Escape from a House of Horror l 20/20 l PART 3

I can't believe the two young women walking toward our cameras travelers from a dark world who invented their own light it's been four years since the day in January 2018 when they were rescued treated at a hospital and given New Life Jordan Turpin now 21 years old her sister who helped plan the escape the oldest Turpin child Jennifer now 33 how are you awesome I'm doing really good January 14th 2018. yeah big day what's the first thing you did that you look back on and think that was my first moment of real freedom sick was playing I got up and I made sure there's a little bit of a floor cleared out and I danced the first place we went we went to a park with two of my sisters and I was so excited because I could smell the air I could smell the grass I was like how could Heaven be better than this oh my gosh this is so free like this is life they are speaking for the first time ready to talk about their lives but respecting the privacy of the siblings they love and the story is written on all their bodies when they arrived at the hospital where doctors and nurses wept at what they saw children so emaciated they had difficulty walking stunted growth heart damage from a lack of nutrients a preteen whose arm was the size of a four-month-old baby their speech their language limited by the isolation and neglect all of us went through a lot and all of us went through our own things and to be honest not even all of us know every single thing each one of us went through and nothing's ever going to be that bad and nothing's going to be as bad as 29 years in what the only word I know to call it is hell a hell created by her own parents who started out two kids growing up in a small town in West Virginia David Turpin by all accounts a nerdy boy with bowl cut hair and a shy stutter he graduated from Virginia Tech and was offered a well-paid job at Lockheed Martin Louise Robinette a girl six years younger a member of the Bible Club she sang in the choir she grew up suffering a family secret which we'll tell you later this is their wedding photo she's just 16. they are coupled both steeped in the Pentecostal church with its message about the Insidious power of the devil and the rules no drinking no sex before marriage and that's how the young couple began life in this nice house in a nice neighborhood in Fort Worth Texas they tell family God has called on them to have as many children as they can he is 26 she's 20 when they have their first little girl there's Jennifer you can see her smile is so much like the smile of the mother she once loved my first memory I was about two years old and it wasn't to me what was it I went downstairs for a glass of water for a cup of water and on the stairs I saw my father yelling very loudly at my mother my mother was crying she started to say something he's like no you shut up and he took his fist and punched it in the wall made a hole in the wall I was terrified as her father yells in Anger she says her loving mother heads into unpredictable mood swings like I never knew which side I was going to get of her if I was going to ask her a question like she gonna call me stupid or something anyway and then or like and take me across the floor or is she gonna be nice and answer my question neighbors are never invited inside that house where the bright white walls are now gray with dirt and stains carpets with human filth the shower floor seems black with mold when Jennifer shows up at grade school she's a little girl with unwashed hair unwashed clothes I remember to make friends I remember a lot of them didn't want to be my friend didn't really understand why they call me skinny bones and acted like they didn't want to be around me I probably smelled but I didn't realize that the time I smelled but that stench clings to you it stays with you because we would literally live in houses piled with trash and I mean literally piled a trash mold and everything and there's no good way to get rid of a smell like that so it was all my clothes that was on me and I think that had a lot to do with it possible that some of her teachers noticed something years later there are no records from the school but after the third grade Jennifer's parents take her out and no Turpin child will go to grade school again [Music] only moves into an isolated house in rural Texas David Turpin commutes to Lockheed Martin they pose for photographs to send home to family as four kids become nine nine become twelve but when they go back to the house the children are not allowed outside all of them taught to honor thy father and mother and only to call them that I'mma call them mother and father for the sake of the interview but I don't like calling him that because they're not that to me they literally used the Bible to explain their behavior toward us what parts of the Bible they'd love to point out things in Deuteronomy saying that we have the right to do this to you that they have the right to even kill us if we didn't listen disobey mother talk back steal a piece of candy you can be thrown across the room pushed down the stairs father also used belts and sticks and eventually dog kennels with padlocks and homemade cages Jennifer draws the shape of the cage and every day did you wake up in Terror yeah because I I was afraid to do one little thing wrong if I did one little thing wrong I was going to be beat and not just be like beat to light bled foreign [Applause] lead investigator on the Turpin case a 33-year veteran of abuse and homicide cases how long did it take you to figure out that this was unlike anything you'd seen before probably within the first couple days [Music] the parents moved their children further off the radar trailer behind the house and then they abandoned them to seek their own Adventures they drop off weekly groceries Never Enough Jordan was six when her parents left she says a time she ate leaves grass there was a lot of starving so I have to figure out how to eat like I would either eat ketchup or mustard or ice ice cubes and ketchup yeah and Jennifer is forced to discipline the children by putting them in Father's cages or that they would be put in if they didn't that is the nightmare Choice which is why she struggled so hard hasn't 17 18 19 year old so much it's not a choice if survival is the answer but living in that you kind of feel like you're torn but you don't know what to do because I was on the brink of suicide I wanted to just end it all all my pain everything three years go by and no one seems to notice them no one intervenes but after the Turpin story breaks a little boy remembers he once had a classmate in Fort Worth named Jennifer Turpin a frail girl with a brave smile he has since become a doctor he wrote this plea on Facebook Jennifer Turpin was the one girl nobody wanted to be caught talking to I can't help but feel an overwhelming sense of guilt and shame the person who sat across from you at the lunch table went home to squalor and filth while you went home to a warm meal and a bedtime story the resounding lesson teach your children to be nice befriend the Jennifer turpins of the world coming up the video of David and Louise Turpin celebrating their love story [Music] certainly they're abused children will keep their secret what did they tell these children that paralyzed them with fear of the outside world 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: 16,833,959

Keywords: 2020, ABC, Case, David, Jennifer, Jordan, Joshua, Louise, News, Sisters, Turpin, abuse, crime, murder, neglect, p_cmsid=2494279, p_vid=news-81290122, true, violence, Turpin sisters, Turpin family house, Turpin siblings, Turpin children, parents, documentary Turpins, Diane Sawyer, interview, today, upate, 2020 episodes

Id: MWxwNQpRlp4

Length: 10min 18sec (618 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 20 2021