By
Sarah Jones,
senior writer for Intelligencer who covers politics and labor
Police tape surrounds a home where authorities say they removed 16 children and arrested four adults in Hamden, Ohio, on July 1.
On July 1, law enforcement in Vinton County, Ohio, made a horrifying discovery. Four adults were keeping 16 children confined to a single 12-by-12-foot room in a filthy house. The oldest child, an 18-year-old girl, has a developmental disability and could not write her name. Several of the children were “unable to speak,” according to the Associated Press, and others were so ill they had to be flown by helicopters to nearby hospitals. “They looked like almost feral animals,” said state attorney general Andy Wilson. The adults — Gary Siders Sr., Christina Siders, and Gary Siders Jr. and his wife, Elizabeth Siders — face charges of child endangerment in a case that has become a national sensation. True-crime fanatics are breaking into the home to post footage of the cataclysm inside. Tabloids and influencers are calling it the “house of horrors” with a specific and lurid focus on 33-year-old Elizabeth Siders, who is the mother of the children and may have her own story to tell.
