‘Law & Order: SVU’ Tackles Horror House Case in New Episode

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is taking a stab at the infamous “Horror House” family during Wednesday night’s episode.

In the opening moments of the episode, we see a young woman (Rebekah Kennedy) breaking out of a locked room and fleeing a home in secret. As she escapes, religious rants can be heard blaring from a neighboring room.

From there she gets on a train and is later found my authorities paranoid, frightened, obviously abused and refusing to exit the train.

When Detective Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish) arrives, she bonds with the girl through religion as she attempts to learn more about what happened.

From there, authorities meet the girl’s father, played by Ray McKinnon, who is obviously not all there. He demands to take his daughter home, but Rollins does all in her power to present that from happening. Rollins then sets out on a mission to prove her suspicions that the family is running some sort of abusive cult within their family.

The comparisons to the ongoing Turpin case in Perris, California, are apparent through the episode, with Detective Dominick Carisi Jr. (Peter Scanavino) even saying the case is “like the Turpin family out in California” at one point.

For those unaware of the “Horror House” case, David and Louise Turpin allegedly abused, held captive and malnourished their thirteen children their entire lives. The children’s ages ranged from 2 to 29, but many older children were so malnourished so much that authorities first believed they were teenagers.

In January, one of the children escaped from the house with photos of its condition on a deactivated cell phone. She gave the photos to authorities, who then raided the home.

Inside, they found Turpin children chained to beds, putrid smells and obvious signs of abuse and neglect. The children were then rescued, and the Turpin parents were arrested.

David and Louise were charged with 12 counts of torture, 12 counts of false imprisonment, seven counts of abuse on a dependent adult and nine counts of child abuse. They have pleaded not guilty to the charges, with a preliminary hearing set for May 14.

The similarities between the cases are apparent, and it seems like this is yet another example of the SVU writer’s room ripping a plot line from the headlines.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET on NBC. All past episodes of the show are available to stream on Hulu. Seasons 15-18 are available to stream on Netflix.

Photo Credit: NBC / Scott Gries