16 Children Found Living in House of Horrors as 4 Family Members Face Felony Charges

Four adults are facing dozens of felony charges after authorities discovered 16 children living in horrifying conditions inside a rural Ohio home.

Gary Siders Jr., Gary Siders Sr., Elizabeth Siders and Christina Siders were each charged with 16 counts of child endangerment, all second-degree felonies.

The four defendants pleaded not guilty during their arraignments Wednesday morning. A judge set bond at $300,000 for each of them.

Vinton County Prosecutor William Archer said the accused adults are the children’s grandmother, grandfather, mother and father. However, officials have not explained exactly how each child is related to the defendants.

Authorities also would not say whether all 16 children are siblings or whether Elizabeth Siders is their biological mother.

Rebecca Myers, a spokesperson for the Ohio public defender’s office, said the defendants had not been appointed attorneys as of Thursday morning.

The children were discovered Tuesday at a home in Hamden, a small village in Vinton County about 60 miles southeast of Columbus.

Vinton County Sheriff Ryan Cain said the children ranged in age from 18 months to 18 years old and included both boys and girls.

Investigators believe the children had spent most of the past four years confined to a room measuring roughly 12 feet by 12 feet.

Cain said the room had a “high presence” of human feces, although authorities said the children were not being kept in cages.

“Most of our livestock was kept in better conditions than the children,” Cain said. “It was just a disgusting scene.”

One of the children, an 18-year-old girl, is believed to have a developmental disability and was reportedly unable to spell her own name.

Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson said the children desperately needed medical attention when they were found.

Seven were transported to hospitals in Columbus, while two were flown to Level 1 trauma centers for emergency treatment.

Wilson said the situation was so severe that waiting just one more day could have ended in tragedy.

“In what I’ve seen up to this point, I think if they would have waited another 24 hours, there was a very high probability that we’d be dealing with a death or multiple deaths of these children,” he said.

The children had not been enrolled in school and appeared to have had very little contact with the outside world.

“They looked like almost feral animals,” Wilson said. “It was terrible.”

Authorities said the Siders family had moved around Ohio since 2008 and appeared to avoid creating medical and government records.

Investigators believe they had been living in Vinton County for about four years. The home is owned by a trust.

Wilson said law enforcement discovered the children while conducting an unrelated “parallel investigation,” although officials have not shared further details about that case.

The children were placed in the temporary custody of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

Archer stressed that investigators believe this was an “intra-family situation” and said there was no evidence of human trafficking.

Hamden has fewer than 800 residents.

Anyone who suspects a child is being abused can contact the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-422-4453. The confidential hotline is available 24 hours a day in more than 170 languages.