“Most of our livestock was kept in better conditions than the children.” Vinton County sheriff Ryan Cain said that at a news conference, describing a house in Hamden, Ohio, where sixteen children had been shut into one room, surrounded by human waste.
Officers had gone to the rented home on Ohmer Street on June 30 with a search warrant, to collect DNA from Gary Siders Jr. in an unrelated investigation. They found the children in a rear room. “We didn’t know there were going to be 16 kids there,” Ohio attorney general Andy Wilson said. Hamden is a village of fewer than 1,000 people, about 80 miles south-east of Columbus, in one of the state’s poorest counties.
What investigators found
The children ranged from one and a half to 18, boys and girls, all from the same family. The sheriff said they spent most of their time in a room of roughly 12ft by 12ft, and that he found a heavy presence of bacteria and faeces. He said no cages turned up in the house. Some of the children could not speak. An 18-year-old who was developmentally disabled could not spell her own name.
Seven children were taken to hospitals in Columbus. Two were flown by helicopter to level one trauma centers. One child was critical and had to be intubated, Wilson said. “They looked like almost feral animals,” he said. He called the scene “pure evil” and the worst he had met in his career, and said nearly a day later he still could not get the smell off himself.
The family and the charges
Four adults were arrested: Gary Siders Sr., his wife Christina Siders, their son Gary Siders Jr. and his wife Elizabeth Siders. Prosecutor William Archer charged each with 16 counts of second-degree felony child endangerment, because the case involves serious physical harm. He stressed that it was not human trafficking but an “intra-family situation”. At a court appearance the next day a judge entered not guilty pleas for all four and set bond at $300,000 each.
Investigators said the family had moved around southern Ohio for two decades and seemed to have avoided building up medical and government records. None of the children were enrolled in school. “They were pretty adept at keeping these kids out of sight and away from investigators’ eyes,” Wilson said.
Neighbors were stunned. Joseph Stewart, 60, who has lived on the street for six years, told the Associated Press he had seen “no kids at all” since the family moved in. Petey Angels, 64, told the Columbus Dispatch: “Nothing happens here.” The state sought temporary custody of every child.
Months later
The case has since widened. In August, Gary Jr. and Elizabeth Siders were indicted on added sex crime charges, and two other relatives, Brandon Henderson Sr. and Joshua Saunders III, were charged in related cases. Christina Siders now faces two second-degree felony counts, ten third-degree felony counts and seven first-degree misdemeanor counts. A bond hearing set for September 21 was called off when overnight rain flooded the Vinton County Courthouse in McArthur.
Her public defender, Kandra Roberts, wants the $300,000 bond cut or replaced with a recognizance bond so her client can deal with health problems. Roberts said Christina Siders was the family’s main caregiver and has no criminal history. The prosecutor opposes the request, citing a pending competency test and flight risk.
Sources
- Hearing for Christina Siders, grandmother of 16 Ohio kids, canceled
- Ohio authorities rescue 16 children confined to one room for four years | Ohio | The Guardian
