As Elizabeth Siders faces felony charges in one of Ohio’s most disturbing child neglect cases, her attorney says the first question she asked after her arrest was “telling” of her true character.
On June 30, police searched a rural home in Vinton County, Ohio, where they discovered 16 children, ranging in age from 18 months to 18 years, allegedly living in conditions investigators described as “deplorable.”
Authorities believe more than half of the children had spent the previous four years confined to a single 12-foot-by-12-foot room.
The alleged neglect extended well beyond the cramped living space. The home was reportedly covered in dirt and feces, and Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson said the the years of neglect had taken a visible toll on the 16 children, all belonging to Elizabeth Siders, who married their father, Gary Siders Jr., when she was 15, according to the Associated Press (AP).
“They looked like almost feral animals. It was terrible,” the attorney general said, according to CBS News. Sheriff Cain offered another grim assessment, saying, “Most of their livestock was kept in better condition than their children.”
‘Sickened by it’
Several of the children required immediate medical treatment. Two were airlifted to specialized trauma centers after suffering what Wilson described as “serious physical harm,” while another seven were transported to hospitals in Columbus, including one child who was admitted to the ICU and intubated.
Investigators have also said several of the children struggled to communicate, while the oldest, an 18-year-old woman, is developmentally disabled and unable to write her own name.
“The conditions these children lived in were horrific, and we are sickened by it. Fortunately, this tragic chapter has closed, but their recovery will take time,” Vinton County Sheriff Ryan Cain said in a statement shared on Facebook.
Elizabeth, 33, her husband Gary, 36, his father Gary Siders Sr., 73, and his mother Christina Siders, 77, have each been charged with 16 counts of second-degree felony child endangerment. All four defendants have pleaded not guilty and remain jailed on $300,000 bond.
“Conditions you cannot even imagine people being in, let alone children being in,” the attorney general said at a news conference, describing what he saw as “pure evil.”
‘Are my children OK?
As public outrage over the allegations continues to grow, Elizabeth’s attorney Thomas Stolly told AP that she appeared “crying and exhausted” when he met her inside the jail.
“In fact, my client’s first question to me when I walked into the jail and introduced myself was about her kids. She asked if her children were OK, she asked if I knew where they were, and she asked when she’d be able to see them again,” Stolly told the outlet, explaining that Elizabeth didn’t first ask about the criminal case against her.
“I thought it was telling that her first concern was not, ‘When can I get out of jail,’ but was ‘Are my children OK?’”
‘Evil requires malice’
Stolly said his conversations with Elizabeth have also given him a glimpse into the family’s daily life before the children’s removal.
According to Stolly, the woman described herself as a stay-at-home mother and said all 16 of her children were born in area hospitals. The attorney added that she left school after the 11th grade, while Gary Siders Jr. was working as a food delivery driver and searching for additional employment.
As the case moves forward, Stolly explained that prosecutors have not yet turned over their evidence to the defense. Until he can review it, he said, he disagrees with Wilson’s characterization of the family as “pure evil.”
“Evil requires malice, and I did not see any malice in Elizabeth,” Stolly told AP.
In his view, the allegations point to something different.
“I think that this is more so a case of isolation than a case of evil, and I think that there’s an important distinction there. Because if that’s all you know – and you have to think someone at 15 years old doesn’t know a whole lot about being an adult, about being a mother, about being a wife – and that’s been your worldview for the past 17 or 18 years, you get shaped by that.”
Stolly said his client never presented herself as someone who had been victimized and that it’s “too early to actually determine what was going on there.”
“While the headlines may be sensational, there’s a real human component to this and so I would ask people to give this process time to play out,” Stolly said.
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