A young survivor who endured years of torture, starvation and captivity at the hands of her parents is speaking out about the long, painful process of reentering the world — and what may lie ahead for 16 Ohio children found in what authorities described as similarly horrific conditions.
Julissa Turpin, now 20, was among the youngest of the 13 siblings rescued in 2018 from their parents’ notorious “house of horrors” in Perris, a Southern California community whose name became tied to one of the nation’s most disturbing child abuse cases.
Her parents, David and Louise Turpin, later pleaded guilty to torture and years of abuse, admitting to crimes that included chaining some of their 13 biological children to beds, depriving them of food and giving them only the barest education.
Years after the Turpin children were freed, investigators in Ohio uncovered an unsettlingly similar case in Hamden, where 16 children were allegedly kept inside a cramped 12-foot-by-12-foot room contaminated with feces.
Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson called the conditions “pure evil,” saying they were the kind of surroundings “you cannot even imagine people being in, let alone children being in.”
The children’s mother, Elizabeth Siders, 33; her husband, Gary Siders Jr., 36; and her in-laws, Gary Siders Sr., 73, and Christina “Lynn” Siders, 66, were arrested and each charged with 16 counts of endangering children, a second-degree felony. All four have pleaded not guilty.
With the Ohio children now facing an uncertain road to recovery, Julissa said she believes they can survive the trauma and, in time, build meaningful lives — just as she and her siblings have worked to do.
“It’s gonna be really hard to adjust, but it’s definitely possible,” Julissa told Brian Entin in an exclusive interview on NewsNation’s Elizabeth Vargas Reports.
‘And it’s definitely possible for them to get the healing and everything that they need.’
Julissa Turpin, 20, opened up about the challenges she faced as she reacclimated to society
She told NewsNation’s Brian Entin that she has faith the 15 children rescued from a similar situation to the one she endured will survive and ultimately thrive
Julissa was one of the youngest of the 13 children rescued from their parents’ ‘house of horrors’ in the Southern California community of Perris in 2018
The Turpin children, who ranged in age from two to 29, were left so malnourished that police initially believed all of those found inside the squalid home were minors.
The siblings’ diet consisted of nothing but two slices of bread with peanut butter or bologna while their parents taunted them with pies and other food that they were forbidden to eat.
If the children then tried to steal food, they were chained to filthy beds.
For Julissa, growing up inside the home was ‘almost like this prison, where my siblings and I were prisoners,’ she recounted, saying her mom was ‘the head of the prison or her and my dad were like the head of the prison.’
But the terrifying conditions she and her siblings were living in only came to light after their then 17-year-old sister Jordan escaped on January 14, 2018 and called a 911 dispatcher.
‘I live in a family of 15 people and our parents are abusive,’ Jordan told the operator. ‘We live in filth. Sometimes I wake up and can’t breathe because of how dirty the house is.’
‘My two little sisters right now are chained up,’ she added.
Louise and David Turpin pleaded guilty to torture and abuse in 2019 and have been sentenced to life in prison
David and Louise ate fast food in front of their children, who were only allowed one meal per day at one point. They would chain the siblings to filthy beds if they tried to steal food
When the siblings were then released from the terrifying situation, Julissa said she felt like she was ‘always on Cloud 9 because it was like, honestly, just being able to see a tree, just being able to breathe fresh air, that literally felt like heaven to me.
‘I felt like it kind of, it can’t really get more scary or worse than being in that house,’ she told Entin.
Yet the siblings still had to face their parents in court, where their mother claimed she was also one of the victims.
Her attorneys tried to argue she suffered from severe personality disorder and family trauma that drove her need to be in control.
Elizabeth Siders, the mother of the 16 Ohio children, has now made a nearly identical claim as her lawyers argue she was the victim of a controlling husband who married her when she was just 15 years old as she fights to see her children.
But Julissa said she isn’t buying that story.
‘I think that is really dumb,’ she said of Elizabeth’s arguments. ‘She can be a victim, but that does not give her any excuse to do what she did to her kids.’
The now 20-year-old went on to note that she didn’t even know her mother, who is now serving a life sentence in prison, as she was always in a separate room.
‘The only time I ever saw her face, pretty much, was when she was coming towards me to like abuse me or beat me up or… whatever, you know, something bad,’ Julissa said.
When she then had to talk about what she experienced in front of a judge, she said she would ‘get physically sick, where I would throw up because of the anxiety from it, and it really was, like, hard to heal.’
David and Louise Turpin ultimately pleaded guilty to torture and abuse in 2019 and have been sentenced to life in prison.
Julissa recounted how she got ‘physically sick, where I would throw up because of the anxiety from it’ when she was asked to testify about the abuse she endured at her parents’ trials
Meanwhile, the Turpin children faced the daunting task of learning how to exist in the world, including how to eat real food and maintain proper hygiene.
They also had to learn how to make friends.
‘I thought that people like having friends and like neighbors talking to each other and all that stuff, I thought that was like fake or just like, stuff that’s in the movies or something,’ Julissa recounted. ‘I didn’t know that I could actually um, have a friend… I didn’t know where I would get a friend.’
She added that she also found it ‘odd’ when people asked her how she was.
‘It’s like, “Why is everybody asking how I am?”‘ she recounted. ‘It was so weird because it’s the most common phrase ever, but it was never used. I don’t remember a single time in that house, by an adult or a parent, “How are you?” or “Are you OK.”‘
But now, more than eight years later, Julissa said she has gotten over her grief thanks to therapy and religion.
She recently even bought her first home, and said she continues to find healing and strength by spending time with her siblings and her dogs.
The Siders children will now have to face a similar situation.
Elizabeth Siders, 33 and her husband, Gary Siders Jr, 36, have been arrested on 16 counts of endangering children
Police rescued 16 children on June 30 from a cramped 12ft by 12ft room littered with feces in this house of horrors located in deep rural Ohio
The children living in the Ohio house ranged in age from 18 months to 18 years old.
Several were in serious condition when they were found inside the house of horrors in June, and two had to be flown to level one trauma centers because of their injuries.
When asked about their emotional state, Attorney General Wilson said that investigators’ primary concern upon arrival was getting the children to a hospital due to the extent of their medical conditions.
‘They looked like almost feral animals,’ he said. ‘It was terrible.’
Vinton County Sheriff Ryan Cain echoed a similar sentiment at a news conference, describing the home as being littered with human feces and a small room where investigators believe the children were kept for nearly four years.
‘Most of our livestock was kept in better conditions than the children,’ Cain added.
Some of the children were unable to speak and the eldest, an 18-year-old who was developmentally disabled, could not even write her name, investigators have said.
Authorities have referred to the incident as an ‘intrafamily’ case, suggesting some youngsters may have resulted from sexual relations with relatives.
But they have not publicly elaborated on what they meant by the phrase, only emphasizing that the investigation is not a human trafficking case and that there is no ongoing danger to the wider community.
Meanwhile, all of the children are safe and are being cared for.
