Turpin Parents Now: Sentence, Settlement, and Siblings Today

David and Louise Turpin are now serving sentences of 25 years to life in California state prison after pleading guilty in 2019 to torturing and abusing 13 of their children inside the family’s home in Perris. Neither parent is eligible for a parole hearing until 2044. In the years since their imprisonment, their children have moved through a second round of abuse in foster care, a scathing county-commissioned review, and a civil case that ended in early 2026 with a $13.5 million settlement.¹²

The Sentence David and Louise Turpin Are Serving

On February 22, 2019, each parent pleaded guilty to 14 felony counts: one count of torture, four counts of false imprisonment, six counts of cruelty to an adult dependent, and three counts of willful child cruelty. The counts covered conduct between 2010 and January 2018.¹

Judge Bernard Schwartz sentenced both parents on April 19, 2019, at the Riverside County Hall of Justice. Under the plea deal, each will serve a minimum of roughly 25 years before their first parole hearing in 2044.²³

The case began on January 14, 2018, when the Turpins’ 17-year-old daughter Jordan slipped out of the home on Muir Woods Road and used a deactivated cellphone to call 911. Officers found 13 siblings, from toddlers to adults, in what authorities described as deplorable conditions: shackled, starved, and denied basic hygiene. All 13 were hospitalized. David and Louise Turpin were arrested the same day.¹

What Happened to the Children After the Rescue

In April 2018, five of the youngest Turpin children were placed in the home of Marcelino and Rosa Olguin through ChildNet, a private foster care agency contracted by Riverside County. The Olguins knew the children’s history of severe abuse.⁴

Prosecutors and later civil filings described what happened next. The Olguins hit the children in the face with sandals, pulled their hair, and forced them to eat their own vomit. The children were confined to their rooms, with chimes installed on doors to alert the foster parents to any movement. The Olguins also made the siblings sit in a circle and recount the trauma they had experienced in their parents’ home.⁵⁴

Marcelino Olguin was accused of sexually touching the children more than 50 times, calling them “sexy,” and pulling a minor on top of him. Julissa Turpin, who was 11 when placed in the home, later told Diane Sawyer that her foster father called her “sexy” on her first night there and afterward touched her inappropriately and forcibly kissed her.⁶

The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department opened an investigation into the foster home in early 2021. In September and October 2024, all three members of the Olguin family pleaded guilty. Marcelino Olguin pleaded guilty to three counts of lewd and lascivious acts on a child under 14, one count of child endangerment, and one count of false imprisonment, and was sentenced to seven years in state prison. Rosa Olguin and the couple’s daughter, Lennys Olguin, each pleaded guilty to child endangerment and false imprisonment and received four years of probation.⁷

Riverside County’s Failures

An ABC News investigation in late 2021 reported that several Turpin siblings were living in squalor and struggling to access food and housing despite significant community donations. Riverside County then hired former U.S. District Judge Stephen Larson to lead an independent review.⁸

The 634-page Larson report, published in July 2022, concluded that “all too often the social services system failed them.” It found the Children’s Services Division was at “crisis-point” staff turnover and that the Office of the Public Guardian carried 98 to 113 cases per worker, roughly 3.5 times the recommended standard of 30. The report also criticized how the county vetted and monitored foster family agencies, and it described “aggravated disagreements” and a “legal turf war” among the District Attorney’s Office, County Counsel, and a court-appointed law firm.⁹¹⁰

Seven adult siblings were placed under the conservatorship of the Riverside County Office of the Public Guardian. Deputy Public Guardian Vanessa Espinoza rejected apartments the siblings wanted to rent and directed them toward housing they considered substandard, according to unsealed court documents. Joshua Turpin said that when he asked Espinoza for help buying a bicycle, she told him to “just go Google it.” Espinoza left the county in August 2021, saying she resigned voluntarily. No formal disciplinary action against her has been publicly reported.¹¹¹⁰

On July 12, 2022, the Riverside County Board of Supervisors voted 4-0 to adopt the report’s recommendations. The county dedicated $6.5 million to a “no wrong door” coordination model and approved a budget increase intended to boost Public Guardian staffing by 33%. At the state level, Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 1054 on September 23, 2022, allowing adult and child protective services across California to share information about clients and their families.¹²

The $13.5 Million Settlement

In July 2022, six of the Turpin siblings filed civil lawsuits against Riverside County and ChildNet. The suits alleged the children had been placed in a “known abusive foster home” despite the Olguin family’s documented prior history of abuse and neglect, that officials kept the children in the home for three years even after the siblings reported abuse, and that the defendants “actively withheld this information from the authorities.”¹³

The cases settled before trial. In early 2026, attorneys announced a $13.5 million agreement. ChildNet agreed to pay $11.25 million and Riverside County agreed to pay $2.25 million, with each of the six siblings receiving $2.25 million before attorney’s fees. Both defendants denied wrongdoing. Riverside County also severed its relationship with ChildNet. ChildNet stated it had received no complaints of abuse while the children were enrolled in its program.¹⁴¹⁵

County officials said the child welfare reforms that followed the Larson investigation, including increased social worker staffing, revised interview policies, and improved coordination with law enforcement, had already been implemented and were not part of the settlement itself.¹⁶

The Siblings Today

On February 3, 2026, three of the youngest Turpin siblings, James (24), Jolinda (20), and Julissa (19), spoke publicly for the first time in a Diane Sawyer special titled “The Turpins: A New House of Horrors.” James described having nightmares during captivity “that they were, like, killing us, basically.” Julissa recalled begging “Jesus to, like, take me” near the end of their imprisonment. Jolinda said she wanted something “good” to come out of their experience, adding, “It has to, and I can’t accept it not.”⁶

Jordan Turpin, whose 911 call ended the family’s captivity, has spoken about wanting to become a motivational speaker. She earned her high school diploma in one year and has been taking college classes. Her sister Jennifer has been working and writing music, and married her husband, Aron, in October 2024 in Rancho Cucamonga in a ceremony attended by her siblings. The 13 siblings reportedly remain close.¹⁷¹⁸

1
Riverside County District Attorney. David and Louise Turpin Plead Guilty
2
ABC7 News. Perris Torture Case: Turpin Parents Get 25 Years to Life
3
Desert Sun. Turpin Parents Parole Eligibility
4
ABC7 Chicago. Turpin Children: Foster Parents Sentenced in Child Abuse Case
5
Fox Los Angeles. Turpin Family Foster Care Settlement
6
ABC News. Three Turpin Siblings Speak for the First Time
7
ABC News. Foster Parents of Turpin Siblings Sentenced on Child Abuse Charges
8
ABC7 News. Turpin Family Siblings: House of Horrors Documentary
9
Press-Enterprise. Riverside County Failed Turpin Children, Report Concludes
10
Daily Breeze. Riverside County Public Guardian’s Flaws Hurt At-Risk Adults
11
ABC News. Years After Rescue, Turpin Children Living in Squalor
12
Larson LLP. Riverside County Adopts Larson’s Recommendations to Improve Foster Care Systems
13
Good Morning America. Turpin Siblings File Lawsuit Alleging Severe Abuse in Foster Care
14
Press-Enterprise. 6 Turpin Children to Split $13.5 Million Lawsuit Settlement
15
U.S. News. California County, Agency Reach $13.5 Million Settlement With Six Turpin Children
16
KESQ. Turpin Siblings Reach Settlement With Riverside County, ChildNet
17
People. Where Are the Turpin Siblings Now
18
ABC News. Turpin Sisters Describe Living in House of Horrors