A disturbing child sex abuse investigation, first set in motion after alert Dollar General employees raised concerns, is what ultimately led authorities to an alleged Ohio “house of horrors” where 16 children were reportedly found living in appalling conditions.
The children, ranging in age from 18 months to 18 years, were removed from a rundown property in Hamden, Ohio, on June 30. Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson later described the environment inside the home as squalid and comparable to “third world” conditions.
Their parents, Elizabeth Siders, 33, and Gary Siders Jr., 36, were taken into custody and initially charged with 16 counts of child endangerment.
On Friday, the case expanded when a Vinton County grand jury indicted the couple on two counts of sexual battery and two counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor.
Vinton County Prosecutor William Archer said the investigation that exposed the situation involving the 16 children “began as an investigation into family child sex abuse.”
Archer also singled out “diligent Dollar General clerks” for praise, saying they were the first to contact authorities after becoming worried about children they had seen.
According to Archer, investigators had been seeking DNA from Gary Siders Jr. as part of the child sex abuse probe and obtained search warrants to collect samples for genetic testing.
It was while serving those warrants tied to the alleged abuse investigation that law enforcement discovered both the “existence and condition” of the Siders family’s deteriorating home on the 180 block of Ohmer Street.
Gary Siders Jr, 36, was indicted on two counts of sexual battery and two counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor on Friday by a Vinton County grand jury
Gary Jr and his wife, Elizabeth Siders, had been charged with 16 counts of child endangerment after 16 kids living ‘like almost feral animals’ were found inside their Hamden, Ohio, home
Vinton County Prosecutor William Archer said Friday the 16 kids were found after authorities began investigating ‘family child sex abuse’ and sought Gary Jr’s DNA in connection
The alleged child sex abuse involved ‘intrafamily relations’ and did not pose a risk to the general public, according to Archer.
He also noted that the situation was not a case of human trafficking.
The discovery of the shambolic home with the 16 children inside stemmed from an investigation that started last December.
That was when the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation’s Special Victims Unit began looking into allegations of sexual abuse involving two children, leading to two indictments against two South Bloomingville men.
Joshua David Saunders, 23, was indicted on three counts of rape and one count of gross sexual imposition.
Brandon Scott Henderson Sr, 40, was indicted on a total of 21 charges involving endangering children, gross sexual imposition, sexual battery and endangering children.
Saunders and Henderson Sr were arrested on Friday by the Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI), as well as the Vinton and Ross County Sheriff’s Offices.
Henderson Sr is the partner of Saunders’ mother, according to the Columbus Dispatch.
His mom is Virginia Siders Saunders, who is Siders Jr’s nephew, per the outlet. She married Joshua D. Saunders, who is locked up for murder at incarcerated at the Chillicothe Correctional Center, in May 2003.
As of Friday, both men were being held at the Southeastern Ohio Regional Jail, according to jail records. Neither had an attorney or next court date listed.
Gary Siders Jr, and his father, Gary Sr, during a court appearance via Zoom on July 1 in the Vinton County Court of Common Pleas
Joshua David Saunders, 23, and Brandon Scott Henderson Sr, 40, were indicted after the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation began probing into alleged sex abuse involving two children
The probe into Saunders and Henderson Sr led BCI to conduct a second investigation in March about alleged unlawful sexual conduct with a minor.
Authorities executed a search warrant at the Siders’ dilapidated home on June 30, where they found the children.
‘It looked like almost feral animals,’ Wilson, the Ohio AG, said, according to WTVG. ‘It was terrible.’
Authorities have said the children lived in a home covered with human feces, calling what they discovered inside the property ‘pure evil.’
Wilson said that the children were forced to endure ‘unimaginable conditions’ that were arduous, especially for children.
Vinton County Sheriff Ryan Cain described a small room where investigators believe the kids were kept for about four years.
‘Most of our livestock was kept in better conditions than the children,’ Cain said.
Gary Jr’s parents, 73-year-old Gary Siders Sr and 67-year-old Christina ‘Lynn’ Siders, also lived on the property.
They were arrested and each charged with 16 counts of child endangerment.
Gary Sr was released on his own recognizance bond because of a ‘serious medical condition’ that required hospital care. He was no longer hospitalized as of early August and is required to wear a GPS monitor, according to WLWT5.
33–year–old Elizabeth Siders, the kids’ mom, was also charged with two counts of sexual battery and two counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor on Friday
Authorities previously said most livestock was ‘kept in better conditions than the children’ at the Siders’ Ohmer Street home and said the residence was littered with human feces
Siders’ attorney, Tommy Stolly, previously pushed back on Wilson’s accusations that her kids were like ‘almost feral animals.’
‘This is very clearly a case where my client and the Siders family were living in extreme poverty,’ Stolly told NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo on Cuomo Crime Time last month.
Stolly claimed that Siders’ kids ‘could talk’ and had done so ‘when the police came in.’
‘These kids, you have to remember, were terrified when … multiple police officers from multiple agencies with a battering ram came in serving this search warrant,’ Stolly said.
Stolly also suggested that the Siders family might have been living in a ‘different reality’ than most people are used to.
‘You’re living in a home and that’s what you’ve known for years and years,’ he said. ‘You don’t necessarily see how bad things have gotten.’
The attorney said that ‘this [was] truly the case’ in southeast Ohio, as he admitted that he would not live in the house.
The Daily Mail has reached out to Stolly, Elizabeth’s attorney, R. Lee Roberts Jr, Gary Jr’s attorney, and the Ohio Attorney General’s Office for comment.
