A survivor of the Turpin family’s California “house of horrors” is speaking out after 16 children were found living in a feces-covered Ohio home, warning that the transition into normal society may be deeply challenging for kids described as “almost feral.”
Julissa Turpin, 20, told NewsNation on Thursday that the Siders children can recover with time and the right support, speaking eight years after she broke free from the abuse inflicted by her parents, David and Louise Turpin.
The Siders children, whose ages range from 1 to 18, were placed in protective custody after authorities rescued them on June 30 from a cramped 12-by-12 room in Hamden, Ohio.
“It’s gonna be really hard to adjust, but it’s definitely possible,” Turpin told Entin as she reflected on what may lie ahead for the children. “And it’s definitely possible for them to get healing and everything that they need.”
Turpin, who was 10 or 11 when she escaped the family’s four-bedroom home in Perris, California, said even ordinary social interactions felt foreign as she began trying to understand life outside the abusive household.
“Even with literally saying, ‘How are you?’ That was odd to me that people would say, ‘Hi, how are you?” she said.
“It’s like, ‘Why is everybody asking how I am?’ 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?’”
Turpin also admitted she thought the idea of people having friends was “fake” or just something that featured in films.
“I didn’t know that I could actually, um, have a friend. … I didn’t know where I would get a friend,” she said.
Turpin recalled the moment she was able to free herself from David and Louise Turpin’s reign of terror. They were sentenced to 25 years to life in prison in April 2019.
It was Julissa’s sister Jordan, then 17, who managed to escape the property – and report the abuse to the authorities.
“I was always on cloud nine because it was like, honestly, just being able to see a tree, just being able to breathe in fresh air, that literally felt like heaven to me,” Julissa said.
“I felt like it kind of, it can’t really get more scary or worse than being in that house.”
There is a set of striking similarities in the cases of the Turpins and Siders.
Andy Wilson, the Ohio Attorney General, described the surroundings inside the Hamden property as “third world.”
“They looked like almost feral animals,” he said, describing the conditions of the kids. “It was terrible.”
“If they had waited 24 hours, there is a very high probability that we’d be dealing with a death, or multiple deaths, of these children,” he said.
All but one of the Turpin kids were severely malnourished when they were rescued.
Julissa’s sister, Jennifer Turpin, revealed she and her siblings’ diet largely consisted of peanut butter sandwiches, bologna, and frozen burritos. Meanwhile, their parents would gorge on fast food and full meals.
The Turpin children were not enrolled in schools across California, and authorities in Ohio revealed none of the Siders’ kids were in school at the time of their discovery.
“One of the investigative challenges is that [the children] are limited,” Ryan Cain, the Vinton County Sheriff, said.
“They can communicate but it’s extremely limited and some not at all.”
Elizabeth Siders and Gary Siders Jr, who have since been charged with child endangerment, were hit with truancy charges in October 2021 after six of their kids failed to attend school before these were later thrown out.
The case was “unable to be served” because the location of the Siders’ parents and their kids was “unknown to the court,” according to a judge’s filing seen by the Daily Mail.
Gary Siders and his wife Christina Siders have also been charged with child endangerment in light of the discovery.
All four pleaded not guilty at their arraignment.
