Jordan Turpin saved her siblings from her parents. Then their 'safe house' became a house of horrors.

In the early morning of January 14, 2018, Jordan Turpin, then 17, climbed out the window of her family's home in California.

Clutching her brother's old, deactivated phone, she called 911. The world would later know her family home as 'The House of Horrors'.

"I live in a family of 15 people and my parents are abusive," she told the operator. "My two little sisters, right now, are chained up... with chains. They're chained to the bed."

Watch: "My parents are abusive." Jordan Turpin's 911 call. Post continues below.

With that phone call, Jordan, now 25, managed to help save her 12 siblings from years of abuse at the hands of their own parents, David and Louise Turpin.

The siblings, then aged between two and 29, were held captive in the family room for years on end — with the Turpin parents depriving them of food, education, medical care, and basic hygiene.

After the parents were arrested and later sentenced to life in prison, six of the 13 children were put into the foster care system.

But the nightmare continued.

"A very scary journey."

Jordan later said that she and some of her siblings experienced abuse in their foster home.

"I'm not ready to go into details about what happened to me in that home. I was very traumatised, and it's been a very scary journey," Jordan told People in 2022.

"It was really hard to understand the first situation [with my parents]. Then going into another, that was just really, really hard. You have all these questions, and you just don't get the answer."

Now, in 2026, three more Turpin siblings have spoken out for the first time.

In an interview special, titled The Turpins: A New House of Horror — A Diane Sawyer Special Event, Julissa, 19, Jolinda, 20, and James Turpin, 24, opened up about the horrors they experienced at the hands of their parents — and then later in foster care.

"People say if you're born in a house that's on fire you think the whole world's on fire and that's how it was for me," Julissa told Sawyer, as she sat alongside her siblings.

"They literally told us, 'nobody wants you, you're never going to find a better place than this'," Jolinda added of their foster parents.

"They made me hate myself," James, the eldest of the three, said.

"At that time, I kind of felt like my life was doomed."

"Severe abuse and neglect."

Six of the 13 Turpin children went on to file lawsuits against Riverside County and ChildNet Youth and Family Services, a private foster care agency, alleging they were faced with "severe abuse and neglect".

Following the lawsuits, the Associated Press reported that Riverside County and ChildNet agreed to a US$13.5 million combined settlement for the six children — with Riverside paying US$2.25 million and ChildNet paying $11.25 million.

Both Riverside County and ChildNet denied any wrongdoing in the settlement agreement.

The lawsuit alleged, on behalf of the six children, that their foster carers, the Olguin family, abused them.

According to the Associated Press, Marcelino Olguin pleaded guilty to lewd acts on a child, false imprisonment and injuring a child. In 2024, he was sentenced to seven years in prison.

Meanwhile, his wife, Rosa Olguin, and adult daughter, Lennys Olguin, were sentenced to four years of probation each for child cruelty, per the publication.

Looking forward to the future.

Despite the horrors they've endured, the Turpin siblings remain positive and focused on building a life for themselves far away from the challenges of their past.

Their sibling Jordan, the most well-known of them all, has turned to building a career for herself in the spotlight.

As she grappled with her past, Jordan turned to TikTok for "self-expression and self-education." With access to the internet for the first time in her life, she began to understand her rights. So when she started an account and her foster parents told her to delete the videos, she refused.

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A post shared by Jordan Turpin (@jordan__turpin)

At 21, Jordan escaped the foster care system. But money also proved to be a big issue. When the news broke about 'the House of Horrors', donations began to pour in for the siblings to assist in their rehabilitation. However, the adult siblings faced significant challenges in accessing these funds or even social services. The donations were placed in a trust controlled by a court-appointed public guardian.

One of the oldest siblings, Joshua Turpin, said he couldn't access funds to cover transportation needs and when he asked for help, the public guardian simply told him: "Just go Google it."

It was at this point that Jordan decided to do all she could to help her siblings financially. And the best way to do this was to harness the attention on her family's case, grow her TikTok account, and take any opportunity that landed on her doorstep.

She and her sister Jennifer Turpin did an interview with Diane Sawyer in late 2021.

Jennifer regularly shares content to Instagram and TikTok about her life, including the fact she is part of the LGBTQIA+ community and loves to sing Christian music.

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A post shared by Jordan Turpin (@jordan__turpin)

Jordan now has a major Hollywood publicist and more than one million followers on TikTok.

She moved into her first apartment in Southern California in 2022, and is now helping to financially support her siblings.

"At first it was scary. It's expensive, and you're not aware of how much you're gonna need. But I love design and decorating, and I'm a very organised person," she told People at the time.

@jordan_turpin

Here at the Elle shoot. I had so much fun. Thank you to my team and to Elle for making this happen for me!🥰💜

♬ original sound - Jordan Turpin

"Sometimes I walk into my apartment and literally think, 'Is this real?' I'm more independent and can just be myself. I've been feeling like my life is about to actually start."

But there are still frequent reminders for Jordan of the childhood she endured.

During a profile with Elle, the journalist recounted a story Jordan shared about a Pilates class she attended where she struggled to lie on her back due to lingering injuries to her spine and muscles from being abused.

"We all know how bad [the house] was, but we realise now how much they took from us. If I had eaten more, I'd probably be taller. And I'd be more healthy, and I'd probably... it really gets to us."

But Jordan said she is now on a path to emotional recovery, hoping her TikTok dancing videos with "sunny" and positive captions "make someone's day".

As for her bond with her siblings, Jordan said they remain "very, very close".

"We have inside jokes and have so much fun together. After everything that happened, and after escaping, I'm so protective over each one. They always know they have me."

Jolinda and Julissa also share snippets into their lives with public social media profiles.

Through sharing their story, they hope to help protect other children from such circumstances.

"It hurts to think that there [are] so many little girls and even little boys out there that those things happen to," Julissa told Sawyer.

"Something good needs to come from this. It has to and I can't accept it not [to]," Jolinda added.

This article was originally published in February 2023 and has since been updated.

Feature Image: ABC, Police.