US3 min(s) read
Published 16:02 02 Jul 2026 GMT
The Governor of Ohio has released an official response to the case involving 16 children being found in a run-down home, which was full of excrement.
Some of the children were found with severe injuries, as four people, believed to be their parents and grandparents, were charged with 17 counts of child endangerment.
Ohio Authorities have now arrested and charged four family members after discovering the children in the rural home.
These suspects include the parents, Gary Siders Jr., 36, and Elizabeth Siders, 33, as well as the grandparents, Gary Siders Sr., 73, and Christina Siders, 67.
All four now face charges of second-degree felony child endangering, once the investigation in Vinton County has been concluded.
Now, the state's Governor has released a statement about the disturbing situation.
Taking to the official State of Ohio site, Governor Mike DeWine spoke about the "tragic" find in Vinton County.
He said in a statement: "Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson has kept me informed about the tragic situation in Vinton County. I have talked to Vinton County Sheriff Ryan Cain to offer any help that we might be able to provide.
"The Director of the Ohio Department of Children and Youth, Kara Wente, has been working today to assist Vinton County Children’s Services, and will continue to help in the days ahead."
DeWine added: "It is heartbreaking to learn the conditions that these children were living in, and to learn of their medical conditions. Attorney General Wilson is an experienced prosecutor and he has told me he has never seen anything like what he saw today.
"Fran and I pray for these children, and thank the children's services workers, law enforcement officers, and medical personnel who are helping them," he concluded.
The house they were found in was believed to belong to an owner who had died, as Wilson noted that the children were "literally about to fall through the floor" in those awful conditions.
The children 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.
The children were aged between one-and-a-half and 18, with investigators saying they were "kept in worse conditions than livestock”.
Officers said that the scene was "pure evil," with Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson telling a press conference that the children were in "conditions you cannot even imagine people being in, let alone children being in."
“Some of these children couldn’t even speak,” he said.
The children were found in a small house in the village of Hamden, with the property lacking basic sanitation and signs of human waste present.
It was found that the family moved often, going around different parts of the state before settling in Vinton County roughly four years ago.
The kids were never enrolled in the education system, with the eldest, an 18-year-old with developmental disabilities, unable to spell her own name, while others remained completely mute.
