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The Turpin Kids Are ‘Happy’ and Building New Lives 2 Years After Escaping ‘House of Horrors’
Building a brighter future. The 13 Turpin kids are “happy” and “moving on with their lives” two years after they escaped their parents, David and Louise Turpin, and the “House of Horrors” they ran.
David and Louise remain behind bars after pleading guilty to multiple felony counts including torture and false imprisonment in 2019, allowing the siblings an opportunity to start fresh after enduring unimaginable abuse.
“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,” says Riverside County Deputy District Attorney Kevin Beecham to PEOPLE. He revealed one of them also graduated college, which is no small feat.
Six of the youngest kids have been adopted and it appears they “are able to rebound a little better,” because they didn’t have “as many years of abuse and neglect” at the Turpin house located on the streets of suburban Perris, California. Group homes have also taken in some of the other children in the wake of their escape in January 2018.
Luckily, the kids have a great support system as they focus on healing and finding solace as survivors. “With therapy, counseling and a lot of psychological assistance, they’re exponentially in a better place than they were before,” Beecham reveals.
On the bright side, all of the kids do stay in touch with each other and arrange to have meet-ups every so often “somewhere kind of discreet.” To let go of the past, some have also decided to change their names.
“It would be difficult for them to carry that name, that label of being a victim, forever,” the deputy district attorney notes.
Unfortunately, some of the trauma is hard to let go. After living off of bologna and peanut butter sandwiches, some can’t even look at either food item anymore without getting sick and they still don’t “go down the aisle where there’s peanut butter.”
In a REELZ special released in March 2020, it discusses the case and details how unbearable their living conditions were. “When [investigators] got there, they found three children shackled by chains to the bed,” her sister, Elizabeth Flores, shared. The home was extremely filthy and the kids were not allowed to exercise or socialize with each other.
David and Louise were sentenced to 25 years to life in 2019.
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