"It's been a very scary journey": Jordan Turpin opens up about foster care trauma after 'House of Horrors' escape

On Wednesday, Jordan Turpin, a victim of abuse at the hands of her parents in California's 'House of Horrors,' spoke about her experiences in an interview with People News.

Jordan, who escaped her parents in 2018 with her 12 siblings, said:

"I'm not ready to go into details about what happened to me in that home. I was very traumatized, and it's been a very scary journey."

The 21-year-old is one of the daughters of David and Louise Turpin, who have been convicted of child abuse for allegedly subjecting their 13 kids to torture. The Turpin parents were accused of beating, starving and imprisoning their own children.

However, escaping their parents wasn't the end of the torturous journey for Jordan Turpin and her siblings. They alleged that they were mistreated by the foster care agency that was supposed to take care of them after their escape.

The siblings claim that they weren't just severely mistreated but subject to verbal abuse and that the donation funds meant to help them assimilate into society were potentially misappropriated.

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Jordan Turpin discusses the 'house of horrors' and the abuse she and her siblings faced after their escape

During her interview, Jordan Turpin explained the abuse that was inflicted upon her and her 12 siblings by their parents. She added that the abuse had left lifelong emotional scars on all of them.

Jordan, who was 17, when she escaped, said:

"It was really hard to understand the first situation [with my parents]. Then going into another, that was just really, really hard. You have all these questions and you just don't get the answer."

While people were rejoicing at the Turpin children's escape from their parents, they were shocked that the kids were filing a lawsuit against the foster care agency. The lawsuit claimed that the children faced abuse within the foster system while they were under Childnet Youth and Family Services in River County, California.

The lawsuit added that some of the siblings were placed under the care of parents with concerning histories. Allegedly, one of the foster fathers forced inappropriate relations with the young girls from the family. To add to all this, certain parents were accused of force feeding the siblings to the point where they would vomit.

A part of the lawsuit read:

"(Many were) unfit to be parents (as they had a) prior history of physically and emotionally abusing children as well as severely neglected children who had been placed in their care."

It also said:

"As to ChildNet, it had a financial motive to continue placing a large number of children in this foster home and thereby strengthen its relationship with the County of Riverside, and it put that financial motive ahead of its responsibility to children."

Jordan Turpin added to all this and said that the foster agency's seemed apathetic to the kids' situation. She further noted that her siblings needed help in learning to live normal lives, but instead, the agency employees ridiculed them.

Jordan Turpin continued:

"I wasn't doing well. But I felt we weren't the only ones being treated wrong in the system — and I wanted to help my siblings."

In February 2019, David and Louise Turpin both pleaded not guilty to child abuse-related charges. They are both currently serving life sentences with the possibility of parole after 25 years

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How did the Turpin kids escape and what had happened to them?

Jordan Turpin was 17-years-old in 2018 when she managed to get away from her parents long enough to call the police to report the abuse. When California authorities reached the house, they were shocked to see the condition the children were living in.

While all the kids were severely malnourished and showed signs of physical abuse, they were chained to their beds and living among trash and excrement. They were taken to the foster care system while their parents were arrested. Currently, four out of the 13 children are still in the foster care system.

Dr. Bernard Gallagher, a child protection expert at the University of Huddersfield, spoke to the BBC about the case. He noted that there was a possible long-lasting trauma that the children would suffer due the abuse by their parents. He also said that the case was unusual in terms of how well-planned the abuse seemed.

Dr. Gallagher added:

"I see a lot of cases of neglect, where children are not washed or fed properly, but you don't often get cases of children being tortured, where the abuse seems calculated."