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An attorney for the tortured Turpin siblings said that life outside their parents’ “House of Horrors” is “impossible” for some 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 rest 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,” attorney Elan Zektser, who represents five of the Turpins, said of their recovery. “All of them are doing fantastic in terms of what they’ve gone through. But if we’re comparing them to everyone else, and where they should be, a number of 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 year later, David and Louise Turpin were sentenced to life in prison. One of their sons, Joshua, who is 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 in their early 20s, are still haunted and stunted by their captivity, he said.
“How do you navigate the world when you weren’t exposed to it as a child?” Zektser said. “It’s impossible.”
The siblings are scrambling to learn everything from how to handle money to engaging with other people, particularly strangers, he said.
“Just talking, you know?” Zektser continued on their current hurdles. “They didn’t go to school — how do you even know grammar, or how to interact with other people?”
And the depraved, relentless exploitation of some of 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 will tell you, if they could, they were emotionally abused more in that foster care house than they were in their own tortuous home,” Zektser told The Post of those six siblings. “They were retraumatized and due to already being fragile, they were made 10 times worse.”
“I can assure you – I know – that behind the closed doors and when the curtains go down at night, there’s a lot more going on in that head.”
Attorney Elan Zektser on Jordan TurpinLawsuits filed in July on behalf of the alleged victims detail a harrowing scene in the Olguin home, located less than 10 miles from the Turpins’ former “House of Horrors” residence.
The Olguins and their daughter subjected the six Turpin siblings to severe physical, sexual and emotional abuse, allegedly urging them to commit suicide and threatening to return them to their “biological parents,” according to one of the suits.
The foster family allegedly also made the siblings “recount in detail the horrors” they suffered while with their parents and forced them to eat their own vomit, according to 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 money on their behalf.
“But then that causes some difficulties because you can’t just give someone a substantial amount and expect them to know what to do with it,” Zektser said. “Plus, a lot of them are on government assistance and you would lose that assistance if you obtain that amount, and so it’s not that easy. It’s a very difficult situation.”
The siblings also have a collective lack of “mentorship,” he added, to deal with life as well as seeing their pain sensationalized in the media, Zektser said.
“That attracts even worse people, who want to leech onto that,” he said. “And that’s what’s happened to a lot of them.”
Jordan, in contrast, is supported by a “great team” around her as she restarts her life in Southern California.
“She has a terrific following on social media that boosts her morale and helps fund her life,” Zektser said. “She’s also heavily involved in modeling and she’s just a very sweet and strong person.”
Jordan, who did not return a request for comment, detailed her continued recuperation in the February 2023 issue of Elle, saying her anguished childhood leaves her emotional most days.
“I usually, um, cry,” Turpin replied when asked about her routine. “Then I try to get myself to eat. And then I start to do my makeup, but I cry, so I have to do it over. And then I try to do a TikTok, but I’m like, ‘Oh, people 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 a lot more going on in that head,” Zektser told The Post of Jordan’s trauma.
Jennifer, the eldest Turpin sibling, is an aspiring nurse with her own sizable Instagram following. She did not reply to messages seeking comment.
“Saw this beauty today,” Jennifer, who is now in her early 30s, posted about a rainbow in January to her 72,000-plus followers. “Just a reminder that after a storm comes a rainbow. Whatever you’re going through, push through. You’re stronger than you know. There’s something beautiful right around the corner.”
Another Turpin sister, Jeanetta, also posts regularly on Instagram, where she lists song lyrics, poems and nature among her interests.
“Yesterday is over and tomorrow is a new day so live in this moment while you have it because it is precious,” Jeanetta wrote in November.
Three of the Turpins are taking college courses and several of their younger siblings remain in foster care, Zektser said.
Zektser, who personally knows a majority of the Turpin siblings, said their rehabilitation remains a “work in progress” more than five years after their freedom — with trust of others remaining a crucial obstacle.
“I know that all of them could have terrific lives and contribute to their communities,” he said. “They all want to help people. Every single one of them, especially Jordan, talks about how they want to dedicate their lives to helping others — and I believe it. I think they can all get there, but it’s about 100 times harder because of what they’ve gone through.”
Riverside County officials declined to comment on lawsuits, which remain in discovery phase. Messages left for ChildNET Youth and Family Services in Long Beach were not 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 statement. “Our role is to promote and support the health, safety, wellbeing and independence of each child that comes into our care so they can achieve their highest potential.”
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