'If something happened, at least I died trying': Jordan Turpin describes 'house of horrors' escape

PERRIS, Calif. -- Jordan Turpin quietly climbed up on a windowsill of her parents' home without them knowing and dropped down into the outside world.

The 17-year-old had only been outside a few times in her entire life and she was terrified. Her hands were shaking uncontrollably as she held a deactivated cell phone her parents didn't know she had, but thinking of her siblings chained up inside the house, she worked up the courage to dial 911.

"I was always terrified that if I called the cops or tried to escape, I would get caught, and then I knew I would die if I got caught," Jordan, now 21, told ABC News' Diane Sawyer in an exclusive interview. "But at the end, when I saw all my younger siblings, I knew that's what I had to do."

Watch the Diane Sawyer special event, "Escape From A House Of Horror," on Hulu.

ABC News anchor Diane Sawyer has the exclusive first interviews with children from the Turpin family, found captive in the California "house of horrors" in 2018.