Many will remember this case from 2018. The abusive parents are serving life sentences in prison.
A lot of money was donated to help the children. But, the children have not received the professional support that was promised.
I plan to watch 20/20 and learn more. I’m heart broken to learn these abused kids aren’t getting the help and funding that’s been donated.
This is completely unacceptable. 
Most of these kids are minors and can’t publicly express what’s happening. I understand the family had to be broken up. Foster homes were the only solution. But they are supposed to be getting special care: counseling, tutoring, and support.
Diane Sawyer did a good job researching this story. They just played the complete body cam footage as the police entered and searched the home.
I didn’t know that 2 childten were near death and wouldn’t have survived the family’s planned move to Oklahoma.
The kids didn’t attend school and had almost no social skills. Jordan had improved her vocabulary by secretly watching videos on a phone. She learned about the 911 service by watching Cops.
Jennifer is the oldest and appeared in the 20/20 interview. She’s not able to express herself like Jordan. I don’t want to even imagine the condition of the most abused siblings.
It’s been over three years and I can see a difference in Jordan’s speech and confidence. I certainly hope they get the care needed to recover.
The show is beginning to report on the failed care since the children entered the foster system.
I’d encourage everyone to watch this 20/20 report. Most of the 2 hour special covers the discovery and rescue of the children. It’s such a remarkable story and a reminder of what people can survive without being broken.
Jordan has finished high school and is attending college. Jennifer is working and hoping to become a store manager.
The investigation into the other kids care is just beginning. 20/20 couldn’t get any information. The case is hidden in secrecy and confidentially.
Update.
I wanted to watch this and forgot, and it’s over in my time zone now! Looks like it’s on Hulu which I don’t have. There are snippets of it on the ABC website but not much, which is very frustrating. Any suggestions on where to see more of it without a Hulu subscription?
And it’s so sad that there’s money in trust for the family, but they can’t access it. Even worse,
“After their rescue, some of the younger siblings spent years in foster homes where there were accusations of child abuse – including an accusation that at least one of the Turpins was a victim of such abuse, for which charges have been filed. Two of the older children have at times had to resort to “couch-surfing,” one advocate said, and, in at least one case, another was assaulted.”
ABC streams their recent shows. You have to login with a cable provider account. I use my DirecTv account.
20/20 sometimes gets posted on YouTube. There’s interest in theTurpin case and it may show up.
That’s not helpful for those of us who don’t have a cable provider. Not everyone uses cable.
I’ll keep an eye out on YouTube.
I get the impression that Diane and 20/20 will continue investigating the case. There may be a follow up next year after the internal agency review is completed.
It depends on what gets released to the public.
I’m very surprised the money donated in 2018 hasn’t been used as intended for therapy and socialization of the kids.
Apparently you can stream 20/20 without logging in. I see the Nov 12 and Nov 5 episodes are already unlocked. I play them in my browser. I’ve never installed the ABC App.
They’ll probably unlock the Turpin episode next weekend.
Thanks for the link! It took me straight to the show without needing a login, but that may be because my internet and cable service are from the same provider.
Outrageous that some of the kids have been couch-surfing, abused in their foster homes, and unable to access the funds donated for their care.
Except… that is not particularly unusual for any kid in the US foster care system. The US does a pretty crap job of caring for our vulnerable people.
I thought about starting a Pit thread, but decided to bump this one instead.
A foster family where 5 of the Turpin children were placed have been arrested for (allegedly) abusing them, and two other children in their care.
The horrors never end for them, do they.
There’s something else ugly going on there. From an article (widely reprinted, I believe) on March 31, 2022: The County is attempting to investigate this, and is being stonewalled by state-mandated and court-mandated confidentiality rules.
I would have thought that people with a “need to know” should be able to get that kind of information. And that County investigators would be the kind of people with a “need to know”.
(If that’s paywalled for you, try googling the words in the headline, or use “delayed” instead of “frustrated”, and you’ll find the same or similar article in many places.)
ETA: It’s not just the children. Several of the children are actually adults now, and are in no way prepared to live independently. They have no education, no jobs (or poor jobs), can’t find housing, etc. And they are not getting the kind of social services they need.
Yeah, well, child and adult social serves are under-funded and under-staffed, and an with obsession with confidentiality I’ve long suspected is to protect “the system” more than the people in it. I doubt the Turpin children are an exception, it’s just that people are interested in their story, as opposed to all the other people in the system that literally no one really cares about.
So, one abusive foster carer has been arrested. It confirms what the older girl said in the ABC interview.
It’s especially frustrating because a lot of money was raised to help the Turpin kids. I’d like to see an audit of those funds.
I still can’t wrap my head around it.
If I’m in social services and my office takes responsibility for the welfare of the victims in a high-profile, horrific abuse case… how do my colleagues and I manage to fail these children so spectacularly that they are re-victimized by new abusers?
MY thought is… what the hell is happening to the kids who aren’t famous?
Very few foster parents are willing to take in multiple teenagers, so chances are, these “people” stepped up, probably for the stipend.
It makes things much, much harder for genuinely caring foster parents.
To say nothing of how much harder it makes it for those foster kids.