Locked in their home in California and only allowed to shower once a year – the 13 Turpin children endured years of horrific abuse.
Often chained to their beds and even locked in cages as a punished, the youngsters were routinely starved in the house of horrors.
Now finally free, they have shared the horrifying details about their childhood.
The 13 children were brutally abused by their parents but the three of the older siblings said they will always “have each other” as they continue on their path to recovery.
Julissa, Jolinda and James Turpin were rescued from their birth parents who tortured them for years. Jordan Turpin – then aged 17 – fled the property through a window in 2018 and miraculously managed to tell officials about their abuse.
Jordan lived in horrendous conditions with her siblings, aged between two and 29. They spent almost all of their lives within the confines of a home where they were routinely subjected to beatings and starvation.
Jordan called emergency services on a mobile phone she had managed to sneak out of the house of horrors and explained how horrendous conditions were for her and her siblings – telling officers how they had been abused by their parents and that her brother and sister were currently chained to a bed.
View 6 ImagesDavid Allen Turpin, was found guilyty of abusing and holding 13 children captive(Image: Getty Images)
When police arrived they found one of the children shackled to a bed, and had been for weeks, while there was an overwhelming stench of human excrement and rotting food.
David and Louise were said to be perplexed by the visit but it was discovered the children were all so malnourished from years of being starved, detectives believed them all to be under 18.
Jennifer, who was 29, weighed just 5stone 11llbs after being allowed to eat just once a day and one 12-year-old child had the arm circumference of a four-month-old baby.
The youngsters, who had kept detailed journals about their horrifying lives, were not allowed to shower more than once a year and had never been to the doctor of dentist. They were not allowed to play with toys and as well as being shackled to their beds, they were also locked in cages if they broke the rules.
View 6 ImagesThe California couple were jailed for at least 25 years (Image: AFP/Getty Images)
Their parents, David and Louise Turpin, were found guilty on several felony charges, including cruelty to an adult dependent, child cruelty, torture and false imprisonment, and received sentences of 25 years to life behind bars.
Incredibly, several of the children have forgiven their parents for the years of abuse. In a powerful victim impact statement, read out to the court during the sentencing in 2019, one child said: “Sometimes I still have nightmares of things that had happened such as my siblings being chained up or getting beaten. That is the past and this is now. I love my parents and have forgiven them for a lot of the things they did to us.”
Another said: “My parents took my whole life from me, but now I’m taking my life back. I’m a fighter, I’m strong and I’m shooting through life like a rocket. I saw my dad change my mom. They almost changed me, but I realised what was happening.”
View 6 ImagesTragically a number of the younger children went on to be abused again(Image: Internet Unknown)
Following their liberation the six youngest Turpin siblings were placed under the care of foster parents, Marcelino and Rosa Olguin, along with their grown-up daughter Lennys Olguin.
Tragically, with the Olguins’, the Turpin children suffered yet more abuse. In 2024 Marcelino Olguin was sentenced to seven years in state prison, while his wife, Rosa, and daughter, Lennys, were sentenced to four years each of probation.
However, the escaped sisters Julissa and Jolinda have gone on to live healthy lives. The pair remain close and said they now share matching tattoos featuring lyrics from a Harry Styles album track “we’ll be fine, we’ll be alright.”
The siblings discussed their lives as they attempt to heal in “The Turpins: A New House of Horror – A Diane Sawyer Special Event”.
View 6 ImagesThe family was saved by one 17-year-old fleeing(Image: mirror.co.uk)
Julissa, 19, said: “To me, it feels like, ‘Why do people get to have a family, and we don’t?’ And like we have each other, and that’s the world, you know, but we still want a mom. Something good needs to come from this. It has to. And I can’t accept it not.”
All three said therapy sessions as a crucial part of their healing journeys as they work through the trauma they’ve endured.
Jolinda, 20, said: “I’ve been, like, literally discovering all these things about my brain that helps me have clarity of who I am, my identity, and who I want to be, what I can work on, what I can fix, and also realising, too, that it’s not my fault is a big thing, too,”.
James, 24, said he wished he has stable parents and explained how he had learned to rely on alternative support systems. He said: “I’ve always wished I had normal parents or just someone I could like go to and, you know, rely on or ask questions or whatever, but I have the internet, so it’s okay.”
View 6 ImagesThe children lived in abject squalor(Image: AFP/Getty Images)
Jolinda said the sisters now have identical tattoos from the title song of Harry Styles’ 2019 record Fine Line: “we’ll be fine, we’ll be alright.”
She said: “To me that song just means that like we’re gonna be okay, we’re always gonna get through everything and at the end of the day we’re always gonna have each other.”
The younger siblings who were abused twice were given a settlement from the organisation that arranged their placement with their abusive foster carers, though the agency refused to acknowledge any fault.