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As more details emerge about the alleged "house of horrors" in Ohio where 16 children were rescued, child psychologists are warning that the emotional and developmental impact could last a lifetime.
The children, who ranged in age from 18 months to 18 years old, were allegedly kept inside a single 12-by-12-foot room for years in what authorities described as horrific conditions. Experts now say recovering from that level of neglect will potentially require years of specialist support.
Child psychologist Dr. Patrice Berry explained that the case highlights just how critical a child's early years are for healthy brain development.
"We have research," she said. "We know that certain milestones need to be met. Children need to be exposed to things by a certain time in order to have typical language development."
Berry said she wanted to discuss "the effects of severe deprivation on a child's brain" while also offering guidance to foster, adoptive and kinship carers who may eventually look after children who have experienced similar trauma.
According to Berry, authorities found 16 children living in a cramped space after police arrived at the property to execute an unrelated search warrant.
"There were 16 children that were found in about a 12 by 12 space," she explained. "It's our understanding that for the past four years, these children... spent most of their time in that 12 by 12 space."
She added that the children ranged "from 18 years old until about maybe one, maybe one-and-a-half years old," with some of the youngest reportedly lacking basic documentation such as birth certificates or medical records.
Berry also described the appalling conditions investigators allegedly encountered.
"It's an extreme hoarding situation," she said, adding that the home was reportedly filled with waste and unsafe for officers to enter. She noted that one or two children were in such poor condition they reportedly had to be airlifted to specialist medical facilities.
The psychologist said the children's removal from the home, while necessary, will likely be traumatic in itself because the neglectful environment was all they had ever known.
"The condition they were living in, that was their normal," Berry explained.
"For these children, a clean environment is actually less normal for them."
She warned that many children raised in those circumstances may never have learned basic hygiene, self-care or even what regular meals look like.
"They do not know how to clean up after themselves. They do not have proper hygiene," she said, speaking generally about children who experience severe neglect.
Berry also pointed to reports suggesting the oldest child may have significant developmental delays, saying the 18-year-old was reportedly unable to write her own name.
Meanwhile, psychologist Dr. David Lowenstein told ABC6 that the children now face years of recovery.
"This is going to affect them the rest of their life. It's a major trauma," he said.
Lowenstein believes the youngest children may have one advantage because they are less likely to consciously remember the abuse.
"The younger the age... there won't be as much of a memory because their minds are pretty young," he explained.
"But anybody who's like three or four years old and older... those kids are going to need long-term treatment."
He stressed that before therapy can truly begin, the children must first learn to trust the adults now caring for them.
"A lot of treatment," Lowenstein said when asked what lies ahead. "There's a lot of work to be done before they know what direction to even go in."
He also urged members of the public never to ignore warning signs if they suspect a child may be in danger.
"I'd rather you be wrong than miss something as serious as this," claimed Lowenstein.
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New details have emerged after 16 children were rescued from what authorities have described as a "house of horrors" in rural Ohio, with many people online drawing comparisons to one of Europe's most infamous captivity cases.
Four adults have now been charged after investigators discovered 16 children allegedly living in appalling conditions inside a home in Hamden, Ohio.
According to officials, those arrested are Gary Siders Jr., Gary Siders Sr., Christina Siders and Elizabeth Siders, who have been identified as the children's parents and grandparents. They are all facing felony child endangerment charges.
The children, whose ages range from just 18 months to 18 years old, were allegedly confined for much of their lives inside a single 12-by-12-foot room contaminated with human waste.
Speaking to WCMH, Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson described the children as being "almost feral."
The case has stunned the local community, with neighbors telling the Associated Press they had no idea so many children were living inside the property. The children were also reportedly not enrolled in school.
As investigators continue piecing together what happened, experts have questioned how such a large family managed to avoid detection for so long.
Appearing on NewsNation's CUOMO, former FBI special agent Jennifer Coffindaffer suggested the family's constant movement may have helped them stay off authorities' radar.
"You get away with it because you conceal it by moving over and over again," Coffindaffer said. "You don't let the children out of the house, and you keep them in that basement."
Criminal defense attorney Mark Geragos said the sheer age range of the children was one of the most disturbing aspects of the case.
"I think probably the thing that strikes me the most is the span of the ages," he said. "Eighteen months to 18 years is just stunning in terms of that."
Authorities have repeatedly described the children as "feral," a term Geragos said unfortunately fit the allegations.
"That's actually a pretty good use of the word," he explained. "It's not civilized, is, I guess, the best way I'd put it."
Coffindaffer also believes investigators could pursue additional charges as the case develops.
"I think there are going to be other charges," she said. "I believe these older children, the females that were able to be of childbearing years, I think they're going to have to do full DNA."
The investigation remains ongoing, and officials have not said whether the family had previously come to the attention of child protective services.
As more details have emerged, social media users have drawn comparisons to a notorious European captivity case involving an Austrian man, Josef Fritzl, who imprisoned his daughter for 24 years and fathered seven children with her inside a concealed underground space.
While there is currently no suggestion the Ohio case involves the same type of offences, some online have pointed to similarities involving prolonged isolation and children allegedly being hidden from the outside world.
One person wrote on X: "What's scary is that most people don't know their own neighbors…. There was a case like this in Austria a while ago... it was so sad. Prayers for these kids, only God's strength can help them through this. (The survivors... are living quietly, recovery takes years — their privacy is being respected and protected.)"
Authorities have not linked the two cases, and the Ohio investigation remains active as detectives continue gathering evidence.
A psychologist analyzing the case of 16 children found inside a home in Ohio has offered an interesting theory for how the family lived in those conditions.
On Tuesday (June 30), the Vinton County Sheriff's Office discovered 16 children, aged between one and 18, at a small home in Hamden after executing a search warrant linked to a separate criminal investigation that began four to six weeks earlier.
The children were allegedly confined to a single 12-foot-by-12-foot room surrounded by human waste.
The reported parents, Gary Siders Jr., 36, and Elizabeth Siders, 33, along with grandparents Gary Siders Sr., 73, and Christina Siders, 77, were arrested at the scene and each charged with 16 counts of child endangerment.
All four have pleaded not guilty and are being held on $300,000 bond.
Dr. Todd Grande analyzed the case in a YouTube video, where he suggested the family may have had what psychologists describe as "low disgust propensity and sensitivity".
According to Grande, disgust propensity refers to how easily someone experiences disgust, while disgust sensitivity describes how much a person is bothered by those feelings.
"There are three dimensions of disgust propensity and sensitivity: pathogen, sexual, and moral. The domain related to squalor cases is pathogen disgust. This is the normal avoidance response to feces, urine, rotten food, vomit, insects, parasites, bad smells, and visible contamination," he said.
He explained that people with low levels of pathogen disgust can tolerate conditions that most people would immediately find unbearable.
Grande added that this personality profile is often associated with "poor insight, lack of shame, lack of concern, and refusal of assistance".
"They may not see themselves as needing help from anyone. Again, they view their circumstances as normal," he shared.
Grande also suggested the children themselves may have developed similar attitudes because they had never been exposed to life outside the home.
"They grew up in an environment where no effort was made to avoid that stimuli. The isolation component prevented them from having sufficient contact with non-family members to learn values outside the family. For instance, if they had gone to school, they would have quickly learned that terrible odors are not acceptable," he said.
Police in Ohio believe the children had been isolated for years, with many reportedly unable to communicate normally.
The oldest, an 18-year-old, was reportedly unable to spell her own name.
Officials said two children suffered such serious physical harm that they had to be airlifted to specialist trauma centers, while another seven were taken to hospitals in Columbus.
One child was admitted to intensive care in serious condition, per The Guardian.
Elizabeth Siders' attorney, Thomas Stolly, said his client was "crying and exhausted" when he met her in jail.
Rather than asking about the charges against her or when she might be released, Stolly said her first concern was for her children.
"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," he told Associated Press.
"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 he believes the situation is far more complicated, saying that "evil requires malice" and he "did not see any malice in Elizabeth".
"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," he continued.
The attorney added that while the mom did not present herself as a victim, "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," he said.
He also confirmed that Elizabeth told him all 16 children are hers and that she married Gary Siders Jr. when she was just 15 years old, per The Tab.
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During a court hearing on July 1, all four defendants formally pleaded not guilty.
Judge Laina Fetherolf Rogers ordered that they have no contact with one another or with any of the children if released from custody.
Per Associated Press, she said: "They [prosecutors] are asking that you have no contact with your co-defendants – that means each other. I presume the jail will keep you from having contact with the other two co-defendants if you remain in jail.
"No contact with the alleged victims of the offence; and if you are released, that you be fitted with a GPS monitor at state’s expense."
The judge also explained the legal meaning of each plea available to the defendants.
"You have four pleas available to you. A plea of guilty is a complete admission of your guilt. A not guilty plea is a complete denial of your guilt. A no contest plea is not an admission of guilt, but is an admission to the facts that underlie the complaint," she said.
"If you plead no contest, the state would give me a statement of facts, and it would be up to the court to determine whether or not you were guilty of the charged offences based on those facts."
The judge confirmed that all four bonds are set at $300,000, and each charge could land a prison sentence of two to eight years.
If each of the four family members is found guilty on all counts, they could face 192 years in prison individually.
After 16 children, some with severe injuries, were rescued from a home full of excrement, four people, believed to be their parents and grandparents, have been charged with 17 counts of child endangerment.
The children, aged between one-and-a-half and 18, were discovered inside a crumbling house by the Vinton County Sheriff's Office in Ohio on Tuesday, June 30, and were described to be "kept in worse conditions than livestock”.
Law enforcement officers described the scene as “pure evil”, while Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson told a news conference they were found in “Conditions you cannot even imagine people being in, let alone children being in.”
Tragically, he added, “Some of these children couldn’t even speak.”
The area the children were held captive in for “most of the last four years” was reportedly no larger than 12 by 12 feet and had a high presence of human excrement.
The house they were found in, which is believed to belong to a deceased owner, was in such terrible condition that the children were “literally about to fall through the floor”, according to Wilson.
Heartbreakingly, the children had suffered such “serious physical harm” that two had to be flown to specialist trauma centres, while another seven were taken to Columbus Hospitals, with one admitted to the ICU and intubated.
Although the neglected brood were only thought to have been held in the decrepit Ohio property for four years, it is presumed that they had been mistreated and kept captive for the majority of their short lives, as the 18-year-old could not spell her own name and many of the others were completely mute.
According to WBNS, neighbours told authorities that they were completely unaware of any children living in the home and believed that the adults who were keeping them captive were not locals and appeared to be travelling.
The neglected children were only discovered by local law enforcement while investigating another crime entirely.
While officials have not yet commented on the relationship between the children, they did confirm it was not a case of human trafficking, and the four adults responsible for their neglect have been cited as parents and grandparents, so it is assumed that they are a large group of siblings.
Since their arrest on Tuesday, Gary Siders Jr., Gary Siders Sr., Christina Siders and Elizabeth Siders of Hamden, Ohio, entered not guilty pleas at a digital hearing.
Each sickening adult faces a minimum of two to eight years and a maximum of 12 years in prison for each of the 17 charges.
A disturbing new detail has come to light after authorities uncovered 16 children living in what officials described as horrific conditions inside an Ohio home.
According to investigators, the oldest child, an 18-year-old woman, is developmentally disabled and unable to even write her name, highlighting the severe neglect authorities say the children suffered after years of isolation.
Police only discovered the children after arriving at the Vinton County property to serve an unrelated indecent exposure warrant for Gary Siders II. Instead, officers found 16 children, ranging in age from 18 months to 18 years old, allegedly living inside a feces-filled home, raising questions about how the situation went unnoticed for so long.
Authorities now face the difficult task of piecing together exactly what happened inside the home because many of the children struggle to communicate.
"One of the investigative challenges is that [the children] are limited. They can communicate, but it’s extremely limited, and some not at all," Vinton County Sheriff Ryan Cain said at a news conference Wednesday (July 1).
According to authorities, the oldest child is developmentally disabled and unable to even write her name.
Investigators allege the children had been kept isolated inside a 12-foot by 12-foot room for years. Officials said the room was covered in human waste, and the children had never been enrolled in school.
Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson described the investigation as an "intra-family case," adding that it remains unclear exactly who all of the children's parents are. He said the children appeared like "almost feral animals."
Gary Siders II, his wife Elizabeth Siders, and his parents, Gary Siders Sr. and Christine Siders, were arrested and each faces multiple child endangerment charges.
Records show Gary Siders II was 18 years old and had completed ninth grade when he married Elizabeth in 2008, when she was 15 years old. Because Elizabeth was underage, both of her parents signed the marriage certificate alongside Siders' parents. Their oldest child was born two months after the marriage.
Court records list the children's ages as 18, 16, 15, 14, 13, 11, 10, 8, 6, 5, 4-year-old twins, two-year-old twins, and one-year-old twins.
Officials believe the children had been living in the deplorable conditions for at least four years.
"It really looked third world. It is not something we are used to seeing in America. I cannot get the smell off of me," Wilson told reporters.
Seven of the children were hospitalized in the Columbus area, including two who were taken to trauma centers.
Siders II is scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday on the original indecent exposure warrant. All four defendants are being held on $300,000 bonds and each faces up to 16 counts of child endangerment. If convicted on all charges, each could face a maximum sentence of up to 192 years in prison.
A neighbor who lived just a few houses away from the Ohio home where 16 children were discovered living in horrific conditions has revealed he had no idea they were there.
Authorities say the children, who ranged in age from 18 months to 18 years old, had been living in a dilapidated home in Hamden, Ohio, surrounded by human waste and confined to a single room for much of the past four years. Officials said some of the children were unable to speak, while one 18-year-old with developmental disabilities could not even write her own name.
The children's parents, Gary Siders Jr. and Christina Siders, along with grandparents Gary Siders Sr. and Elizabeth Siders, have each been charged with felony child endangering. A judge entered not guilty pleas on their behalf Wednesday and set bond at $300,000 each. They have not yet been assigned attorneys.
Neighbor Joseph Stewart, 60, said he was stunned after learning what authorities had uncovered just three houses away.
"I saw no kids at all" since the family moved into the home, Stewart told The Associated Press, explaining that he could clearly see the house and yard whenever he passed by.
"It's a sad situation," he added, describing the area as."
The property sits along a road beside a steep railroad embankment. While neighboring homes are separated by trees and thick brush, the house itself is visible from the road.
On Wednesday, the home's doors and windows were left open as investigators continued their work. Trash could be seen inside, while the yard contained piles of discarded items, including tires, a high chair, two broken bicycles, a plastic play table, a beach pail, and two infant carriers.
Authorities discovered the children Tuesday while serving a search warrant connected to an unrelated investigation, according to Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson.
"We didn't know there were going to be 16 kids there," Wilson said.
Officials said the children were not enrolled in school and appeared to have been hidden from public view for years.
"These folks were pretty good at hiding these kids," Wilson said.
Investigators are also reviewing whether the family had ever been reported to children's services agencies.
Vinton County Sheriff Ryan Cain said the children had apparently spent most of their time inside a room measuring roughly 12 feet by 12 feet. Although investigators did not find cages inside the home, Cain described what deputies encountered as shocking.
"Most of our livestock was kept in better conditions than the children," Cain said. "Just a disgusting scene."
Wilson also described the children's appearance after they were rescued.
"They looked like almost feral animals," Wilson said. "It was terrible."
Seven children were transported to hospitals in Columbus, while two others were flown by helicopter. Officials said one child was in critical condition Tuesday, while several others were admitted for treatment. All 16 children are now in the temporary custody of the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services.
Vinton County Prosecuting Attorney William Archer said the four adults face second-degree felony child endangering charges because the allegations involve "serious physical harm."
Officials said the children are all members of the same family, although authorities have not disclosed the exact relationship between each child.
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