An attorney for the tortured Turpin siblings said that life outside their parents’ “House of Horrors” is “unimaginable” for a few of them to navigate.
Five years after fleeing her family home in Perris, California — where she and her 12 siblings were starved and shackled by their parents — Jordan Turpin is a rising social media star and aspiring motivational speaker who has also inked a modeling deal.
But Jordan, now 22, and the remaining of her siblings are still traumatized by the nightmarish physical, mental and emotional abuse doled out by their sadistic parents, their attorney told The Post.
“It’s a mixed bag,” said, attorney Elan Zektser, who represents five of the Turpins, of their recovery. “All of them are doing incredible when it comes to what they’ve undergone. But when we’re comparing them to everyone else, and where they ought to be, various them are in some serious trouble.”
Jordan, then 17, escaped her parents’ barbaric abuse in January 2018 via a bedroom window and called cops, ultimately freeing her siblings, who then ranged in age from 2 to 29. A yr later, David and Louise Turpin were sentenced to life in prison. One in every of their sons, Joshua, who’s now around 30, told a judge at their sentencing that he still suffered from nightmares of his sisters and brothers being chained up.
The five Turpins represented by Zektser, now of their early 20s, are still haunted and stunted by their captivity, he said.
“How do you navigate the world if you weren’t exposed to it as a toddler?” Zektser said. “It’s unimaginable.”
The siblings are scrambling to learn every thing from find out how to handle money to engaging with other people, particularly strangers, he said.
“Just talking, ?” Zektser continued on their current hurdles. “They didn’t go to highschool — how do you even know grammar, or find out how to interact with other people?”
And the depraved, relentless exploitation of among the children didn’t end after their parents were arrested and charged by the Riverside County DA’s office, Zektser said. A foster family caring for six of the younger children sexually and physically abused them, authorities allege. Marcelino Olguin, 64, his wife Rosa, 59, and their daughter Lennys, 38, were released on bail after pleading not guilty last March.
“They’ll inform you, in the event that they could, they were emotionally abused more in that foster care house than they were in their very own tortuous home,” Zektser told The Post of those six siblings. “They were retraumatized and as a consequence of already being fragile, they were made 10 times worse.”
“I can assure you – I do know – that behind the closed doors and when the curtains go down at night, there’s so much more happening in that head.”
Attorney Elan Zektser on Jordan Turpin
Lawsuits filed in July on behalf of the alleged victims detail a harrowing scene within the Olguin home, positioned lower than 10 miles away from the Turpins’ former “House of Horrors” residence.
The Olguins and their daughter subjected the six Turpin siblings to severe sexual, physical and emotional abuse, allegedly urging them to commit suicide and threatening to return them to their “biological parents,” in line with one among the suits.
The foster family allegedly also made the siblings “recount intimately the horrors” they suffered while with their parents and compelled them to eat their very own vomit, in line with the lawsuit, which named ChildNet Youth Family Services and Riverside County as defendants.
Several nonprofit agencies — including one founded by Jaycee Lee Dugard, who was famously abducted as an 11-year-old in 1991 and held captive for 18 years — have raised a “substantial” amount of cash on their behalf.
“But then that causes some difficulties because you’ll be able to’t just give someone a considerable amount and expect them to know what to do with it,” Zektser said. “Plus, a whole lot of them are on government assistance and you’ll lose that assistance in the event you obtain that quantity, and so it’s not that easy. It’s a really difficult situation.”
The siblings even have a collective lack of “mentorship,” he added, to take care of life in addition to seeing their pain sensationalized within the media, Zektser said.
“That pulls even worse people, who need to leech onto that,” he said. “And that’s what’s happened to a whole lot of them.”
Jordan, in contrast, is supported by a “great team” round her as she restarts her life in southern California.
“She has a terrific following on social media that reinforces her morale and helps fund her life,” Zektser said. “She’s also heavily involved in modeling and she or he’s just a really sweet and robust person.”
Jordan, who didn’t return a request for comment, detailed her continued recuperation within the February 2023 issue of Elle, saying her anguished childhood leaves her emotional most days.
“I often, um, cry,” Turpin replied when asked about her routine. “Then I attempt to get myself to eat. After which I begin to do my makeup, but I cry, so I even have to do it over. After which I attempt to do a TikTok, but I’m like, ‘Oh, persons are going to say this and that about me.’”
“I can assure you that, behind the closed doors and when the curtains go down at night, there’s so much more happening in that head,” Zektser told The Post of Jordan’s trauma.
Jennifer, the eldest Turpin sibling, is an aspiring nurse along with her own sizable Instagram following. She didn’t reply to messages searching for comment.
“Saw this beauty today,” Jennifer, who’s now in her early 30s, posted a few rainbow in January to her 72,000-plus followers. “Only a reminder that after a storm comes a rainbow. Whatever you’re going through, push through. You’re stronger than . There’s something beautiful right across the corner.”
One other Turpin sister, Jeanetta, also posts commonly on Instagram, where she lists song lyrics, poems and nature amongst her interests.
“Yesterday is over and tomorrow is a recent day so live on this moment while you could have it since it is precious,” Jeanetta wrote in November.
Three of the Turpins at the moment are taking college courses and a number of other of their younger siblings remain in foster care, Zektser said.
Zektser, who personally knows a majority of the Turpin siblings, said their rehabilitation stays a “work in progress” greater than five years after their freedom — with trust of others remaining a vital obstacle.
“I do know that each one of them could have terrific lives and contribute to their communities,” he said. “All of them need to help people. Each one among them, especially Jordan, talks about how they need to dedicate their lives to helping others — and I think it. I feel they will all get there, nevertheless it’s about 100 times harder due to what they’ve undergone.”
Riverside County officials declined to comment on lawsuits, which remain in discovery phase. Messages left for ChildNET Youth and Family Services in Long Beach weren’t returned.
“Our department wishes Jordan Turpin peace, healing and success as she pursues her dreams,” Riverside County’s Department of Public Social Services told The Post in a press release. “Our role is to advertise and support the health, safety, wellbeing and independence of every child that comes into our care in order that they can achieve their highest potential.”
