An Ohio grandfather accused of keeping 16 of his grandchildren trapped in a filth-ridden ‘house of horrors’ has been declared mentally unfit to face trial over the horrific neglect.
A judge in Vinton County accepted the findings of an official evaluation for 73-year-old Gary Siders Sr. on Wednesday. Prosecutor William Archer raised no objections to the report. Siders appeared in court in a wheelchair, while his attorney, Dorian Baum, revealed his client’s declining mental state has been worsening for years and is ‘not restorable.’
‘It’s not really a surprise to any of us that he’s not been found competent at this point,’ Baum said following the hearing. ‘He doesn’t fully understand or appreciate what’s going on.’
open image in galleryThe elderly man faced 16 counts of child endangerment over the treatment of the children, who were rescued on June 30 from a squalid property in Hamden, located about 80 miles south of Columbus.
When law enforcement officers breached the home, they uncovered what Vinton County Sheriff Ryan Cain described as a ‘disgusting scene.’ The 16 children—ranging in age from just 18 months to 18 years old—were routinely confined inside a tiny, 12-by-12-foot space littered with an ‘extremely high presence’ of human feces.
When asked by reporters whether the isolated youths were literate, Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson painted a tragic picture, stating the children looked ‘almost like feral animals’ and that several ‘couldn’t even speak.’
open image in gallerySurrounding neighbors reported that they had never once seen the kids outdoors over two decades. None of the victims were enrolled in school.
The shocking discovery came despite child protective services investigating the family years earlier. Records show that Gallia County Children’s Services opened an inquiry in March 2020 after educators at the online Ohio Virtual Academy raised alarms over severe educational neglect.
Teachers reported that an 11-year-old Siders child could not write the alphabet, could not pronounce any letter sounds, and could only count to 12. A 13-year-old sibling had completely dropped out after failing to submit work for an entire month. The parents continuously ignored requests to schedule required medical examinations and speech therapy sessions for the children.
open image in galleryBy December 2020, a local physician alerted county officials that the parents were skipping vital follow-up medical visits, warning that the kids were at risk of severe developmental delays linked to potential lead poisoning.
During a home visit, a caseworker found roaches, gnats, and flies swarming the residence, along with two children with visible insect bites and bruising. Despite the appalling conditions, Gallia County Children’s Services permitted the parents to retain physical custody, placing the family under protective supervision in January 2021 before closing the file five months later after claiming the parents had satisfied a court-approved case plan.
The children’s father, Gary Siders Jr., 36, mother Elizabeth Siders, 33, and grandmother Christina Siders, 68, have all pleaded not guilty to 19 counts of child endangerment each.
open image in galleryDefending the patriarch before his competency ruling, attorney Dorian Baum claimed the house was fully functional with working utilities and food, telling local reporters that critics should ‘step back’ from what he argued was a state agency ‘criminalizing poverty.’
However, the horror runs even deeper. The initial search warrant that led deputies to discover the captive children was actually executed as part of a separate sex crimes investigation. In that case, both Gary Siders Jr. and Elizabeth Siders face counts of sexual battery and unlawful sexual conduct with a minor involving a child outside their immediate family.
All 16 rescued children were hospitalized for evaluation before being transferred into state protective custody.