Elizabeth Siders and Gary Siders Jr. are facing allegations of running what has been dubbed a “House of Horrors.” The accusations include neglecting to send six of their 16 children to school.
The couple from Ohio was previously charged with truancy in the Juvenile Court Division of the Gallia County Court of Common Pleas. Court records reveal that complaints, filed on October 19, 2021, claim their children were absent from Addaville Elementary School for the entire 2021-2022 school year without any valid excuse.
The documents further state the Siders were informed about their children’s repeated absences, labeling each child as a “habitual truant.”
On October 26, 2021, a court summons was issued to the couple, setting an arraignment for November per People. However, when deputies from the Gallia County Sheriff’s Office attempted to deliver the summons, they reportedly found the residence empty.
Due to the inability to locate the couple, the case was dismissed on January 7, 2022, according to the official documents.
Gary Jr.’s attorney R. Lee Roberts declined to comment when asked by Oxygen, while Elizabeth’s attorney Tommy Stolly did not immediately return a request for comment from Oxygen.
Elizabeth and Gary Jr.—along with his parents Gary Siders Sr. and Christina Siders—were arrested on June 30 for keeping their 16 children in “unimaginable” living conditions, according to the Ohio Attorney General.
They are being held in the Vinton County Jail on $300,000 individual bonds. Each has pleaded not guilty to 17 counts of endangering children, according to previous reporting from Oxygen.
Law enforcement discovered the alleged conditions while executing a search warrant related to a separate incident, according to a July 1 press conference with Vinton County officials.
Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson said in the press conference that the odor emanating from the house was so overwhelming that, “I can’t get the smell off of me or away from me.”
While inside, Vinton County Sheriff Ryan Cain said deputies encountered “a disgusting scene.”
“Most of our livestock was kept in better conditions than the children,” he said in the press conference. “[There] was extremely high presence, I’m sure, of bacterial and human feces.”
The children had been confined to an approximately 12-by-12-foot area of the residence, seemingly for the last four years, Cain said.
According to officials, the children looked “almost feral” and had not been to school, with one noting that the eldest was developmentally disabled and could not spell her own name.
The children were removed from the home and evaluated at Columbus-area hospitals, with one admitted to the ICU in critical condition, officials said in the press conference.
Spokespeople from the Gallia County Local School District, the Gallia County Prosecutor’s Office and the Gallia County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately return requests for comment from Oxygen.