Escape from a house of horror

want to turn now to diane sawyer here and this abc news exclusive story this is a a story where i guess hope comes out of hell we're talking about the turpin family 13 children this has been what four years since they were essentially saved from captivity and they were held captive by their own parents you got to meet the incredible young lady who essentially escaped and made the phone call for her own rescue and these were extremes of captivity as we know they they were when they walked out they were emaciated they had not been outside so you have to imagine i had no idea what to expect when i met them the first time because the only fresh air they would get would be when they'd stick their heads out the window when their parents went looking so i was wondering what was going to come around the corner down the hall when we said hello watch out here they come 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 actually being in the hospital when music 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 stories 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 pre-teen 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 exactly 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 you know what you said you didn't know what to expect when they came around the corner what did overcome you in that moment when you finally laid eyes on them finally heard their voices it's that thing called wattage it's the life force and i thought there it is the will to live the will to explore they had only fragments of things they'd seen on tv occasionally when their parents were out and yet they were putting them together into a world that that gave them hope and gave them expectation and you know one of the most amazing moments in this story is when jordan who is the one who escaped it tells us that she used to go in a bathroom and she used to hide out and she had taken a phone from one of her older siblings who had an old phone and she punches up something that becomes a kind of flame lighting the way to freedom and it's justin bieber and she hears justin bieber singing and she says well i think he's nice and he has nice things in his house and he believes in god she watches his interviews and it's one of the small things the miracles along the way that she puts together and decides that she's going to try to make this break for freedom you've done a lot over an incredible career but you've been working on this story for months and months and months and it kind of look these things can have an impact on us and have you all the stories you have done it's hard to maybe put this one in there with some perspective for what you have seen throughout your career i have seen a lot of amazing life come out of unexpected and unexpected and great suffering but but these girls and their whole and their siblings as well have a story to tell that's going to teach us something i know they do and we're going to explore by the way as well what has happened to them in the years since they left this system and what california and the services have done and not done and also where they're headed next so you'll see them do that and then you'll see them imitate me doing an interview oh wow yes which may be one of the more sobering experiences of my life but they are so hilarious they pick up on everything they miss nothing and they spend every day looking to make up for the joy they didn't have diane so many of us for so many years are trying to imitate you doing an interview but it is so good to have you here on this set with us we look forward to this tonight and again there's a story of hope all of us can take from it and everybody please watch tonight's special diane sawyer event it's escape from a house of horror this is at nine o'clock tonight and stream it afterwards on hulu diane thank you so so much it's great to be here and i'm really great to be great to have you we'll call you to come back sure yeah i've heard it before well hey there gma fans robin roberts here thanks for checking out our youtube channel lots of great stuff here so go on click the subscribe button right over right over here to get more of awesome videos and content from gma every day anytime we thank you for watching and we'll see you in the morning on gma

Channel: Good Morning America

Views: 857,653

Keywords: children, diane, exclusive, horror, house, interview, of, p_cmsid=2494279, p_vid=news-81278755, preview, sawyer, turpin

Id: uwXYpOShurE

Length: 6min 19sec (379 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 19 2021