The authorities are Ohio said they had no idea 16 children were living at a house in Vinton County until deputies arrived last week to serve on an unrelated arrest warrant.
officers found children The men, who range in age from 18 months to 18 years, allegedly lived in a 12-by-12-foot room in the house. Four adults have since been arrested and faces multiple child endangerment charges.
How the children were discovered
On Tuesday, sheriff’s deputies went to a Winton County home in Hamden, a village of about 700 people, to serve an arrest warrant in a “parallel case” involving one of four adults living there. Investigators were blindsided by what they found: 16 children, ranging in age from 18 months to 18 years old, living in a small room in a five-bedroom, one-bathroom home.
Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson described the children as “almost feral” and said: “I’ve never seen anything like it today. It really looked third world. It’s not something we see in America. I can’t get rid of the smell.” nbc4.
The children were allegedly kept in isolation in a 12-foot-by-12-foot room filled with human waste for at least four years. Seven of the children were hospitalized in the Columbus area, and two were transported to trauma centers.
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Why the investigation is moving slowly
Vinton County Sheriff Ryan Cain said the children have significant difficulty communicating, which slows down their learning. investigation. “One of the challenges of the investigation is [the children] is limited. They can communicate, but it’s extremely limited, and some can’t communicate at all,” Kane said.
The oldest child, 18, has a developmental disability and cannot even write his own name, authorities were quoted as saying. new york post. The children never entered school and it is unclear who their parents are.
Gary Siders II, 36, his wife Elizabeth Siders, 33, and his parents Gary Sr, 73, and Christina, 66, were arrested last week and face multiple child endangerment charges.
Court records show the other children are ages 16, 15, 14, 13, 11, 10, 8, 6 and 5, as well as 4-year-old twins, 2-year-old twins and 1-year-old twins.
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what happens next
Sides is due to appear in court on Tuesday on the original indecent exposure order, with all four suspects facing up to 16 counts of child endangerment and fined $300,000 each.
Judge Laina Fetheroff Rogers issued the bonds, which carry a minimum sentence of two to eight years in prison for each charge, NBC4 reported. If convicted of all charges, the defendants could each face up to 192 years in prison.
“It’s important that everyone is entitled to the presumption of innocence, and Mr. Siders is just like everyone else in this country,” Dorian Baum, attorney for Gary Siders Sr., said, according to NBC4. “No matter what you think you know, or what you may have heard, there’s definitely only one side of the story. It’s just the story that the state puts out.”
The children have been removed from the home and are being placed in the protective custody of Ohio Employment and Family Services.
