Only a few days after their first media interview aired on ABC’s20/20, sisters Jordan and Jennifer Turpin say they’re overwhelmed with the amount of love they’ve received.
Jordan, now 21, and Jennifer, aged 33, are two of 13 siblings who were rescued from captivity in their abusive parents' Perris, Calif., home in 2018. The Turpin children were aged 2 to 29 at the time that they were found.
While held in isolation in what’s been dubbed the “House of Horrors,” the siblings were routinelystarved and abused, forced to remain seated for most of their lives and locked in cages or chained to their beds if they misbehaved.
Their parents, David and Louise Turpin, were arrested and convicted on14 felony countsincluding cruelty to an adult dependent, child cruelty, torture and false imprisonment.
The Turpin sisters speak to ABC’s Diane Sawyer.Christina Ng/ABC News
Jaycee Dugard, an author and activist who spent 18 years of her youth in captivity, evenset up a new fundthrough her foundation to support the Turpin siblings, encouraging all who know their story to donate.
Jennifer and Jordan Turpin.ABC News / “Good Morning America”
“All the love and support I’m getting,” she said, “it’s overwhelming, but it’s awesome.”
“When people are saying that I matter, and they say that I’m loved and that … I’m making a difference, I just like, I don’t understand it,” Jordan said through tears, “because my whole life, I thought that I didn’t matter and I wasn’t loved.”
Hoping to become amotivational speakerafter graduating college, Jordan added: “My whole life has been so hard for me to understand why everything has happened, but if I can use that to make a difference in the world, then I think it can heal me.”
Fortunately, though the Turpin children faced a rocky road following their rescue, they seem to be doing better now.
“I think everyone’s definitely in a better place right now,” Jordan said, speaking on behalf of her siblings. “I know me, personally, I have a lot of healing to do from the last home I was in. I feel like there was a lot of damage done, and it’s just been really hard, but I think things are going to start getting better right now. We just have to have faith.”
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Updating viewers on her life since the20/20interview was filmed, Jennifer said, “I have my own place, I recently got a car, I have an adorable kitty cat and bunny, [and] I love my job, even when it gets hard.”
The full20/20episode on the Turpin children, “Escape from a House of Horror,” is now available on ABC News' digital platforms andHulu. Jordan and Jennifer’s follow-up interview forGood Morning Americais availableonline.
If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or1-800-422-4453, or go towww.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
source: people.com
