Dollar General employees have spoken out about the Siders family at the center of Ohio’s ‘House of Horrors’ child neglect case, revealing the family regularly made purchases late at night.

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This undated booking photo provided by Southeastern Ohio Regional Jail on Wednesday, July 1, 2026, shows Gary Siders Jr. (Southeastern Ohio Regional Jail via AP)(Image: Southeastern Ohio Regional Jail)

New details continue to emerge surrounding what many are calling a ‘house of horrors’ in Ohio.

On June 30, authorities rescued 16 children from a dilapidated home in Hamden, Ohio, where they were “kept in worse conditions than livestock,” according to officials. Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson stated 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.

Reporters from WBNS 10 spoke with Dollar General employees who had encountered members of the Siders family. Staff revealed the family typically shopped late at night, purchasing chips and diapers. They were also said to have bought water, vegetable oil, and sugar on separate occasions.

Employees claimed the family sometimes struggled to cover the cost of their purchases and showed signs of poor hygiene, though they noted this was not unusual given the area’s economic difficulties.

One Dollar General employee, who asked not to be identified, told 10TV he regularly saw Siders Jr. and Elizabeth shopping close to closing time. He also recalled them using multiple different payment cards during transactions.

“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.”

Fellow employee Ariel Gutierrez revealed to WSYX ABC 6 that upon observing Elizabeth and Gary Jr. , “I noticed that he would keep her really close to her and she was not allowed to speak to nobody.”

The image depicts a close-up portrait of an individual with long, dark hair. The person’s face appears slightly flushed, with no
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This undated booking photo shows Elizabeth Siders, the mother of the children(Image: Southeastern Ohio Regional Jail)

She added, “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 discovering a “high presence” of bacterial and human feces as his officers collected evidence from the property. He said the children “were literally about to fall through the floor.

“Livestock has been kept in better conditions than the children,” he claimed. “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.”

Speaking with WBNS 10TV, Elizabeth’s attorney, Tommy Stolly, challenged investigators’ characterization of the household conditions as “pure evil.”

Gary Siders Sr. and Christina Siders
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Gary Siders Sr. and Christina Siders are also facing child endangerment charges(Image: undefined)

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 challenged allegations that the children were restricted to a single 12-by-12-foot room, stating he has seen no evidence supporting that claim.

Stolly further insisted that the older children did have cell phones, used social media, and shared “inside jokes,” suggesting they weren’t completely isolated from the outside world as earlier accounts indicated.

Officials believe the case revolves around “prolonged and extreme interfamilial neglect and abuse.”

SOURCE: https://www.themirror.com/news/us-news/ohio-house-horrors-kids-health-1946383?int_source=nba