On June 30, police entered a Vinton County, Ohio, home and discovered 16 children between the ages of 18 months and 18 years living in conditions officials later described as \u201cdeplorable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Investigators believe more than half of the children had spent the past four years confined to a small 12-foot-by-12-foot room, though authorities believe the abuse and neglect likely began long before that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe 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,\u201d Vinton County Sheriff Ryan Cain said in a statement shared on Facebook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson described the children as \u201calmost feral,\u201d according to CBS News, and said the conditions inside the home were ones \u201cyou cannot even imagine people being in, let alone children being in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMost of our livestock was kept in better conditions\u201d
Authorities allege the property was in a state of severe neglect, filled with dirt and feces. Wilson said the home had deteriorated to the point where the children were \u201cliterally about to fall through the floor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He also said they had suffered such \u201cserious physical harm\u201d that two children had to be taken to specialist trauma centers, while seven others were transported to hospitals. One child was admitted to the ICU and placed on a ventilator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Vinton County Sheriff Ryan Cain said, \u201cMost of our livestock was kept in better conditions than the children,\u201d describing the scene deputies encountered as \u201cdisgusting, according to Sky News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Four family members have since been charged in connection with the case. Parents Elizabeth Siders, 33, and Gary Siders Jr., 36, along with grandparents Christina Siders, 67, and Gary Siders Sr., 73, each face multiple felony child endangerment charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gary Siders Jr. and Elizabeth Siders conjoined twins
Now, newly uncovered birth and death records have revealed that the couple also had two other children. On November 20, 2022, Elizabeth Siders gave birth to conjoined twin girls at a hospital in Columbus. Records show the babies were born and died on the same day, living for about an hour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The existence of the twins had already fueled widespread online speculation after social media users discovered a headstone in Hamden bearing the names Bailey Lee Siders and Faith Lee Siders, with both their birth and death dates listed as November 20, 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The girls were joined at the chest and were born four months premature. Their cause of death was listed as respiratory failure linked to extreme prematurity, according to VT. The deaths of the twins are not included in the criminal case against the family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All four adults face 16 counts each of second-degree felony child endangerment. Each count carries a minimum sentence of two years and a maximum of 12 years in prison. If convicted on all counts, each defendant could face up to 192 years behind bars. All four have pleaded not guilty and are being held on $300,000 bond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On June 30, police entered a Vinton County, Ohio, home and discovered 16 children between the ages of 18 months and 18 years living in conditions officials later described as \u201cdeplorable.\u201d Investigators believe more than half of the children had spent the past four years confined to a small 12-foot-by-12-foot room, though authorities believe the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14806,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14805"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14805\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14807,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14805\/revisions\/14807"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}