Mum of 16 kids found living like 'feral animals' in horror house gave birth to conjoined twins as tragic details emerge
Tragic new details about the 16 children who were rescued from a house filled with faeces have emerged.
Elizabeth Siders, 33, and Gary Siders Jr., 36, were arrested alongside the children’s grandparents Gary Siders Sr., 73, and Christina Siders, 67, in the family’s home in Vinton County, rural Ohio.
The arrests came after authorities discovered 16 children, aged between one to 18, living in squalor in a cramped and filthy 12 feet by 12 feet space at the house.
Authorities from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the Vinton County Sheriff's Office executed a search warrant at the family's home in Hamden on Tuesday, 30 June.
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The warrant was connected to a separate investigation and was not initially about child welfare. But while searching the property, officers found the 16 children living in what officials described as horrific, unsanitary conditions.
“We didn’t know there were going to be 16 kids there,” said Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson at a news conference, via AP. “It’s the type of thing that we’re not used to seeing here in America."
The children were forced to live like ‘feral animals’ in a single room which was covered in human waste for at least four years. Authorities have described the home as ‘deplorable’ and said livestock live in better conditions than the children.
Some of the children are unable to speak and none of them were enrolled in school. The eldest child, aged 18, is unable to write her name, according to investigators.
The children were transported to hospitals across Ohio following the rescue. Officials said several were in serious condition, including two who were airlifted to trauma centres and at least one who required intubation.
Back in November 2022, Siders delivered conjoined twin daughters Bailey Lee and Faith Lee Siders at Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, according to local news outlet WOWK 13.
Born at just 24 weeks’ gestation, the twins had thoracopagus, a condition where their faces and chests fused together in the womb. The twins died later that same day of natural causes, according to records.
On Monday, the children's shocked uncle said the rest of the family had no idea how many children Elizabeth and Gary Siders Jr. had.
Ronnie Fletcher told WOWKTV he had no idea of the conditions at the house but has still received death threats.
He said: "We've been told that we need to be put in front of an execution line of guns and, you know, killed and burned. I mean, it's been bad.
"We've had our pictures taken off our accounts and we've had to delete all our social media.
"My wife's not been able to go to work because she works within the public and she's scared."
The four defendants have each pleaded not guilty to 16 counts of child endangerment. A judge set their bail at $300,000 each.
If convicted, they each face a maximum sentence of up to 192 years in prison.
Greg Harris