Court records reveal new details about 16 'feral' children living in Ohio 'house of horrors'
More than a dozen children found in a home dubbed the 'Ohio house of horrors' were reportedly known to authorities for not attending school.
Complaints are said to have been sent to the couple who are believed to be the parents of all 16 kids - Gary Siders Jr and Elizabeth Siders - about the youngsters being absent 'without a legitimate excuse'.
These fresh details, which have been revealed in court documents dating back to 2021, come amid continuing questions about how the Siders family slipped through the cracks of the system.
After the property in Vinton County was raided by police on 30 June in regards to unrelated indecent exposure charges made against Gary Jr, police in the US state of Ohio said they found a 'deplorable' scene.
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The interior of the dilapidated pad was 'disgusting', according to Vinton County Sheriff Ryan Cain, who said previously: "Most of our livestock was kept in better conditions than the children.
"It was extremely high presence, I’m sure, of bacterial and human faeces. It was just a disgusting scene."
Officials described how most of the 16 children had 'limited's speech, while others cannot communicate at all. An 18-year-old could not spell her own name, authorities said.
None of the Siders offspring had been enrolled in school according to investigators, who also 'believe the family largely avoided establishing medical and other government records' over the last two decades.
It is believed the family flitted around Ohio to various different places over the last four years before settling in Hamden, perhaps in a bid to avoid detection.
Ohio attorney general Andy Wilson said the four adult family members who were arrested - Elizabeth, Gary Jr and his parents Gary Siders, 73, and Christina Siders, 67 - were 'pretty good at hiding these kids'.
The Vinton County Local School District, the only district in the area, previously said it has no records suggesting any of the Siders children were ever enrolled there.
People have been left stunned that the 20-strong brood managed to fly under the radar for so long.
Siders avoided schooling kids, officials say
However, reports have since emerged claiming that court documents show that Elizabeth and Gary were contacted about their children missing school.
According to The Columbus Dispatch, records show that the Gallia County Juvenile Court filed six complaints against the couple in October 2021 for failing to send their kids to school.
The parents are said to have been informed that their offspring were of compulsory school-age but had been 'absent from school without legitimate excuse for the entire 2021-2022 academic year to present'.
Truancy complaints were also lodged against six of the youngsters - whose ages ranged from 7 to 13 - who should have been attending Addaville Elementary School in Gallipolis.
The publication states that the court docs show the Siders children had missed 72 or more hours, approximately 12 school days, per year.
It is believed Elizabeth had birthed 10 of her children at this time.
According to the Ohio Department of Education, laws in the state mean that 'children between the ages of 6 and 18 are generally required to attend school'.
It defines a habitually truant student as 'any child of compulsory school age who is absent without legitimate excuse for the number of hours specified in state law'.
However - these complaints about the kids lack of attendance never made it to Elizabeth and Gary, as authorities could not track them down.
The Columbus Dispatch reported that the family had ties to areas in Gallia County, including in Bidwell and Cheshire, as well as to an address in Bloomer, Wisconsin.
Vinton County Sheriff Cain said of the children previously: "The conditions these children lived in were horrific, and we are sickened by it. Fortunately, this tragic chapter has closed, but their recovery will take time.
"Our investigators will continue following the evidence wherever it leads."
Olivia Burke