Ohio Removes 16 Children From Squalid Home, Jails 4 Adults on $300,000 Bond

Q: What is the mysterious relationship between the four adults and the 16 children they are accused of endangering?

The relationship remains unknown. Authorities have not publicly said whether the 16 children were related to Gary Siders Jr., Gary Siders Sr., Christina Siders, and Elizabeth Siders, or whether the children were related to one another. What officials have said is limited but important: they have ruled out human trafficking, and they have said the four adults were not local residents and appeared to have been traveling. Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson also declined to explain how the four adults are related to each other, whether any of the children were in foster care, or whether any family connection exists between the adults and the children. That leaves several possibilities open—such as parents, relatives, guardians, or other caregivers—but none has been confirmed by investigators. The only established fact at this stage is that prosecutors believe the adults had enough responsibility for the children to support felony child endangerment charges involving serious physical harm. So the “mystery” is still unresolved: the adults’ exact legal or family connection to the children has not been disclosed, apparently because the investigation is ongoing.

3 articles · Updated · The Associated Press · Jul 3

Seven of the 16 children removed from a Hamden, Ohio, home were hospitalized, including one in critical condition, after deputies found them Tuesday in a small room amid human waste.
Authorities said the children, ages 1 1/2 to 18, were never enrolled in the local school district and the family appears to have avoided medical and government records while moving around southern Ohio for years.
Four relatives — parents Gary Siders Jr., 36, and Elizabeth Siders, 33, and grandparents Gary Siders, 73, and Christina Siders, 67 — pleaded not guilty to child endangerment; child welfare officials now have temporary custody.
The home was entered during an unrelated investigation tied to a misdemeanor indecent-exposure warrant for Gary Siders Jr., while defense lawyers urged the public to withhold judgment and let the case develop.
In the village of fewer than 1,000 people, neighbors said they rarely or never saw the children, underscoring how isolation in a rural area helped the abuse remain hidden.