Early morning January 14, 2018, 17-year-old Jordan Turpin climbed out the window of her family’s home in Perris, California. She wasn’t sneaking out to see friends or meet up with a boyfriend, she was fleeing to freedom, clutching her brother’s old, deactivated mobile phone.
Safely out of sight, Jordan dialled the only number the phone would allow: 911.
“I live in a family of 15 people and my parents are abusive,” she told the operator in her deceptively childlike voice. “My two little sisters, right now, are chained up…. with chains. They’re chained to the bed.”
Hear the call:
With that phone call, audio of which has been published by ABC News, Jordan helped rescue her 12 brothers and sisters from years of abuse at the hands of their own parents, David and Louise Turpin.
The couple had held their children, aged between two and 29, captive in their family home, depriving them of food, education, medical care and proper hygiene.
In the 911 call, the teenager explained that she “doesn’t go out much”, and hadn’t bathed for a year.