What is Jordan Turpin doing now? Child abuse survivor nearly died in House of Horrors
Jordan Turpin, who rescued herself and her 12 siblings from captivity and starvation after calling the police on her parents back in 2018, is speaking out in an interview.
In the trailer for the 20/20 special, set to air on ABC News, on Friday, November 19, Jordan talked about the nerve-wracking moment she was able to raise the alarm when she was 17. This ultimately led to her parents David and Louise Turpin, pleading guilty to 14 counts of torture and other abuse and being sentenced to 25 years to life in prison in 2019. At the time, her 12 siblings showed signs of malnutrition, abuse, and were living in horrific conditions.
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Explaining her decision to finally escape, Jordan told ABC's Diane Sawyer, "I think it was us coming close to death so many times. It was literally a now-or-never. If something happened to me, at least I died trying." Jordan's sister Jennifer also spoke about the years of abuse. "The only word I know to call it is 'hell,"' she said in the trailer for the 20/20 special, set to air Friday, November 19. "My parents took my whole life from me, but now I am taking my life back," she added.
The harrowing 911 call
"My whole body was shaking, I couldn't really dial," said Jordan, choking back tears as she described the moment she dialed 911, which ultimately resulted in her finally escaping the House of Horrors. As she walked away from the home after crawling out through a window, Jordan sounded clear but agitated. She revealed everything to the dispatcher. "Um hello? I just ran away from home because I live in a family of 15. OK? Can you hear me? And we have abusing parents. Did you hear that?" Jordan Turpin tells a dispatcher.
When the dispatcher asked her to describe how her parents abused her and her siblings, she replied: "OK, They hit us. They like to throw us across the room. They pull out hair. They yank out our hair. I have two ... My two little sisters right now are chained up."
Bodycam footage later showed officers entering the house and confronting the parents. That is when they discovered at least two of the children shackled to their beds. "Sarge, we've got another room in the front right here with two kiddos in the bed," an officer says in the video. A deputy asked Jordan, "What are your parents going to do when they find out you left?" "They are going to want to literally kill me," she answered.
In January 2018, the siblings, ranging in age from 2 to 29 years old, were freed from the home after Jordan escaped. They were regularly beaten, starved, and strangled by their parents. The house was covered in filth and the stench of human waste.
What is Jordan Turpin doing now?
Post-rescue, Jordan, who is now 21 years old, has described her life as, "It's so free. Like wow, this is life." It was not clear what Jordan was up to in her life specifically, although Beecham, who prosecuted the Turpin case, told People magazine that all of the siblings "are happy." He added, "They are moving on with their lives." One of the siblings had graduated college, while several others had jobs or were going to school. "Some of them are living independently, living in their own apartment, and have jobs and are going to school. Some volunteer in the community. They go to church," he shared. He also noted that the siblings were in touch with each other regularly. "They still meet with each other, all 13 of them, so they'll meet somewhere kind of discreet," he said. Many of the siblings have changed their names to wash off the stigma of being a victim in the high-profile case. "It would be difficult for them to carry that name, that label of being a victim, forever," Beecham said.