HAMDEN, Ohio (AP) — In the quaint village of Hamden, Ohio, residents are grappling with shock and disbelief after police removed 16 children from a home fraught with neglect. The arrest of the parents and grandparents has left the community questioning how such a dire situation persisted unnoticed for years.
The family’s neighbors, local shop employees, and even the authorities involved are puzzled by how this situation could unfold so quietly. With little information publicly shared, many are left speculating about how such circumstances could exist under the radar.
According to investigators, the children were neither attending school nor seen by the neighbors as the family had been transient for twenty years. The children were mostly confined to a diminutive room, living in conditions described as appalling.
Emily Collins, owner of VC Farm & Floral in neighboring McArthur, expressed her disbelief: “Right under our noses and nobody was able to help them sooner.” She lamented the fact that this dark revelation overshadows the positive aspects of their close-knit community. As a mother of three, she tried to lift her spirits by decorating the sidewalk with vibrant chalk designs.
Police explained that their initial visit to the home on Tuesday was part of an unrelated inquiry. During their visit, they found children ranging from 18 months to 18 years in age, some of whom were non-verbal.
Seven were taken to hospitals, including one who was in critical condition, investigators said. Their current conditions weren’t immediately known Thursday. Child welfare officials have temporary custody of the children.
Lawyers: Let the case ‘play out’
Four people who are the children’s parents and grandparents were arrested on child endangerment charges. Gary Siders Jr., 36, Gary Siders, 73, Elizabeth Siders, 33, and Christina Siders, 67, pleaded not guilty to child endangerment. Bond was set at $300,000 each.
“In fact, my client’s first question to me when I walked into the jail and introduced myself was about her kids. She asked if her children were OK, she asked if I knew where they were, and she asked when she’d be able to see them again,” Stolly said.
He wasn’t able to answer those questions, “but I thought it was telling that her first concern was not, ‘When can I get out of jail,’ but was ‘Are my children OK.’”
Stolly said his client told him that all of the children were born in area hospitals and she considers herself a full-time mom. She left high school after the 11th grade, he said, and Gary Siders Jr. was driving for Door Dash and looking for another job, he said.
Stolly said the prosecutor’s office has not yet shared their evidence with him, but so far he hasn’t seen anything that supports Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson’s description of the family as “pure evil.”
“Evil requires malice, and I did not see any malice in Elizabeth,” Stolly said.
He added: “I think that this is more so a case of isolation than a case of evil, and I think that there’s an important distinction there. Because if that’s all you know — and you have to think someone at 15 years old doesn’t know a whole lot about being an adult, about being a mother, about being a wife — and that’s been your worldview for the past 17 or 18 years, you get shaped by that.”
Stolly said Elizabeth didn’t characterize herself as a victim, but “I think it may be too early to actually determine what was going on there.”
“While the headlines may be sensational, there’s a real human component to this and so I would ask people to give this process time to play out,” Stolly said.
An attorney for the elder Siders also urged the public to wait before passing judgment.
Attorneys for Siders Jr. and Christina Siders declined to comment.
Little traffic on home’s rural road
A man who lives three houses down from the Siders family said he had seen “no kids at all” there.
“It’s a sad situation,” said Joseph Stewart, 60, who has lived in the “quiet neighborhood” for six years.
Authorities wouldn’t publicly share the nature of the other investigation that led them to the house Tuesday. However, court records show a warrant was issued for Siders Jr. that day on misdemeanor indecent exposure charges related to alleged incidents on four days in May. He has pleaded not guilty.
On Thursday, windows and doors at the formerly wide-open home, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) southeast of Columbus, had been boarded up. Police tape and piles of refuse remained.
The previous day, a door was ajar and heaps of trash and children’s toys were visible inside. A wood deck and the backyard were filled with discarded tires, a high chair and other debris.
The house sits on a road tucked alongside a steep railroad embankment, where tracks carry rumbling trains to a rail yard in the village of fewer than 1,000 residents. The closest neighbors are separated by trees and thick brush, but the house is easily visible from the road.
Kids not seen in schools
Investigators said members of the family had moved around southern Ohio over the past two decades and that it looks like they avoided creating a medical or governmental paper trail. The Vinton County Local School District, the only district in the area, said it has no records indicating that any of the children were ever enrolled.
“These folks were pretty good at hiding these kids,” Wilson, the state attorney general, said Wednesday.
The children’s absence from school, and the apparent lack of regular visits with medical professionals, likely contributed to keeping the dire situation unknown, said Jacqueline Yahn, an associate professor at Ohio University.
“When kids are isolated or not participating, you don’t have someone who’s trained to know the clues,” said Yahn, who specializes in rural education and poverty. “A well-check is called that for a reason: They’re checking for well-being and development.”
Investigators were reviewing whether the family was reported to any children’s services agencies in the past.
The children spent most of their time in a room that was roughly 12 feet by 12 feet (3.5 meters by 3.5 meters), according to investigators, who noted that human waste was all around.
“They looked like almost feral animals. It was terrible,” Wilson said.
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