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- 2 days ago
The Turpins: Escape From a House of Horror - A Diane Sawyer Special Event - ABC News 20/20 (All Parts)
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00:00:03An amazing escape to save a family by a terrified girl with towering courage.
00:00:10This is N1-1, do you have an emergency?
00:00:11I just wanted to leave from home because we have abused Paris.
00:00:16My whole body was shaking.
00:00:18Trying to save her 12 siblings from a house of horrors.
00:00:22The only word I know to call it is hell.
00:00:24Diane Sawyer with a story of survival like you've never seen.
00:00:28Every day did you wake up in terror?
00:00:31For the first time anywhere, the raw police body cam footage inside the house in real time
00:00:38and the secret recordings the children made on a camera hidden in a Barbie doll
00:00:43and the superstar who never knew he inspired them to break free.
00:00:49I started realizing that there is a different world out there.
00:00:52Now, two sisters who risked their lives to save them all and move from terror to triumph.
00:00:59I want the turpin name.
00:01:01Like, wow, they're strong.
00:01:04This is life.
00:01:17A security camera is rolling in a quiet suburban California neighborhood.
00:01:22At the house across the street, in the shadows, someone quietly opens a window and slips out.
00:01:28Watch, there, a blurry figure stepping forward, a small, uncertain girl, heading one way.
00:01:36Then she turns, hesitates, and starts to run, clutching an old cell phone.
00:01:47That was my only chance.
00:01:50At least if something happened to me, at least I died trying.
00:01:549-1 Emergency, what are you reporting?
00:01:57Um, hello?
00:02:00This is 9-1-1, do you have an emergency?
00:02:02Um, I just ran away from home.
00:02:06Do you know what street you're on?
00:02:08Um, no, I just ran away from home because I live in a family of 15, okay?
00:02:20Can you hear me?
00:02:21And we have abusing parents.
00:02:25Did you hear that?
00:02:26Okay, how did they abuse you?
00:02:28Okay, they hit us.
00:02:31They throw us across, they like throw us across the room.
00:02:34Um, they pull our hair, they, they yank out our hair.
00:02:39I have two, my two little sisters right now are chained up.
00:02:45Okay, how old are you?
00:02:48I'm 17.
00:02:49What's your name?
00:02:52Jordan Turpin.
00:02:54Okay, I'm going to connect these with the Sheriff's Department so that they can help.
00:02:58One moment, don't hang up.
00:02:59I won't.
00:03:01A second dispatcher picks up.
00:03:03Hello?
00:03:04Oh, yes, I'm still here.
00:03:08Nearly four years later, this is Jordan Turpin remembering that night.
00:03:13My whole body was shaking and when I was holding the phone, I remember the phone was like,
00:03:22I couldn't really dial 911 because, I'm sorry.
00:03:30You're shaking.
00:03:31Turn around?
00:03:32Yeah, I was shaking again, so I was trying to dial 911, but I couldn't even get my thumb to
00:03:41press the buttons because I was shaking so bad.
00:03:45But, um, I was, like, trying to, like, calm down.
00:03:51Thank you so much.
00:03:52Um, I was trying to, like, calm down so I could, I could, um, to do it.
00:04:00And then I finally, like, like, press it and then they answered, I literally never talked to somebody on the
00:04:07phone.
00:04:08What's your address?
00:04:35What's your address?
00:04:38I was actually on the road because I didn't even know about the sidewalk.
00:04:42You're supposed to be on the sidewalk, but I'd never been out there.
00:04:45The caller tries to find her house address on a piece of envelope she's stuffed in her backpack.
00:04:49My address is 9-2-5-7-0.
00:05:025-7-4.
00:05:06Did you get it?
00:05:08Okay, so now you just gave me a whole bunch of numbers.
00:05:11You didn't give me any kind of street name there.
00:05:14Oh, okay, I'm sorry.
00:05:15Okay.
00:05:16Thanks for the numbers on my house.
00:05:17That's your zip code.
00:05:18Your, the numbers on your house should only be three digits.
00:05:21Finally, she reads the correct address, but is panicking, not knowing whether her parents can look out a window and
00:05:27see her.
00:05:28Are you in a corner right now?
00:05:31Uh, I'm, I might be.
00:05:35Are you at, is there a street sign?
00:05:37Is there a pole with two names at the top?
00:05:39I just see, I just see a stop sign.
00:05:42Okay, can you go over and stand right at that stop sign?
00:05:46Yes.
00:05:47And then eventually I saw a stop sign and I stood by the stop sign and she told me to
00:05:52stay there.
00:05:52And I was like, I'm scared they're going to come.
00:05:54Like, I wanted to leave.
00:05:55I was so terrified because I know the way they were, they wouldn't care if they knew police were coming.
00:06:03They would just kill me right there and there if they realized that, especially if they knew I was on
00:06:07the phone with the police.
00:06:07But she tries to remain brave because of her siblings.
00:06:12She is their hope.
00:06:13The reason I ran away from home was because the chains were making police and they would wake up at
00:06:19night and they would start crying.
00:06:21And they wanted me to call somebody and tell them.
00:06:24And so I wanted to call, I wanted to call y'all so y'all could help my sisters.
00:06:30Do you think anybody in the house will need to go to the hospital?
00:06:35Uh, I'm not sure.
00:06:38Sometimes we live in jail and sometimes I wake up and I can't breathe because of how dirty the house
00:06:46is.
00:06:46We never take baths.
00:06:47When was the last time you had a bath?
00:06:51What?
00:06:52When was the last time you had a bath?
00:06:54Almost a year ago.
00:06:56I had to make sure that if I left, we wouldn't go back because, and we would get the help
00:07:03we needed because if we went back, there's no way I would be sitting here right now.
00:07:09I don't know how you had the courage never having spoken to anyone like that.
00:07:15I think it was like us coming so close to death so many times and like I was worried about
00:07:21my siblings and when I saw them crying and worried, I just felt like I had to do it.
00:07:27Like, like I, I just wanted to do it.
00:07:30I wanted to help everyone.
00:07:33Do you know if your parents keep any kind of weapons in the house?
00:07:38Uh, I think that my father has a gun.
00:07:41Have you seen the guns?
00:07:43No.
00:07:45But they've talked about it.
00:07:46The dispatcher knows if this girl with the strange cadences and vocabulary hangs up or the call drops, there's no
00:07:54way to get her back.
00:07:55Her old phone has been disabled.
00:07:57It can only call out to 911.
00:08:00So the dispatcher tries to keep her talking.
00:08:02Do you know what your dad's name is?
00:08:03He's Terkin.
00:08:04I don't know much about my mother.
00:08:06He doesn't like, uh, he doesn't spend time for us ever.
00:08:09Does anybody at the house take any kind of medication?
00:08:12Oh, I don't know what medication is.
00:08:14Any medicine?
00:08:14When we have a cold, sometimes we take rubble cases.
00:08:18At incredible speed, the girl rattles off the names and ages of each sibling.
00:08:23Their names have been redacted.
00:08:39The deputy is now just seven minutes away.
00:08:44I just want to stay on the phone with you.
00:08:47How did you get this phone that you have?
00:08:50Uh, it was a phone that my brother had that he was going to throw away.
00:08:55And I had to have a way to contact somebody like you.
00:08:58So I got it so I could call number one.
00:09:00And you guys don't have any friends or anybody who comes over to the house?
00:09:06Hi.
00:09:09Okay.
00:09:09Is that the deputy?
00:09:10Okay.
00:09:11Um, yes.
00:09:12Go talk to him, okay?
00:09:14Yes.
00:09:15All right.
00:09:15Bye-bye.
00:09:17Hi, Jordan.
00:09:18You are looking at the body camera footage from the deputy as he arrives.
00:09:22Hi, what's going on?
00:09:24Moving into frame, the skittish girl who has to convince this stranger her story is real.
00:09:30I was so nervous because it was, I've never had like a conversation with a stranger before.
00:09:36And so I saw him and he was so serious.
00:09:40He was tall and I've never talked to a stranger.
00:09:43I was so like scared.
00:09:45I didn't know what he was thinking because he had just one straight face.
00:09:48You didn't know if he believed you or not?
00:09:50Right.
00:09:50He was like, do you have any proof of any of this?
00:09:53And I was like, yes.
00:09:55He knew they were real.
00:09:57Yeah, they were obvious.
00:09:59They were real.
00:10:00When we come back, those photos, the body cam footage, and what the deputy saw that changed everything.
00:10:19You're watching footage from a body camera.
00:10:21A deputy walking up to an anxious girl with a disjointed story.
00:10:25Hi, what's going on?
00:10:27Okay.
00:10:31I just ran away from home.
00:10:33Okay.
00:10:36And I live in a family of 15.
00:10:38Okay.
00:10:39My two little sisters right now are chained up.
00:10:41They're chained up?
00:10:42Yes.
00:10:43Where are they chained up at?
00:10:44On their bed.
00:10:45Now, mother didn't chain them up just to be mean.
00:10:50Okay.
00:10:50Okay.
00:10:52Perfect.
00:10:52They're chained up because they stole mother's food.
00:10:55Uh-huh.
00:10:56But I'm sorry if I talk too much.
00:10:58Okay.
00:10:59I've never talked to anybody out there, so I don't, I've never been alone with a person,
00:11:04so this is very hard for me to talk.
00:11:07Okay.
00:11:07How did you, do your parents know you left your house?
00:11:10No, they don't.
00:11:11Do you take any medication?
00:11:13What's the medication?
00:11:15Medication?
00:11:16Yeah, what's the medication?
00:11:17Do you take pills?
00:11:19Do you take pills?
00:11:20Oh, I don't think I've ever taken a pill before.
00:11:22Okay.
00:11:24Right, I haven't.
00:11:26The girl with the strange vocabulary nervously puts on a little hat, a reminder of one of her
00:11:32sisters who's depending on her.
00:11:35Our parents are abusing.
00:11:36They abuse us.
00:11:37But the reason I called and the reason I managed to get out here, this is one of the
00:11:42most scariest things I've ever done.
00:11:43Uh-huh.
00:11:43I'm terrified.
00:11:46But I called because my two little sisters, they've chained up right now.
00:11:50The deputy, a nine-year veteran of the force, is not sure what to make of this 17-year-old
00:11:56girl who looks so much younger.
00:11:57He is ending a graveyard shift, and it's been a hard night.
00:12:02Robbery calls, assault calls, deputies were shot at.
00:12:05He responded to the runaway call because he knows how they usually end.
00:12:09You take the kids back home to reconcile with their parents.
00:12:13I decided to take it, thinking, hey, this might be a good way just to end my shift.
00:12:18And then, on instinct, he asks a question.
00:12:22Do you have pictures of that?
00:12:23Yes, I can show you.
00:12:26I actually didn't have it, and then one of my sisters told me I need to get pictures.
00:12:33You have pictures of your sisters chained up?
00:12:35Yes, but they're in here.
00:12:39Okay.
00:12:39I don't have proof of everything, but I have proof that my sisters are chained up.
00:12:43So, see?
00:12:44She doesn't seem to know the word bruised.
00:12:47See, those are the places that make it on them.
00:12:50And see how dirty she is?
00:12:52We are so filthy.
00:12:54We don't take baths.
00:12:57How did your sisters get like this?
00:12:59Okay.
00:13:00Your parents chained them up?
00:13:01Yes, because they stole food.
00:13:03Okay.
00:13:04But they stole it because they were hungry.
00:13:06Who took this picture?
00:13:07I did.
00:13:07I took those pictures.
00:13:09Okay.
00:13:10You make sure to save these, okay?
00:13:11Okay, I will.
00:13:12Don't get rid of those.
00:13:13I will.
00:13:14I won't.
00:13:16They looked very, very sad and malnourished.
00:13:19They were very pale.
00:13:20This is that deputy, Anthony Kalachi.
00:13:24Once I saw that photo, it really sealed the deal for me.
00:13:27Kalachi knows this girl is not your usual runaway.
00:13:30She has identified a possible crime in progress, and her parents could be trying to find her.
00:13:37Can you do me a favor to take a seat in the back of my car?
00:13:39Okay.
00:13:40Do you have any injuries?
00:13:42Which injuries?
00:13:43Are you hurt?
00:13:44Oh, no.
00:13:45No, not right now.
00:13:52Kalachi radios in for backup.
00:13:55One pair is 32.
00:13:56Can I have a limit?
00:13:57With his body cam running, he gathers more facts, trying to piece this story together.
00:14:02What are your parents going to do when they find out you left?
00:14:05Uh, they're going to want to literally kill me.
00:14:09What's the worst thing they've done to you?
00:14:12Uh, they have choked me against the bed and...
00:14:17Did you call the police?
00:14:19I don't.
00:14:20I didn't have to get a phone yet.
00:14:22This is the first chance I've got a phone.
00:14:24Suddenly, she remembers another detail, a horror, recounted as part of her everyday life.
00:14:32Oh, my brother's chained up, too.
00:14:35Um...
00:14:35They're chained up?
00:14:37One of my brothers is chained up.
00:14:41So three people are chained up right now.
00:14:46What does your mom do?
00:14:48Nothing.
00:14:49She just stays at home.
00:14:51But she's always gone.
00:14:52Well, why don't you guys just leave the house?
00:14:55Because we're terrified.
00:14:57We don't really have a way.
00:14:58Everyone's always looking.
00:15:00There's always something.
00:15:01Deputy Kalachi is stunned by the girl in the back seat with limited words and so much courage.
00:15:08I asked her what her middle name was.
00:15:10She said it was Elizabeth.
00:15:11I asked her to spell it.
00:15:13She couldn't spell it.
00:15:14I wanted her to know people on the outside are loving and caring.
00:15:18He notices a video on her cell phone.
00:15:20She's singing.
00:15:21He asks to watch it.
00:15:22You blame me for everything I don't understand.
00:15:29This is a great video, and you're a beautiful singer.
00:15:34Daylight arches over a pleasant suburban neighborhood.
00:15:38It's Sunday.
00:15:39Most residents are still asleep.
00:15:42Quietly, Riverside County Sheriff's deputies pull up to a house.
00:15:46On the outside, a house just like the others.
00:15:50It has been an hour and a half since Jordan Turpin climbed out the window.
00:15:56So they were like, if we walk in, will they still be chained?
00:16:02And I was like, if they didn't notice me missing yet, yes.
00:16:06But if they notice me missing, they're going to try to cover that all up.
00:16:10When they asked me if I wanted to come up, and I was freaking out.
00:16:13I was like, no, no, no.
00:16:14Like, honestly, I thought, like, knowing them, what if they killed me right there and there,
00:16:19even if the police were there?
00:16:27Since a child may be in danger, the deputies do not need a warrant to enter the house.
00:16:34They knock for two minutes and ten seconds.
00:16:42Then, suddenly, the door cracks open.
00:17:05David and Louise Turpin, who have concealed a chamber of horrors for almost 30 years,
00:17:11now watch as deputies start to make their way through the door.
00:17:15We're going to come in and check, okay?
00:17:19And in one of the rooms inside the house, someone is waiting in her bed, eyes wide open,
00:17:25praying that the knock on the door means her sister made it to freedom.
00:17:30Knock, knock, knock.
00:17:31And I'm like, and then they said it's the police.
00:17:35And I'm like, this is it.
00:17:38In the next hour, we will show you the video as it happens,
00:17:41what law enforcement sees when they walk into the house,
00:17:44their first encounter with emaciated children,
00:17:47some of them chained to their beds.
00:17:59I can't believe the two young women walking toward our cameras,
00:18:04travelers from a dark world who invented their own light.
00:18:08It's been four years since the day in January 2018 when they were rescued,
00:18:13treated at a hospital, and given new life.
00:18:15Jordan Turpin, now 21 years old, her sister who helped plan the escape,
00:18:20the oldest Turpin child, Jennifer, now 33.
00:18:24How are you?
00:18:26Awesome. I'm doing really good.
00:18:28January 14th, 2018.
00:18:31Yeah. Big day.
00:18:35What's the first thing you did that you look back on and think,
00:18:38that was my first moment of real freedom?
00:18:41Actually, being in the hospital, when music was playing, I got up,
00:18:45and I made sure there was a little bit of a floor cleared out, and I danced.
00:18:49The first place we went, we went to a park with two of my sisters,
00:18:54and I was so excited because I could smell the air, I could smell the grass.
00:19:00I was like, how could heaven be better than this?
00:19:04Oh my gosh, this is so free, like, this is life.
00:19:09They are speaking for the first time, ready to talk about their lives,
00:19:13but respecting the privacy of the siblings they love,
00:19:16and the stories written on all their bodies when they arrived at the hospital,
00:19:21where doctors and nurses wept at what they saw.
00:19:24Children so emaciated they had difficulty walking,
00:19:28stunted growth, heart damage from a lack of nutrients,
00:19:31a preteen whose arm was the size of a four-month-old baby.
00:19:35Their speech, their language, limited by the isolation and neglect.
00:19:40All of us went through a lot, and all of us went through our own things,
00:19:44and to be honest, not even all of us know every single thing each one of us went through.
00:19:49Exactly.
00:19:51And nothing's ever going to be that bad.
00:19:54And nothing's going to be as bad as 29 years
00:19:58in what the only word I know to call it is hell.
00:20:02A hell created by her own parents,
00:20:06who started out two kids growing up in a small town in West Virginia.
00:20:11David Turpin, by all accounts, a nerdy boy with bowl-cut hair and a shy stutter.
00:20:16He graduated from Virginia Tech and was offered a well-paid job at Lockheed Martin.
00:20:22Louise Robinette, a girl six years younger, a member of the Bible Club.
00:20:26She sang in the choir.
00:20:28She grew up suffering a family secret, which we'll tell you later.
00:20:32This is their wedding photo.
00:20:34She's just 16.
00:20:35They are a couple both steeped in the Pentecostal church,
00:20:39with its message about the insidious power of the devil,
00:20:42and the rules.
00:20:43No drinking, no sex before marriage.
00:20:45And that's how the young couple began life in this nice house in a nice neighborhood in Fort Worth, Texas.
00:20:52They tell family God has called on them to have as many children as they can.
00:20:57He is 26.
00:20:58She's 20 when they have their first little girl.
00:21:01There's Jennifer.
00:21:03You can see her smile is so much like the smile of the mother she once loved.
00:21:08My first memory was about two years old, and it wasn't to me.
00:21:13What was it?
00:21:15I went downstairs for a glass of water, for a cup of water.
00:21:18And on the stairs, I saw my father yelling very loudly at my mother.
00:21:24My mother was crying.
00:21:25She started to say something.
00:21:27He's like, no, you shut up.
00:21:28And he took his fist and punched it in the wall, made a hole in the wall.
00:21:36I was terrified.
00:21:37As her father yells in anger, she says her loving mother heads into unpredictable mood swings.
00:21:44It's like I never knew which side I was going to get of her if I was going to ask
00:21:47her a question.
00:21:49Like, she's going to call me stupid or something.
00:21:51But anyway, and then, or like, yank me across the floor.
00:21:55Or is she going to be nice and answer my question?
00:21:59Neighbors are never invited inside that house, where the bright white walls are now gray with dirt and stains.
00:22:06Carpets with human filth.
00:22:08The shower floor seems black with mold.
00:22:12When Jennifer shows up at grade school, she's a little girl with unwashed hair, unwashed clothes.
00:22:19I remember wanting to make friends.
00:22:22I remember a lot of them didn't want to be my friend.
00:22:25Didn't really understand why.
00:22:27They called me skinny bones and acted like they didn't want to be around me.
00:22:30I probably smelled.
00:22:32But I didn't realize at the time I smelled.
00:22:37But that stench clings to you.
00:22:39It stays with you.
00:22:40Because we would literally live in houses piled with trash.
00:22:44And I mean literally piled with trash.
00:22:47Mold and everything.
00:22:50And there's no good way to get rid of a smell like that.
00:22:54So it was on my clothes.
00:22:56It was on me.
00:22:59And I think that had a lot to do with it.
00:23:02Is it possible that some of her teachers noticed something?
00:23:06Years later, there are no records from the school.
00:23:09But after the third grade, Jennifer's parents take her out and no Turpin child will go to grade school again.
00:23:17The family moves into an isolated house in rural Texas.
00:23:22David Turpin commutes to Lockheed Martin.
00:23:24They pose for photographs to send home to family.
00:23:28As four kids become nine, nine become 12.
00:23:31But when they go back to the house, the children are not allowed outside.
00:23:35All of them taught to honor thy father and mother.
00:23:39And only to call them that.
00:23:41I'm going to call them mother and father for the sake of the interview.
00:23:43But I don't like calling them that.
00:23:46Because they're not that to me.
00:23:48They literally use the Bible to explain their behavior toward us.
00:23:52What parts of the Bible?
00:23:53They love to point out things in Deuteronomy.
00:23:56Saying that we have the right to do this to you.
00:24:01That they have the right to even kill us if we didn't listen.
00:24:09Disobey mother, talk back, steal a piece of candy.
00:24:13You can be thrown across the room.
00:24:14Push down the stairs.
00:24:18Father also used belts and sticks and eventually dog kennels with padlocks and homemade cages.
00:24:26Jennifer draws the shape of the cage.
00:24:29And every day did you wake up in terror?
00:24:33Yeah.
00:24:34Because I was afraid to do one little thing wrong.
00:24:38If I did one little thing wrong, I was going to be beaten.
00:24:42And not just beat.
00:24:44Like, beat till I bled.
00:24:53Are you okay?
00:24:54You want to take a minute?
00:24:55I want to take a break.
00:24:57Yeah, a little break.
00:24:58I'm sorry.
00:24:59Let's do it.
00:25:00Let's do it.
00:25:00We'll just take a break here.
00:25:07Wade Walsvik, lead investigator on the Turpin case.
00:25:11A 33-year veteran of abuse and homicide cases.
00:25:15How long did it take you to figure out that this was unlike anything you'd seen before?
00:25:24Probably within the first couple days.
00:25:34The parents moved their children further off the radar.
00:25:38A trailer behind the house.
00:25:40And then they abandoned them to seek their own adventures.
00:25:44They drop off weekly groceries, never enough.
00:25:47Jordan was six when her parents left.
00:25:50She says at times she ate leaves, grass.
00:25:53There was a lot of starving.
00:25:55So I would have to figure out how to eat.
00:25:57Like I would either eat ketchup or mustard or ice.
00:26:02Ice cubes and ketchup?
00:26:04Yeah.
00:26:06And Jennifer is forced to discipline the children by putting them in father's cages.
00:26:14Cages that they were instructed to put their siblings in.
00:26:18Or that they would be put in if they didn't.
00:26:21That is the nightmare choice.
00:26:23Which is why she struggled so hard.
00:26:27As a 17, 18, 19-year-old.
00:26:31So much.
00:26:33It's not a choice.
00:26:36If survival is...
00:26:39The answer.
00:26:44But living in that, you kind of feel like you're torn.
00:26:47You don't know what to do.
00:26:48Because I was on the brink of suicide.
00:26:50I wanted to just end it all.
00:26:52All my pain.
00:26:53Everything.
00:26:53Three years go by.
00:26:55And no one seems to notice them.
00:26:57No one intervenes.
00:26:59But after the Turpin story breaks, a little boy remembers he once had a classmate in Fort
00:27:05Worth named Jennifer Turpin.
00:27:07A frail girl with a brave smile.
00:27:10He has since become a doctor.
00:27:12He wrote this plea on Facebook.
00:27:15Jennifer Turpin was the one girl nobody wanted to be caught talking to.
00:27:19I can't help but feel an overwhelming sense of guilt and shame.
00:27:23The person who sat across from you at the lunch table went home to squalor and filth,
00:27:28while you went home to a warm meal and a bedtime story.
00:27:32The resounding lesson, teach your children to be nice.
00:27:37Befriend the Jennifer Turpins of the world.
00:27:40Coming up, the video of David and Louise Turpin celebrating their love story.
00:27:45Mmm, baby.
00:27:47Certainly their abused children will keep their secret.
00:27:50What did they tell these children that paralyzed them with fear of the outside world?
00:28:14In a Las Vegas chapel, a middle-aged couple is renewing their vows.
00:28:19The chapel is filming the occasion.
00:28:25I did.
00:28:26I did.
00:28:27I take the Louise.
00:28:28I take the Louise.
00:28:29To be my wedding wife.
00:28:31To be my wedding wife.
00:28:32My best friend.
00:28:33My best friend.
00:28:34My soulmate.
00:28:35My soulmate.
00:28:37To have and to hold.
00:28:39To have and to hold.
00:28:40From this day.
00:28:42From this day.
00:28:43And forever.
00:28:44And forever.
00:28:46Baby.
00:28:46Mmm, baby.
00:28:50Wise man.
00:28:52And while their children were starving in that Texas trailer,
00:28:55investigators say the devoted couple had moved into a motel to go out drinking,
00:29:00posting photos of their adventures.
00:29:03And now the children they had abandoned are in the chapel with them,
00:29:07dressed in identical outfits,
00:29:08to celebrate their parents' love story.
00:29:11You ain't nothing but a house.
00:29:13Say hound dog.
00:29:14Hound dog.
00:29:15Hound dog.
00:29:16Yeah, hound dog.
00:29:17Bird in love.
00:29:17Bird in love.
00:29:18Baby, baby.
00:29:19Baby, baby.
00:29:19Mama, mama.
00:29:20Mama, mama.
00:29:21And we put our hands together, ladies and gentlemen.
00:29:24You ain't nothing but a hound dog.
00:29:26There's Jennifer, the oldest.
00:29:28There's Jordan, the eighth.
00:29:31You ain't nothing but a hound dog.
00:29:31Children with real thin arms and awkward dancing.
00:29:34Well, you ain't nothing but a hound dog.
00:29:37So these are the pictures that we saw.
00:30:02That moment.
00:30:07We, of course, we're happy to be out doing something.
00:30:11At the same time, I know inside, I was like, this is all a mask.
00:30:17This is all fake.
00:30:18We're not this big, happy family that they always betrayed everyone.
00:30:23And that always bothered me, and...
00:30:35There's like a mix of things in that moment that I was feeling personally.
00:30:42She would get us all dressed.
00:30:43We would get clean.
00:30:44And then we would go out, and it would be like the best day ever.
00:30:49We were so happy, all of us.
00:30:52Falling in love with you.
00:30:58But then when we would come back, it was just like put on the same dirty clothes and sit back
00:31:03to wear.
00:31:04And I used to always wonder, like, why couldn't we just be a family like that all the time?
00:31:12The family now lives under one roof in Paris, California, a suburb of Spanish-style homes, flowers by the door.
00:31:19David Turpin has a new job as an engineer at Northrop Grumman.
00:31:23He also has a new Mustang.
00:31:25On another car, a vanity plate.
00:31:28David and Louise forever.
00:31:29But behind the closed door of this house in the suburbs, Louise Turpin seems to have a manic pattern of
00:31:36shopping sprees.
00:31:38Racking up huge credit card debts with her childlike obsession with buying children's clothes, toys, games she hoards.
00:31:46The children are not allowed to touch mother's toys unless she gives permission.
00:31:52This is a video made in the house of one of the children's closets.
00:31:56Brand new clothes with price tags on them.
00:31:58While the children remain dressed in filth.
00:32:02They would buy literally so many expensive clothes and toys and stuff that they wasn't ever going to use.
00:32:09About a hundred different collector monopolies and stuff like that.
00:32:13At this point, David Turpin files for bankruptcy.
00:32:16They decide the children will have to economize.
00:32:19So every day it was bread and peanut butter?
00:32:23Mostly.
00:32:24Very occasionally we would get like food frozen or maybe fast food place.
00:32:31So what did your mother and father eat?
00:32:34Oh, they always ate fast food, frozen meals.
00:32:37They had the good stuff and I was the one usually preparing it.
00:32:42A video of the Turpin refrigerator stocked with items the parents eat.
00:32:47What did they say to you about eating what they wanted?
00:32:50They blamed it on us.
00:32:52They said they couldn't afford it because we were stealing.
00:32:55And by stealing, you're really, you're talking about food?
00:32:58Yeah.
00:33:00We had a weird schedule.
00:33:02Most of the time we were up at night and sleeping in the day.
00:33:05And the blinds were closed so the neighbors couldn't see.
00:33:08We wasn't allowed to look out or open them.
00:33:11We wasn't even allowed to stand up.
00:33:14We were supposed to like be sitting down all the time.
00:33:17Later, police find a video of the hungry, unbathed children hiding from view in a hallway.
00:33:22Their father, en route to his job, smiles.
00:33:25Jordan is filming this.
00:33:27It's a little camera she found on her Barbie doll.
00:33:30You can see the camera there on the Barbie's neck.
00:33:32The record button on her little belt.
00:33:36So take a look at this scene again.
00:33:42Thirteen children in their Paris, California home.
00:33:46So many houses just a few feet away.
00:33:49That bothers me because I know some neighbors knew things were going on.
00:33:53So I wish they did something, like just have somebody look into it.
00:33:58And why did the California school system never check up on a home school called the Sandcastle Day School?
00:34:05These are documents filed by David Turpin, who proclaims himself principal.
00:34:09Louise is the teacher.
00:34:11A lot of child abuse gets reported through our schools.
00:34:15Teachers and school administrators are mandated reporters.
00:34:18So, you know, if a child comes to school with bruises or emaciated, that is a very common way that
00:34:24it gets reported.
00:34:25Mike Hestrin is the Riverside County District Attorney.
00:34:28In this case, the Turpin family claimed that they were homeschooling their kids.
00:34:33They weren't.
00:34:34They used the homeschooling system as a way to avoid any scrutiny.
00:34:38And when mother and father are out of the house, the little prisoners emerge.
00:34:46When mother was gone or father was gone, we would like sneak and talk.
00:34:51And like sometimes we would open the window and we would stick our head out.
00:34:56They listen to music.
00:34:58There's a TV to watch.
00:35:00A few trusted older siblings now have smartphones so that mother and father can always reach them with instructions.
00:35:06They take videos of the food they hide in their beds.
00:35:10And most of all, these children are so desperate for an education.
00:35:14They try to teach each other language and what it is to be human.
00:35:19You taught each other what you knew.
00:35:21We just did the best we could.
00:35:24It was what we didn't know.
00:35:25I knew the whole alphabet.
00:35:27Uh-huh.
00:35:28But I had my sisters help me with that.
00:35:32They taught me the I, E, I, R, U.
00:35:34The vowels.
00:35:35Yeah, the vowels.
00:35:36The children are told not to speak to strangers when they're taken out on rare occasions to get those posed
00:35:43photographs.
00:35:45And again, that video in Las Vegas.
00:35:47Would you have spotted any fear in their faces?
00:35:51They've been told one mistake.
00:35:52And something called Child Protective Services could come and separate them forever.
00:36:25I thought that we would all go in different countries.
00:36:28I actually, like, memorize, like, six, seven, eight.
00:36:32I know.
00:36:32Like, if I'm eight and I'm supposed to be in third grade, nine.
00:36:34Yeah.
00:36:35You know.
00:36:35They say that we're too young.
00:36:37So they dance, they pretend, and the parents don't know that one of their children has borrowed a sibling's phone
00:36:44and is about to see something that will ignite a plan to escape.
00:37:05In 2015, how does Jordan Turpin start to summon the courage to run?
00:37:10She secretly opens a sibling's smartphone.
00:37:13I don't know where we would be if we didn't watch Justin Bieber.
00:37:20Justin Bieber was the first thing who fascinated you.
00:37:24Oh, well, I never talked to Justin Bieber.
00:37:26No.
00:37:26Oh, I'm sorry.
00:37:27I'm so sorry.
00:37:28Yes.
00:37:28I loved As Long As You Love Me and Boyfriend and Baby.
00:37:40Never underestimate the power and reach of a teenage heartthrob to enchant a 14-year-old fan, even one trapped
00:37:47in a cruel prison.
00:37:50I started realizing that there is a different world out there.
00:37:53I only knew one world, and that was, like, always being there.
00:37:56I was just low-minded by how different it is out there, and I was always like, I want to
00:38:01be out there.
00:38:02I want to be like that.
00:38:03I want to experience that.
00:38:04I want to do that.
00:38:06In Bieber's videos, the houses are nice.
00:38:08He has friends.
00:38:10And he talks about being sad and searching for God and comfort just like her.
00:38:16She says she loved learning new words from him for her stunted vocabulary.
00:38:20I, like, watched all his interviews, and it was actually watching him that made me learn fast, smarter, because I
00:38:29started paying attention.
00:38:30If God is based on love, it's I love you first, regardless of what you do, rather than you do
00:38:37this and I love you.
00:38:38She started to understand the fragments of hope she'd seen on TV.
00:38:46Happy kids in pretty dresses.
00:38:49So far away from her life, she had tried to make a pretty dress with old papers she found around
00:38:55the house.
00:38:56But, yeah, like, High School Musical and all those other Disney channels and stuff, like Hannah Montana.
00:39:02Now, why don't you tell me what's really on your mind?
00:39:05Those movies, when their daughter would feel like they could talk to their mom.
00:39:09And we'd be like, oh, my gosh, like, if I did that, there's no way, like, but it's like, I
00:39:16mean, she's always like, is that really how it is in real life?
00:39:20Something is changing inside this quiet child.
00:39:24I wanted to get that phone and, like, somehow get, like, social media and then start talking to other people,
00:39:32because I've never talked to strangers before.
00:39:35With her secret phone, she decides to post a little song she has written online.
00:39:41You blame me for whatever you say
00:39:45Before what they say, what they say
00:39:48You blame me for everything
00:39:53When mother and father would leave, I would, that's when I would sneak in the bathroom and I would make
00:40:00my videos and put them out.
00:40:04And I was hoping, like, if I made those videos, then people might follow me on social media.
00:40:08And some did.
00:40:10A stranger writes, asking why she's always inside and up at night.
00:40:15He kind of just realized that I was always in my room.
00:40:18And then he started asking questions.
00:40:20And I told him how we eat and how we're not allowed to get out of bed.
00:40:24He was like, this isn't right.
00:40:25You should call the cops.
00:40:27Like, I was so happy to hear him say that because I was like, I was right.
00:40:31I was right that the situation was so bad.
00:40:35And one day, Jordan is caught secretly watching a Justin Bieber video.
00:40:40Mother, she choked me.
00:40:42And I thought I was going to die that day.
00:40:45And after that whole day happened, I kept having nightmares that we were going to, that she was killing me.
00:40:53What Jordan Turpin knows is that the moment has arrived.
00:40:57You either crack or you decide to fight.
00:41:00I kept having nightmares that I was dying.
00:41:03And when I woke up, I was crying so hard.
00:41:06And that day was when I was like, I told my two sisters, I'm going to leave.
00:41:13Coming up, she starts to plan her escape.
00:41:16But the clock is ticking.
00:41:18One chance to get out and not pay with her life.
00:41:21And the video cameras in real time as police move through that house.
00:41:34The time for escape is now.
00:41:37Hello, this is 911.
00:41:38Do you have an emergency?
00:41:39It was literally a now or never.
00:41:42A desperate plan for freedom.
00:41:45If something happened to me, at least I died trying.
00:41:4813 siblings held captive by their parents.
00:41:53Locked inside for decades.
00:41:56For the first time, we're taking you inside that house of horrors.
00:42:00As the police saw it in real time.
00:42:04The sights, the secrets.
00:42:06I found the missing link.
00:42:08What do you know about why these two people did this to their children?
00:42:1413 times over.
00:42:15And what's happened since then?
00:42:17Were many of the promises made to them?
00:42:20Promises broken?
00:42:21Who is accountable?
00:42:23We're looking for answers.
00:42:25Can I ask you, sir?
00:42:27And looking at joy.
00:42:29I want my name and her name, the Terpen name.
00:42:33Like, wow.
00:42:35They're strong.
00:42:40Behind the closed drawer of a suburban house in a nice neighborhood.
00:42:43Where a Christmas ornament hangs in the window.
00:42:47Inside, there is a cruelty you do not have to imagine.
00:42:51You can see it in the pictures.
00:42:53Chains used to tie little arms and legs.
00:42:55One child tied with a rope uses his teeth to escape, so they switch to thicker, heavier chains.
00:43:01A child, both hands attached to one railing, can't roll over or itch the lice on his head.
00:43:08Chained for up to a month, two months.
00:43:10Only released to eat or go to the bathroom, if they can make it in time.
00:43:16Jordan Turpin looks at what is happening to her siblings and wrestles an agonizing choice.
00:43:21I knew I would die if I got caught.
00:43:23But at the end, when I saw, like, all my younger siblings and everyone, everyone was scared, I knew that's
00:43:30what I had to do.
00:43:32She decides to go to her sister secretly to ask for help.
00:43:35She's like, we need to get out of here.
00:43:39Because I gave her all the advice I knew.
00:43:41All the advice I could.
00:43:42Jennifer had tried to escape herself long ago, but came back.
00:43:46She wrote a song, a kind of prayer for God to help them.
00:43:50Lord, I hate my life.
00:43:52Help me see the light.
00:43:54I am losing faith.
00:43:56Help me see the day.
00:43:58Lord, help me see the light.
00:44:06Light in this darkness.
00:44:08She draws a primitive little map for her sister, Jordan, trying to recreate what she knows about the world outside
00:44:16their house.
00:44:17She thinks the road out may be there or there.
00:44:20It's hard to be sure.
00:44:22In a dark room, Jordan films a phone call with another sister who asks a taxi company how much it
00:44:28would cost to take someone out of California to Nevada.
00:44:32The very beginning of Nevada.
00:44:34Yeah.
00:44:35How much would it cost?
00:44:37A couple hundred?
00:44:41I'm not going.
00:44:43I'll take a bus.
00:44:45Did your parents know you had the phones?
00:44:48No.
00:44:49No, they didn't.
00:44:51Since a taxi costs too much, Jordan remembers something she's seen on a TV show called Cops.
00:44:58911.
00:44:58I got those photos because I knew that I would need proof of that.
00:45:03Get pictures, anything to prove so they can't think you're just a teenager looking for attention.
00:45:12Two of Jordan's little sisters have now been chained to their beds in the room they all share.
00:45:17They were caught stealing mother's candy.
00:45:19She cannot bear their cries at night.
00:45:22Photos of them would be proof.
00:45:25I asked them permission before taking it and they said yes.
00:45:30So they knew why I was taking the picture and they knew what it was for.
00:45:34And they let it meet.
00:45:36And then on January 14th, 2018, the signal that time has run out.
00:45:42Jordan hears mother say the family is moving to Oklahoma and everyone is getting chained.
00:45:48The very next day we were moving, it was literally a now or never.
00:45:53Everyone's getting chained.
00:45:54I knew I had to leave that night.
00:45:57That was my only chance.
00:45:59At least if something happened to me, at least I died trying.
00:46:03Because if we went to Oklahoma, there was a big chance that some of us would have died.
00:46:06I honestly don't know that at least one, maybe two of them would have survived the trip.
00:46:14They were in such a horrible decline.
00:46:16And on the edge of starvation.
00:46:20So I started grabbing my bags and I put on like some clothes, clean clothes.
00:46:26So I wouldn't like smell or anything.
00:46:30She puts pillows under a blanket to look like her in case her parents peek into the bedroom.
00:46:36She climbs up on the windowsill and drops down.
00:46:40There she is again in that security camera footage starting to run.
00:46:46I could barely walk.
00:46:47My legs were shaking.
00:46:49Everywhere was shaking.
00:46:50I was so scared.
00:46:52And something she didn't know at the time.
00:46:54There, in the shadows, someone else is slipping out the window and running in the opposite direction.
00:47:00It's her sister who can't find Jordan and then slowly makes her way back.
00:47:05You can see that too on the security camera footage.
00:47:08While somewhere in the darkness, Jordan is making the life-saving call.
00:47:139-1-1, what's your name?
00:47:17Jordan Turpin.
00:47:18I was trying to die on 9-1-1.
00:47:21But I couldn't even get my thumb to press the buttons because I was shaking so bad.
00:47:30My two little sisters right now are chained up.
00:47:35They will wake up at night and they will start crying.
00:47:38And they wanted me to call somebody and tell them.
00:47:42Hi, Jordan.
00:47:44Hi, what's going on?
00:47:46The deputy who arrives is so intuitive.
00:47:48He asks that critical question and she is ready.
00:47:53You have pictures of your sisters chained up?
00:47:54Yes.
00:47:55I don't have proof of everything, but I have proof that my sisters are chained up.
00:47:58Who took this picture?
00:47:59Thirteen.
00:48:00I did.
00:48:00I took those pictures.
00:48:02Okay.
00:48:03You make sure to save these, okay?
00:48:04Okay, I will.
00:48:05Don't get rid of those.
00:48:06I will.
00:48:07I won.
00:48:10And take a seat back here, okay?
00:48:11Okay.
00:48:15The sun is up.
00:48:17Reinforcements arrive.
00:48:19Riverside County deputies walk up to the door.
00:48:21No idea what they'll find on the other side.
00:48:28This is body camera footage of the police officers knocking on and off for two minutes and ten seconds.
00:48:34They're obviously not open.
00:48:36Suddenly, the door cracks open.
00:48:39Hi.
00:48:39Hi.
00:48:40Hi.
00:48:40Hi.
00:48:40Sorry to bug you up.
00:48:41How are you guys doing?
00:48:42Good.
00:48:43We got a call for a check the welfare here at your house.
00:48:48So...
00:48:48I'll go up for a while.
00:48:49A check the welfare.
00:48:51So just basically checking everybody, make sure everybody's okay.
00:48:54Yeah, why?
00:48:55Do you guys have kids in the house?
00:48:56Yes.
00:48:58We now know they had been scrambling to have someone unlock the chains.
00:49:02Okay, do you mind if we come in and just take a look?
00:49:04Make sure everybody's safe and everything's okay?
00:49:06Okay.
00:49:07What kind of call did you get?
00:49:08Well, we got a call that there was a young female walking around saying that she came from a house
00:49:13over here.
00:49:14And we were able to find out that this was a house.
00:49:16We just wanted to check and make sure everybody was okay.
00:49:18Think that she came from here?
00:49:19That's what she said.
00:49:20From inside this house?
00:49:21I think so.
00:49:24Otherwise, we wouldn't be knocking on your door at Sunday.
00:49:25Did she say her name?
00:49:27I don't know.
00:49:28Did she say her name?
00:49:29I don't know.
00:49:29I can.
00:49:29But we need to check.
00:49:30We just need to check and make sure everybody's okay.
00:49:32Once we get in and make sure everybody's okay, we'll get out of here.
00:49:34We have a lot where we're packing.
00:49:36Okay.
00:49:36We're getting ready to move.
00:49:38No worries.
00:49:38So it's a mess in here.
00:49:40All right.
00:49:40That's fine.
00:49:41We don't mind messes.
00:49:42We've been at worst.
00:49:43How are you doing, sir?
00:49:45I'm doing okay.
00:49:45No weapons in the house or anything like that?
00:49:48I do have a gun because it's locked up.
00:49:53Okay.
00:49:53Locked up is good.
00:49:54We like that.
00:49:55Okay.
00:49:56Okay.
00:49:56Well, we're going to come in and check, okay?
00:49:58We just want to make sure everybody's okay.
00:49:59Do you have a search warrant or anything?
00:50:02No.
00:50:04The deputies move through the door.
00:50:09Coming up next, the body cameras and the stunning scene inside.
00:50:22Search warrant or anything?
00:50:23No.
00:50:24Do you have any warrant, sir?
00:50:25As sheriff's deputies move through a door into a horrifying landscape, the windows are closed.
00:50:30The room is swelteringly hot, magnifying the stench of excrement, decaying garbage, mounds of mothers molding food, every sofa counter
00:50:41floor covered in layers of trash, and unopened toys.
00:50:45Hi, kids.
00:50:47Oh, it's okay.
00:50:48Louise Turpin quickly tries to follow the deputies.
00:50:51All right.
00:50:51Stay there for me for now.
00:50:52An officer distracts David Turpin with topic after topic.
00:50:56Okay.
00:50:57Well, what's your name, sir?
00:50:58David.
00:50:58David.
00:50:58Where are you guys planning on moving to?
00:51:00No, my job's moving.
00:51:02Oh, okay.
00:51:03Louise Turpin is directed to go back to the front door.
00:51:06Why don't you stay over here with my partner, okay?
00:51:10A pale, emaciated child moves through the living room.
00:51:13Her clothes dirty, so is her hair.
00:51:16Oh, okay.
00:51:17What do you do for work?
00:51:18I'm an engineer.
00:51:19Oh, engineer.
00:51:2135 years, 9, 10.
00:51:22Louise Turpin nervously probes again.
00:51:25You got a call?
00:51:26Yeah, we got a call from, I'm not sure if it was the young girl that left or if it
00:51:29was a neighbor that saw her walking around the street.
00:51:31So, we'll get to the bottom of it.
00:51:34As soon as we make sure everybody's okay, then we'll figure out if maybe she was one of your kids
00:51:38that wandered away.
00:51:38How many kids do you have?
00:51:4013.
00:51:4013 total?
00:51:42Yeah.
00:51:42Woo!
00:51:42You guys are busy.
00:51:44Yeah.
00:51:45As the parents are talking, deputies head into the center of the house.
00:51:48Yeah, he's probably fine.
00:51:51There's a hallway.
00:51:53They pass the parents' bedroom, then down the hall, two other bedrooms.
00:51:57The deputy looks in the first door and discovers a crushing scene.
00:52:02Those two young girls from their sister's photos.
00:52:06One is on a bed, the other a mattress on the floor.
00:52:09They are limp, frail, eerily quiet, caked in dirt.
00:52:13Their arms are bruised.
00:52:16But where are the chains?
00:52:18Hi, sweetheart.
00:52:19Hi, girls.
00:52:22Can I see your wrist?
00:52:24Yeah.
00:52:25Which one?
00:52:26No.
00:52:28Okay.
00:52:29Hi, how old are you?
00:52:31Next, the deputy heads to the bedroom next door.
00:52:35Two filthy bunk beds, but no child is chained.
00:52:38He pleads with the children.
00:52:40Can they tell him where are those chains?
00:52:43Okay.
00:52:45We're here to help you.
00:52:47Okay?
00:52:48Just work with my guys.
00:52:49We will help you guys.
00:52:50Okay?
00:52:51Back at the front doorway, the deputy who has been talking to the parents notices something.
00:52:57Almost obscured by the six-foot-one-inch David Turpin
00:53:00and the pile of boxes to his right.
00:53:03Another bedroom back here.
00:53:05Got another couple of kiddos asleep there.
00:53:08Yeah.
00:53:09Sarge.
00:53:10You got another room in the front right here with two kiddos in the bed.
00:53:13Where up?
00:53:13Over here.
00:53:14Deputies move the parents to the living room.
00:53:18And when the officers walk inside the bedroom behind those boxes,
00:53:22they see three remaining children, including a boy shackled to his bed.
00:53:30Thick chains on his wrist.
00:53:32Another set of thick chains on his ankle.
00:53:35He has been this way for weeks.
00:53:37A deputy gently asks his name and starts looking for the keys to unlock him.
00:53:45Back in the bedroom down the hall, where the two girls from Jordan's photos sit quietly,
00:53:51the deputy is directed to go to the closet, and there on the floor, he finds the chains.
00:53:58Okay.
00:53:59I found the missing link.
00:54:00You're right.
00:54:03All right.
00:54:04Let's just go ahead and detain the parents.
00:54:07Ma'am, why don't you step over here for a minute?
00:54:09Where?
00:54:10Okay.
00:54:10With you.
00:54:11And sir, step over here for a second.
00:54:12After decades of hiding their cruelty...
00:54:15Check you out.
00:54:18David and Louise Turpin are in handcuffs.
00:54:21Go ahead and come on out this way.
00:54:22You want to just walk into my car?
00:54:23Yeah.
00:54:24...and walked out of the house.
00:54:25Put her in a different car, please.
00:54:29As the parents head toward police cars, inside a problem, deputies can't find the key to unlock
00:54:36the boy still chained to his bed.
00:54:38Now, let me ask you.
00:54:40Yes.
00:54:41Quickly.
00:54:41Are there keys to the little locks?
00:54:44Yes.
00:54:44Okay.
00:54:44Where are they?
00:54:46My son and daughter can get them.
00:54:48Okay.
00:54:48That's in my house.
00:54:49So the ones that are in the house, they know where they are?
00:54:51Yes.
00:54:51Okay.
00:54:52Is that what this is about?
00:54:53Well, that's part of it.
00:54:54Yeah, definitely.
00:54:56And back in the house, the deputies ask the kids for help.
00:54:59Inside.
00:55:00Is it the door?
00:55:00It's in the door that I was in.
00:55:03They are directed to go back into the parents' bedroom.
00:55:09A chaotic mountain of trash.
00:55:13But as you look at this photo, is this a portrait of chaos or derangement?
00:55:19By the way, there's a child in a crib who smiles and waves at the strangers.
00:55:24The missing key is found in mother and father's dresser door.
00:55:32The last child?
00:55:33The last child, rescued.
00:55:45The last chain, unlocked.
00:55:50outside a 17 year old girl sits in a police car it has been less than two hours since she
00:55:57climbed
00:55:57out of the window I saw them taking father and I started freaking out I didn't know what was
00:56:07gonna happen at all the person in the car was like saying it's okay it's okay it's okay like
00:56:12you don't have to like watch or see like he was like he was really nice he was really calming
00:56:16me
00:56:17down deputies take all 13 children to the hospital children wasted by starvation with atrophied
00:56:25muscles crushed by isolation and emotional abuse doctors and nurses give them food clean rooms
00:56:32clothes kindness love we were dehydrated we were starving they needed to do a lot of stuff to help
00:56:41us get healthy do you remember the first things you ate there yes it was macaroni and cheese and
00:56:51enough of it yes it was good coming up next inside a courtroom the parents respond to the charges
00:57:12the Riverside County District Attorney's Office filed criminal charges against David and Louise Turpin
00:57:1812 counts torture seven counts abuse of a dependent adult six counts child abuse 12 counts of false
00:57:28imprisonment the Terpins sit in a courtroom chains around their waists and feet it is four days after
00:57:35their children have been freed Louise Turpin's attorney is trying to get the case against her dismissed
00:57:41arguing she's now been diagnosed with histrionic personality disorder a kind of unstable extreme
00:57:49narcissism she even writes that when she gets the family together again she promises no chains this
00:57:56time and her sisters say Louise may have been cracked by a truly horrible secret in their family the trauma
00:58:04of
00:58:04ongoing sexual abuse since she was a child a very very close family member that we should have we should
00:58:18have loved and trusted he abused my mother and sexually abused my mother and then
00:58:33um me and Louise Elizabeth but the judge rejects the mental illness please saying Louise Turpin poses a
00:58:41risk to the public to this day David Turpin has refused to talk to investigators when you have parents
00:58:48abusing their kids to this level and they're their own flesh and blood it begs the question how could any
00:58:52sane person do this right and the truth of the matter is is that sane people commit evil acts all
00:58:59the time
00:59:00sometimes there is no why in my work there's no reasoning there's no logic to explain
00:59:08that type of behavior or why someone would actually do that I don't like to anybody but your own
00:59:18offspring I don't have a why I really don't the DA amasses a mountain of evidence the Turpin's make a
00:59:26deal no
00:59:27trial they're ready to submit their plea count one which is a violation of torture how do you plead
00:59:34to that charge sir and this is her dependent adult abuse child endangerment guilty guilty guilty at the
00:59:46sentencing the parents weep when a few of the children send notes saying they forgive them but the
00:59:52two oldest children come to the courtroom to face their parents the camera turned away to protect
00:59:57their identity the eldest son speaks I cannot describe in words what we went through growing up but that
01:00:09is the past and this is now I'm getting a bachelor's degree in software engineering in June of last year
01:00:15I
01:00:15learned how to ride a bike I also have learned how to advocate for myself how to swim how to
01:00:23eat healthy
01:00:24and prepare a balanced meal that young man is still not ready to go on camera but he sent us
01:00:29a video and
01:00:30wants to send a message you'll hear coming up after the break and next up in the courtroom the oldest
01:00:36daughter
01:00:37speaks it is Jennifer looking her parents in the eyes my parents took my whole life for me but now
01:00:47I'm
01:00:47taking my life back they almost changed me but I realized what was happening I immediately did what I
01:00:55could to not become like that I'm strong and I'm shooting through life like a rocket it's the parents turn
01:01:03to
01:01:03speak David Turpin starts breaks down he asks his lawyer to let him try again and I will be praying
01:01:27for
01:01:29them along for the opportunity they have contact with him again I want to say to you your honor in
01:01:38court I'm sorry for everything I've done to hurt my children I don't want anything to be sad or depressed
01:01:45because of all of this I wanted to know that mom and dad are going to be okay and in
01:01:50the courtroom when
01:01:51she said she was sorry for hurting her children I believed it I'll be honest but then I remembered
01:01:59that they both are extremely good at manipulation whether that was true or not at the courtroom
01:02:10yeah it's too late when they cry and stuff I feel bad but also it's like why it's just confusing
01:02:19I don't know I'm never gonna know I mean sometimes I think maybe they didn't have a good childhood
01:02:25but it's still their choice you always have a choice I don't know what it's called maybe bipolar
01:02:31but I definitely think it could have been something like that with her I've just always known him as
01:02:36a monster that's the only way I can describe it sentence will be the same as to both defendants
01:02:45both defendants are sentenced to life can you imagine seeing them no definitely not anytime soon
01:02:54I've been up and I I don't know never never never I guess I get afraid of them
01:03:01manipulating the system and getting out and then somehow trying to find us
01:03:13yeah there's nothing you think you want to say to them I want to know why but I would never
01:03:19get
01:03:19that answer so it's not it's just like a hundred why's tonight we have requested statements from
01:03:26David and Louise Turpin we have not heard back they are currently serving their time in separate
01:03:32prisons in California and three years ago after their parents were sent to prison we imagined the
01:03:38Turpin children finally heading out into their new lives with a team of people who would ensure that
01:03:45they could navigate the world strangers had even donated money so where is that money and where is the team
01:03:52supposed to be helping them we've got to shine a light on this the public deserves to know what their
01:03:58government did and didn't do and how we failed these victims they need to know that district attorney
01:04:06Mike Hestron says there are a number of agencies in California that should be accountable for what
01:04:12happened to the Turpin children after they were freed there are resources for them that they can't access
01:04:18well they're living in squalor they're living in crime-ridden neighborhoods
01:04:24there's money for them to for their education they can't access it this is impossible coming up next
01:04:33my colleague David Scott and the ABC News investigative unit set out to get those answers sir would you
01:04:41talk to me for a moment
01:04:49I'm David Scott with the ABC News investigative unit we needed to go to Riverside County to figure
01:04:56out who failed these kids after they escaped their parents and led the district attorney to take the
01:05:02unusual step of speaking out they have been victimized again by the system and that is unimaginable to me
01:05:08that we could have the very worst case of child abuse that I've ever seen maybe one of the worst
01:05:15in
01:05:15California history and that we would then not be able to get it together to give them basic needs
01:05:23basic necessities it turns out the siblings post rescue lives have been marred by the county's missteps
01:05:30and mistakes and the facts of the case have been hidden behind a court-ordered veil of secrecy
01:05:36everything's you know behind closed doors but now for the first time an insider peels back the
01:05:43curtain what she says happened to the turpin siblings after they entered the county's care
01:05:48they felt betrayed tonight Melissa Donaldson is breaking ranks to blow the whistle on the multiple
01:05:54agencies that she says failed to protect the turpin children from further harm did we see kids having
01:06:01to not have a safe place to live or stay at times yes did they have enough food at times
01:06:07they did not
01:06:08they had to go to churches and eat because they didn't know how to manage money and some without
01:06:12housing at times without housing at times homeless couch surfing their housing at some point was in
01:06:23located in one of the worst neighborhoods in this county I will tell you I would have never placed
01:06:30anybody under my care there one of the adult children was assaulted in one of those environments I
01:06:39do know they've been in unsafe crime exposure absolutely we really want to try and understand and help the
01:06:49public understand you know frankly the jeopardy sorry they all lack that sixth sense of fear they had none
01:07:04of that and they were cast right into the world in a very unsafe violent inner city area we have
01:07:12to fix it
01:07:13you would think that this is the time to really get it together and do everything we can and we
01:07:18didn't do it that way
01:07:19they struggled to eat still they'll take that as long as the abuser's gone I don't really have a way
01:07:29to
01:07:30get food right now when Jordan met Diane in July she had just been released she says without warning
01:07:37from extended foster care with no plan for food health care life skills training or even shelter
01:07:44one of my brothers and me are the ones that don't have a place to really stay in which is
01:07:49being like
01:07:50passed around and the same goes for some of the older children whose safety and well-being was supposed
01:07:56to be guaranteed by the court-appointed Riverside Public Guardian well where I live is not the best area
01:08:05and this despite more than six hundred thousand dollars originally raised from generous strangers
01:08:11most of that money went into an official trust overseen by the court and hidden from public oversight
01:08:17county officials refuse to tell us how much has been spent or on what but the turpins we spoke to
01:08:23say those funds are hard to access well when I try to have access I have difficulty Joshua Turpin
01:08:33the 29 year old sibling of Jordan and Jennifer the one you heard earlier reading a letter to the court
01:08:39that is the past and this is now sent us a video diary but did not want to appear on
01:08:45camera
01:08:46he says the public guardian responsible for managing the siblings health care nutrition housing and education
01:08:53routinely denied simple requests when I requested for a mode of transportation I called the public guardian's office
01:09:00and she um refused to let me you know request for a bike
01:09:07Melissa Donaldson confirmed that legitimate requests have been turned down when we asked why officials are
01:09:14restricting the use of private donations they repeatedly refused to answer citing court-ordered confidentiality
01:09:20I'm just asking really really basic questions you can't tell me any of that
01:09:26after their rescue the seven minors were placed into foster homes while the six adults were assigned to deputy public
01:09:33guardian
01:09:33Vanessa Espinosa seen here in a selfie when she started the job while she worked full-time for the county
01:09:40she also worked in real estate on the side according to state records here she is promoting her work at
01:09:47one of her
01:09:47previous real estate agencies if you guys are interested in buying or selling feel free to contact us
01:09:52according to the adult turpin children we spoke to who were under Espinosa's care she was often unwilling to help
01:09:59them
01:09:59with even with even their most basic needs including teaching them how to use public transportation
01:10:04how to cross the street safely or how to access their medical and dental benefits
01:10:10when I would ask her for help she would just tell me you know just go google it
01:10:18Vanessa Espinosa did not respond to repeated requests for comment
01:10:21hi Vanessa it's David Scott calling from ABC news how are you
01:10:25we recently tried to meet up with her at her real estate office but she avoided us and drove home
01:10:30the next day the county informed us without explanation that Espinosa's employment had ended
01:10:37while Jennifer and the other adult turpin struggled in county guardianship some of their younger siblings
01:10:43were failed again by the California foster care agency contracted by the county child net
01:10:50county officials have told us that some of the turpin children have been re-victimized
01:10:55in their foster care homes in the instance of the one adult that was a minor now an adult she
01:11:01has
01:11:01reported the one foster parent telling her she understands now why her parents chained her up
01:11:05the comment was egregious but even that paled in comparison to what is alleged to have happened
01:11:11in another of the turpin's foster homes in fact one foster care family was arrested and charged with
01:11:17abusing multiple children in their care including at least one turpin several turpin children remained in that house
01:11:24for three years while the alleged abuse took place a lawyer for one of the foster family members
01:11:30says his client denies these charges are true a child net spokesman would not answer our questions
01:11:36about the turpin case because of confidentiality laws saying only we take our work very seriously
01:11:43including the extensive vetting of parents experts who know the system are shocked
01:11:49it horrifies me to think things like this are happening to people who have
01:11:54been abused in a system that was specifically set up to help them
01:12:00no county official agreed to answer for the alleged mishandling of the turpin's case including the
01:12:06county's top lawyer gregory priyama oh mr priyama david scott from abc news can i ask you sir
01:12:11about the dire conditions facing the turpin siblings in this county since they've been in the county's care
01:12:17some cases they're walking the streets late at night sir so we took our questions to the county's top
01:12:23elected officials excuse me madam chair may i approach board of supervisors chair karen spiegel
01:12:28who dodged them we've we've heard credible reports of unsafe housing uh of in some cases the siblings
01:12:36relying on food pantries and soup kitchens we are currently looking into this we have been trying to
01:12:42get these answers and we have been unable to get anybody to return our calls so we just figured that
01:12:47we come to you as the chairwoman well i am not have the information you're looking for we're still
01:12:54in investigation stages so i don't have anything to share with you in a statement espinosa's former
01:13:00boss the head of the public guardian's office dr matthew chang stood by his team's quote exceptional
01:13:07work but said he welcomes an inquiry but the county's chief executive admitted in a statement quote
01:13:13there have been instances in which those we seek to protect have been harmed and the county is
01:13:20committed to conducting a thorough and transparent review and so some of the turpin siblings continue
01:13:27to face dangers and hardships in the county that promised to keep them safe shamefully the system
01:13:33failed this family tonight we are not backing off abc news has sued to unseal vital documents about the
01:13:43people making decisions the donated money and who should provide the promised support the four
01:13:49youngest children are now together in a foster home where their siblings say they are happy while the
01:13:55other nine older children raised in abuse valiantly navigate the world if we can't care for the turpin
01:14:04victims then how do we have a chance to care for anyone coming up a reunion i'm never going to
01:14:12forget
01:14:12him i always think it would be cool to see him again
01:14:32hey guys we are on our way to see deputy anthony i cannot wait to see jordan today i haven't
01:14:39seen him
01:14:39ever since the day he came to save me and my siblings 21 year old jordan now trying on blonde
01:14:46hair
01:14:47oh my gosh guys we are here i just hope she's happy jordan
01:14:58wow it's so good to see you it's so good to see you how are you doing i'm okay i
01:15:05always like talk about
01:15:07like you and stuff like i've told all my siblings the story more than once and i'm just so thankful
01:15:13because you saved all of us so i'm glad you had that photo you get all the recognition credit oh
01:15:20thank
01:15:20you you did the hard part and you did the scary part i'm just so thankful that it was you
01:15:25because
01:15:25you were so gentle and everything i'm glad it was me too i think um god brought all the right
01:15:30people in
01:15:31my life thank you so much and not just deputy kalachi but here is that dispatcher who answered the 911
01:15:40call and sends a message tonight hi jordan you're really brave you were so strong to go out and do
01:15:46what you did i want to let you know that the world is so wide and so full of bright
01:15:51wonderful things
01:15:52i hope you get to spend the rest of your days going out there and exploring and doing fun stuff
01:15:57and
01:15:57really living the life the way you want what questions would you ask
01:16:06and back in the interview we're almost done so i invite the two young women who just finished
01:16:12their first interview ever to give their take on my technique so miss jordan yes jennifer
01:16:19what do you see in your future a beautiful house with a handsome husband maybe a kid someday a nice
01:16:28car
01:16:31miss jennifer where do you see yourself in 10 years 10 years creepy question hopefully have a house nice
01:16:42nice nice nice car oh and have a published book i love it love it traveling i want to travel
01:16:51the world
01:16:51really nice and where are you going to travel what's first stop paris yes paris i'm gonna have
01:16:58little tea cakes and all that stuff we're going to a fashion show oh yeah i'm going paris watch out
01:17:05paris
01:17:05here i come out of a harrowing life so much hope no one doubts along the way the mountains will
01:17:17be
01:17:17tall the challenge is great they'll need a helping hand but every day the young women who fought their
01:17:22way out are trying to catch up on joy how does it feel awesome jennifer is now in training to
01:17:32be a
01:17:32manager at a restaurant i'm heading to work a big dream of mine is to become a christian pop artist
01:17:39her favorite song right now is kelly clarkson's broken and beautiful
01:17:53the way music has helped me i want to help people with my music
01:17:59i really like doing tiktoks
01:18:04i like charlie d'amelio they're such a cute family jordan managed to graduate high school
01:18:11in one year and has been taking college classes what was your favorite subject to study i loved
01:18:18government and i loved english and i loved math i would say can i have double homework can i have
01:18:24i love to learn and i was a really fast learner and i got good grades and i was really
01:18:31happy
01:18:32she recently got food stamps and housing through school and she has a plan of her own me graduating
01:18:39college being a book writer or a motivation speaker when i have kids i want to make sure i'm in
01:18:47a good
01:18:47place i have a good job because i want to give my kids the best life ever in the meantime
01:18:54the sisters
01:18:54say the most important thing in their lives is getting to see their siblings and trying to help them
01:19:00be happy and safe what is it like to be together it feels at home being with all of us
01:19:08every time we're
01:19:09together it's a very special moment because we always know at the end of the day we're always going to
01:19:15have each other and their brother who sent the video has a message too thank you for your time thank
01:19:23you thank you for everything this is a big help to be able to you know just get this out
01:19:31and let it be
01:19:32heard i want the last name turpin to be remembered as a name of strength i don't want jennifer turpin
01:19:40all that
01:19:41poor poor you know 30 year old woman who went through a tragic like no i want that name to
01:19:49be my
01:19:49name and her name the turpin name like wow they're strong they're not weak they're not broken they've got
01:19:59this same we are so glad you have been with us tonight and as we said before we're going to
01:20:10stay
01:20:10on this story and let you know what happens next and tonight a surprising message from jacy dugard the
01:20:17young woman i met years ago who escaped from a life of captivity and inspired a nation with her courage
01:20:24she established the jace foundation in 2011 which supports families in crisis and as of tonight
01:20:30they have created a fund to receive donations for the 13 turpin children she writes that the people
01:20:36who helped her changed her life and says now it's our turn to pay it forward if you'd like to
01:20:43learn
01:20:43more about how to help the turpin siblings and other children facing these kinds of challenges
01:20:47go to the abc news 2020 website and our social media pages i'm diane sawyer from all of us at
01:20:55abc news
01:20:56good night the amas are dripping with super thought when cardi b is hosting america's music event of the
01:21:05year anything can happen it's a cardi party the american music awards live sunday on abc
01:21:12all of us at the same time