Fleeing 'Hell': Turpin sisters speak for first time on escape from House of Horrors
"How could heaven be better than this? Oh my gosh, this is so free. This is life," is how Jordan Turpin described the experience of visiting a park with two of her sisters after being rescued from years of imprisonment and abuse at their parents' home in Riverside County.
The Turpin "House of Horrors," as the home on Muir Woods Road became known, captured the nation's attention in 2018. Inside the nondescript Perris residence nestled in the Inland Empire about 70 miles from Los Angeles, a decade of child and adult torture had been unfolding for years.
Jordan, 21, and her sister Jennifer, 33, opened up during a two-hour ABC special with Diane Sawyer on Friday evening, describing the experience of the 13 malnourished siblings who ranged in age from 3 to 29 and were locked up in cages and chained to beds by their parents David and Louise Turpin.
The interview was the first for any of the siblings, some of whom appeared in person to address the court and their parents during sentencing in Riverside in February 2019. David, now 60, and Louise, 53, were jailed for life on counts of child cruelty, false imprisonment and torture.
The special started with the 911 call that led the Turpin siblings to safety.
"They pull out hair. They yank our hair. My two little sisters now are chained up," Jordan was heard saying to the dispatcher.
Four years later, she recounted the moment to Sawyer.
"My whole body was shaking and when I was still on the phone I remember I couldn't really dial 911 because I was trying to dial 911, but I couldn't even get my thumbs to press the buttons because I was shaking so bad," Jordan told Sawyer. "But I was trying to calm down so I could do it. And then I finally pressed it and they answered. I literally never talked to someone on the phone."
More: David and Louise Turpin case: A timeline of parental torture and abuse
Like Jordan, Jennifer Turpin described to Sawyer her first moment of real freedom was hearing music and doing a little dance in the hospital on Jan. 14, 2018.
"I got up and I made sure there was a little bit of a floor cleared out and I danced," Jennifer said.
Jordan told Sawyer that said she was inspired to break out of the home by watching music videos when the Turpin parents were away, saying she was a fan of Canadian pop star Justin Bieber.
"I was always like: I wanna be out there, I wanna be like that, being free not being trapped," Jordan Turpin said of what she would see in the music videos she secretly watched.
"I don’t know where we would be if we didn’t watch Justin Bieber," she said. "I started realizing that there is a different whole world out there. I wanted to experience that."
Her favorite songs were "As Long As You Love Me", "Boyfriend", and "Baby."
"I watched all of his interviews," Jordan said, adding that watching the singer helped her learn.
That motivation to see the outside world was made urgent, Jordan said, when the Turpin parents told the children they were moving to Oklahoma. Jordan and Jennifer both agreed that one of them had to get out and did so through a daring escape early on a January morning in 2018 that resulted in their freedom.
Diane Sawyer tweeted about the sisters Friday: "I was amazed by the two young women I met. They are beacons who created their own light in darkness."
The case against the Turpin parents
David and Louise Turpin pleaded guilty in February 2019 to 14 felony counts of torture, false imprisonment and endangerment. Both received life sentences with the possibility of parole after serving 25 years in prison.
The story of Jordan's escape, while previously reported, was detailed by ABC with newly released body-worn camera footage.
Police dispatchers received a 911 call from Jordan Turpin just before 6 a.m., on Jan. 14, 2018 — which was played during a Turpin court hearing and again during the ABC interview. The then-17-year-old told the dispatcher in a dismayed but focused tone that her parents were abusive, that some of her siblings were chained in their home and that they desperately needed help.
Jordan Turpin had somehow obtained an envelope that had her home's address on it, a cell phone from her brother that was only able to dial 911 and escaped through a window.
"My two little sisters right now are chained up," she told the dispatcher in a frail voice.
It's apparent in the call that even though she had lived in the residence for about four years, she didn't quite know where she was.
"I don't go out much, so I don't know anything about the streets or anything," she told the dispatcher.
Deputy Anthony Colace then arrived and found Jordan Turpin standing by a stop sign. She told Sawyer that she was terrified he wouldn't believe her and that if she was returned to her home she would be killed.
The interaction between the two was captured on the deputy's body-worn camera.
"I just ran away from home," she told him. "My two little sisters right now are chained up."
She labors to tell the story, "I've never been alone with a person."
The deputy asked her if she had pictures. She did.
She showed him images saved to the cell phone of her two younger sisters chained up and bruised. The rest of the interaction intensified as Colace realized that Jordan Turpin was telling the truth.
She described during the interview with Sawyer that while terrified, escaping the home was the only option for her and her siblings.
"I knew I would die if I got caught," she said. "But at the end when I saw like all my younger siblings and everyone, everyone was scared. I knew that's what I had to do."
Home security footage played during the special shows sheriff's department patrol vehicles arriving at the home about an hour and a half after Colace and Jordan Turpin first spoke.
Body-worn camera footage shows David and Louise Turpin open the front door and ask why police were there. The deputies said they needed to check on the welfare of the children, adding someone from the house had gotten out and notified police.
David and Louise can be seen breathing heavily and looking nervously at the deputies. Louise asked if the deputy knew the name of her child who had purportedly escaped the house. The deputies said they didn't know and entered the home.
The footage that followed was harrowing.
While deputies spoke with the parents near the entrance, others searched the home and began to find it in complete disarray, frail children among trash piled in filthy rooms.
They found two girls who looked malnourished. To build a criminal case against the parents, the deputies knew they had to find evidence of imprisonment, torture or abuse, not just deranged living conditions.
Then deputies found a door to a room nearly hidden behind boxes and inside a boy was found chained to a bed. The deputies found more chains hidden in a closet. The Turpin parents were then arrested.
Their abuse ranged from malnourishment to the physical harm of beating and shackling the siblings to beds for extended lengths of time, court filing later detailed. The siblings were living in filthy conditions and suffered stunted growth and other disabilities as a result of the abuse.
More: Inside the Turpin homes: Children were choked, caged and thrown down stairs, prosecutor says
More: Judge rules there is a 'plethora' of evidence against David and Louise Turpin; they must stand trial
Deputies, investigators and doctors who interviewed and treated the siblings testified to how the Turpin parents had controlled their children for years through nearly total isolation from the outside world, harsh punishment and terror.
"I was afraid to do one little thing wrong," Jennifer told Sawyer. "If I did one little thing wrong, I was going to be beaten. And not just beat, beat until I bled."
Police who interviewed the siblings said they were told that meals were simple and infrequent, often withheld for some minor disobedience. Jordan and Jennifer described surviving at times on only peanut butter sandwiches, ice and ketchup. They said their parents, meanwhile, ate fast food.
"Nothing is ever gonna be that bad," Jennifer Turpin told Sawyer. "Nothing's gonna be as bad as 29 years in what the only word I know to call it is hell."
Investigation into Riverside County looms
The joy of life the two Turpin siblings said they are committed to seeking for themselves and the strength they are resolved to show the world is tempered by the ongoing problems they face in spite of their hard-won freedom.
The ABC interview detailed that Riverside County authorities have allegedly failed to appropriately care for the Turpin siblings since they were removed from the family home.
Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin said during the broadcast that he was disturbed by how some of the adult children are "living in squalor" or in "crime-ridden neighborhoods," unable to access money that was raised on their behalf after their rescue.
"They have been victimized again by the system. That is unimaginable to me — that we could have the very worst case of child abuse that I’ve ever seen, and then that we would then not be able to get it together to give them basic needs," Hestrin said.
The special showed footage of ABC reporters attempting to get Riverside County supervisors and County Counsel Gregory Priamos to discuss the treatment of the children. They declined to provide information about how the trust fund set up to help the children is being managed.
Vanessa Espinoza, the county employee serving as guardian of the adult siblings, no longer works for the county, ABC reported.
Supervisor Karen Spiegel told a reporter that the county is investigating the matter and she doesn't have more information.
During the broadcast, ABC said it has sued the county over the unwillingness of authorities to provide the public with information about the living conditions of the siblings and a court-ordered seal of such information.
Riverside County CEO Jeff Van Wagenen announced Friday that the county has hired a former federal judge to investigate the allegations and promised a full report in March 2022.
The county's investigation will look into the various departments that have custody of the juvenile or dependent adult siblings, such as the county's Public Guardian and the Child Welfare Services departments.
The county's Department of Public Social Services has for years faced scrutiny about failed investigations into serious child abuse. One such case is connected to the alleged murder of a 9-year-old after about 10 reports of suspected abuse were made to the county.
The future for the Turpin siblings
The Turpin siblings communicated a complex array of mixed emotions about the convictions of their parents at the sentencing hearing in 2019 and again during the special.
Some wrote statements that were read by a sibling or attorney in court. Jennifer, Jordan and Joshua read statements in person. While some spoke of how much they valued their newly won independence, others said that they missed and forgave their parents.
Joshua Turpin recorded a thank you for the ABC special, but declined to show his face on camera. He also spoke about the difficulties he has faced since being taken into Riverside County custody.
Jennifer and Jordan similarly said during the ABC interview that they were pained by watching their parents cry in court. But both added, in their own words, that even if their parents were truly sorry, they still needed to be held responsible for their abuses.
Ultimately, the two said they wanted to tell the world that they live with hope despite their past and current challenges.
"I want the last name Turpin to be remembered as a name of strength," Jordan said.
Christopher Damien covers public safety and the criminal justice system. He can be reached at christopher.damien@desertsun.com or follow him at @chris_a_damien.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Turpin sisters speak for first time on escape from House of Horrors
