The Turpin Family House of Horrors
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It's not easy to shock a 911 operator. Their line of work brings with it hours of emergency calls from people pleading for help that often comes too late. Desensitization sets in over time, protecting their psyches from being infected by the horrors they hear. Some calls, however, manage to break through their defenses and chill them to their bones. On January 14th, 2018,

An unidentified dispatcher answered one such call in the early hours of the morning. She heard the trembling voice of a girl on the other line who explained that she had just run away from home. The 911 operator followed protocol, asking the usual questions. However, it quickly became apparent that this was no routine runaway case. The desperate teen was in the midst of a daring escape from a domestic dungeon

Her story was riddled with chains, cages, unspeakable cruelty, and a clutch of children imprisoned in squalor. Emboldened by the cries of her younger sisters, the girl broke out of their putrid prison and exposed one of the worst cases of child abuse in California's history. This is a story of suffering and survival, and how 13 children escaped the now infamous house of horrors. Part one, a daring escape.

At 5:49 a.m. that Sunday, Jordan Turpin quietly slipped out of a window in her Paris, California home. Careful not to wake her parents, she dropped down into the forbidden outside world. It was still dark in the cookie-cutter suburbia. She hesitated, unsure of her surroundings. Finally, she limped away down the street. Her breath billowed before her in the icy morning air as she fled her family home.

She clutched an old cell phone that her parents had deactivated. It could only call 911, but that was all she needed. However, Jordan could barely dial the three numbers that would save her life. Her body was shaking uncontrollably with fear. The 17-year-old had never spoken to someone on the phone before and was terrified that the police would drag her back to captivity.

She knew her parents wouldn't let her live after such disobedience. But it was her only chance to free her siblings. Jordan Turpin decided she would rather die trying and pressed the call button. A woman answered, asking if there was an emergency. Jordan wasn't sure what an emergency was. She didn't know what to say. So she started with the truth. She explained that she had run away from home after her two younger sisters begged her to get help.

Their chains were too tight and the pain had become unbearable. The 911 operator went silent for a moment before pressing Jordan for more details, her tone suddenly deathly serious. Jordan's heart raced as she broke the silence that had been beaten into her. She described the abuse she and her 13 siblings had suffered at the hands of their parents.

Jordan told the dispatcher how they would be strangled, thrown across rooms, shackled to their beds, beaten until they bled, and have their hair ripped from their heads for breaking even one of their parents' perverse rules. The dispatcher had heard enough and connected Jordan to the Riverside County Sheriff's Department. A second dispatcher picked up soon after and asked Jordan for her address. The teen faltered. She wasn't allowed outside and didn't know where she lived.

Luckily, she had come prepared. Jordan read out a string of numbers from the torn piece of envelope she had stuffed in her backpack. "925-70574," she declared. The 911 operator was perplexed. How could a 17-year-old who lived just 70 miles from Los Angeles be unable to distinguish her zip code from her own home address? The woman had to think fast.

She tracked Jordan's location using her cell phone's GPS and requested urgent assistance. Deputy Anthony Colles, who was 14 minutes away, responded to the call.

The dispatcher instructed Jordan to wait for him by a nearby stop sign and asked a flurry of questions to keep her on the line. The teenager responded as best as her stunted speech and vocabulary would allow. Each answer she gave was more horrific than the last and laced with the obvious effects of neglect and isolation. She didn't even know what medication was. Deputy Anthony Colles arrived at 6.11 a.m.,

He approached Jordan Turpin as she stood waiting on the street corner by the stop sign. His bodycam footage showed a grubby, disheveled girl who became skittish as he neared her, clearly intimidated by his presence. Colace knew that most runaway cases were solved with teary reunions and reconciliations. However, something about her emaciated frame prompted him to dig deeper.

He gently asked how he could help. Not knowing that she had never spoken to a stranger before, Jordan struggled to find her words between panicked breaths as she repeated her story. Officer Colleys was confused. The small, uncertain girl looked and sounded like a child. She spoke in a strange style of broken English littered with the cadences of a toddler. However, it wasn't the way she spoke that shocked him. It was what she said.

Jordan claimed that two of her younger sisters were currently chained to their beds. Overwhelmed by starvation, they had stolen food, a grave taboo in the Turpin household. Not only that, but she had the pictures to prove it. Jordan's cell phone contained images of little, malnourished girls with sickly pale skin, filthy clothes, and thick chains wrapped around their wrists.

Officer Colace realized the gravity of Jordan's situation and quickly ushered her into his car. As he drove her to safety, the situation became more sinister when Jordan said her parents would kill her for running away. He radioed in for backup, preparing for the worst. Part 2, Rescued from a Hell Hidden in Plain Sight.

At 7:23 on January 14th, 2018, a team of Riverside County Sheriff's deputies quietly surrounded the Turpins' home in Paris, California. It seemed just as innocent as those around it, with brightly colored flowers lining the path to the front door. An officer knocked several times, but there was no answer. A few minutes passed by before the door finally cracked open.

David and Louise Turpin, Jordan's parents, emerged from a darkened hallway. The startled couple was breathing heavily as they asked to see a search warrant. The officers explained that, as this was a welfare check, they didn't need one. David Turpin stood defiantly in the doorway, forcing them to squeeze past him once inside. They understood why.

officers were met with a stomach-churning scene. The dingy, suffocatingly hot house reeked of human waste and rotting food. Its floors and counters were littered with layers of hoarded garbage. As they waded through the mountains of trash, pale, emaciated children began to emerge, their hair and clothes caked with grime. The police located two bedrooms with soiled mattresses and bunk beds and scratches on the doors.

In one room, they found the two little girls from the photos. The girls were weak, eerily quiet, and covered with bruises from chains that had obviously just been removed. Soon, an officer discovered a third bedroom by the front door. It was obscured by towers of boxes and concealed a disturbing secret.

three children lay in filthy bunk beds. One of them, a boy, was shackled to the top bunk, his wrists and ankles bound by padlocked chains. To the officer's horror, he had been like that for weeks. This was all the evidence they needed. After decades of hiding their sadistic abuse in plain sight, David and Louise Turpin were arrested and their 13 children finally freed.

As the deputies arranged for the children to be taken to hospital, they were struck by another shocking discovery. Seven of the tiny, malnourished Turpin children were actually adults, the oldest being 29. The six youngest Turpins were transported to the Riverside University Hospital system, while their seven older siblings were taken to Corona Regional Medical Center.

After the initial examinations, it was clear that the victims had never received any health care. All 13 were immediately admitted for treatment, where the severity of their trauma was uncovered. Doctors and nurses were brought to tears as they saw the signs of extreme, prolonged abuse etched into the children's bodies and minds.

The persistent lack of nutrients had stunted their growth and caused heart and nerve damage. Some of the siblings' muscles had atrophied to such an extent that they struggled to walk. Medical reports show that one preteen's arms were the same size as a four and a half month old baby. The oldest sibling, 29 year old Jennifer Turpin, weighed a mere 82 pounds. The siblings talked and acted much younger than they actually were.

The extreme social isolation and deprivation they were subjected to had robbed them of essential enrichment during critical brain development periods. This inhibited their speech, with some showing signs of cognitive impairment. Despite this, the Turpin children remained astonishingly positive. They experienced their first taste of freedom and kindness within the hospital wards, and quickly improved after several weeks of treatment.

While the children enjoyed hearty meals, music, and making art for the friendly physicians who cared for them, their heartbreaking story made international headlines. The atrocities they experienced in their home had earned it the title of the House of Horrors, and the public wanted answers. Who were the monsters who kept having children that were destined to abuse? And where did it all begin? Part three, the birth of the House of Horrors.

Louise Anna Turpin, formerly Louise Robinette, was born on May 24, 1968, in a small town in West Virginia. She was a good Christian girl who sang in the choir and spent her free time immersed in Bible club. However, the Robinette family had their own sordid secrets. Louise and her six siblings were sexually abused by their grandfather throughout their childhood.

She finally found freedom when she met David Turpin, a nerdy boy six years her senior with bowl-cut hair and a brilliant mind. After graduating from Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, he had a bright future as an engineer, one he wanted to share with her. They married on February 11th, 1985, when Louise was just 16 years old.

In 1990, the conservative young couple moved to Fort Worth, Texas, to begin their life together. David landed a well-paid job as an engineer at Lockheed Martin, a security and aerospace company. Soon, 20-year-old Louise gave birth to their first child, Jennifer. However, their life wasn't as picture-perfect as it seemed. David had a ferocious temper.

Little Jennifer Turpin's earliest memory was of her father punching a hole in the drywall as he screamed at his wife. Over time, his constant berating caused Louise to develop unpredictable mood swings, which she took out on her now four children. Despite this, the couple was deeply in love, resulting in a toxic codependent relationship. Little is known about the Turpins' life in Fort Worth, Texas,

Neighbors were never invited over and the couple had distanced themselves and their children from their families. However, photographs taken by the new owners after the Turpins moved out depicted the beginnings of the infamous house of horrors.

The once pure white walls were discolored by years of grime. The carpets were stained with filth and the shower floors were coated with black mold. These images clung to Jennifer Turpin's memories just as the stench of her home clung to her unwashed clothing and hair as a child. The smell followed Jennifer to grade school at Meadow Creek Elementary School, where she struggled to make friends. Her peers bullied her relentlessly, calling her dirty and smelly.

Unfortunately, their tauntings were as merciless as they were accurate. Despite this, there are no records of any teachers ever submitting a report about the skinny little girl who came to school wearing the same tattered purple dress every day. After the third grade, David and Louise removed Jennifer from school and began homeschooling her and her siblings. That was the last time a Turpin child would ever go to school. Part Four:

abused and abandoned. In 1999, the Turpins moved to an isolated house in rural Rio Vista, Texas, where their abuse escalated exponentially. The area consisted of big plots with several acres separating its inhabitants, making it the perfect place for a big family with a dark secret. David and Louise Turpin, who were devoted Pentecostal Christians, declared that God had called upon them to have as many children as possible.

Four kids soon became nine, and nine quickly became 12. However, the more children they had, the worse their abuse and isolation became. On the odd occasion that David and Louise did take the children out, they would masquerade as one big happy family. David's Facebook page was filled with posed photos of sickly children with matching outfits and haircuts.

One photo plastered across media platforms today shows them wearing identical t-shirts labeled "Thing 1" to "Thing 13." However, their facade as an all-American family faded the moment their front door closed. The Turpin children were prisoners within their own home, forbidden from going outside or even opening windows. Sitting or lying down was mandatory and starvation was standard.

Their parents ruled with an iron fist, using the Bible to justify their tyranny. David and Louise taught their children to honor their father and mother and handed out brutal punishments for any perceived disobedience. The siblings grew up on eggshells, perpetually terrified of slipping up and being punished.

The slightest mistake would see them choked, tied up for months, pushed down the stairs, beaten with belts and sticks, and eventually exiled to dog kennels. One daughter tried to escape their house of horrors. Unfortunately, she was so damaged by the abuse that police assumed she had special needs and brought her back. David and Louise adapted their tactics, swapping ropes and dog kennels for padlocked chains and homemade cages.

Surprisingly, their derangement had not yet reached its peak. In 2006, David and Louise moved their children into a trailer behind their home in Rio Vista, Texas. They effectively abandoned them there while they lived their lives partying, drinking, and exploring their sex life in motels. Groceries were dropped off weekly, but it was never enough. Jordan Turpin, who later exposed them,

recalled what life was like in the trailer in a 2021 interview with Diane Sawyer. She remembered being so hungry that she ate leaves, grass, ice, and condiments. On the other hand, Jennifer Turpin recalled the psychological trauma she experienced as the oldest. She was forced to discipline her younger siblings by putting them in her parents' cages or face the same fate if she didn't. Finally,

David and Louise returned from their escapades. But the Turpin children's nightmare was far from over. David landed a new job as an engineer for Northrop Grumman, an aerospace and defense technology company. He moved his family to Paris, California in 2010, where they stayed until Jordan's escape in 2018. Part 5: Shopping Sprees and Starvation

The Turpin parents quickly made themselves at home in their new Spanish-style house. Its rooms were soon smeared with dirt and filled with trash. The children's bunk beds were fitted with chains, and their mattresses were soiled by forbidden bathroom breaks. However, Luis had developed a distressing new habit. While David bought himself a brand new Mustang and fitted their second car with a DL Forever vanity plate, Luis took it a step further.

She indulged in manic, uncontrollable shopping sprees that exceeded David's monthly paychecks. Louise had a bizarre obsession with very specific goods: kids' clothing, games, and toys. However, they weren't for her now 13 children. None of them were ever allowed to touch, open, wear, or play with any of it without mother's permission.

Shocking footage released after David and Luis's arrest shows the Turpin children's closets bursting with brand new clothing, tags still intact that they would never wear. Instead, they were forced to wear the same unwashed clothes for months on end. Unsurprisingly, Luis racked up enormous credit card debts during her deranged retail therapy sessions. Their money soon ran out and David Turpin was forced to file for bankruptcy on August 31st, 2011.

The couple decided to cut back on costs, but only those relating to the care and wellbeing of their children. The Turpin siblings were forbidden from bathing more than once a year and beaten for washing above the wrists or playing with water, as their parents called it. Their daily frozen meal was swapped out for bread and peanut butter, which became their staple. David and Louise, however, enjoyed three meals a day that were usually prepared by one of their captives.

The couple responded to any complaints by blaming their children, saying they couldn't afford to feed them because they stole food. Worse still, David and Louise often left fresh pies on the kitchen counter just to torment their starving children. The food would rot over time, but the children seldom gave in to temptation for fear of being chained to their beds. Instead, they resorted to digging through the trash when their parents weren't looking.

Incredibly, although the Turpins were surrounded by neighbors, David and Louise were never reported to the police. After 28 years of abuse in three homes, many wondered how 13 obviously neglected children could slip through the cracks in modern California and how David and Louise Turpin got away with it for so long. Part six, how the twisted Turpin parents fooled everyone except Jordan.

As unhinged as David and Luis were, their cunning was unmatched. The couple concealed their cruelty by locking their children away from the outside world. David illegally registered their home as a private homeschool, removing any opportunity for his children to socialize or raise suspicions. The oldest Turpin boy was allowed to attend a local college. However, Luis shadowed him, waiting outside during classes and driving him home once they ended.

The couple hid their children from neighbors prying eyes, locking them inside homes with blinds that never opened. They even went as far as forcing them to live a strange nocturnal life. The Turpin family slept during the day and came alive at night, only going to bed around 4:00 AM. Although disturbing, it worked. After David and Luis's arrest in 2018, some neighbors were surprised to hear that children had ever lived there.

David and Louise took their children on rare outings to fabricate the illusion of a loving family. On trips to Disneyland, the Turpin siblings posed for photos with forced smiles. They were forbidden from speaking to anyone, and Louise often spoke for them. However, the children were coached on what they could and couldn't say just in case. The siblings were forced to fake happiness in public. However, they weren't always faking it.

The children were allowed to wash themselves for the first time in months and got to wear fresh, clean clothing to avoid suspicion. It almost worked too. When David and Luis renewed their vows in a Vegas, Nevada chapel for the third time, their children were dolled up in identical dresses and suits. They almost passed for the big happy family they wished they were.

However, while an emotional David and Louise passionately celebrated their love, their children were clearly uncomfortable. The siblings danced awkwardly with an Elvis impersonator, their skinny arms swinging off beat. They seemed unsure of what they could or couldn't do until their parents led the way. It was hard pretending everything was okay, especially when they would soon go home to the same soiled clothing, chains, and torture.

However, it wasn't just the couple's cunning that kept the Turpin siblings suffering for so long. The Riverside County and Paris community failed them too. Once David and Louise's abuse became public, some of their neighbors admitted to spotting two Turpin boys eating from bins but never tipping off police. And although the California's Department of Education was obligated to check private homeschools, they ignored David's Sandcastle Day School.

They may never have been exposed if it wasn't for the courageous Jordan Turpin. When David and Louise were out, their little prisoners would emerge for fleeting moments of freedom. The siblings would talk, open windows and listen to music. Sometimes they would watch videos online in secret. They used the smartphone entrusted to an older sibling so that their parents could reach them with instructions.

Jordan had become fascinated with Justin Bieber, whose videos showed her that there was a big, beautiful world outside of the hell she lived in, one that she wanted to experience. She began posting secret videos of herself online, hoping that someone would notice her. One follower did. He began asking why she was always inside and only online late at night. Jordan explained her situation and the strict rules that had become her normal.

The follower insisted that her treatment was not only wrong but illegal and encouraged Jordan to call the police. However, it was her mother who gave her the final push. In 2015, Louise caught Jordan watching a Justin Bieber video online and began choking her against her bed. The attack was so savage that Jordan thought she would die on that foul mattress. That was the moment Jordan decided enough was enough.

She began planning the escape that would save her siblings' lives and put her parents behind bars. Part 7: The End of the Turpin Parents' Reign of Terror On January 18, 2018, four days after Jordan's heroic breakout, David and Louise Turpin were arraigned in a Riverside County courtroom.

The crimes they were accused of shocked the lead district attorney's investigator, Wade Walsvick. Despite being a 33-year veteran in abuse and homicide cases, this was the worst case of child abuse he had ever seen. The couple was charged with multiple counts of torture, child abuse, abuse of a dependent adult, and false imprisonment.

David was also charged with performing a lewd act on a child under the age of 14 and perjury for his illegal home school. Although there was clear evidence of the couple's horrific cruelty, both pleaded not guilty to all of their charges. David and Luis were each held on bail of $12 million, $1 million for every child they abused, excluding their two-year-old daughter.

However, just over one year later, the Turpin parents came to terms with the inevitable. They pled guilty to 14 felony counts of child abuse, cruelty, torture, and imprisonment in February 2019. David and Louise Turpin's sentencing was held in April 2019. As the couple had entered into guilty pleas, their victims were spared from testifying and reliving their trauma. However, two brave older siblings chose to face their abusers in court.

The couple wept as they listened to their children's victim impact statements. Whether out of guilt or self-pity, we will never know. Their daughter accused her parents of taking her life away from her and fiercely declared that she was taking it back. She proudly exclaimed that she was a fighter who was shooting through life like a rocket. Their son spoke of nightmares that kept him up at night and the experiences he was deprived of.

He proudly announced that he had learned how to swim and ride a bike without their help. Despite this, the boy displayed incredible maturity and forgave his parents. Louise Turpin then addressed the court. Surprisingly, she seemed genuinely sorry as she apologized for everything she had done to hurt her children. Louise sobbed as she said she loved them more than they will ever know, which made sense as she never showed it.

When it was David's turn, he passed the buck onto his attorney as he was too distraught to speak. His statement proclaimed his love for his children, but seemed to only express his sorrow for the suffering they experienced and not the role he played in it. Once everything had been said, Judge Bernard Schwartz took a moment to address David and Louise Turpin before handing out their sentences. He criticized the couple for their crimes and stated that their children would succeed in spite of them.

Judge Schwartz then placed several restraining orders against the parents. 10 years for 10 of their children and five years for two of their children. One child, brainwashed by their controlling parents, dropped the last restraining order.

Finally, on April 19th, 2019, 57-year-old David Turpin and 50-year-old Louise Turpin were sentenced to 25 years to life for decades of child abuse and torture. They received the same punishment as those who committed first-degree murder in California. Mike Hestrin, the attorney who prosecuted them, felt it was fitting as the couple had taken lives in their own way.

Today, David and Louise Turpin sit in separate California prisons, caged just as their children once were. Their victims were finally free from their clutches, and it seemed as though they had a real possibility of a bright future. It was only up from here for them. However, the children slipped through the cracks once again. Part Eight: From Salvation to Suffering The 13 Turpin siblings were meant to be given a new chance in life.

County officials assured the concerned public that they would have the resources and support needed to make up for the years of unspeakable abuse and deprivation. However, life in the outside world has been just as brutal for them.

In 2021, four years after their rescue, the Turpin children were still living in squalor despite the $600,000 in donations from generous strangers. Court-ordered secrecy has concealed many details surrounding their case from public scrutiny. However, several distressing allegations have surfaced. The private donations went into a trust controlled by a court-appointed public guardian.

It's unknown exactly how much of these funds were kept from the siblings, but it was clearly enough to leave them destitute. The oldest Turpin children couldn't afford education, stable housing, healthcare, or enough food and basic living supplies. They even struggled to access the support they were promised. Many of the older siblings often went without food, starving as they did under their parents' control.

Those who were given housing found themselves in areas with high crime rates and little to no life skills to cope.

Unfortunately, the youngest Turpin children felt the brunt of Riverside County's failures when they were moved from one house of horrors to another. The county was responsible for placing the children in foster care. They closely coordinated with ChildNet, a foster agency meant to recruit, certify, approve, and provide training for foster parents. In April 2018, three months after their rescue,

These institutions placed the five younger Turpin siblings with the Olguin foster family in Paris, California. This was their chance to heal from their past abuse and experience the love they had been deprived of since birth. Instead, they experienced physical, psychological, and sexual abuse. After six of the older Turpins filed a criminal complaint with the Superior Court in 2021, three years after their siblings began living with the Olguins,

An investigation exposed the foster family's sick abuse. 62-year-old Marcelino Olguin, 57-year-old Rosa Olguin, and their daughter, 36-year-old Lennis Olguin, have been accused of horrific crimes against their nine foster children, including the already damaged Turpins. The children complained of being beaten with belts, locked in their rooms, and having their hair pulled, which is depressingly reminiscent of the Turpin House of Horrors.

The Olguins allegedly called them worthless, told them that no one would ever love them, encouraged them to commit suicide, and threatened to send them back to their biological parents. The Olguin family's depravity may have even surpassed that of the Turpin parents as the accusations against them escalated. Their foster children alleged that they were force-fed until they vomited, and then made to eat it.

One five-year-old girl was apparently given sleeping pills and sprayed with water to keep her awake. The Olguins shouted that if she wouldn't let them sleep, they wouldn't let her sleep either. Unfortunately, the twisted family's foster daughters were defiled in other ways. They accused their foster father, Marcelino Olguin, of fondling them, kissing them on the mouths, making sexually suggestive comments, and molesting them.

The older Turpin children were outraged by the maltreatment of their little siblings and spoke out publicly about the abuse. This, along with the foster children's statements, led to the Olguin's arraignment on November 3rd, 2021.

The Olguins were charged with false imprisonment, willful child cruelty, and dissuading a witness. Marcelino Olguin was charged separately for four counts of lewd acts on a minor aged 14 or 15 and three counts of lewd acts on a minor under 14. All three sadistic individuals pleaded not guilty at a hearing on April 1st, 2022, and were released on bail. They're expected back in court in late 2022.

It's hard to imagine how children who have experienced such extreme trauma and suffering so many times could ever recover. However, the Turpin siblings are no ordinary children. Part nine, the road to recovery. Once again, the older Turpin children have taken matters into their own hands. They refused to let the institutions charged with protecting their little siblings get away with failing them so miserably.

So, they filed a lawsuit against Riverside County and ChildNet on behalf of their younger siblings in July of this year. The older Turpins have accused the officials responsible for overseeing their little brothers' and sisters' care of knowingly placing them with a foster family with a prior history of abuse and neglect. They also alleged that the officials failed to report the severe abuse after they were told about it several times.

Thanks to the older Turpin's efforts, their younger siblings have been placed in a new foster home. They are safe, loved, and walking the road to recovery together. The older siblings have fought to get the support they were entitled to, with most attending college and living independent lives in apartments. The hero of our story, Jordan Turpin, has found fame on TikTok, where she has earned a staggering 500,000 followers.

She continues to use her platform to speak out about the abuse they suffered, the systemic failures of California's social service system, and her newest fashion inspirations.