Authorities were left “appalled” by the shocking conditions (Image: WSYX ABC 6)
Authorities are said to have been left “appalled” after discovering 16 ‘feral’ children allegedly kept in a tiny room in what has been described as an Ohio ‘house of horrors’.
The youngsters – all aged between 18 months and 18 years – were found on June 30 and have now been removed from the house in Hamden.
Four adults — Gary Siders Jr. , Gary Siders Sr., Christina Siders, and Elizabeth Siders — . All four have entered not guilty pleas to child endangerment charges.
Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson claimed the youngsters “looked like feral animals” and said they were “kept in worse conditions than livestock”.
Law enforcement have said, since the youngsters were found, that when they entered the dilapidated home, there was a “high presence” of bacterial and human feces.
Elizabeth Siders, the mother of the children(Image: Southeastern Ohio Regional Jail)
Vinton County Sheriff Ryan Cain said: “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.”
Elizabeth Siders, 33, who is mother to all 16 of the children, married their father when she was just 15 and gave birth to their eldest child two months later.
Her attorney, Tommy Stolly, had a meeting with his client last week and insisted both she and Gary Jr had “always wanted a big family”. He claimed all the children had been born in hospital and that the older children did have cell phones and used social media, which he says suggests they weren’t completely isolated from the outside world.
Gary Siders Jr. is one of the adults arrested in connection with the case(Image: Southeastern Ohio Regional Jail)
Those living close to the family in the small town with less than 1,000 residents have said they unaware there were children living at the property.
One local told WOWK 13 News: “My grandkids and my kids, we’ve all walked up and down that street, there’s never been a sign of any child. As a mother and a grandmother, I just don’t understand the logic.”
Neighbor Joseph Stewart, 60, said he saw “no kids at all” since the family moved in three houses down and that he could clearly see the home and yard when passing by. “It’s a sad situation,” Stewart, who has lived on the street for six years and called it “a quiet neighborhood”.
The children were described as “feral”, likely due to being kept in such poor conditions for so long(Image: AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Staff at a nearby Dollar General store have also said the family would come in to shop, but late at night, mainly buying items such as diapers and chips.
Those working in the store have also alleged the family would sometimes struggle to cover the cost of the items they were buying.
One Dollar General employee, who asked not to be identified, told 10TV, said: “It makes me question my own actions. 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.”
Police tape surrounds the Ohio home and debris is seen on the front lawn, including baby carrier(Image: AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Another employee Ariel Gutierrez told to WSYX ABC 6 that when they 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 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.”
Officials believe the case revolves around “prolonged and extreme interfamilial neglect and abuse.”