“I’m using everything I’ve been through to help others,” the 22-year-old tells TODAY.com in an exclusive interview.
Jordan Turpin gently slipped out of a window of her family’s home, where she and her 12 siblings had been held captive for years, in the early hours of January 4, 2018.
Jordan contacted 911 on an outdated cell phone with shaky hands. She told the operator that she and her siblings were in serious need of assistance. Their parents have imprisoned them in their home. They were beaten, hungry, and even tied to furniture for months on end.
“They smacked us… They enjoy throwing us across the room. “They yank our hair out,” Jordan, then 17, informed the dispatcher. “Right now, my two tiny sisters are bound.”
“I can’t breathe because the house is so filthy,” she explained over the phone.
Jordan has never talked to anyone on the phone before.
Authorities discovered 12 emaciated victims in filthy conditions when they arrived to the Turpins’ home in Perris, California, later called a “House of Horrors” in the media. Some of the kids were chained to their beds. Some were so thin they couldn’t walk.
Jordan, now 22, is a TikTok sensation and model who has graced the pages of Elle magazine.
“Sometimes it doesn’t feel real,” Jordan reveals exclusively to TODAY.com. “I just feel so fortunate to be free and able to try new things.”
After pleading guilty to 14 counts of torture, dependent adult abuse, child endangerment, and false imprisonment, David and Louise Turpin were sentenced to life in prison in 2019.
The Turpin children’s nightmare did not end there. Six of the 13 siblings, including Jordan, were placed in foster homes and claim to have been physically, sexually, and emotionally abused. The California Department of Social Services, through a spokeswoman, tells TODAY.com that it cannot comment on specific instances.
Jordan, who spoke candidly to TODAY.com on Jan. 23, was urged by her counsel not to discuss the ongoing lawsuits regarding their stay in foster care. Jordan, though, did give some advice: “Social workers should listen,” Jordan, 22, says. “For example, if a child approaches you and says, ‘This is happening in the foster home,’ look into it. I only wish they would have listened to me. That’s all I have to say.”
Jordan and her siblings are finally safe today. Jordan lives in a bright Los Angeles apartment with a well stocked refrigerator. The walls are adorned with inspiring phrases, and there are splashes of purple, Jordan’s favorite color, throughout. Jordan’s siblings are frequent overnight visitors. Life is wonderful.
Jordan went on to acquire a high school graduation despite being assessed at a third-grade level when she fled her family home in 2018.
Jordan enjoys posting dance videos to TikTok, where she has over 924,000 followers. Jordan and her sister Jeanetta used to make up songs to distract the others when they were still living with their parents.
“We’d sing to make our younger siblings feel like they were at a concert,” Jordan explains. “I wanted to teach them that there was another world out there and that one day we would be free. “I desired to serve as a role model.”
Posing for photos as a model now comes naturally to her, she claims.
“I’m ready to go once the camera is on me,” she says.
Jessica Gillette, a photographer who collaborated with Jordan last year, couldn’t agree more.
“She’s extremely nice and has a very childlike spirit — but as we went to work, this like, womanly diva came out of her. “She took me by surprise,” Gillette tells TODAY.com. “She also listens and follows instructions quite well.”
When asked if she wants her parents to see her modeling pictures, Jordan answers she doesn’t mind. They don’t influence her decisions, she claims. She is intent on motivating people.
“Regardless of how horrible things are, there is a way out — and it does get better,” she says. “It will never go away… When you went through a traumatic experience, you can’t forget it. But things will improve, and there is still hope. You can recover from it.”
“Life is hard,” she adds on a video conference with TODAY.com, where she appears lively and younger than her age at moments. “But whatever you go through, you can pick where you let that take you. “I’m turning my experience into something positive by assisting others.”
It is difficult to adjust to adulthood after having been abused as a youngster. Jordan recalls having difficulty while working at Taco Bell in 2021.
“I had just gotten out of an abusive environment, so I was always, like, jumpy. “Every five seconds, I’d say’sorry,’” Jordan recalls. Some of the teenagers would make fun of me. I tried not to let it bother me, but every now and then I’d go into the bathroom and cry.”
“I learnt a lot there,” she admits, still looking for the silver lining.
Jordan beams when she talks about her siblings and how far they’ve come in four years. Jordan had no idea what medication or tablets were when she ran away from her parents’ house in 2018. She’d never stepped on a sidewalk before.
“We’re all pretty fast learners,” Jordan says with pride to TODAY.com. “My siblings and I have many talents – and now we can appreciate those talents.”
Jordan aspires to be a motivational speaker and to write books. She also says she wants to utilize her platform to help fix the “broken” foster care system.
“People should become foster parents if they wish to help children. “They want to help them get out of the awful situation they’re in,” Jordan adds. “Some people are motivated by other factors.”
Jordan intends to have her own family one day — she wants three children and ten dogs — but for now, she’s content with being a mom to two Pomeranians. She is likewise preoccupied with herself.
“I didn’t come from a single awful scenario; I came from a series of bad situations, and I still have a lot of healing to do,” Jordan adds. “It still keeps me up at night.”
