Case dismissed against grandfather in Vinton County child abuse case
The case against the grandfather of 16 children removed from a Vinton County home in June has been dismissed.
A judge ruled Gary Siders Sr., 73, incompetent to stand trial following a hearing last month. Vinton County Common Pleas Court Judge Laina Fetherolf Rogers formally dismissed the case on Oct. 6.
The grandfather was facing 10 felony counts of endangering children and six misdemeanor counts of endangering children. He was arrested after authorities removed 16 children ranging in age from 18 months to 18 years old from a Vinton County house.
Siders’ wife, Christina Siders, 68, along with his son, Gary Siders Jr., 36, and daughter-in-law, Elizabeth Siders, 34, were also charged. The other three defendants have pleaded not guilty and face hearings to determine whether they are competent to stand trial.
Gary Siders Jr. and Elizabeth Siders were married in 2008 in West Virginia, when he was 18, and she was 15. Subsequent reports revealed that Gary Siders Jr. and Elizabeth Siders also had twins who died in 2022 shortly after they were born.
Prosecutors subsequently said that a separate child sex abuse investigation into Gary Siders Jr. and Elizabeth led to a search warrant being executed on June 30 at a residence on Ohmer Street in Hamden, where the 16 kids were discovered.
The grandfather was the only one charged in the case who has been released, apparently because of a medical condition that necessitated his hospitalization. His son-in-law told WOWK-TV in Charleston, West Virginia, that Siders had a stroke in recent years.
At the time of the competency hearing, Dorian Baum, the attorney for the elder Siders, told reporters, “the prosecution against him is very likely coming to a very quick end,” News Nation reported last month.
Authorities told various outlets that the Siders family has lived in multiple Ohio counties since 2008. Their current house, located roughly 80 miles southeast of Columbus, was apparently part of a trust belonging to a woman who died in April 2025.
