VINTON COUNTY, Ohio (WSAZ) – Court records newly obtained by WSAZ indicate one of the suspects in a case where 16 children were “rescued” from a “disgusting” home in Vinton County had a separate encounter with law enforcement on the same day the children were taken.
Four adults were arrested, each facing 16 counts of child endangerment. Authorities described them as two parents, Gary Siders Jr. and Elizabeth Siders, and two grandparents, Gary Siders Sr. and Christina Siders.
Authorities said Wednesday they discovered the children living in a 12-foot-by-12-foot room, in such poor condition that several had to be hospitalized.
A criminal complaint in Vinton County charges Gary Siders, Jr. on four counts of public indecency, with incidents dated May 23, 27, 29, and 31, 2026. A warrant for Siders Jr.’s arrest is dated June 30, the same day investigators raided the home and discovered 16 children.
During a press conference Wednesday, Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson said investigators weren’t expecting to find children when they entered the home.
“[It was] something unrelated,” he said Wednesday. “It wasn’t about the welfare of these 16 kids. At that point, we didn’t know that there was going to be 16 kids there.”
When asked Wednesday how long that investigation had lasted, Wilson said “maybe a month, six weeks.”
WSAZ asked Wilson, Vinton County Prosecutor William Archer, and Vinton County Sheriff Ryan Cain if the public indecency warrant is the parallel investigation that led them to discover the children. Wilson and Archer have not yet responded, and Cain said he couldn’t comment.
Each defendant received a court-appointed attorney Thursday morning. Dorian Keith Baum, appointed to be Gary Siders Sr.’s attorney, asked in a press release Thursday for the public to “let the process play out.”
“It has not escaped our notice that the State apparatus – from multiple State and local political figures, to the interim State Attorney General, to the very prosecutor who is going to be presenting this case – have taken every opportunity to attempt to pre-try this case in the Court of public opinion,” Baum wrote. His full press release can be found below.
Residents of the village of Hamden, with a population of around 720, say they are still coming to terms with what was discovered in their town.
“I was surprised,” Hamden Mayor Mike Neri told WSAZ on Thursday. “I never thought it would happen here. I thought it would be in a bigger city, but not here.”
Neri said he would occasionally check on the home for high grass or the water meter, but never suspected anything, saying he would only occasionally see an older woman outside.
Hamden resident Corissa Gonzalez told WSAZ on Thursday that she would often see Gary Jr. and Elizabeth around town, but never suspected anything was so wrong.
“You wouldn’t suspect that they had 16 kids living [there],” Hamden resident Corissa Gonzalez told WSAZ Thursday. “That’s just something crazy to me. I still am trying to process it. Like, it’s crazy. It’s definitely weird, being so close.”
It’s a crime that authorities “almost indescribable,” and Wilson called one of the worst scenes he’s ever witnessed.
Wilson said in a press conference Wednesday the children were “almost like feral animals.” He said two had to be care-flighted to the hospital, and at least one was in the ICU on the verge of death.
“It’s not that different than those old commercials you see of kids in Africa, just where they’re covered in bugs and squatting and had that distant look in their eyes,” he described.
Wilson said their top priority was the physical, mental, and emotional health of the children, and said the state is working to place them in “loving, caring homes.”
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