They looked like almost feral animals. That was how Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson described the 16 children rescued from a dilapidated home in rural Hamden on Tuesday, after being confined to a single room in conditions so appalling that the local sheriff said: “Most of our livestock was kept in better conditions than the children.”
The children, ranging from 18 months to 18 years old, had been held in roughly a 12ft by 12ft space for nearly four years, surrounded by human waste and squalor. Some could not speak. One, an 18-year-old with developmental disabilities, could not even spell her name.
“16 children rescued from Ohio home after being confined to one room for four years; parents and grandparents charged”
Authorities discovered the children while executing a search warrant in an unrelated investigation. Vinton County Sheriff Ryan Cain said the scene was “deplorable”. Wilson, who visited the home, called it “pure evil” and said nearly 24 hours later he still “can’t get the smell off of me”.
Four adults – the children’s parents and grandparents – were each charged with 16 counts of second-degree felony child endangerment, involving “serious physical harm”, according to Vinton County Prosecuting Attorney William Archer. He stressed it was not human trafficking but an “intra-family situation”.
The suspects – Gary Siders Jr, Gary Siders Sr, Christina Siders and Elizabeth Siders – appeared in court on Wednesday, where a judge entered not guilty pleas on their behalf and set bond at $300,000 each.
Seven of the children were taken to hospitals in Columbus, with two flown by helicopter to level one trauma centres. One child was in critical condition on Tuesday and had to be intubated, Wilson said.
The tiny village of Hamden sits in one of Ohio’s poorest counties. Wilson described the “horrific” scene as the worst he had encountered in his career. “It’s the type of thing that we’re not used to seeing here in America,” he said. The children, he added, “looked like almost feral animals”.