CARE OF ABUSED SIBLINGS FACES PROBE
Some Turpin kids say social services ‘betrayed’ them
The 13 siblings rescued three years ago from horribly abusive conditions that included being locked in their home for years, shackled to beds and starved by their parents have been failed at different points by a social services system that was supposed to help them transition to new lives, according to an investigation by ABC News.
The network reported Friday that Riverside County has hired a private law firm to look into allegations the seven adult and six minor children in the Turpin family did not get basic services after they were freed from their parents’ prisonlike home.
Some of the children reported they “felt betrayed” by local officials’ handling of their cases, said Melissa Donaldson, Riverside County’s
director of victim services. Donaldson said there were times when the children did not have a safe place to stay or enough food.
She cried as she described how the children, who had little contact with the outside world while being held like prisoners by their parents, David and Louise Turpin, were at times left on their own to try to work through a complicated bureaucracy.
The shocking abuse in
the Turpin home went unnoticed in the community of Perris until then-17-year-old Jordan Turpin escaped from the house and called police. Jordan and one of her sisters gave their first media interview for a segment on Friday’s episode of ABC’s “20/ 20.”
Now 21, Jordan recalled how she could barely press the buttons for 911 after escaping the house. She had never spoken to anybody before on the phone, she said, and was shaking.
When the 13 siblings were rescued, all but the 2-yearold were severely underweight and hadn’t bathed for months. Investigators concluded the youngest child was the only one not abused by their parents, who have since been sentenced to life in prison.
In the days after their release, donations and support poured in from around the world. But since then, the adult siblings have faced challenges accessing social services and even money that was donated for their care.
Joshua Turpin, 29, told ABC News he couldn’t access funds to cover transportation needs and when he asked for help from the county’s deputy public guardian assigned to his case, “she would just tell me, ‘Just go Google it.’”
In a statement, Riverside County Executive Officer Jeff Van Waganen said his office has hired a law firm run to analyze the services provided and the quality of care they received. A report is due by the end of March.