Officials rescue 16 children from “unimaginable” conditions in Ohio

An attorney representing one of four adults facing more than a dozen felony charges claimed that media outlets aren’t getting the full story after authorities found 16 children living in squalor. Ohio state and local law enforcement arrested the four adults on Tuesday after investigators said they discovered over a dozen children ranging in ages from 18 months to 18 years living in horrid conditions.

Investigators found the children living in unimaginable conditions in a dilapidated Vinton County house in southern Ohio, according to Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson. The suspects, Gary Siders Jr., Gary Siders Sr., Elizabeth Siders, and Christina Siders, each faced 16 counts of second-degree felony child endangerment and are expected to remain in jail on a $300,000 bond.

Wilson characterized the scene inside the house where the children were found as pure evil during a Tuesday press conference. Police allegedly found several children in serious condition, and two had to be airlifted to Level 1 trauma centers. Authorities’ top priority after finding the children was getting them all medical help because their lives were sincerely at risk, Wilson told reporters.

How bad were the children’s living conditions? Officials shared more detail on the condition of the home during a Wednesday update. Wilson described the home as third-world with a stench he couldn’t get out of his memory. The scene inside the house was almost like a humanitarian aid commercial where the children are shown squatting, covered in bugs with a distant look in their eyes, Wilson said. If investigators waited even one more day to execute the search, several of the kids may have died, he added.

Vinton County Sheriff Ryan Cain described the house as being littered with urine and human feces, and said the evidence suggested that the children were mostly kept in a 12-by-12 room since the Siders moved to the house four years ago. Livestock typically have better living conditions than these children, Cain said. Neighbors told investigators they never saw the children and had no idea they were in the house, Wilson said.

How did the children come to be in the house? Vinton County Prosecutor William Archer described the case as multigenerational and assured the public that human trafficking played no role. It’s reported that Gary Siders Jr. married Elizabeth Siders at a young age, and the pair lived in the home with his parents, Gary Siders Sr. and Christina Siders. These children were failed and harmed by the very people they should have been able to trust, Wilson argued.

Officials refrained from sharing various case details, including the events that led police to execute the warrant that led to the children’s discovery, as well as the suspects’ relationship to the children. Wilson said he expected more charges to be filed against the adults as the investigation progressed.

What did the defense attorney say? Elizabeth Siders’ attorney, Tommy Stolly, said media outlets aren’t getting the full picture of the Siders’ story during a phone interview local outlet WSYX released on Thursday. The media’s initial snapshots of the house and the scene don’t show the whole story and were released without proper context, Stolly said. The attorney also confirmed that Elizabeth married Gary Jr. at the age of 15.

Stolly is only representing Elizabeth and described meeting her in person for the first time on Thursday. Stolly described the woman as exhausted and distraught, and said she looked like she’d been crying a lot. Elizabeth didn’t come off as pure evil like the media is saying, because evil requires malice, and she simply didn’t have that in her eyes, Stolly said. Her first questions were to ask whether the kids were OK and when she could see them, because she misses them very much, the attorney added. He said he looked forward to vigorously defending the case and presenting the human narrative that he insisted would give better context to the circumstances.