this is "nightline." tonight, justice. the parents who created a house of horrors for the courtroom as they face some of their children for the first time since pleading guilty. >> sometimes i still have nightmares of things that have happened. >> and inside the dramatic escape and call to 911 that led to the turpins' arrest. >> my parents are abusing, and my two little sisters right now are chained up. plus, meetste,he underdog penguin taking one thunderous step forward. a new tale of survival and love in antarctica.

but first shall the "nightline" five. the "nightline five.

good evening. thank you for joining us. it was the case that shocked the nation. a california couple convicted o children in a desperate call to authorities.

here's correspondent matt gutman. >> sometimes i still have nightmares of things that have happened. such as my siblings being chained up or getting beaten. >> reporter: when david and louise turpin last saw their ilf them were in shackles. today a stunning final chapter in a case that horrified the world. >> what some are calling a house of horrors. inside a home of southern california. >> 13 siblings living in deplorable conditions. >> reporter: now at their sentencing hearing, face-to-face with some of their children for the first time since pleading guilty to multiple counts of torture and false imprisonment. >> i cannot describe in words what we went through growing up. >> reporter: cameras tilted down to protect the victims' identity. one daughter wounded but resilient. >> my parents took my whole life from me, but now i'm taking my life back. >> reporter: their son reading

back a message from his sister on forgiveness and grace. >> i just want to thank them for teaching me about god and faith. i hope they never lose their faith. >> reporter: their father david unable to cope. so emotional, he dished off his statement to his attorney. >> i never intended for any harm to come to my children. i'm sorry if i've done anything to cause them harm. >> reporter: his wife louise, seemingly full of regret. >> i pray for my children every day. i want to convey how truly sorry i am for everything i've done to hurt them. i love them more than they can ever imagine. >> reporter: the two were stoic as their sentences were handed down, 25 years to life with the possibility of parole in 22 years. >> would you say justice has been done? >> i believe it has. i think that the punishment of 25 to life is what you get in

california for first degree murder. i think that's equivalent to what these two individuals did. they took lives in a different way. they robbed their own children of what they could have been. >> reporter: but it was the children who fought for their freedom. >> i live in a family of 15 people. and my parents are abusing. they abuse us. and my two little sisters right now are chained up. >> reporter: this audio exclusively obtained by abc news is our first time hearing from any of david and louise turpin's children about the abuse and torture to which the parents pleaded guilty in february. >> and how many of your siblings are tied up? >> two of my sisters. one of my brothers. >> how are they tied up? with rope or with what? >> with chains. they're chained up to their beds. >> reporter: authorities say it was just before 6:00 a.m. when the turpins' 17-year-old

daughter swiped a deactivated cell phone, scrambled out of her bedroom window and made that call. >> the reason i ran away from home is because the chains were making -- and they would wake up at night and start crying, and they wanted me to call somebody and tell them. >> reporter: her voice high-pitched, sounding a decade younger than her near 17 years, but her purpose clear. >> and so i wanted to call. i wanted to call y'all so y'all could help my sisters. >> reporter: her courage couldn't be understated. she risked being chained herself if caught. >> so you're just around the corner from your house, is that right? >> i think. i'm not sure. i've never been out. i don't go out much, so i don't know anything about the streets or anything. >> reporter: that call would ultimately free the rest of her siblings and land her parents in jail. >> you've got parents who are torturing their children, causing them pain, causing them

suffering over a prolonged period of time, through malnourishment, through physical abuse, through psychological abuse. it's horrific. >> reporter: that 911 call shattering the image of what seemed like a big happy family. david turpin once had a steady job with northrup grummond. the profile featuring family trips like this one to disneyland. the children so often dressed in identical clothing, sometimes numbered. the family of 15 lived in a quiet suburb. >> this community here in paris, california is known as the crown jewel of this little town. it's the kind of place where kids play out on the street where people keep their lawns tidy and manicured. did you ever see the kids yourself outside? >> not outside. >> reporter: neighbor mike clifford who works the graveyard shift says he did see something odd late at night. >> i'd come home

12:30 to 3:00 notice morning and see the kids marching. remember how long wou . >> reporter: how long would they march? >> hours. >> reporter: they ranged from 2 to 29. some were adults but looked so much younger because of severe malnutrition. >> to give you an example, one of the children at age 12 is the weight of an average 7 year old. >> reporter: when deputies found the 12 siblings, what were the conditions they encountered in that house? >> they're horrible. it smelled, it's filthy. it's clear that some of the victims, when they're chained, are not being taken to the bathroom to relieve themselves. >> reporter: the turpins' 17 year old describing the conditions they lived in in that 911 call. >> we lived in filth. and sometimes when i wake up i

can't breathe because of how dirty the house is. >> reporter: these pictures show one of the turpins' texas homes years ago. grime on the stairwells, human filth on the floors, scratches on the backs of doors and walls that the new owners had assumed were made by animals. >> when was the last time you had a bath? >> uh, uh, i don't know. almost a year ago. but sometimes i feel so dirty. i wash my face, and i wash my hair. >> reporter: their mother's neglect, the 17-year-old said was systemic. >> i don't know much about my mother. she doesn't like us. she doesn't spend time with us ever. >> who takes care of you? >> i take care of myself and mother does buy food for us. so she feeds us. so we never talk. >> they were afraid that anything they got was going to be taken away.

>> reporter: mark is the ceo of the corona regional medical center where the children spent two months recovering after they were rescued. his cabinet filled with momentos the siblings left behind. >> they seem to have had yes r enormous impact on the hospital, the staff and you. >> patients that came into the emergency room turned into a higher calling for all of us. we essentially adopted them. >> reporter: despite the years of abuse and lack of education. he says the children showed raw talent. >> she wanted to know aboutrsrii reporter: okay. >> and they took a great interest in horseback riding. so i said, do you have a picture of a horse? and i said i do have a picture of him. so i showed her this picture on friday. and when i came back in monday morning they had created this picture. >> reporter: a little over a year after that fateful phone call and their dramatic issue,

the 13 children are doing well. while the youngest remain cared for, the attorney for the eldest seven says his clients are branching out. >> all seven of our clients are living more or less on their own. five are living in apartments. >> reporter: together? >> close to each other. and they get together all the time to see each other. >> reporter: how many are going to college? >> right now five are going to college. >> reporter: although the future remains uncertain for a group in a far different place today than they were in their father's facebook pictures, it is full of possibility. they are shackled no more. for "nightline," matt gutman in riverside, california. >> our thanks to matt. when we come back, finding love on the ice from one penguin coming of age.

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how far would you go for love? for one penguin, the edge of the earth. we follow steve, the flightless hero in a new disney film as he navigates fatherhood and fights for survival in antarctica, here's juju chang. >> reporter: it's one of the most remote places on the planet. antarctica, home to some of the harshest conditions and fiercest wildlife, and the new natureighe to the ends of the earth. but the star of the film might surprise you. >> steve.

♪ thunder >> reporter: he's the klutzy penguin, stumbling from adolescence into adulthood. think of it as a rom-com for penguins. >> he likes long walks on the beach, fishing and collecting rocks. >> reporter: steve, plucked from obscurity, from roughly 10 million of his kind to star in the movie "penguins." the film directed by powerhouse wildlife documentariens. what drew to you this project initially? >> we worked on a number of disney nature movies, and they've all had elements of comedy in dit carry ahong s such t

firsme father making mistakes like all of us do. >> reporter: nar ratrated by id helms of "the office" and of "hangover" fame. but for this, he's donning his penguin suit. >> why am i doing this? am i panicking? no. >> reporter: how does he personify his silliness and the situations he finds himself in? >> from the beginning we felt ed was a penguin, in a former life, he must have been a penguin. >> i'm just going to go pick up some fish. >> i was sitting there watching thes p build their ne dback, dropping his stone down and going back up the slope and muttering to himself. occasionally he'd fall over and

drop his stone, and i was watching him for a couple hours thinking, this guy is a doofus. that was the seed of steve's character. good eyesight is everything in the penguin world. so he definitely tried and tried and tried again and didn't get it right for quite a long time. >> reporter: and yet he mentioned to attract ♪ i can't fight longer ♪ ♪ and yet i'm still afraid to let it flow ♪ ♪ what started out as friendship ♪ >> the funny thing about irst m ea other, they literally look at each other. >> it'sbeautiful courtship ritu. steve and adaly will use these

moments to memorize each other's voices. after this they'll be able to find one another amongst the crowds forever. >> reporter: what about the sound track? we're looking at reo speed wagon, white snake, average white band? >> we wanted to embody what steve would listen to if he was a human being. >> reporter: steve's mojo. >> if you were a not very good dad out there driving around, you'd be listening to this kind of thing on the radio. and that felt like the right genre for steve. >> reporter: eventually, they start a family. they mate for life. >> with the sea ice now gone, it's like a giant pantry full o for any hungry mouths that might appear. and adalene has her timing just

right. they trade places and steve nervously steps into the role of father. for the first time in his life, he has no idea what he's doing. >> reporter: each intimate moment captured in epic scale with the highest-resolution cameras, hazardous filming that would take three years. >> working in antarctica is one of the hardest places to work on the planet. >> and then of course we have to be in the right place at the right time to catch penguin footage. that's all about battling the elements. >> they're coming down in huge numbers, which is exactly what we came here for. and mark is trying to film them. >> reporter: youe put mera people out there for days on end. >> we found out after about six weeks, individuals were too tired. so every six weeks we were changing people over. >> reporter: i understand you lost part of a toe for the cause? >> i was silly enough to let one of my feet get cold, and i burst

at turdnto frostbite.my toe a >> reporter: with penguins, the parent company, disney are reaching a milestone, tenildlif. >> every year, every film has had a conservation initiative, where a percentage of the box office in the first week goes to things. and in this case, we are supporting the global penguin society, an amazing conservation work they're doing in the southern hemisphere, looking after the 18 different species of penguins on our planet including steve. >> this movie is very accurate in terms of science, but it goes to the emotion to the story of steve. and people can perceive it's not that easy to be a puenguin. it's not funny all the wa pengu

some of the most at-risk of their species. the biggest threat, climate change, pollution and warming ocean temperatures. by the end of the century, 60% of the population could be gone. how much of an impact will the ticket sales and awareness ragsrag raised help? >> for every ticket sold from the 17th to the 23rd, part of the tickets will be donated for the campaigns. you are helping steve and all the species in the planet. so you are becoming a penguin hero. >> reporter: for "nightline," juju chang in new york. >> our thanks to juju. you can watch "penguins" in theaters now. next, the young dancer inspiring millions and never missing a beat. people with type 2 diabetes nnouncer) are excited about the potential of once-weekly ozempic®. in a study with ozempic®, a majority of adults lowered their blood sugar and reached an a1c of less than seven and maintained it.

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