Overview
- Law enforcement removed 16 children from a Hamden, Ohio, home on June 30 after finding them living in cramped, squalid conditions and arrested four adults who lived there.
- A grand jury indicted Elizabeth Siders and Gary Siders Jr. on two counts of sexual battery and two counts of unlawful sexual conduct over alleged abuse of a non-family minor between January and September 2022.
- All four adults — Elizabeth, Gary Jr., Christina Siders and Gary Siders Sr. — face multiple child-endangerment indictments, have pleaded not guilty, and remain jailed while the children are in county custody and receiving services.
- Gallia County juvenile-court records show prior interventions from 2020 to 2021 for high lead levels in some children, heavy insect infestations, developmental delays, poor hygiene and court-ordered protective supervision that closed in mid-2021.
- One outlet reported that two other men were charged and that their case prompted the tip leading to the rescue, but county and state officials have not fully corroborated that account and formal public filings in the sexual case were reported as still pending.