Topics: True crime, Crime, US News, Parenting
Warning: This article contains discussion of child abuse which some readers may find distressing
Jordan Turpin was the catalyst who saved her siblings, and herself, from years more of abuse at the hands of their parents after fleeing her home.
In 2018, Jordan escaped from her family home in Perris, California, and called 911. Just 17 years old at the time, when an officer arrived at the scene, she quickly detailed the abuse she and her siblings had be subjected to.
It came to light that Jordan's parents, David and Louise Turpin, had been abusing their kids. The type of abuse the children experienced ranged from starvation, beating, and imprisonment.
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Heartbreaking police bodycam footage documented the moment Jordan broke down in front of an officer and revealed everything about her abusive childhood.
"I just ran away from home," she told the police officer. "I live in a family of 15. My two little sisters right now are chained up on the bed."
Jordan went on: "Mother didn't chain them up just to be mean. They're chained up because they stole Mother's food."
The deputy proceeded to ask Jordan if she takes any medication, and she had no idea what he meant.
He then questioned if Jordan had any photos of what she was claiming, and she did. Jordan didn't have photographic evidence of everything, but she did insist that she had photos of her younger sisters being chained up.
The officer told Jordan to make sure that she kept the pictures on her phone.
Shortly after her interaction with the officer her parents we arrested. Then, in April 2019, both David and Louise were handed life sentences for starving and torturing all but one of their 13 children.
Now, nearly seven years on from their parents' imprisonment, James, Jolinda, and Julissa Turpin have spoken out for the first time in an interview with Diane Sawyer.
In a teaser for the interview, which will fully air on February 3, one of the daughters recalled the one of the last conversation she had with her mom before her arrest.
Elsewhere the three siblings talk about suffering yet more abuse at the hands of their foster carers after being rescued from their parents' home.
"They would do everything in their power to try to, like, break me," James says in the trailer.
The Turpins: A New House of Horror – A Diane Sawyer Special Event airs February 3 on ABC and will be released on Disney+ and Hulu the following day.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues or want to speak to someone in confidence regarding the welfare of a child, the Childhelp USA National Child Abuse Hotline (1-800-4-A-CHILD (1-800-422-4453) operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and receives calls from throughout the United States, Canada, US Virgin Islands, Guam and Puerto Rico.
