Let me start from the very beginning, because the origin of this family tells you a lot about how we got here.

In March 2008, Gary Siders Jr. and Elizabeth Siders were married in Mason County, West Virginia. He was 18. She was 15. The marriage certificate was signed by both sets of parents, meaning four adults looked at a 15-year-old girl and a legal adult man and said yes to that union. Two months after the wedding, their first child was born (so, she was well into her pregnancy at 15 years old). That child is now 18 years old and was among the 16 children found in that Hamden, Ohio home.

According to NBC4, court records confirm the ages of all 16 children: 18, 16, 15, 14, 13, 11, 10, 8, 6, 5, 4 year old twins, 2 year old twins, and 1.5 year old twins. Three sets of twins. None of them have ever been enrolled in school. The Vinton County School District confirmed there is no record of any of these children ever being a student there. Investigators believe the family was deliberately moving around Ohio for years to stay under the radar, with ties to Gallia County, Jackson County, Pike County, and possibly Wisconsin, before settling in Hamden for the past four years.

All 16 children, along with the four adults, lived in a home that is 1,336 square feet with five rooms and one bathroom, plus a 518 square foot basement. Most of the children spent the majority of their time confined to a single 12 by 12 foot room contaminated with human waste, filth, and trash. The Ohio AG said if authorities had waited even 24 more hours, there was a very high probability they would have been dealing with one or more deaths – that’s how critical some of their conditions are.

Now here is a detail that floored me when I found it: court records show Gary Jr. and Elizabeth also had a set of twin girls born on November 20, 2022. Their names were Bailey Lee Siders and Faith Lee Siders. They were born at just 24 weeks and were conjoined at the chest. They passed away shortly after birth. There is a small memorial plaque for them near the home. So, my question is – if there was ANY medical or emergency intervention in that delivery, how did everything else go unnoticed for four more years?

So how did police even end up at that house? This is the part of the story that nobody saw coming. Officers were not initially responding to anything involving the children. They went to that address on June 30th to serve an arrest warrant on Gary Siders Jr. for four counts of PUBLIC INDECENCY. Court records show he had allegedly exposed himself on four separate occasions during the month of May, on the 23rd, 27th, 29th, and 31st. When officers showed up to arrest him for that, they walked into a home with 16 children living in conditions that Vinton County Sheriff Ryan Cain described as more deplorable than most livestock situations he has seen.

An extended family member had previously told reporters that she believed a 911 call related to one of the children having a mental health crisis may have been what led police there. However, the Ohio AG and Vinton County law enforcement have since stated clearly that officers had no prior knowledge of the children when they executed that warrant and that the arrest was solely related to the public indecency charges. I want to be clear that the claim about a child’s mental health crisis has not been confirmed by any law enforcement official and should be treated as unverified at this time.

Seven of the 16 children were transported to Columbus hospitals. At least two were life-flighted. Some of the children had limited ability to communicate. Some could not communicate at all. The 18-year-old, despite being a legal adult, was included in the child endangerment charges because she is believed to be developmentally still a minor.

Charging documents also reveal that the alleged abuse spans back to at least May 2008 and includes multiple sets of siblings, with prosecutors alleging every single child suffered serious physical harm. Additional charges are expected as investigators continue reviewing evidence.

Now here is the other side of this story, because Elizabeth Siders’ attorney has spoken out and I think it deserves to be included.

Attorney Thomas Stolly met with Elizabeth at the Vinton County Jail and said his impression of her was very different from what the AG’s press conference suggested. He said she came across as timid, exhausted, and distraught. He said he did not see malice in her eyes. He said the first thing she asked him was not how long she would be in jail, but whether the children were okay and when she could see them. He also said she did not have a victim mindset when he asked her about her situation. He has confirmed that she and Gary Jr. did marry when she was 15.

I am not sharing this to excuse anything that allegedly happened in that home. I am sharing it because Elizabeth Siders married at 15, was already giving birth two months later, and spent the next 18 years having children in conditions that investigators describe as unimaginable. Whether she is a perpetrator, a victim, or both, is something the courts will have to sort out. Her attorney is asking the public to let the process play out.

All four adults, Gary Siders Sr., 73, Christina Siders, 67, Gary Siders Jr., 36, and Elizabeth Siders, 33, have each pleaded not guilty and are each being held on $300,000 bond. Additional charges are expected. The investigation is ongoing and is being conducted by the Vinton County Sheriff’s Office and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation.