Relatives of 16 children found living in deplorable conditions in a Vinton County, Ohio, home said they had no idea so many children were present until news of the arrests broke. The children, ranging in age from 1 to 18, were discovered last Tuesday in a cramped 12-by-12 room filled with human waste.
Gary Siders Sr., 73, Christina “Lynn” Siders, 67, their son Gary “Bub” Siders Jr., 36, and his wife Elizabeth Siders, 33, were arrested and charged with child endangerment. According to authorities, the children had been living in isolation and squalor for at least four years, with conditions described as "deplorable" and worse than those of livestock.
Ronnie Fletcher, married to one of the grandparents' adult daughters, told WOWK 13 that his family was unaware of the true number of children. "We might have known whereabouts, like in a county or in a spot, [but] most of the time we felt like that wasn’t really the truth," Fletcher said. He added that the extended family was "horrified" and "worried about the kids" upon hearing the news.
Fletcher insisted that relatives would have intervened had they known the extent of the situation. "If we would have known that it was like that in that home, we would have done something about it – even if it was just to go there and take the kids ourselves or give them money," he stated. However, he noted that it had been nearly seven years since he and his wife knew the Siders' exact location, as the younger couple had kept the rest of the family at a distance.
Fletcher also mentioned that his family had been wrongly targeted by online rumors of "generational incest" since the arrests. He clarified that the alleged abuse was confined to the one home.
Authorities confirmed that the children had never been enrolled in school. Some of the children struggle with communication, with some unable to speak at all. The eldest, an 18-year-old, is developmentally disabled and cannot write her name. The children were transported to hospitals across Ohio following their rescue; some were in serious condition, with at least two airlifted to trauma centers and one requiring intubation.
Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson has stated that the exact parentage of all the children remains unclear. The four defendants pleaded not guilty to 16 counts of child endangerment. Bail was set at $300,000 each. Gary Siders Sr. is due back in court on July 14, while Christina, Elizabeth, and Gary Jr. have a hearing scheduled for Tuesday. If convicted on all charges, each defendant could face up to 192 years in prison.
Fletcher expressed hope that the children would receive help and become productive members of society, and that justice would be served. He conveyed that even though his family could not take in the children at the moment, distant relatives do care about their well-being.