The Turpin family case shocked the world when, in early 2018, 17-year-old Jordan Turpin bravely escaped her home in California and called 911, exposing years of unimaginable abuse by her parents, David and Louise Turpin. The public soon learned that the 13 Turpin siblings had been imprisoned in a true “House of Horrors,” subjected to physical, verbal, and mental abuse. The children were often chained to their beds, deprived of food, and forced to live in filth, enduring conditions that left many questioning how parents could inflict such cruelty on their own children.
Jordan’s escape on January 18, 2018, was a pivotal moment. During her 911 call, she reported, “My parents are abusive. My two little sisters right now are chained up… they’re chained up to their bed.” She went on to describe the dire living conditions: “We live in filth. Sometimes I wake up and can’t breathe because of how dirty the house is.”
The abuse had gone on for years, affecting the siblings, who ranged in age from 2 to 29 at the time of their rescue. Following their liberation, some of the children faced further trauma in foster care, where they were again subjected to abuse. David and Louise Turpin were eventually convicted on 14 felony counts and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
Since their rescue, Jordan and her siblings have been rebuilding their lives, finding strength in their unbreakable bond. By 2022, Jordan had moved into her own apartment in Southern California, and she shared that she remained “very close” to her siblings, fiercely protective of them. “Nothing could ever break our bond,” she said.
From the unimaginable abuse endured in the Turpins’ “House of Horrors” to their ongoing journey toward healing, the story of the Turpin family continues to be one of resilience and survival.
What happened to the Turpin family?
On Jan. 14, 2018, 17-year-old Jordan escaped from her family’s home in Perris, Calif. and called authorities. After police arrived, they discovered that Jordan’s parents, David and Louise, had been severely abusing their 13 children to varying degrees for years.
Reports later revealed that the Turpin parents restricted the food their children could eat, left several of them in a home alone to fend for themselves, and imprisoned, beat, and strangled their kids. When the children were discovered, many of them were unable to communicate sufficiently and were not sure who the police were.
In her 911 call, Jordan told the operator, “I just ran away from home. and we have abusing parents. They hit us. They like to throw us across the room. They pull out our hair. They yank out our hair. My two little sisters right now are chained up.”
Jordan’s plan to contact authorities was more than two years in the making and culminated as the family was planning a move from California to Oklahoma. “My plan was, okay, while we’re on the trip and in a crowd, I’m going to sneak out and call 911,” Jordan told PEOPLE.
But her mother seemed especially agitated ahead of the move. Jordan added, “Mother was yelling and throwing things, saying, ‘When we move to Oklahoma, I’m gonna chain all your …,’ and she said a really bad word. She said, ‘You can just sit in your …’ and she said the ‘S-word.’ It got really, really scary.”
Her siblings were distressed by their mother’s behavior, which prompted Jordan to make her call earlier than she planned. “The night I left was not expected. I was pushed to that point. I literally thought we were gonna die,” Jordan recalled to PEOPLE.
What is the Turpin family “House of Horrors?”
The family’s home was described as a “House of Horrors” by authorities and the public. The children were often chained up after “playing with water” (washing their hands higher than their wrists) and were often left in their own waste for hours. David and Louise only allowed the children to shower once a year.
The Turpin parents managed to hide their abuse for years by having the family sleep during the day and awake at night. Both parents worked in their home and set up their property as a private K-12 school with the California Department of Education.
The children were not the only beings in the home who were subjected to their parent’s cruel treatment. The family’s oldest child was once forced to watch her cat be mauled to death by feral dogs after she was caught taking food out of the pantry without permission. Riverside County Deputy District Attorney Kevin Beecham told PEOPLE, “She was caught stealing or taking some food from the fridge or pantry, and her mom told her to bring her cat and so Mom put the cat outside, and made her daughter watch as these dogs literally ate the cat in front of her, tore apart the cat and killed it.” The girl was approximately 9 at the time.
The parents didn’t only limit their torture to physical abuse either. When the batteries in the smoke alarms in the home would run low, they would allow the devices to beep endlessly instead of changing them out. Beecham said, “There’s that annoying beep, that loud beep. That’s what you heard all throughout the house. The psychiatrist explained that’s one mechanism that torturers would institute to try to keep control by using sounds.”
David and Louise found other ways to use food and gifts to torture their children. Sometimes they would leave pies out in front of the kids, but tell them they couldn’t have any or even touch the desserts. They also filled their home with unopened gifts at Christmas, never letting their children enjoy anything they brought into the home.