Turpin siblings recount years of abuse by parents inside ‘house of horrors’: ‘I would beg Jesus to take me’

Three of the Turpin siblings who endured repeated horrors at the hands of their parents and foster parents are sharing their story for the first time about the years of abuse they suffered.

Julissa, 19; Jolinda, 20; and James Turpin, 24, were among the 13 siblings rescued in 2018 from horrific abuses inflicted by their own parents before the trio were thrown into California’s foster system, only to face similar terrors under their new foster parents.

The three siblings discussed their parents’ cruelty and their hopes for the future in the upcoming ABC special, “The Turpins: A New House of Horrors,” set to air on Tuesday night.

Breaking their silence, the siblings said they endured what they thought would be a never-ending nightmare at the hands of their parents, David and Louise Turpin.  

“Towards the end, you know, I would always cry at night,” Julissa said.

“And I would beg Jesus to take me.”

“We literally were dying in there from starvation, and she knew about it,” the 19-year-old said of her mother, whose last words to her daughter was calling her “the devil.”

James said he was so emaciated at the time that he could barely walk, and said he had constant night terrors about his parents killing him and his siblings.

The trio was given a brief respite when their sister, Jordan Turpin, managed to escape through a window on Jan. 14, 2018, and contacted police about the torture her and her siblings endured.

David and Louise — who kept the emaciated children shackled to furniture with chains and padlocks for months at a time and regularly beat them — were sentenced to 25 years to life in prison in 2019.

But after being freed from the torture of their biological parents, Julissa, Jolinda, and James were among the six Turpin children who endured even more horrors when they were handed over to Marcelino and Rosa Olguin.

In a lawsuit against California’s Riverside County and a private foster care agency, ChildNet Youth and Family Services, the siblings said “We literally were dying in there from starvation, and she knew about it,” the 19-year-old said of her mother, whose last words to her daughter was calling her “the devil.”

They suffered physical, sexual, and emotional abuse at the hands of the Olguins.

Julissa, who was 11 at the time, said she knew something was wrong during her first night with the Olguins when Marcelino called her “sexy.”

“I didn’t know very much, but I did know that that didn’t feel right,” she told ABC.

“And I did feel very uncomfortable. And it made me feel so unsafe in the home.”

Marcelino would go on to inappropriately touch and forcibly kiss her, she added.

Marcelino was arrested in January 2021 and pleaded guilty three years later to four counts of lewd acts on a child 14 or 15 years old; three counts of lewd acts on a child younger than 14; one count of false imprisonment; and one count of injuring a child.

His wife, Rosa, and their daughter, Lennys, also pleaded guilty to three counts of willful child cruelty, one count of false imprisonment and one count of intimidating a witness.

Despite their repeated abuse, Jolinda said she hoped that their story put a spotlight on the system that failed them, saying that something “good” needs to come out of it.

“It has to, and I can’t accept it not,” she told ABC.

Riverside County Executive Officer Jeff Van Wagenen assured the outlet that the siblings have changed the way the county deals with child welfare.

“Their experiences, and those of other vulnerable children, led the County to initiate the independent investigation by former federal Judge Stephen Larson in 2021, which resulted in significant reforms to how the County serves and protects children in its care,” he said in a statement.

ChildNet, which along with the county settled the lawsuit without admitting to any wrongdoing, said their “hearts remain with the Turpin children.”