Youngest Turpin Children Set To Open Up to Diane Sawyer About ‘House of Horrors’ Torture—8 Years After Being Rescued

Three of the youngest Turpin children are set to open up to famed journalist Diane Sawyer about the horrific abuse they endured at the hands of their parents inside the family's infamous "house of horrors."

David and Louise Turpin were arrested at their property in Perris, CA, in January 2018 after one of their 13 children, Jordan Turpin, who was 17 at the time, escaped the home through a window and phoned 911, reporting to officers that she and her siblings had sustained years of abuse, both in their California dwelling and in their previous house in Texas.

"They hit us, they like to throw us across the room," she is heard saying during the call. "They pull our hair, they yank out our hair. My two little sisters right now are chained up."

Police arrived on the scene and found a trove of horrifying evidence inside the Turpins' California home, where David and Louise had chained several of their children to their beds.

The couple pled guilty and were later convicted of multiple felony counts, including child cruelty, torture, and false imprisonment. They were sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.

Meanwhile, the children spent weeks in the hospital, before the youngest were sent to live in foster care. Two of the oldest siblings, Jennifer and Jordan, have previously spoken out about their experiences, detailing the terrifying nature of the abuse they faced at the hands of their mother and father.

Now, the three youngest Turpin kids are opening up for the first time about the horrors that they endured—while also detailing the abuse they say they faced in the foster care system.

In preview clips for the special broadcast, titled "The Turpins: A New House of Horror—A Diane Sawyer Special Event," the three children—Julissa Turpin, 19, Jolinda Turpin, 20, and James Turpin, 24—are seen discussing their rescue, recalling how Jordan jumped from the window and fled the scene.

"We literally were dying in there from starvation, and she knew about it," Julissa tells Sawyer in an apparent reference to her mother, as her sister reveals: "The last words she said to me were that I was the devil."

Speaking about the moment that Jordan ran from the home, Jolinda recalled: "She was like, 'I'm doing it tonight, I'm doing it tonight.' I remember thinking, 'We're all going to die.' And I remember Jordan saying, 'It's now or never.'

"And she was right, she literally was right. She did it just in time. We were all going to be chained to our beds."

After the children were rescued, the two sisters recalled running around in circles, ecstatic at being able to experience fresh air for the first time in years.

But for many of them, the horrors would continue, when they were sent to live with an abusive foster couple, Marcelino and Rosa Olguin, and their adult daughter, Lennys Olguin, who they say subjected them to further torment.

"People say if you're born in a house that's on fire, you think the whole world is on fire and that's the way it was for me," Julissa says, adding: "Something bad did happen the first night that I was there."

"Every night they would drink and get really mean, and aggressive towards us. They just made me hate myself," James adds. "At that time I kind of felt like my life was doomed."

The Olguins were arrested in 2021 and initially pled not guilty to charges of abuse. However, in 2024, Marcelino pled guilty to four counts of lewd acts on a child aged 14 or 15; three counts of lewd acts on a child aged under 14; one count of false imprisonment; and one count of injuring a child.

His wife and daughter both pled guilty to three counts of willful child cruelty and one count of false imprisonment and intimidating a witness.

"These kids were just hit with a double whammy," the Turpins' attorney, Elan Zektser, previously told People of their experiences.

"They were made to feel worthless at home by their parents, and then they were hit again when they went to the foster home. They constantly told these children, ‘Your parents were right. You are worthless. You're a nobody. You're a Turpin,’ like that was some kind of grotesque thing. And it brought their confidence to an all-new low."

Meanwhile, the Perris property where the Turpins had been living went into foreclosure in November 2018, months after the children were rescued from it.

The three-bedroom, three-bathroom property was sold for $310,000 at a foreclosure auction in January 2019, around $40,000 less than its estimated value at the time.

It was briefly put on the rental market for $2,600 a month in 2020, according to property records. The dwelling, which was built in 2013, spans 2,388 square feet and sits on a 7,405-square-foot lot.

"The Turpins: A New House of Horror—A Diane Sawyer Special Event" airs on ABC News at 10 p.m. ET on Feb. 3.