die,” she sa. “She was like, ‘We need to get out of here,’” Jennifer added. “So I gave her all the advice I knew, all the advice I could.” The plan was two years in the making, sped up by their mother’s announcement that they would soon move to Oklahoma. Jennifer told Diane, “The very next day we were moving. It was literally now or never.”

Jennifer once managed to run way from her parents 

In the same preview, Jennifer revealed that she once managed to run away from her parents — but returned after one night because she was worried about the rest of her siblings. She recounted hitching a re into town, where she tried to find a job and an apartment. Her minimal education made it difficult to fill out a job application, Jennifer sa, adding that she ultimately returned to her family. She sa of that dark time, “I was on the brink of suice. I wanted to just end it all. All of my pain, everything.”

Jennifer’s first act of freedom involved dance 

Following the arrest of her parents, Jennifer and her siblings were taken to a hospital. They received food, medical treatment, and clean clothing — basic life necessities that they had been deprived of for so long. Jennifer told Diane that as she looked around that hospital room that day, the realization of her freedom culminated in an unlikely form of action: dance. “Music was playing, I got up,” Jennifer recalled. “I made sure there was a little bit of a floor cleared out and I danced.”

Jennifer is an aspiring author who also writes music

Amst her freedom, Jennifer told Diane that she wanted to be a published author. The eldest Turpin is currently working at a local restaurant, writing Christian pop music that she hopes to share soon on the se. Above all, though, Jennifer is reveling in the little things that most people take for granted, like taking a leisurely walk outse. “I’m so thankful just to walk, [to] take an hour-long walk with my music,” she sa. “These little things I think are things that people take for granted.”

Recently, two of the elder Turpin siblings, Jennifer (33) and Jordan (21), spoke to Diane Sawyer about their horrific past and the abuse they faced. The sisters, who appeared on ABC’s Escape from a House of Horror special, also opened up about the current problems they face due to their isolated upbringing.

The Turpin children’s tragic story came to light in 2018 when it was found that their parents, Dav and Louise Turpin, had abused the 13 siblings for over two decades. The 13 children whose ages ranged from 3 to 29 at the time were beaten, starved, s*xually abused, and caged by their parents.

After the parent’s arrest in January 2018, the Turpin children received weeks of medical treatments for cognitive, neurological, and cardiac damages resulting from the abuse. Some of the older Turpin siblings were subjected to abuse from as early as 1989.

What is the current status of the Turpin siblings now?

After their parents’ conviction in 2018, the Turpin siblings were placed into foster care. While it was for a brief time for the adults in the group, six of the children were placed in two foster homes.

The Turpin children’s ordeal with abuse d not stop after their rescue from Dav and Louise, as at least one of them allegedly faced abuse afterwards too. The abuse was allegedly carried out by the foster family, where five of the Turpin children were present. They were arrested later on.

Previously, Riverse County Deputy District Attorney Kevin Beecham told PEOPLE:

“Some of them (The Turpin children) are living independently, living in their own apartment, and have jobs and are going to school. Some volunteer in the community. They go to church.”

Beecham also revealed that at least one of them had graduated from college.

Meanwhile, another DA from Riverse County, Mike Hestrin, told PEOPLE:

“The public deserves to know what their government d and dn’t do and how we failed these victims.”

What happened to the adult Turpin siblings?

After their emancipation, the story of Turpin siblings was featured in even international media reportage. This resulted in several donations, which as per reports by ABC, amounts to almost $600,000.

The fund is apparently under the authority of an undisclosed public guardian, which makes it harder for siblings to access the funds.

In her 20/20 appearance on ABC, Jordan Turpin (21) told Diane Sawyer,

“I don’t really have a way to get food right now.”

Meanwhile, her elder sister, Jennifer (33), sa:

“Well, where I live is not the best area.”

This seems to be the case for most adult Turpin siblings, as multiple reports in 2021 have stated that they live in less than eal conditions. ABC has extensively reported that their current living condition is due to the lack of funds being released to them.

According to Melissa Donaldson, the Director of Victim Services in Riverse County, some adult Turpin children had to go to churches for meals and were often left without accommodation.

Riverse County Executive Officer, Jeff Van Wagenen, told ABC that an outse law firm would independently probe the status of the Turpin children and the alleged mismanagement of the funds.

Note: Due to laws regarding privacy of children who faced abuse, entities and other information about most Turpin siblings are not public knowledge.

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Years after Jordan Turpin, 21, made her escape from her family home to call the police on her parents, Dav, 60, and Louise Turpin, 53, the girl who bravely ran away at 17 to make the call is speaking out in an upcoming ABC 20/20 special with Diane Sawyer. Jordan was one of 13 ks that the couple shared, twelve of whom were being held captive in the family’s home in abusive conditions, including being malnourished and chained to their beds. While the children’s entities have been well-protected, a little bit more has been made known about them through their parents’ trial and the upcoming special. Find out more about the Turpin ks here.

Jennifer

The eldest Turpin child was Jennifer, 32, who was 29, when the family was discovered, and her parents were arrested. Despite being the oldest, Jennifer has mostly been quiet, but she will finally detail her experience during the 20/20 interview on Fray November 19. While not much is known about Jennifer, she does have one of the most emotionally resonant descriptions for what it was like for her and her siblings in her parents’ house: “The only word I know to call it is hell,” she sa in a trailer for the special. 

Jordan

Of all the children in the Turpin family, their daughter Jordan is the most well-known. Shortly after, news of the Turpin parents’ treatment came out, it was also revealed that Jordan had a secret YouTube channel, although it’s not clear if she still has an interest in the video-sharing site. While she was 17 when she bravely ran away and made the 9-1-1 call that tipped police off to the abuse that she and her siblings endured. Jennifer will detail her experience in the upcoming special. During the 9-1-1 call and the interview, she revealed that she was confused and unsure about different aspects of the world outse of what she knew in her parents’ house. “My whole body was shaking. I couldn’t really dial 9-1-1,” she sa. “It was literally a now or never. If something happened to me, at least I died trying.”

Joshua

While very little is known about the other Turpin children, a few d have statements read during Dav and Louise’s trial under the pseudonym Jane Doe. One of their sons who was not anonymous was named Joshua, who revealed that he was studying computer engineering in college at the time of the trial, according to People. Despite going on to college, he also revealed that he’d never learned to re a bike until recently, and he also admitted that he’d still had nightmares during the trial.

The Other Turpin Children

Despite the Turpin’s house of horrors being a major news story, many of the children’s entities were protected shortly after the story broke, and not much is known about them. Their names all reportedly begin with the letter “J” according to court documents, via The Sun. During the trial, one of the siblings known as Jane Doe No. 4 sa that she was a college student and lived on her own. “I fought to become the person I am. I saw my dad change my mom. They almost changed me but I realized what was happening and I immediately d what I could to not become like them. I am a fighter. I am strong and I am shooting through life like a rocket,” she sa.

Riverse County Deputy District Attorney Kevin Beecham told People in an interview that the children are still close, and many of the older siblings have begun to lead more normal lives with jobs and school, after their parents were exposed. “Some of them are living independently, living in their own apartment, and have jobs and are going to school. Some volunteer in the community. They go to church,” he sa. “They still meet with each other, all 13 of them, so they’ll meet somewhere kind of discreet.”

Child-abuse case against Dav and Louise Turpin in California

Turpin case

Dav Allen Turpin and Louise Ann Turpin, who pleaded guilty to torturing their children, among other crimes

Duration1988–2018LocationPerris, California, U.S.ConvictedDav Allen Turpin and Louise Ann TurpinChargesTorture, false imprisonment, abuse of a dependent adult, child abuseVerdictGuiltySentenceLife in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years

The Turpin case concerned the maltreatment of children and dependent adults by their parents Dav and Louise Turpin of Perris, California, United States. The ages of the 13 victims ranged from two years old to 29. On January 14, 2018, one of the children, Jordan Turpin, escaped from the family house and called local police, who then raed the resence and discovered disturbing evence. Given the number of dependents involved, the degree of abuse and the protracted nature occurring over decades, the story garnered significant national and international interest in the press. Experts in family abuse consered the case to be “extraordinary” for a number of reasons.

In February 2019, both Turpin parents pleaded guilty on 14 felony counts, including cruelty to a dependent adult, child cruelty, torture, and false imprisonment.[1] In April that year, they were sentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after 25 years.[2]

Background

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Dav Allen Turpin (born October 17, 1961) was formerly a computer engineer who graduated from Virginia Tech[3] and had worked for Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman.[4][5] He met his wife, Louise Ann Turpin (née Robinette, born May 24, 1968),[6] at Princeton High School in Princeton, West Virginia.[7] The couple married in Pearisburg, Virginia, in 1985, when Dav was 23 and Louise was 16.[8]

The Turpins are Pentecostal Christians. As part of their beliefs, the couple had numerous children because “God called on them” to do so.[5][7] They produced ten daughters and three sons between 1988 and 2015. Despite their socially conservative beliefs, the couple engaged in swinging.[9][10]

The Turpin family lived in Fort Worth, Texas until 1999, when they moved to the neighboring city of Rio Vista. In 2007, the Turpin parents moved ten of their children into an isolated trailer on their property. Dav and Louise took the two youngest and left the rest of the children to fend for themselves, bringing groceries on a weekly basis but not enough to feed everybody.[11] One of their daughters, Jordan Turpin, who was six years old at the time, stated there was “a lot of starving”, and she had resorted to eating “ketchup or mustard or ice”.[11] After the family left the Rio Vista property in 2010,[12][13] neighbors found feces and beds with ropes tied to them inse the house, along with dead cats and piles of garbage.[14]

In 2014, the Turpins moved to Perris, California.[15] Neighbors reported that the children were silent unless spoken to, “like children whose only defense was to be invisible”; would skip rather than walk; and appeared malnourished and pale.[7]

One of Louise’s sisters later sa that Dav and Louise refused to let her see the children, and another sister sa she had been concerned about the children’s weight, but Louise’s aunt sa the family pictures posted on Facebook had made her think that “they were one big happy family.”[16]

The children d not spend all of their time in captivity. Photos emerged of the parents and all 13 children visiting Disneyland in nearby Anaheim. The boys and girls were dressed in matching Disney T-shirts. Dav and Louise had an affinity for Disney and for the park. The vanity plates on the couple’s two cars were “DLand” and “DL4ever”.[17]

Dav and Louise had been planning to move the family to Oklahoma at the time of their arrest.[18] Jordan Turpin overheard her parents speaking about the move and deced it was time to call the police.[19]

Escape and rescue

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By 2018, the Turpin children had been planning to escape their parents for more than two years. On January 14, 2018, two of the girls left the house through a window. The younger girl (age 13) became frightened and turned back, but Jordan, then 17, got some distance away and called 9-1-1 on a deactivated cell phone she had brought with her.[20][21] In the 9-1-1 call, she told the dispatcher that she and her siblings were being abused by their parents and that the smell in the house was so bad sometimes she could barely breathe.[19] When the first police officer arrived, Jordan showed him photos of conditions inse the house.[21]

Deputies of the Riverse County Sheriff’s Department raed the house, stating they were there for a “welfare check”.[21] [22] Louise and Dav answered the door. The sheriff’s department sa that Louise was “perplexed as to why we were at that resence.”[23] Inse, they encountered a house reeking of human excrement, decaying garbage, dead pets, and moldy food, with every surface covered in trash. Later, they found the other 12 children; one had been shackled to a bed for weeks[19] and it appeared that two others had been shackled until just before officers arrived.[24] Children were found with bruises on their arms, appearing frail, and caked with dirt.[19] The children were so malnourished that deputies thought they were all under 18 years old, when in fact seven were over 18.[25] The house contained hundreds of journals written by the children about their lives.[26]

Nature of the crimes

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For years, the parents had imprisoned, beaten, and strangled their children, allowing them to eat just once per day and shower just once per year.[6] The older children appeared much younger because of malnourishment; the 29-year-old weighed just 82 pounds (37 kg).[8] The 11-year-old child had an arm circumference equivalent to that of a 4-month-old baby.[11] Some appeared to lack basic knowledge of the world, for example being unfamiliar with what medicine and police were.[27]

The case is consered “extraordinary for numerous reasons,” including that abuse was inflicted on multiple children by both parents, and the calculated and systematic nature of the abuse and torture.[28]

Legal proceedings

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The Turpins were charged with 12 counts of torture, 12 counts of false imprisonment, seven counts of abuse of a dependent adult, and six counts of child abuse; Dav received an additional charge of a lewd act on a child under 14.[27] They were held in lieu of bail being posted, which media reported was set at $9 million for Louise Turpin and $12 million for Dav Turpin.[29][30][31][32] Dav was eventually charged with perjury in relation to affavits he filed with the California Department of Education over the years, in which he asserted that his children were being educated in a private school.[33] Louise’s attorney requested Louise be placed in a pretrial diversion program for mental health treatment due to a diagnosis of histrionic personality disorder; the judge denied the request on the grounds that Turpin posed a risk to the public.[34]

On February 22, 2019, Dav and Louise each changed their not-guilty pleas to guilty to one count of torture, three counts of willful child cruelty, four counts of false imprisonment, and six counts of cruelty to an adult dependent.[35] Both were sentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after 25 years. Experts believe they will never receive parole due to the severity of the crime, making it effectively a life sentence.[2]

Dav was originally sent to the Mule Creek State Prison before being sent to the California State Prison, Corcoran, and Louise is in the Central California Women’s Facility.[36][37][38]

Aftermath

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All the children spent several weeks in the hospital, after which the six minors were put into two foster homes.[39] Doctors treated various issues, including heart damage due to lack of nutrients, cognitive impairments, and neuropathy.[19]

Five of the younger children were housed in foster care with a family where abuse took place. In October 2019, they were adopted by that family while the abuse was occurring. The foster family was arrested and charged with abusing multiple children in their care, including at least one Turpin child.[40]

In early 2020, the Riverse County Deputy District Attorney sa that, “Some of [the children] are living independently, living in their own apartment, and have jobs and are going to school. Some volunteer in the community. They go to church.”[41] One had graduated from college.[41]

An investigation for the ABC newsmagazine 20/20, which chronicled the case for the November 2021 special Escape from a House of Horror, reported some of the Turpin children are now neglected by Riverse County social services, some are homeless and none may use the hundreds of thousands of dollars donated to them.[42] The money was placed in a trust controlled by a court-appointed public guardian. Joshua Turpin stated he could not access funds and was denied the purchase of a bicycle.[43] During an interview with Diane Sawyer for the 20/20 special, Jordan Turpin stated that she was released without warning from a foster home with no life skills, no plans for housing, or knowledge of how to get food and healthcare. According to the report, Riverse County has hired a private law firm to investigate allegations of abuse by social services.[43]

See also

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References

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Further reading

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• Glatt, John (2020). The family next door: The heartbreaking imprisonment of the thirteen Turpin siblings and their extraordinary rescue. New York: St. Martin’s. ISBN 978-1250312303. OCLC 1112280240.

In January 2018, Jordan Turpin, then 17, used a deactivated cellphone to call 911 and reveal a truth that shocked the world: She and her 12 siblings were being imprisoned by their parents. “They abuse us, and my two little sisters right now are chained up,” she told the operator. “They chain us up if we do things we’re not supposed to.” What police found when they arrived at the Perris, Calif., home was a filthy dungeon complete with cages and chains. The children were unspeakably dirty, and the whole place reeked of human waste. In “The Family Next Door” (St. Martin’s Press), out July 23, author John Glatt reveals the bizarre years leading up to the arrests.

In early 1990, Dav Turpin was transferred from Southern California to Fort Worth by General Dynamics, soon to be taken over by defense contractor Lockheed Martin. He moved Louise and their now 18-month-old daughter, Jennifer, into 3225 Roddy Drive, in the fashionable Meadowcreek neighborhood. Dav was earning a six-figure salary in his highly specialized engineering job.

Soon after moving in, Louise invited her mother and siblings to visit. It was the start of a series of annual trips that the family would make to Texas over the next decade, with Louise and Dav paying for everything.

“She was paying for our airfare out there every year,” sa Teresa Robinette, Louise’s sister. But soon after son Joshua was born, in 1992, Dav and Louise filed chapter 7 bankruptcy. Despite Dav’s high salary, the couple had maxed out their credit cards, racking up substantial debt.

Louise never admitted any financial problems to her family.

“It was a pre thing,” explained Teresa. “She was the only one of us that had made it in the world.”

In July 1993, Louise met her family at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, pregnant with her third child, Jessica. Once again, she insisted on paying for everything.

“That house was beautiful,” sa Teresa. “It was fun and happy.”

Fifteen months later, eight-year-old Jennifer Turpin started first grade. From the start, the frail-looking girl was cruelly taunted by her peers. Not only was she a couple of years older than everybody else in her , but she had poor personal hygiene.

She wore the same white-and-purple floral puffy top to school each day, and her long, greasy brown hair, crudely cut into bangs, was never brushed. Her mates would hold their noses when she passed by.

In 1995, Louise Turpin gave birth to her fourth child, Jonathan. The next year, she and Dav brought their children back to Princeton, W. Va., for a family visit. Once again, they pa for everything, taking ­everyone out for lavish meals at different restaurants every night.

“We thought she had the perfect life,” sa Louise’s half brother Billy Robinette Jr.

During their visit, her younger sister Elizabeth asked if she could spend the summer with Louise’s family in Fort Worth. As they all drove back through Louisiana, Dav suddenly took an exit off the interstate. Louise announced they were going to a casino to gamble, asking Elizabeth to look after the children while they were away. But first she made her sister promise never to tell anyone in the family they gambled.

“I was in shock,” remembered Elizabeth. “We were all raised up in a strict Christian home and taught that gambling was a sin.”

A few hours later, Dav returned. He seemed very upset, complaining that Louise had a serious gambling problem and refused to stop even though she was losing heavily. Then he went back into the casino, saying he hoped they would have enough gas money to reach Fort Worth. Several more hours passed before Dav brought Louise back to the car. They had obviously been arguing.

“Louise was upset,” sa Elizabeth, “and yelled, ‘I’m not a child! Stop bossing me around!’ ”

When Elizabeth moved into 3225 Roddy Drive, she soon realized just how strict Louise and Dav were with their young children, especially Jennifer. “They had to ask permission to go to the bathroom,” sa Elizabeth. “They had to ask permission to eat.”

During the summer Elizabeth lived there, she never once saw Dav and Louise kiss their children or even hold them.

She was also puzzled by Louise’s almost ritualistic mealtimes. After placing the plates of food on the table, she would call the children down to eat one at a time. Louise was always harder on Jennifer than any of the others. Before being allowed to eat, the first grader had to look her mother in the eye and smile, and then wait for it to be returned. “And then [Louise] would say, ‘Okay, sit down,’ ” Elizabeth sa. “And then she would literally just sit there . . . waiting for permission to eat.”

On May 21, 1997, Louise gave birth to their fifth child, Joy. Three months later, Jennifer started second grade at Meadowcreek Elementary School. Her hygiene had deteriorated even further.

“She smelled just like dirty clothes and urine,” recalled mate Jessica Bermejo. Jennifer also began exhibiting disturbing behavior in front of her mates. “She was talking about things that could indicate sexual abuse,” Bermejo sa. “Things that were inappropriate for that age.”

Jared Dana remembers a teacher sending Jennifer to the principal’s office for rubbing her pubic area, but apparently, no action was ever taken to investigate if there was a problem at home, and the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services have no record of the Turpins.

In 1998, Louise gave birth to her sixth child, Julianne. As Christmas approached, the Turpins were in dire financial straits. Although Dav was earning good money working for Lockheed Martin, he and Louise regularly drove to Louisiana to gamble, and she was still losing badly.

In late December, Elizabeth called her sister. Louise boasted that she was maxing out all her credit cards to buy as much as she could before they were declined. She proudly announced they were about to file for chapter 7 bankruptcy. The bank was foreclosing on the Roddy Drive house.

The next spring, without any explanation, Jennifer stopped coming to Meadowcreek Elementary. She would never return to public school. None of the other Turpin children would ever see the inse of a room, as their father had deced to home-school them.

After the Turpins moved out, the new owners of 3225 Roddy Drive were so appalled at the deplorable state the house had been left in that they took photographs. There was a terrible stench, and all the floors and carpets were caked in grime. There were also large dark stains covering the walls of every room, which appeared to be feces.

In 1999, Louise Turpin gave birth to a seventh child, Jeanetta. Several days after, the Turpin family moved into a house in Rio Vista, Texas. With a shrinking population of just 744, it was the perfect place to disappear from the world. What had started as neglect in Fort Worth turned increasingly violent over the next decade in Rio Vista.

“It started with slapping, hitting, [and] throwing around the room,” reported Riverse County deputy district attorney Kevin Beecham, who would later be involved in the couple’s prosecution. “And it aggravated to belts.”

At first, Louise and Dav whipped the children with the leather end of Dav’s belt, using the metal buckle if they still dn’t behave. Then they began using a wooden paddle or an oar.

“None of the victims were allowed to shower more than once a year,” sa Riverse County district attorney Mike Hestrin.

The prosecutor added that some of the Turpin children could barely read and write. Jennifer, who only had a third-grade public school education, taught her young­er siblings as much as she could, but years later, some of them still hadn’t got past the first half of the alphabet, according to prosecutors.

The children were so badly fed that their growth became stunted, and they would suffer permanent physical and cognitive damage. Still, Louise frequently sent photographs of her 10 children to family members. The children were always smiling and well dressed in matching clothes.

“The pictures we got always looked like healthy ks,” Teresa explained. “They always had smiles. They were always dressed in the nicest of clothes.”

In May 2004, a gleaming new Clayton double-we mobile home — worth $63,000 — appeared on the Turpin property. Dav and Louise and their 10 children moved into the trailer, leaving their house empty. It was now uninhabitable, with garbage and feces strewn everywhere.

Soon after the move, Louise gave birth to their eleventh child, Jolinda. In 2006, a twelfth, Julissa, was born.

After moving into the trailer, Dav built a makeshift cage to imprison any children who dared to break his rules. But at some point after moving into the trailer, the couple abandoned their children for four years. They found an apartment 40 miles away, taking the babies Julissa and Jolinda with them.

Jennifer and Joshua, teenagers, were put in charge of their eight younger siblings. ­Every few days, Dav would arrive at the trailer to drop off frozen food. Louise never visited. Although they now lived almost an hour’s drive away, Dav and Louise still completely controlled their children over the phone.

The two oldest children were instructed to punish any of their brothers and sisters who broke their parents’ rules, by locking them in cages. For more than three years, Joshua and Jennifer were both torn by having to maintain their parents’ reign of terror in the trailer.

Early one morning, Jennifer managed to escape from the trailer. She ran across neighboring properties, scaling several fences, before doubling back to the road to summon help. A neighbor then stopped her pickup truck, and Jennifer climbed inse. The terrified girl refused to give her name or age, asking how she could get a job, an apartment, and a car. The neighbor drove Jennifer into town, where she attempted to get a job. But without a driver’s license or any entification, she never stood a chance.

“She had no real prospects,” sa deputy DA Beecham. “No socialization whatsoever. So what d she do? She called her mother. And her mother came, picked her up, and took her away.”

Sheriff Rodney Watson sa the runaway Turpin girl should certainly have raised red flags at the time.

“A lot of people will dismiss some things that they hear as just crazy talk, which is sad,” he sa in 2018. “We could have stopped a lot of years of suffering.”

In July 2010, the Turpins moved to Perris, Calif., where the abuse escalated even more, as Dav and Louise began tying their children down with rope. After the parents were arrested in January 2018, Jordan told police that she and her siblings would spend 20 hours a day in their rooms.

Dav and Louise each pleaded guilty to 14 felony charges, including torture, false imprisonment and child cruelty, and were sentenced to life in prison. Today, the oldest children live together, while the younger ones have been placed with guardians. When announcing the parents’ sentence, Riverse County Superior Court Judge Bernard J. Schwartz told them: “To the extent that they do thrive, and it appears from today that perhaps a couple of them are, it will be not because of you both, but in spite of you both.”

Original Publication from The Family Next Door by John Glatt, Copyright © 2019 by John Glatt. Published by St. Martin’s Press.

“They’ve been victimized again by the system,” one official sa.

After suffering unspeakable abuses and deprivation at the hands of their parents, the Turpin siblings — it seemed — were on the path to a new life: a future with the resources needed to start fresh, to make up for the years they were locked away from the world.

Escape From A House Of Horror

13 children were held captive by their parents in a survival story like you’ve never seen. Now, hear from two of the Turpin siblings for the first time.

Learn More

Nearly four years ago, after authorities rescued the 13 Turpin siblings from their family home in Perris, California, where they were subjected to brutal violence and deprived of food, sleep, hygiene, education, and health care, advocates and county leaders assured the siblings — and a concerned public — that help was on the way.

“We are confent, given what they’ve been through and how resilient they are, that they’re going to be really successful,” sa Jack Osborn, a court-appointed attorney for the seven adult children, after their parents’ sentencing in 2019. “It’s going to be really exciting to watch that through the years.”

Unfortunately for the Turpin children, who ranged in age from 2 to 29, those promises have fallen flat.

Watch the Diane Sawyer special event, “Escape From A House Of Horror,” on Fray, Nov. 19 at 9 p.m. ET on ABC and stream on Hulu.

Their story attracted an international audience, prompting hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations from generous strangers.

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. Some of them have even faced danger again.

“They have been victimized again by the system,” Mike Hestrin, the Riverse County district attorney, told ABC News’ Diane Sawyer in an interview for the 20/20 special event, “Escape From A House Of Horror.”

Living in squalor

As Riverse’s district attorney, it was Hestrin who prosecuted the Turpins’ parents, Dav and Louise. They are now serving life sentences in separate California penitentiaries. Hestrin sa he and his team are among the few outsers who have managed to remain in contact with the children — their lives shielded behind layers of secrecy, mandated by a combination of laws to protect child-abuse victims and a sweeping confentiality order imposed by the judge overseeing the care of the older siblings.

Louise and Dav Turpin, who pleaded guilty to 14 felony counts for the abuse over several decades of their 13 children, speak with their attorneys in court for their sentencing, April 19, 2019, in Riverse, Calif.

Will_Lester/AFP via Getty Images, FILE

“They’re living in squalor,” Hestrin sa, referring to some of the adult children. “They’re living in crime-rden neighborhoods. There’s money for their education — they can’t access it,” Hestrin sa.

For Hestrin and advocates for the children, their treatment has been unacceptable — a tragedy that both shocks and compounds the horrors of their prior life. They say that the very people responsible for actively caring for the Turpins simply d not do their jobs.

The Turpins’ dire circumstances are a symptom of failed social programs, critics say, and emblematic of incessant structural deficiencies in the human-welfare systems in one of the largest counties in the country, famous for the resort community of Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

“That is unimaginable to me — that we could have the very worst case of child abuse that I’ve ever seen,” Hestrin sa, “and then that we would then not be able to get it together to give them basic needs.”

Riverse County (California) District Attorney Mike Hestrin appears in the Diane Sawyer special event, “Escape From A House Of Horror,” Nov. 19, 2021.

ABC News

Much of the $600,000 in private donations has been kept from the siblings. County officials, citing court-ordered secrecy, have refused to prove ABC News with any information about the trusts, including how much money has been distributed to the Turpin children and the justification for refusing some requests for financial assistance made on behalf of the children.

Despite a host of benefits available to the children through a litany of government programs and those pledges of support, several of the adult Turpin children continue to be subjected to dangerous living conditions and a lack of meaningful access to basic needs, like health care, transportation, food and even safe and stable housing.

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 sa, and, in at least one case, another was assaulted.

Jordan Turpin is seen here during an exclusive interview with ABC News’ Diane Sawyer.

ABC News

“I don’t really have a way to get food right now,” Jordan Turpin, 21, told ABC News’ Diane Sawyer when they met in July. At the time, Jordan had just been released — she says without warning — from extended foster care with no plan for food, health care, life skills training, or even shelter.

“Well, where I live is not the best area,” her sister Jennifer, 33, sa.

Shielded in secrecy

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.

State law mandates confentiality 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.

Nearly four years later, and with nearly all media coverage gone, the order sealing almost every record in the case remains in place, effectively blocking any scrutiny from the public. In late 2018, Judge Thomas Cahraman, overseeing the conservatorships, expressed concerns that the sealing order was “too broad” — but he ruled to keep it in place.

Until this month, that is.

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 d mark a first for the case.

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.

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 Riverse County, sa some of the children told her they “felt betrayed” by the county.

“D we see ks having to not have a safe place to live or stay at times? Yes. D they have enough food at times? They d not,” Donaldson sa. “They had to go to churches and eat because they dn’t know how to manage money … and some without housing at times.”

Riverse County (California) Director of Victim Services Melissa Donaldson appears in the Diane Sawyer special event, “Escape From A House Of Horror,” Nov. 19, 2021.

ABC News

Donaldson, through tears, explained that basic needs remain elusive, and the ks continue to struggle to navigate a complex and bureaucratic system they have no experience with, despite a global outpouring of support. She sa the county dismissed inquires from numerous health care professionals offering free services for as long as the Turpins needed them.

“When the case first broke, I obviously got thousands of offers of help … dentists, and doctors, and people saying, ‘I will serve these ks pro bono. Please send them my way,'” she sa. “I had to pass on those referrals to the Child Protective Services workers and the hospital. And none of them were utilized.”

“You rarely hear folks like you speaking out publicly about your work. This is the exception,” ABC News correspondent Dav Scott told Donaldson as she explained what the last four years have been like for the Turpin children. “Tell me why.”

“Because we have to fix it,” Donaldson replied. “You would think that this is the time to really get it together and do everything we can. And we dn’t do it that way.”

“Just Google it”

A major challenge for the Turpins has been accessing the state and county social service programs they were entitled to, as well as the donations that came in following their parents’ arrest. 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.

Officials refused to explain what money, if any, has been spent. Recent court filings show the court-appointed public guardian failed to file the annual accounting for the trust, leaving the family’s finances opaque.

One of the siblings, 29-year-old Joshua Turpin, sa he struggled to access funds for needs as simple as day-to-day transportation.

“When I try to have access [to the money], I have difficulty,” Joshua sa.

“I requested — I called the public guardian’s office and she refused to let me request for a bike,” Joshua Turpin sa, referring to the public guardian’s office. “And I contacted my attorney, Jack Osborn, and he refused to let me know who was over charge of my trust.”

In an email, Osborn told ABC News that his “representation of the adult Turpin siblings was limited to the conservatorship proceedings and certain limited issues the probate court requested.” He sa he was aware of problems but that he d what he was supposed to do as the court-appointed attorney.

Jennifer Turpin is seen here during an exclusive interview with ABC News’ Diane Sawyer for “20/20” airing Nov. 19, 2021.

ABC News

“Within our representation, we continuously advocated for services on behalf of our clients,” Osborn sa. “It appears that, once … there ceased national attention, the urgency in proving these essentials to our clients by certain county agencies significantly declined.”

Osborn also sa issues related to the trust “were not within the scope of [his] representation.”

A lawyer for the children’s trust d not respond to several inquiries from ABC News.

Throughout the course of ABC News’ reporting, Vanessa Espinoza’s name came up over and over. As the deputy public guardian assigned to the seven adult Turpins’ cases, Espinoza was responsible for helping the older children secure housing, health care, food support and education, and for aing them as they learned to navigate the whole array of public benefits systems adults deal with everyday.

Joshua Turpin sa that when he would seek Espinoza’s assistance, “she would just tell me, ‘Just go Google it.'”

“She wasn’t helpful at all,” he sa.

ABC News learned from state records that Espinoza, while working full-time for the county, was also a real estate broker on the se.

Records also show that Espinoza used to work for Osborn and his firm before leaving to take on her role at the public guardian’s office. In his statement to ABC News, Osborn sa the relationship was disclosed to the court.

Vanessa Espinoza, the deputy public guardian assigned to the seven adult Turpins’ cases, posted a selfie when she first started working for the county.

ABC News

Espinoza d not respond to repeated requests for comment. When ABC News attempted to meet up with her last week, she avoed cameras. The next morning, a county spokeswoman sa Espinoza had not worked there since Aug. 21, declining to say anything more because of both personnel-confentiality rules and the court’s order of secrecy in the Turpin cases.

The head of the county’s Public Guardian office, Dr. Matthew Chang, lauded his office’s work in a statement to ABC News, saying he “stand[s] by the exceptional work proved within the Public Guardian Program.”

Chang sa he “welcome[s] an independent and comprehensive inquiry into the care, services, and placement proved to the 13 Turpin siblings by Riverse County departments.”

Repeated abuse

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.

According to public records reviewed by ABC News, ChildNet has in recent years been the subject of dozens of investigations into allegations of verbal and physical abuse in its foster homes — many of which have been substantiated by state investigators.

In more than two dozen cases, ChildNet foster families were found by state investigators to have mistreated their foster children, including in some instances hitting and choking them, denying them medical attention and forcing them to sleep on the bathroom floor, according to public complaint reports reviewed by ABC News. In most cases the parents were retrained rather than removed.

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.

“What we’ve seen over and over again is situations where there was clearly abuse happening– the evence was just overwhelming, and there seemed to have been a policy by the county to basically never remove ks,” sa Roger Booth, a Los Angeles-area attorney who has represented multiple children abused in Riverse County.

“Really what we’ve seen in the cases that we’ve looked at is, unless you have a child who dies or a child who ends up pregnant as a result of sexual abuse, then nothing happens,” Booth sa.

A sign on a building for ChildNet Youth and Family Services is seen in California in 2021

ABC News

In a statement to ABC News, a ChildNet spokesperson sa the company was limited in what it could say because of confentiality laws, but they stood by their work.

“We take our work very seriously, including the extensive vetting of resource parents which is subject to state law,” sa Brett Lewis, the ChildNet spokesperson.

California’s Department of Social Services has yet to prove additional records and documents related to ChildNet that were requested by ABC News. The department is aware of the charges against the foster family and has opened an investigation, according to its spokesperson, Scott Murray.

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.

Five Turpin children remained in that home for three years while the alleged abuse took place. A lawyer for one of those family members sa, “The family are devastated by these charges. At this point, we do not know the basis for these charges, and my client is denying these charges are true.”

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 prove details about the vetting of the family, citing confentiality laws.

“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.

“One adult — that was a minor, now an adult — she has reported…one foster parent telling her she understands now why her parents chained her up,” Donaldson sa. “The comment was egregious.”

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.

“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.”

In a lengthy statement to ABC News, Riverse County Executive Officer Jeff Van Wagenen acknowledged that “there have been instances in which those we seek to protect have been harmed,” and sa his office has hired an outse law firm to “conduct an independent and comprehensive investigation” into what happened in the cases of the 13 Turpin children.

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 Fray.

As part of the probe, an outse law firm “will be seeking” to interview the Turpin children, the office also sa. Current employees will be “directed to participate in this investigation,” but not required.

A county spokeswoman sa the results will be released publicly when the investigation concludes in March.

Van Wagenen also outlined several of his office’s “efforts to progressively transform the county’s child welfare and dependent adult systems,” which include improved training and auditing protocols.

Beyond the specifics of the Turpin case, the district attorney who first noted problems in the months right after the Turpin rescue told ABC News that the mistreatment of the 13 siblings has exposed serious systemic fissures that exist across the American social services system — where the most vulnerable should be able to seek help in their time of need.

“If we can’t care for the Turpin victims,” Hestrin sa, “then how do we have a chance to care for anyone?”

ABC News’ Jenny Wagnon Courts, Alex Hosenball, Emma Seiwell and Jasmine Perry contributed to this report.

Jordan and Jennifer Turpin reveal the positive impact that Fray’s 20/20 episode, “Escape from a House of Horror,” has had on them

Turpin Sisters Are Moved by Outpouring of Love Since 20/20 Special: ‘My Whole Life, I Thought I Dn’t Matter’

Only a few days after their first media interview aired on ABC’s 20/20, sisters Jordan and Jennifer Turpin say they’re overwhelmed with the amount of love they’ve received.

Jordan, now 21, and Jennifer, aged 33, are two of 13 siblings who were rescued from captivity in their abusive parents’ Perris, Calif., home in 2018. The Turpin children were aged 2 to 29 at the time that they were found.

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While held in isolation in what’s been dubbed the “House of Horrors,” the siblings were routinely starved and abused, forced to remain seated for most of their lives and locked in cages or chained to their beds if they misbehaved.

Their parents, Dav and Louise Turpin, were arrested and convicted on 14 felony counts including cruelty to an adult dependent, child cruelty, torture and false imprisonment.

Jordan and Jennifer are the first Turpin children to speak out about their traumatic upbringing. Their debut interview, conducted by Diane Sawyer, was the focus of Fray’s episode of 20/20, titled “Escape from a House of Horror.”

Diane Sawyer special event – The ‘House of Horrors’ Turpin siblings are speaking out in a new 20/20 special

The Turpin sisters speak to ABC’s Diane Sawyer

| Credit: Christina Ng/ABC News

The episode also shared disturbing details about the Turpin children’s post-rescue lives, which — until recently — were marred by continued abuse and starvation, prompting an avalanche of support from strangers who found inspiration in their strength.

Jaycee Dugard, an author and activist who spent 18 years of her youth in captivity, even set up a new fund through her foundation to support the Turpin siblings, encouraging all who know their story to donate.

Turpin sisters

Jennifer and Jordan Turpin

| Credit: ABC News / “Good Morning America”

In a follow-up interview on Good Morning America Monday, Jennifer says she’s received “hundreds of DMs” since the 20/20 episode aired, plus an influx of comments and followers.

“All the love and support I’m getting,” she sa, “it’s overwhelming, but it’s awesome.”

“When people are saying that I matter, and they say that I’m loved and that .. I’m making a difference, I just like, I don’t understand it,” Jordan sa through tears, “because my whole life, I thought that I dn’t matter and I wasn’t loved.”

Hoping to become a motivational speaker after graduating college, Jordan added: “My whole life has been so hard for me to understand why everything has happened, but if I can use that to make a difference in the world, then I think it can heal me.”

Fortunately, though the Turpin children faced a rocky road following their rescue, they seem to be doing better now.

“I think everyone’s definitely in a better place right now,” Jordan sa, speaking on behalf of her siblings. “I know me, personally, I have a lot of healing to do from the last home I was in. I feel like there was a lot of damage done, and it’s just been really hard, but I think things are going to start getting better right now. We just have to have faith.”

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Updating viewers on her life since the 20/20 interview was filmed, Jennifer sa, “I have my own place, I recently got a car, I have an adorable kitty cat and bunny, [and] I love my job, even when it gets hard.”

The full 20/20 episode on the Turpin children, “Escape from a House of Horror,” is now available on ABC News’ digital platforms and Hulu. Jordan and Jennifer’s follow-up interview for Good Morning America is available online.

If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.

Dav and Louise Turpin are facing life in prison over charges including torture after the 13 siblings, aged two to 29, were rescued

‘House of horrors’ parents Dav and Louise Turpin gave all 13 children names starting with ‘J’ and were planning 14th baby

Two parents accused of shackling and starving their 13 children during years of abuse gave each one a name starting with the letter J – and they wanted to try for a 14th baby.

Dav and Louise Turpin are facing life in prison over charges including torture after the siblings, aged two to 29, were found severely malnourished in a filthy ‘house of horrors’.

The children were chained up, beaten and starved as punishment for doing something as simple as washing their hands above their wrists, it was claimed.

A criminal complaint has revealed that all 13 of their children have names starting with the letter J, with three named by a childhood friend as Jennifer, Jessica and Josh.

Louise’s half-brother Billy Lambert has told how she wanted to have a 14th child just days before she and her husband were arrested.

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Dav, a computer engineer, and Louise, a stay-at-home mum, face 94 years to life in prison if convicted on charges including torture, child abuse and false imprisonment. They face 75 felony charges.

Dav, 57, is also accused of sexually abusing one of his daughters aged under 14 at the home in Perris, California.

He and Louise, 49, who were married in 1984, pleaded not guilty to all the charges when they appeared in court on Thursday.

The children, including seven adults, are being cared for at local hospitals after being rescued by police.

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Louise’s younger sister Teresa Robinette and half-brother, Mr Lambert, have sa they hope the couple are locked up for the rest of their lives and suffer behind bars.

Mr Lambert, 30, was the last family member to speak to Louise when he called her on January 10 – four days before the arrests – to discuss a possible trip to California.

She told him that she was planning to buy a school bus and that she and Dav weren’t finished having children.

Mr Lambert, from Hixson, Tennessee, told MailOnline: “Then she told me they wanted another child. I sa ‘Are you serious? Why would you want another k, haven’t you got enough?’ But she sa ‘Yes I want another child’.”

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Ms Robinette added: “I hope they torture my sister for the rest of her life.

“I have four siblings now instead of five. She is off my family tree, she is dead to me. I couldn’t care less about speaking to Louise ever again.”

Mr Lambert and Ms Robinette claim Dav knapped Louise when she was just 16 and convinced her to elope, driving 1,000 miles from Princeton, West Virginia to Texas before they were stopped by police and returned home.

They sa their mother Phyllis allowed Louise to date Dav even though he was eight years her senior, but was too afra to tell her husband Wayne, a preacher.

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He found out when the couple were stopped in Texas, and furiously told her that she had “made her choice” and allowed her to marry Dav.

Mr Robinette blamed his wife and the couple eventually divorced.

They died just three months apart in 2016, with Mr Lambert and Ms Robinette claiming Louise refused to leave her family in California to visit them on their deathbeds or attend their funerals.

On Thursday, Riverse County District Attorney Mike Hestrin outlined the allegations against the parents, detailing shocking claims of physical and mental abuse against the children.

He sa the siblings suffered muscle wasting and stunted growth, were severely malnourished and beaten, and were even taunted with apple pies they were forbden from eating.

The mistreatment went on for years, leaving several of the children with cognitive impairment and nerve damage from extreme and prolonged physical abuse.

Due to malnourishment the 12-year-old child had the weight of an average seven-year-old, while the oldest sibling, a 29-year-old woman, weighed just 82lbs.

They lacked “a basic knowledge of life” and were so poorly educated that many of them dn’t know what a police officer or medication were.

Mr Hestrin called it a case of “human depravity” and sa the children were denied food and medical care, and were not even allowed to go to the bathroom when they were chained for weeks or months at a time.

They were allowed to shower only once a year, had not been to a doctor in at least four years and none had ever visited a dentist.

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Image:

Steve Robson/Daily Mirror)

Steve Robson/Daily Mirror)

The children told investigators their parents began tying them up years ago – first with ropes – as punishment, and then began using chains and padlocks after one of the hogtied siblings managed to free themselves.

The prosecutor sa the children were punished with beatings and strangulations for things such as washing their hands above their wrists, which their parents saw as “playing with water”.

They were allowed to write in journals, which are now being used as evence, but were not allowed to have toys, with detectives discovering many unopened toys in their original packages, Mr Hestrin sa.

The family slept during the day and were awake through the night, going to bed before dawn, helping the parents to evade detection, it was claimed.

Image:

REUTERS)

REUTERS)

Police arrested Dav and Louise at their home in the early hours of Sunday after their emaciated 17-year-old daughter climbed out a window and called 911 on a deactivated mobile phone.

She was so thin that police initially thought she was 10.

A sister who escaped with her turned around and went back to the house because she was scared, Mr Hestrin told reporters.

They had been planning their escape for more than two years, he added.

The family moved into their large bungalow in Perris in 2014 after moving to nearby Murrieta from Rio Vista, Texas in 2010.

Image:

cityofperris.org)

cityofperris.org)

Image:

cityofperris.org)

cityofperris.org)

Dav had registered the house in Perris as a private school and listed himself as the principal, allowing the abuse to go undetected for years as California does not monitor or inspect such schools.

Investigators believe the abuse started when the family lived near Fort Worth, Texas, and intensified after they moved to California.

Dav and Louise are being held on $12 million (£8.6 million) bail.

Prosecutors are due to return to court on Wednesday to seek an order barring the parents from contacting their children with phone calls or letters from the jail where they are being held.

Experts have sa their children face a long recovery process, and would likely be left with permanent physical and emotional damage, such as anxiety and depression, as well as issues around food.

The Riverse University Health System Foundation has set up a fund to support the children, and the Turpins’ two dogs are being put up for adoption by raffle.

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