The Turpin Family: House of Horrors

In the early hours of January 14, 2018, 17-year-old Jordan Turpin escaped her family’s house through a window. While running through the streets, she called police and told them how her parents abused her siblings. The story of the Turpin family would gain international attention and become known as the “House of Horrors.”

David and Louise Turpin met at Princeton High School in Princeton, West Virginia. The couple eloped when David was 23 and Louise was 16. He signed her out of school for the day and then they fled to Texas.

Louise’s mother was outraged, but her father, a pastor, would rather have a small church service. They drove back to West Virginia for a small wedding ceremony surrounded by their families. After the wedding, they returned to Texas to begin their married life.

A deep rift followed between Louise and her parents due to events which occurred in her childhood. According to Louise’s sister Teresa Robinette, their mother often “sold” them to a wealthy man in the area to be sexually abused. When both of her parents died three months apart, she went to neither funeral.

David and Louise wasted no time having children. Most of their children’s identities have been kept under wraps to allow them to heal privately. The eldest, Jennifer, was born around 1989. David and Louise would have twelve more children after Jennifer, bringing the grand total to 13 children.

They initially abused their children in the forms of abandonment and neglect when they moved to Rio Vista, Texas in 1999. According to Jennifer, the children were only allowed to eat once a day and bathed once a year. David and Louise often ate copious amounts of junk food while their children starved. When the children tried to eat their parent’s food without their permission, they would be severely beaten.

The children were punished for seemingly random things. Jennifer has described how multiple children were beat for simply coloring outside the lines. They were beat by both of their parents, with their father hitting them with sticks and belts until they bled. Louise pushed one of the children down the stairs when they entered her bedroom and often pulled the children’s hair, throwing them onto walls.

In 2007, the family moved deeper into their property into a trailer. David and Louise left with their two youngest children and would stop by once a week to deliver groceries. They would often skip weeks. If the children were misbehaving, it was up to the oldest children to lock them into dog kennels, according to an interview Jennifer and Jordan had with ABC.

None of the children received a formal education besides two years that Jennifer was in school. David and Louise filed documents saying they were educating their kids, but they were not. Louise trained each child to remember what grade they would be in based on their age.

The Turpin’s moved to Perris, California in 2014, 60 miles from Los Angeles. Their new home quickly became overcome with mold, foul smells, and littered with trash. The children were often chained to their beds as punishment for months at a time.

When their parents were out of the house, the siblings often watched videos online, secretly surfed the internet and watched movies. In 2015, Jordan Turpin acquired an old smartphone and began posting videos online, and watching Justin Bieber music videos. It was through this smartphone that she was able to begin taking pictures of their house, her siblings, and their living conditions.

On January 14, 2018, Jordan and one of her younger sisters snuck out of the house. The younger sister went back to the home, but Jordan continued running. She called the police and when they got there, she was describing her ordeal. Although officers were confused at first, when they saw pictures and videos of her and her siblings maltreatment, they quickly sprung into action.

When the children were rescued, all of them besides the youngest child were severely malnourished. When they were taken to nearby hospitals, many of the children were suffering through difficulty walking, stunted growth, heart problems, heart damage, and one of the children were so small that their arm resembled that of a four month old baby. The youngest child was only two years old at the time, and the oldest, Jennifer, was 29 during their rescue.

When the news broke about the Turpin’s home and their children, their house was quickly dubbed the ‘house of horrors’ and gained international notoriety. David and Louise plead not-guilty to the 38 charges stacked against them such as false imprisonment, abuse of a dependent adult, child abuse, and David faced an additional charge for lewd acts on a child younger than 14.

On February 22, 2019, they changed their pleas to guilty and their charges were changed to one count of torture, three counts of willful child cruelty, four counts of false imprisonment, and six counts of cruelty to an adult dependent.

David and Louise were both sentenced to life in prison, with a possibility of parole after 25 years. Louise apologized for her actions, but David did not.

Although David and Louise Turpin are now in prison for seemingly the rest of their lives, many hoped the children could begin to recuperate and begin to live a somewhat normal life. Six minors were taken to two separate foster homes after they were taken from their parents.

Many of the children now live in squalor. Unable to access the over $500,000 which was raised to help them. The money they were supposed to receive was placed into the hands of a public appointed guardian. According to Joshua Turpin, this guardian refused to give him funds for transportation needs. Joshua wanted to buy a bicycle.

Family members have said that Riverside County social services refused to offer them basic services after their rescue. Riverside County has hired a law firm to look into the claims the Turpin children have made surrounding the money which was donated. One lawyer has refuted these claims.

Five of the Turpin children would live in the home of Marcelino Camacho Olguin, 63, Rosa Armida Olguin, 58, and their daughter Lennys Giovanna Olguin, 37. Last November, they were arrested and charged with over a dozen counts ranging from child cruelty, false imprisonment, and witness intimidation. The abuse in the Olguin home lasted from April 2018 until March 2021.

Marcelino was also charged with lewd acts on a child under the age of 14. According to the complaint, Marcelino kissed the young girls and there were other alleged acts of touching the children.