Escape from a House of Horror l 20/20 l PART 1

[Music] a security camera is rolling in a quiet suburban california neighborhood at the house across the street in the shadows someone quietly opens a window and slips out watch there a blurry figure stepping forward a small uncertain girl heading one way then she turns hesitates and starts to run [Music] clutching an old cell phone that was my only chance at least if something happened to me at least i died trying now an emergency what are you reporting um well this is 911 um i just ran away from halls do you know what street you're on um no uh i just run away from home because i was in a family of 15. okay can you hear me and we have abusing parents did you hear that okay how did they abuse you okay us they girls cross they like throw us across the room they pull our hair they they yank our hair i have two my two little sisters right now are chained up okay how old are you i'm 17. what's your name okay i'm going to connect these with the sheriff's department so that they can help one moment don't hang a second dispatcher picks up hello oh yes i'm still here nearly four years later this is jordan turpin remembering that night my whole body was shaking and when i was holding the phone i remember the phone was like i couldn't really dial now on because i'm sorry yeah i'm shaking it so i was trying like to to die on number one but i couldn't even get my my thumb to press the buttons because i was shaking so bad but um i was like trying to like calm down thank you so much um i was trying to like calm down so i could i could um to do it and then i finally like pressed it and then they answered i literally never talked to somebody on the phone what's your address okay you gotta give me a minute i'm just gonna take them off i've never been out i don't go out much so i don't know anything about the streets or anything the dispatcher tracks her location from the gps on her cell phone and sends out a request for a police officer a deputy across town volunteers he's 14 minutes away and i was freaking out because i was like wait are they going to take me back there like i was so scared in that moment i was actually on the road because i didn't even know about the sidewalks you're supposed to be on the sidewalk but i never been out there the caller tries to find her house address on a piece of envelope she's stuffed in her backpack my address is nine two five seven zero five seven four did you get it okay so now you just gave me a whole bunch of numbers you didn't give me any kind of street name there oh okay i'm sorry thank you for the numbers on my house that's your zip code your the numbers on your house should only be three digits finally she reads the correct address but is panicking not knowing whether her parents can look out a window and see her are you in a corner right now uh i'm i might be are you at is there a street sign is there a pole with two names at the top i just need i just see a stop sign okay can you go over and stand right at that stop sign yes and then eventually i saw a stop sign and i stood by the stop sign and she told me to stay there and i was like i'm scared they're gonna come like i wanted to leave i'm so terrified because i know the way they were they wouldn't care if they knew police were coming they would just kill me right there and there if they realized that especially if they knew i was on the phone with the police but she tries to remain brave because of her siblings she is their hope the reason i ran away from home was because the chains were making places and they would wake up at night and they would start crying and they wanted me to call somebody and tell them and so i wanted to call i wanted to call y'all so y'all can help my sister do you think anybody in the house will need to go to the hospital uh i'm not sure sometimes we live in filth and sometimes i wake up and i can't breathe because how dirty the house is we never take that when was the last time you had a bath what when was the last time you had a bath almost a year ago i had to make sure that if i left we wouldn't go back because and we will get the help we needed because if we went back there's no way i would be sitting here right now i don't know how you had the courage never having spoken to anyone like that i think it was like us coming so close to death so many times and like i was worried about my siblings and when i saw them crying and worried i just felt like i had to do it like like i i just wanted to do it i wanted to help everyone do you know if your parents keep any kind of weapons in the house uh i think that my father has a gun have you seen the guns no but we've talked about it the dispatcher knows if this girl with the strange cadences and vocabulary hangs up or the call drops there's no way to get her back her old phone has been disabled it can only call out to 9-1-1 so the dispatcher tries to keep her talking do you know what your dad's name is i don't know much about my name does anybody in the house take any kind of medication oh i don't know what medication any medicine when we have a cold sometimes we take gravitation at incredible speed the girl rattles off the names and ages of each sibling their names have been redacted here's 11 12 14 16 i'm 17 18 19 20 22 23 20 i think 5 29. the deputy is now just seven minutes away i just want to stay on the phone with you how did you get this phone that you have uh it was a phone that my brother had that he was going to throw away and i had to have a way to contact somebody like you so i got it so i could call number one and you guys don't have any friends or anybody who comes over to the house hi okay okay is that the deputy who's here um yes go talk to him okay yeah bye hi jordan you are looking at the body camera footage from the deputy as he arrives hi what's going on moving into frame the skittish girl who has to convince this stranger her story is real i was so nervous because it was i've never had like a conversation with a stranger before and so i saw him he was so serious he was tall and i've never talked to a stranger i was so like scared i didn't know what he was thinking because he had just one straight face you didn't know if he believed you or not right he was like do you have any proof of any of this and i was like yes he knew they were real yeah they were all vias they were real when we come back those photos the body cam footage and what the deputy saw that changed everything hi everyone george stephanopoulos here thanks for checking out the abc news youtube channel if you'd like to get more videos show highlights and watch live event coverage click on the right over here to subscribe to our channel and don't forget to download the abc news app for breaking news alerts thanks for watching

Channel: ABC News

Views: 13,554,926

Keywords: 2020, ABC, Case, David, Jennifer, Jordan, Joshua, Louise, News, Sisters, Turpin, abuse, crime, murder, neglect, p_cmsid=2494279, p_vid=news-81290125, true, violence, house of horrors, Turpin sisters, Turpin family house, Turpin siblings, Turpin children, parents, documentary Turpins, Diane Sawyer, interview, today, upate, 2020 episodes

Id: wngB9_6Vqbc

Length: 9min 20sec (560 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 20 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/oh_god_its_raining]

True story:

When I lived in Riverside right next to the UCR campus I had a neighbor who was basically starving his two small children. They were emaciated and pale (translucent, really), didn't got to school and weren't allowed to leave the apartment. Their father (mother was institutionalized) would leave them alone in the house for 10-14 hours at a time with no food or water. They would sit at the window and stare at us - little pale ghosts.

Of course I called Child Protective Services. That's when things went completely off the rails.

CPS shows up and the first thing the father does is tell them that one of the teenagers living in the building is smoking pot 24/7. CPS IMMEDIATELY goes to this teenager (who is 100% drug free), and does a drug test (comes back negative) but nevertheless makes her mother attend mandatory parenting classes. All the other neighbors beg the CPS workers to please evaluate the little kids who aren't eating or leaving the house. They promise to come back.

Two weeks go by. One of the kids shows up at the window with a black eye. We call CPS again.

CPS shows up, actually evaluates the kids and talks to the father about the black eye. The father says the kid fell and hurt himself. CPS says they'll do a follow up visit and leaves. We asked them if there was food in the house, as the kids were super skinny. They said they didn't check, just talked to the father and kids in the doorway. They don't comment at all about the kids being emaciated, even though we ask several times.

Next week, we hear screaming, like unholy screaming. It's one of the kids. We call the police. Police show up and tell us we have to call CPS. We call CPS again.

CPS shows up, only talks to father in the doorway. Kids are in another room. They claim the father explained everything and they still have an open investigation and they left.

Next night, father slashes ALL of the tires of the cars in the parking lot. No one can go to work in the morning. We ask the building manager about camera footage. He calls the police and gives them the footage of father slashing all of our tires. Police show up, father denies doing anything and asks to file a complaint against all of the neighbors for harassment. Police show him the footage, put him in handcuffs, and then they give him a lecture and then take off the handcuffs and LET HIM GO. We try to talk to the police about how we fear for our safety and the safety of the kids. They just tell us to call CPS and leave.

Father moved out with the kids a couple days later. We find out from the building manager that he never paid rent. CPS shows up a week later and we tell them that the father disappeared with the kids. CPS says, welp, we're gonna close the investigation then.

And people wonder why neighbors don't call CPS... The mom of the drug free teen had more severe consequences than the guy who destroyed property. Riverside county is just a shitshow all the way around.

[u/LeMeowLePurrr]

In the news today it said that the woman that was responsible for helping the children may face charges and she's cooperating with authorities.

[u/rbv1017]

A few years ago I was working in a store that the parents frequented. Louise was one of my favorite customers. We used to sit and chat for a long time. She would tell us about the kids and what it's like having 13 kids. The baby had just been born when I met them. I got to know them well enough that there were a couple of times I saw them out in other places, like the mall in Temecula and would stop and chat with them. I mostly only saw them with the baby and what turned out to be the two oldest (Jennifer and the oldest son). They were always really quiet but I just figured they were awkward because to me they looked like young teens, I guess they were in their 20s. David was pretty quiet too, but would add to the Convo here and there. She was very talkative and now after watching the doc I see how manipulative she must be and DEFINITELY the spending problem.

I was horrified when this initially came out because I genuinely liked Louise. She held my youngest child when she was a baby. I'd been pregnant when I met her and I valued her advice. The doc was hard to watch because I can't help but wonder if Jennifer or her brother ever tried to signal to us that something was wrong.

I feel very manipulated so I can absolutely see why neighbors didn't report them.

This legitimately haunts me. I pray that the kids continue to get better.

[u/JoshPigeonfeather]

This is part one. The series is continued. Links to subsequent parts below:

Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wngB9_6Vqbc

Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEKWXFESU68

Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWxwNQpRlp4

Part 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QjF90Db4qQ&t=119s

Part 5: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUA9OKndG_o&t=78s

Turpin sisters describe how they formulated plan to escape: Part 6 https://abcnews.go.com/2020/video/turpin-sisters-describe-formulated-plan-escape-part-81290119

"Body camera video shows inside Turpin Family house: Part 7 https://abcnews.go.com/2020/video/body-camera-video-shows-inside-turpin-family-house-81290118

Due to an overwhelming amount of evidence, the Turpins make a plea deal: Part 8 https://abcnews.go.com/2020/video/due-overwhelming-amount-evidence-turpins-make-plea-deal-81290117

Part 9: 4 years after rescue, some Turpin children still 'living in squalor' despite donations, pledges of support: https://abcnews.go.com/US/years-rescue-turpin-children-living-squalor-donations-pledges/story?id=81254457

[u/JoshPigeonfeather]

It bothers me a little how one of the girls seemed to stake her future to a dream of meeting a "prince charming" type mate who would make everything wonderful for her. That's probably the attitude her mother had and see how that turned out.

Hopefully the kids will be taught that they will have to make their own way in the world. I'm pretty sure they'll be up to it if they receive the right kind of recovery and education they need. Sadly it didn't seem they were. But this expose by 2020 has shed light enough to get them what they need to catch up with their peers and have a good future.

[u/Vbunnies]

Did I miss something from the interview? Because it wasn't clear why they don't have access to the money that was raised for them,can't the oldest be in charge of the go fund me. That woman who was supposed to guide them and was no help is a cold hearted jerk. How could she have no empathy and just tell them to,Google it,when they had questions!

[u/Munkyed]

Wow.

[u/gaijin48]

I like to hope that the dad might put in general population at the prison so the other inmates can see the ABC special handle his ass. Unfortunately the prison people arnt stupid and probably have him in isolation or protective custody