Overview
- Investigators found 16 children living in severe neglect at a Hamden home on June 30 after deputies executed an unrelated warrant, and several children required hospitalization including two airlifts to trauma centers.
- Four relatives — Elizabeth Siders, her husband Gary Siders Jr., his parents Gary Siders Sr. and Christina Siders — face 16 counts each of second-degree child endangerment and remain at the complaint stage pending a grand-jury presentation.
- Defense lawyers for Elizabeth Siders filed a motion on Aug. 4 asking the court to order a formal competency evaluation and, if she is found competent, a legal insanity evaluation to determine her fitness to stand trial.
- A judge has already ordered competency exams for Gary Siders Jr., Christina Siders and Gary Siders Sr., and Siders Sr. was released from custody on Aug. 3 under a $300,000 recognizance bond with GPS monitoring and no-contact conditions after a July medical emergency.
- All 16 children remain in state care receiving medical and therapeutic services, the state has approved roughly $1 million for their care, and prosecutors and investigators are reconstructing fragmented school and medical records as courts await psychiatric reports before the case can advance.