Law enforcement rescued 16 children from a deteriorating residence in Hamden, Ohio (Image: Southeastern Ohio Regional Jail)
Fresh information continues to surface regarding what numerous people are describing as a ‘house of horrors’ in Ohio.
On June 30, law enforcement rescued 16 children from a deteriorating residence in Hamden, Ohio, where they were “kept in worse conditions than livestock,” according to officials. Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson said the children ranged in age from 18 months to 18 years old and “looked like feral animals.”
Four adults — Gary Siders Jr., Gary Siders Sr., Christina Siders, and Elizabeth Siders — now face criminal charges. All four have entered not guilty pleas to child endangerment charges.
Journalists from WBNS 10 interviewed Dollar General workers who had interacted with members of the Siders family. Employees disclosed the family generally shopped late at night, buying chips and diapers, reports the Mirror US.
Gary Siders Sr. and Christina Siders mugshots
Gary Siders Sr. and Christina Siders are also facing child endangerment charges (Image: undefined)
They were also reported to have purchased water, vegetable oil, and sugar on different visits.
Workers stated the family occasionally had difficulty affording their purchases and displayed indicators of inadequate hygiene, though they observed this was not uncommon considering the region’s financial challenges.
One Dollar General worker, who requested anonymity, told 10TV he frequently observed Siders Jr. and Elizabeth shopping near closing time. He also remembered them utilizing multiple different payment cards during checkout.
“It makes me question my own actions,” he told 10TV. “Whether or not I should have asked them about it, or seen if they needed anything, or anything I could have done to maybe prevent this in any way, because there were signs.”
Elizabeth Siders mugshot
Witnessed noticed how thin and pale the children appeared (Image: Southeastern Ohio Regional Jail)
Co-worker Ariel Gutierrez told WSYX ABC 6 that when she saw Elizabeth and Gary Jr., “I noticed that he would keep her really close to her and she was not allowed to speak to nobody.”
She continued, “When she came in with the kids, the kids were all very thin, very, very thin, ghost white, didn’t have any weight on their bodies, and they had their hair over their face like to block out, you know, the outside world, to not see them.”
Vinton County Sheriff Ryan Cain described finding a “high presence” of bacterial and human feces as officers gathered evidence from the residence. He stated the children “were literally about to fall through the floor.
“Livestock has been kept in better conditions than the children,” he stated. “I believe it was typical that even law enforcement has experience with homes in a similar fashion. The children were kept in a 12×12 area in what seems like the last four years.”
In an interview with WBNS 10TV, Elizabeth’s lawyer, Tommy Stolly, disputed investigators’ description of the household conditions as “pure evil.”
Following his Thursday meeting with Elizabeth, Stolly reported that she and Gary Siders Jr. “always wanted a big family” and confirmed that all 16 of their children were delivered in hospitals. He also disputed claims that the children were confined to a single 12-by-12-foot room, stating he has seen no evidence to support that assertion.
Police tape on a porch
Authorities removed 16 children and arrested four adults (Image: WSYX ABC 6)
Stolly further maintained that the older children did have cell phones, used social media, and shared “inside jokes,” indicating they were not entirely cut off from the outside world, as earlier reports had suggested.
Authorities believe the case centers on “prolonged and extreme interfamilial neglect and abuse.”
Including the 2022 conjoined twins who died just hours after birth, Elizabeth Siders has delivered four sets of twins in three years. She has been pregnant nearly every year since 2008.
SOURCE: https://www.the-express.com/news/us-news/212303/ohio-house-horrors-children-hide-plain-sight
