On January 14, 2018, one of the daughters, then-17-year-old Jordan Turpin, escaped and called local police, who then raided the residence and discovered disturbing evidence.

Given the number of dependents involved, the degree of abuse, and its protracted nature, occurring over decades, the story garnered significant national and international attention.

[1][3] David Allen Turpin (born October 17, 1961) was formerly a computer engineer who graduated from Virginia Tech[4] and had worked for Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman.

[9] The Turpins originally identified as Pentecostal Christians, and as part of their beliefs, the couple had numerous children because "God called on them" to do so.

David and Louise took the two youngest and left the rest of the children to fend for themselves, bringing groceries on a weekly basis but not enough to feed everybody.

[12] One of their daughters, Jordan Turpin, aged six years at the time, stated there was "a lot of starving", and she had resorted to eating "ketchup or mustard or ice".

[12] After the family left the Rio Vista property in 2010,[13][14] neighbors found feces and beds with ropes tied to them, along with dead cats and piles of garbage.

The younger girl (age 13) became frightened and turned back, but Jordan, then 17, got some distance away and called 911 on a deactivated cell phone she had brought with her;[21][22] she told the dispatcher that she and her siblings were being abused by their parents and that the smell in the house was so bad sometimes she could barely breathe.

"[24] Inside, they encountered the stench of human excrement, decaying garbage, dead pets, and moldy food, with every surface covered in trash.

[42] In early 2020, the Riverside County Deputy District Attorney reported that the children were living independently, working, and going to school, and that one had graduated from college.

[43] An investigation for the ABC news magazine 20/20, which chronicled the case for the November 2021 special Escape from a House of Horror, reported some of the Turpin children are now neglected by Riverside County social services, some are homeless, and none are authorized to use the hundreds of thousands of dollars donated to them.

[45] During an interview with Diane Sawyer for the 20/20 special, Jordan Turpin stated that she was released without warning from a foster home with no life skills, no plans for housing, or knowledge of how to obtain food and healthcare.

According to the report, Riverside County has hired a private law firm to investigate allegations of abuse by social services.

[45] In July 2022, the Turpin siblings filed lawsuits in California's Riverside County Superior Court against the foster care agency that placed them in a home where they were allegedly subjected to further abuse and neglect.