what happened to the turpins

The Turpin case involves a group of 13 siblings who were rescued from horrific long‑term abuse by their parents in California, and today the parents are serving life sentences while the children are rebuilding their lives with mixed, often difficult, outcomes.

What happened to the Turpins?

The “house of horrors” discovery

• In January 2018, 17‑year‑old Jordan Turpin escaped her family’s home in Perris, California, called 911, and reported that her siblings were being abused and some were chained to their beds.

• Police entered the home and found 13 siblings, ages roughly 2 to 29, severely malnourished, living in filthy conditions, and deprived of normal food, sleep, hygiene, education, and medical care.

• The case shocked the U.S. and international media and quickly became known as the “Turpin house of horrors” case.

The siblings had been isolated for years, with very limited contact with the outside world, and many basic life skills and experiences were completely unfamiliar to them.

Legal outcome for the parents

• David and Louise Turpin were charged with multiple counts including torture, false imprisonment, child abuse, and abuse of dependent adults.

• In February 2019, both parents pleaded guilty to 14 felony counts to avoid trial.

• In April 2019, they were sentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after 25 years , and remain incarcerated in separate California prisons.

What happened to the Turpin children afterward?

After the rescue, the siblings were split between foster care and supervised placements, but their path to recovery has been uneven and sometimes deeply disappointing.

Immediate aftermath

• The younger children were placed into foster care; the older siblings were placed in supervised living situations and given access in theory to education, therapy, and donated funds intended to help them start over.

• Public officials initially promised that the siblings would receive strong support and that donations raised for them would help secure housing, education, and other basics.

Problems and new abuse in the system

• Investigations later revealed that some of the children were “living in squalor” or in unstable situations years after being rescued, with difficulty accessing money that had been donated for their benefit.

• In a particularly disturbing development, the foster parents who took in several of the younger Turpin children were later charged with abusing them; three foster family members ultimately pleaded guilty in 2024 to child endangerment, false imprisonment, and, in one case, lewd acts on a child under 14.

• This highlighted systemic failures: authorities rescued the siblings from one abusive home only for some of them to face further harm in care that was supposed to protect them.

Where are the Turpin siblings now? (as of latest reports)

Public information is limited to protect their privacy, but some broad details are known.

Known developments

• Several of the older siblings now live independently, working, studying, and attending therapy while trying to build ordinary adult lives.

• Reports describe ongoing struggles with housing, finances, and mental health, but also resilience and close emotional bonds among the siblings.

• Jordan Turpin has been one of the more public figures: she has spoken in interviews about trauma recovery, mental health, and her efforts to create a stable home and care for her pets.

Media and ongoing attention

• The siblings have taken part in a small number of high‑profile TV interviews to tell their story and highlight how the system failed them after the rescue.

• A new ABC News special hosted by Diane Sawyer, announced in early 2026, is set to feature three additional Turpin siblings who will, for the first time, talk in detail about facing abuse again in foster care and their ongoing efforts to heal.

Why is “what happened to the Turpins” trending again?

• The case periodically returns to the news when there are legal developments (such as the 2024 guilty pleas and sentencing of the abusive foster parents) or new interviews with the siblings.

• The broader public conversation now focuses less on the initial “house of horrors” shock and more on long‑term issues: failures in child protection systems, how trauma survivors are treated after rescue, and how donations and public promises are managed.

TL;DR

• The Turpin siblings were rescued from extreme long‑term abuse by their parents in 2018 after a daring escape by 17‑year‑old Jordan.

• Their parents, David and Louise Turpin, are serving life sentences with the possibility of parole after 25 years.

• The children’s lives since then have been a mix of progress and hardship: some are now living more independently, but others faced new abuse in foster care and ongoing struggles with housing, mental health, and access to promised support.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.