Sixteen children were found confined to a room with feces and bugs in an Ohio house last Tuesday. 

Officials discovered the children, boys and girls aged one to 18 living in squalor in Hamden, Ohio, a part of Vinton County. Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson (R) described what officials saw as a “third-world” housing situation. 

“They looked like almost feral animals,” Wilson said. “It was terrible.”

The adults in the home reported are Gary Siders Sr., 73, Christina “Lynn” Siders, 66, Gary “Bub” Siders Jr., 36, and Elizabeth Siders, 33, who are believed to be the grandparents and parents of the children. 

Ohio law enforcement discovered the children on a visit to the home to serve Siders Jr. with an unrelated warrant. They were shocked by what they saw. 

Vinton County Sheriff Ryan Cain observed during a press conference, “Most of our livestock was kept in better conditions than the children.”

According to Cain, the children were kept in a 12-by-12-foot room, surrounded by human waste.

Wilson noted that a situation like this isn’t what Americans are used to seeing. He said that he couldn’t get the stench of the house off of him, nearly 24 hours after the rescue. 

After the discovery, seven of the children were taken to the hospital, with one in critical condition. Officials say that had they found the children a day or two later, they believe one or two of them would have been dead. 

The children were described by law enforcement as being severely underdeveloped, some unable to talk. The eldest child could not write her name, despite being 18 years of age, Wilson said. 

The children were never enrolled in public school and did not participate in routine medical checkups, so hardly any documentation of them exists, reported the Associated Press. 

According to reports, the children are now in the temporary custody of the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services.

The bond for each of the Siders was set at $300,000 last Wednesday after their appearance in court. A judge also entered “not guilty” pleas on their behalf.

Vinton County Prosecutor William Archer insisted at a press conference last Wednesday that this is not a case of human trafficking. 

Elizabeth Siders told her lawyer that all 16 children are hers, reported the Associated Press. 

According to WOWK 13 News, each defendant also faced a 17th child endangerment charge at the time of their arrest, which was dropped at the arraignment. 

Neighbors of the Siders in Hamden told officials that they had no idea there were children in the house. Relatives of the Siders were also shocked, claiming that they were unaware of the living conditions. 

Tessi Siders, the wife of Sider Sr.’s cousin, told The New York Times she had not seen the Siders in eight years or met their children. “I wish I would’ve known. If I would’ve known babies were not being cared for, that wouldn’t fly. That’s horrible,” lamented Tessi Siders. 

Ronnie Fletcher, the reported son-in-law of Gary Siders Sr. and Christina Siders, told WOWK News 13 that he and his wife were also unaware of the horrors occurring in the household. The Fletchers do not see the Siders regularly, Ronnie said, describing them as “distant family.” 

“If we would have know[n] that it was like that in that home, we would have done something about it, even if it was just to go there and take the kids ourselves or give them money. Them girls [Gary Sr. and Christina’s daughters] would have went there and cleaned the house themselves if they’d know[n] it was like that,” Fletcher said.

Fletcher also added that he and his wife were not aware of the exact number of children in the Siders’ home. 

“We might have known whereabouts, like in a county or in a spot, and most of the time we felt like that wasn’t really the truth. So we did not really know what was going on there,” Fletcher told WOWK 13. “The last time we heard from them, we gave them a car, and that’s probably close to a year ago now — other than Lynn calling us and asking for money, or they needed help with the water bill. If we had it, we sent it, and if we didn’t one of the other daughters did.”

Fletcher explained that when he and his wife did have communication with the Siders, it was only with Gary Sr. and Christina, never Gary Jr. or Elizabeth. Fletcher said the first time he ever saw the Hamden house was on the news, and that he was unaware of the address the family had been living at.

Fletcher also claims that when he first met the Sider family 20 years ago, they were a “normal American” family.

According to court records, Elizabeth Siders married Gary Siders Jr. when she was 15 and he was 18 in March 2008. In May 2008, their first child was born. 

“She’s willingly there at the home. She did not have a very good home life when they got together, and she escaped to Lynn and Gary’s house, which, like I’ve said, was back then a normal American home,” said Fletcher.