Hell has a new address: 182 Ohmer Street, Hamden, Ohio.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s where 16 suffering children aged between 18 months and 18 years were rescued last month from what authorities called a \u201cHouse of Horrors\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of our livestock was kept in better conditions than the children,\u201d exclaims Vinton County Sheriff Ryan Cain. <\/p>\n
\u201cJust a disgusting scene.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey looked like almost feral animals,\u201d adds Ohio Attorney-General Andy Wilson. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was terrible.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Hamden is a tiny rural village of less than 1000 people.<\/p>\n
It stands within Vinton County, about 130km south of Ohio\u2019s capital, Columbus.<\/p>\n
The house sits amid scattered scrub on the outskirts of the village, facing a railway embankment. Discarded boxes are piled around a wrecked child\u2019s bike and an infant\u2019s chair in the unfenced front yard. Its windows are blocked with stacks of rubbish, children\u2019s toys and more boxes.<\/p>\n
Police say all 16 children were kept in a single 3.5m by 3.5m room.<\/p>\n
Neighbours insist they had no idea.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy grandkids and my kids, we\u2019ve all walked up and down that street; there\u2019s never been a sign of any child,\u201d a Hamden resident told the state\u2019s WOWK 13 News network.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a mother and a grandmother, I just don\u2019t understand the logic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Seven of the children have been evacuated to different hospitals around the state for observation. Two were flown to medical trauma centres. One was in a critical condition.<\/p>\n
Ohio authorities say some cannot speak.<\/p>\n
The 18-year-old girl cannot write her name.<\/p>\n
None were in school.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe scene is horrific, and these are horrific allegations,\u201d Sheriff Cain adds.<\/p>\n
Investigations are proving difficult, investigators say, as all the children have communication difficulties.<\/p>\n
Officials defined the case being built against the four adults as \u201cintrafamily\u201d \u2013 a term often applied to incest.<\/p>\n
The arrest of their two parents and one set of grandparents has sent the states of West Virginia and Ohio into shock.<\/p>\n
And it has revived controversy over child marriage laws.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt looks like [the mother] got married with her parents\u2019 consent in West Virginia when she was 15 and was seven months pregnant,\u201d retired local prosecutor Tommy Pope told News Nation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt almost seems like the worst of circumstances. To her credit, they kept the child, and they chose life. But it seems like she\u2019s been locked in that cycle, obviously, based on the number of kids.\u201d<\/p>\n
House of Horrors<\/p>\n
Police attended the property in connection with an unrelated search warrant on June 30.<\/p>\n
Gary Siders Jr had been accused of indecent exposure in May.<\/p>\n
None of the defendants entered an appeal when appearing before a court last week on child endangerment charges. The judge submitted not-guilty pleas on their behalf.<\/p>\n
Child and legal advocacy groups are demanding to know how such a large family apparently went unnoticed for so many years, and how state and federal welfare programs failed to detect the abuse.<\/p>\n
Elizabeth and Gary Siders were married in Mason County, West Virginia, in 2008.<\/p>\n
Child marriage was permitted with the approval of a judge and the minor\u2019s parents.<\/p>\n
The judge did not investigate the circumstances of the marriage, despite the obviously pregnant 15-year-old being in a relationship with a legal adult. And court records appear to show Elizabeth\u2019s parents approving the contract.<\/p>\n
Why they crossed the Ohio-West Virginia state line to obtain the marriage certificate is unknown.<\/p>\n
Both states, at that time, allowed child marriage.<\/p>\n
Elizabeth gave birth just two months later.<\/p>\n
But unconfirmed reports indicate Elizabeth had her first child at age 13.<\/p>\n
She is believed to have had a total of 20 children, including three sets of twins.<\/p>\n
Only 16 children were rescued from the house. And hospital records indicate a further two (co-joined twins) died shortly after birth in 2022.<\/p>\n
Elizabeth\u2019s lawyer, Thomas Stolly, says all 16 children were biologically hers.<\/p>\n
Elizabeth, now 33, and Gary Siders Jr, 36, had been living with grandparents Gary Siders Snr, 73, and Christina Siders, 67, in their Hamden home for the past four years.<\/p>\n
Vinton is the smallest of Ohio\u2019s 88 counties with just 12,600 residents. Hamden, lost among the 1075-square-kilometre Appalachian expanse, features just one traffic light \u2014 and one general store.<\/p>\n
Investigators say the home was so squalid and filled with rubbish that several of its rooms were inaccessible.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese folks were pretty good at hiding these kids,\u201d adds Ohio Attorney-General Andy Wilson.<\/p>\n
Villain or Victim?<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it was telling that her first concern was not, \u2018When can I get out of jail?\u2019 but was \u2018Are my children OK?\u2019\u201d Stolly told local media.<\/p>\n
The role Elizabeth may have played in the alleged abuse is now the centre of debate.<\/p>\n
As is her own marriage at 15.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think what this case highlights is the devastating repercussions that can follow a child marriage,\u201d argues Unchained At Last anti-child-marriage campaign group director Fraidy Reiss. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf this does not re-wake up legislators to the importance of that, I don\u2019t know what will.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was no age limit in West Virginia at the time Elizabeth was married to Gary Siders Jr. It has since been raised to 17 (with the consent of a judge and the parents).<\/p>\n
Ohio\u2019s has been similarly modified.<\/p>\n