Turpin Family ‘House of Horrors’: What Happened & Where Are Siblings 8 Years After Escape?
Warning: The following posts contains discussions of child abuse.
It’s been eight years since Jordan Turpin, then 17, escaped her family’s “House of Horrors” in California and called 911 to report that her parents, David Turpin and Louise Turpin, had been abusing her and her 12 siblings for years.
At the time, the Turpin children ranged in ages from 2 to 29. Jordan’s phone call led to David and Louise’s arrest, which meant that the underage kids were placed in foster care. Three of those children, who are now legal adults, will be speaking out for the first time about what they went through with their parents, and then in foster care, in a February 3 interview with Diane Sawyer.
Scroll down for everything we know about the Turpin family and where they are today.
What happened to the Turpin family?
On January 14, 2018, Jordan Turpin escaped her parents’ home out of a window and called 911 from her brother’s deactivated cell phone. “My parents are abusive,” she said on the call, per audio received by ABC News. “My two little sisters right now are chained up. They’re chained up to their bed. Jordan told the dispatcher that she and her sibling were living in “filth,” adding, “Sometimes I wake up and can’t breathe because of how dirty the house is.”
She also revealed that she didn’t know “what medication is” and admitted that she rarely left the house. “I haven’t finished first grade and I am 17,” Jordan explained.
Authorities who arrived on the scene discovered what has been described as a “House of Horrors,” with signs of extreme abuse inflicted on the children. Aside from the youngest child, all of the Turpin siblings were discovered to be extremely malnourished.“This is among the worst, most aggravated child abuse cases I have ever seen,” Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin said afterwards in a press conference.
Police found that the cycle of abuse dated back to 2010 and included beating, strangling, and starvation. The children were only permitted to shower once a year.
Who are the Turpin siblings?
There were 13 Turpin siblings who suffered abuse at the hands of David and Louise. Even years later, not all of their names have been publicly revealed to protect their privacy.
The two most public-facing Turpins are Jordan and Jennifer Turpin, who spoke out in detail about their ordeal in a 2021 interview with Sawyer on 20/20. Jennifer got married to her husband, Aron, in 2024.
In 2022, six of the Turpin children who were placed in foster care after their parents’ arrest filed two lawsuits against a foster care service and Riverside County in California, according to CNN. The foster care parents were accused of “[forcing] the kids for hours to relive what they went through” via alleged sexual, physical, and emotional abuse, their attorney claimed.
Three of the children who were put in foster care have now been identified as James Turpin (now 24), Julissa Turpin, and Jolinda Turpin (now 20), who will all speak out in the new Diane Sawyer interview.
The foster care parents were sentenced on child abuse charges in 2024. Marcelino Olguin received seven years in prison, while his wife Rosa Olguin and their daughter, Lennys Olguin, received four years of probation each, according to ABC News.
Where are David and Louise Turpin now?
David and Louise Turpin pleaded guilty to 14 felony charges in February 2019. The charges against them included torture, adult abuse, child endangerment, and false imprisonment, per CNN.
In April 2019, the parents were sentenced to 25 years each in prison. David is serving his sentence at California State Prison, Corcoran, while Louise is in Central California Women’s Facility.
The Turpins: A New House of Horror, Tuesday, February 3, 10/9c, ABC
If you or someone you know is the victim of child abuse, contact the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child (1-800-422-4453). If you or a loved one are in immediate danger, call 911.





