Ohio AG Wilson: Four adults who kept 16 children in ‘deplorable’ conditions will face justice

Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson has vowed that the four charged with abuse after 16 children were discovered in a rural southern Ohio home on Tuesday would be punished.

The Ohio Bureau of Investigation and local sheriff’s department searched a home in the small village of Hamden, 60 miles southeast of Columbus, where the children were kept in “deplorable” conditions, according to the Associated Press.

“Conditions you cannot even imagine people being in, let alone children being in,” Wilson said at a Tuesday press conference.

Vinton County prosecuting attorney William Archer said during the press conference that Gary Siders Jr., Gary Siders Sr., Christina Siders and Elizabeth Siders were arrested and each charged with 17 counts of second-degree felony child endangering. They were being held on $300,000 bond, according to reports.

A jail booking log shows that Gary Siders Jr. was charged with four counts of public indecency, but it was not immediately clear if the charges are related.

Wilson, Archer, and Vinton County Sheriff Ryan Cain, who was also present at the press conference, didn’t confirm if the children were related and said it was not a human trafficking situation. When asked why the neighbors never noticed the kids before, officials pointed out that the adults abusing children were not from the area and were allegedly traveling with the children.

The officials said that the children were boys and girls aged 18 months to 18 years old, several of whom were found in such a serious condition that two of them had to be flown to level one trauma centers because of their injuries. The children are in temporary custody of the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services.

Wilson described the house where the children were kept as the worst crime scene he had encountered in his entire career, adding that what the adults did to these children was “pure evil.”

“Justice will be served for these children,” Wilson said.

Cain agreed, saying during the press conference that his and other officials’ mission is to “protect our citizens and our children.”

“The scene is horrific, and these are horrific allegations. We will do anything in our power to hold those accountable to justice,” he said.

In a statement, Republican Gov. Mike DeWine said that Wilson “has kept [him] informed about the tragic situation in Vinton County.” DeWine also said that he offered to help Cain, adding that Kara Wente, director of the Ohio Department of Children and Youth, “has been working [on Tuesday] to assist Vinton County Children’s Services and will continue to help in the days ahead.”

“It is heartbreaking to learn the conditions that these children were living in, and to learn of their medical conditions,” the governor said. “Attorney General Wilson is an experienced prosecutor, and he has told me he has never seen anything like what he saw today. Fran and I pray for these children, and thank the children’s services workers, law enforcement officers, and medical personnel who are helping them.”

After the adults appeared in court on Wednesday morning, Wilson, Archer, and Cain held a press conference that day to provide additional information about the case, according to a Wednesday press release.

“This case continues to reveal the unimaginable conditions these children were forced to endure. I said yesterday that what investigators encountered was pure evil, and the evidence we’ve uncovered since only reinforces that assessment,” Wilson said in the video of the press conference shared with Ohio.News by Hannah Hundley, who is working in Wilson’s office. “Our focus remains on protecting these children, supporting their recovery and ensuring everyone responsible is held fully accountable under Ohio law.”

During the Wednesday press conference, the officials revealed that members of the Siders family have been living in multiple Ohio counties since 2008.

Cain said that “livestock has been kept in better conditions” than the children abused by the Siders family.

“The conditions these children lived in were horrific, and we are sickened by it. Fortunately, this tragic chapter has closed, but their recovery will take time,” he said. “Our investigators will continue following the evidence wherever it leads.”

While it was not clear before, the investigators alleged that the case involves ‘prolonged and extreme interfamilial neglect and abuse,” according to the Wednesday press release.

“Our children deserve better from their parents, guardians, and custodians. No child should endure these kinds of conditions,” Archer said during the Wednesday press conference. “My office will do everything in our power to make sure these children get the love and care they deserve. My office will prosecute these persons to the fullest extent of the law.”