Overview
- Investigators executing an unrelated search warrant on Tuesday found 16 children, aged about 1½ to 18, living in extremely unsanitary conditions in a Hamden house.
- Seven children were taken to hospitals in Columbus, two by helicopter, and officials say one child was in critical condition; the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services has temporary custody.
- Four adults identified as family members — Gary Siders Jr., Elizabeth Siders, Gary Siders Sr., and Christina Siders — were arrested on second-degree child endangerment charges, pleaded not guilty, and were released on $300,000 bail each.
- Authorities say the children spent much of the past four years confined to a single small room and that the family repeatedly moved across southern Ohio, leaving no clear school or medical records and limiting outside detection.
- Prosecutors and child-welfare officials are conducting medical, forensic and records checks to build cases and determine how school and agency oversight failed, a development that echoes past U.S. confinement cases and could trigger policy reviews.