'House of Horrors' Child Victim Says Entering Foster Care After 'Torture' of Being Imprisoned in Own Home Felt Like Her 'First Day on Earth'

"House of Horrors" victim Julissa Turpin spoke out about her experience in foster care after being freed from the years-long torture and abuse of her parents' home.

Turpin, 20, offered her insight after 16 children in Vinton County, Ohio, were freed from living in alleged filth and neglect following their parents' arrest.

The 13 Turpin kids were similarly rescued from Louise and David Turpin's home in 2018 after their older sister, Jordan, escaped and told authorities of their captivity. Police found that they were regularly beaten and starved and were not allowed to leave the home in Perris, Calif.

Many of the kids were chained to their beds or put in cages as punishment. After their escape, Julissa, who was 11 at the time, and her younger siblings were placed into foster care.

Julissa warned NewsNation’s Elizabeth Vargas Reports that entering foster care after enduring years of abuse may be jarring for the Ohio children, as it was for her.

"The foster care system, like the workers you place them with…it is so important because right now this is basically like their first, I don’t know, because I’m not them, but for me, it literally felt like my first day on earth," she explained.

She and five of her siblings were placed in a foster home together, which was run by Marcelino and Rosa Olguin. The children accused the couple of physically, emotionally and sexually abusing them.

Marcelino was convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison in 2024. His wife and their adult daughter, Lennys, were each placed on four years of probation.

Julissa explained she "accepted" whatever fate was handed to her after fleeing the torment of her parents' home.

"I accepted whatever I got; that was normal to me, with our foster parents who were really bad, and they told us that they were the best foster home, and I believed them with everything in my soul because that’s all I knew," she said.

"I was so vulnerable," Julissa added. "[It was] easy to believe anything that people were telling me."

She and her siblings were split up across several different foster placements according to their ages.

Because of the abuse they endured, the young woman advocated for the victims in Ohio to be placed together as they navigate a world outside of the alleged abuse of their parents.

"If I had to go into a complete stranger’s home being told that they’re going to be your parents, when all you know about parents is that they tortured you... Those kids from Ohio, they were literally tortured," she expressed. "And if they were to be put in place in a foster home with another parent, that could possibly do something bad to them again. That’s going to be really bad if they have to go through that alone."

"I think it’s because they don’t know anyone from this world. They don’t even know this world," she added. "And the only thing they know are their siblings. And that’s very, very important."

She noted that the "worst thing" the state government could do was put the victims in a "bad second home" where they could be abused all over again.

"It’s a miracle that I’m okay," she said.

While Julissa is more than eight years out of her torture, the lives of the 16 kids from Ohio are just beginning.

With ages ranging from 18 months to 18 years, police found that the kids were mostly confined to a 12-foot-by-12-foot room and "looked like almost feral animals," the Ohio Attorney General alleged.

Their mother, Elizabeth Siders, and father, Gary Siders Jr., were arrested on June 30 on numerous felony counts of child endangerment. The children's grandparents, who were also living in the home, were arrested and charged as well.