Horror House: New Details On 16 Kids Found In Filthy 12X12 Room, Several Close To Death

00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey, the folks, it is Thursday, July second, and how is it possible that sixteen kids were kept in one room for several years? Nobody knew they were there, nobody was looking for them. So now that they have been rescued, the realities of this horror house are now coming to light. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. Ropes. Some horrors are coming to light. But we can't get everything or a lot of information now because the kids themselves cannot communicate it. This is a crazy story.

00:00:34
Speaker 2: It's shocking. It's beyond shocking to think that sixteen children no one knew they existed, no one knew they were living in a twelve by twelve room for the past four years. And it's so bad that, yes, the children cannot effectively communicate right now with the authorities to even talk about what happened to them, all the details that we need to know. They don't have the verbal skills for. Let that sink in for just a bit.

00:01:07
Speaker 1: So what's been happening with these kids for years? This is a horrific story. The ages are between one, well they say eighteen months, right and eighteen years? Are the ages on these kids. But this is a story we brought to you would just come into light this week. Robes. We'll take it in the order you would like to go in here, robes. But there are questions about these kids. Now. One thing that the authority said this is a one family situation because there was a question about possible trafficking. But you're talking about sixteen kids, robes, four adults with them. They're all in the same family, robes. Who these kids belong to.

00:01:49
Speaker 2: They aren't saying they belong to. Some of the four adults. We don't know or no, not necessarily because the children themselves. We don't know if they were actually abused. Because the oldest is eighteen. She is a she, and they said she can't even spell her own name. So yes, they have some verbal skills, but they are just beginning to barely scratch the surface about what has been occurring to these children, what has been happening inside that home. So there is no definitive answer as to where these children came from, who they came from. It doesn't appear like they were born in a hospital. If they were born in a hospital, there'd be records. These children have no identities, truly, they were not known to the government as far as we can tell, because no one knew to even check up on them, to know about their existence.

00:02:49
Speaker 1: It was amazing to me. This is a small community. I think under a thousand people live in Hamden, Hamden, Ohio, just outside of Columbus, a low ways outside of Columbus, but robes. They're these folks, small community. It's kind of an everybody knows everybody's situation. Authorities say they talk to all the neighbors. Nobody had any idea of the existence of these kids, and they were there for they think up to four years. How could nobody have a clue that there are sixteen kids.

00:03:19
Speaker 2: Well that what that tells me is those children never left the home. Those children never left that room, and that is just beyond abuse. In fact, well, to put it the way they put it, the sheriff, who did not mince his words, put it like this, most of our livestock is kept in better condition than the children. There was a high presence of bacteria and feces, just a disgusting scene. They were treated worse than animals.

00:03:50
Speaker 1: I'm looking just you know, twelve x twelve room, you can you can make that out. You know what size that is. Put sixteen people in there, several of them itty bitty.

00:03:59
Speaker 2: That need constant attention.

00:04:02
Speaker 1: This constant attention just in a room together. What was in the in their own filth? And this came about again. We got worried about this. This week the story starts developing. They were in cored yesterday and we got more details, at least from the four who have been charged. The four are Grandma, Grandpa, mon dad is what we understand, yes.

00:04:21
Speaker 2: And so it's Gary Sider senior. He's seventy three. We have his age now, Christina Siders is sixty seven. So that's one couple. That's grandma and grandpa. Then what we can only presume is mom and dad. Gary Siders the second or junior, is thirty six years old, and mom is Elizabeth Siders, who's thirty three year olds. We were thirty three years old. We were trying to do the math. That would mean Elizabeth Siders would have been fifteen at the time.

00:04:50
Speaker 1: If that eighteen year old eighteen.

00:04:52
Speaker 2: Year old is hers, but I imagine it would have to be because Christina Siders would have been too most likely to have been able to conceive and have a child. Of her own.

00:05:02
Speaker 1: That's we look into the possibility here. Well there's two How likely is it that this one woman gave birth to these sixteen kids.

00:05:10
Speaker 2: Then the other possibility is that some of these female children gave birth to other children, And that's possible as well.

00:05:18
Speaker 1: Man, if this is this is somebody should get life in prison for what has happened to these children. Robes and the eighteen year old she's developmentally disabled?

00:05:30
Speaker 2: Did they not yet? She's developmentally disabled. I believe the reason why they made that point clear is because she is included in the charges of child endangerment. Obviously she's eighteen. So the question was asked, how can you charge these for adults with child endangerment for an eighteen year old? And the response was because she is developmentally disabled. She is a child as far as her mind has been developed. I mean, if she can't spell her own name, if she has limited verbal skills, she is being treated as appropriately. So a minor.

00:06:05
Speaker 1: The police rope say they this was a case. Nobody called and gave them a tip about this. Sound like they just happened upon it. They were doing something else, investigating something else, and they just and this came up. They didn't. It was all those details, But it looks like the police weren't looking for these kids either.

00:06:21
Speaker 2: No, they described it as a parallel investigation and were literally shocked beyond belief that there were children in this house, let alone sixteen children. I thought this was probably one of the most glaring statements made by officials that we got yesterday. And believe me, there are plenty to reveal, but this one shook me. I think if they, meaning the police, would have waited another twenty four hours, there was a very high probability that we'd be dealing with a death or multiple deaths of these children. We'd mentioned yesterday, and certainly we've been reporting that seven of the sixteen children had to seek immediate medical attention, had to be hospitalized, two of them had to be airlifted, and we know that one of them remains in critical condition and had to be intubated. That is horrific. They authority said some of these children were within hours of their death. That is the condition, the medical condition some of these children were in, and they also described I mentioned the livestock thing. They also described, and this has made some headlines that the children looked like feral animals. Obviously they were dirty, the smell, the lack of verbal skills, the lack of an ability to communicate period, and just to think that no one outside this family knew about these children.

00:07:54
Speaker 1: And the kids don't seem to be aware of anything outside of that room. They describe kids who don't have an understanding of side. They don't have an understanding and don't have any social skills, have not been educated, frankly, might not know how to communicate literally, might not know English, might not know how to speak you. Just given where we are in the world, all these kids should be on TikTok right. All these kids should be playing with their phone.

00:08:20
Speaker 2: That's just They should be planning which college they're going to.

00:08:24
Speaker 1: It's just a shame these kids. It's their childhood's been stolen in such a way and it's almost they're starting all over. And the horror of it, they're sixteen. They've been in one room together. Where are they going to end up? This is a small community. How are you going to put all these There's not enough foster home to go around.

00:08:41
Speaker 2: It's gutting to think that, Oh my gosh, this is so heartbreaking to think they know nothing else. They don't even know they were being abused. They have no comparative experience to be able to say this isn't right, what's happened to me, shouldn't have happened. They don't have that ability, and the only thing they know is each other. And to think that they're all separated now, it's almost like they've been birthed into a new world and nothing is familiar. They don't understand or recognize anything or anyone, and to be pulled apart from one another just seems so incredibly traumatizing on top of unthinkable trauma, It's just an awful situation that I frankly, look, we've seen we've seen stories, I hate to say, similar to this, but this might be the worst one yet. And we don't even know all the details of what actually was going on inside that home. And the big question is why this is?

00:09:43
Speaker 1: Whose kids? Are these whose kids? Because there's one child bearing adult, right, actual adult that we know of, not talking about the eighteen year old. They made clear that is not considering there's one person in the group who is an adult who can bear children, and there are sixteen kids than the one woman in the group is thirty.

00:10:06
Speaker 2: Only thirty three. That is so frightening. And so when we come back, we are going to talk about where this investigation is right now, where things stand, and what investigators have found inside that home. Welcome back everyone to this episode of Amy and TJ where we are talking about the details that are emerging out of that Ohio home. It's hard to even call it a home. It was a hovel, and it is so disturbingly disgusting that investigators have had to literally wear masks and ppe to even try and go through their saying there are areas of the home that they can't even get into because of the stacks of garbage inside that home, and they say the conditions were so deplorable. Yes, they're having a difficult time just getting through all of the stuff that's in their including feces, including filth, all of that. But this is just one of those moments where they can't communicate with the children. So they're actually asking the public. And this may just be a fool's errand because by all accounts that people who lived near them, the people who lived in that community, didn't know kids were inside there. But they're trying to find anyone who could possibly have information that could help them figure this out. I know a family member I believe it was like the wife of a brother of one of the grandparents has said that they knew of the family, but they have been out of touch with them for almost a decade, and they had no idea there were children, no idea that they're children involved in this part of their family. So even a family member had no idea that this was going on. And that's just the one they've found. But the idea of trying to investigate what crimes actually were committed, I don't know how they go about this if the children don't have verbal skills.

00:12:20
Speaker 1: Well, I was a nugget I guess Robes was that they didn't think any of the kids were born in the house or in the room, But then where were they born? Were they born? And then there's no record of them in a hospital. But I remember he made that point. How do they know that if.

00:12:37
Speaker 2: They've been in that home for four years? Is what they've said, And they also described they said the family has moved around southern Ohio for the past two decades. They did describe them as nomadic, not from that particular area, but certainly staying somewhere for four years is a fairly decent amount of time. And if you have an eighteen month old. We don't know the full ages of all the kids, but if you have an eighteen month old, you obviously have kids born within the past four years. So and how they how did they determine that none of the children were born in that home? Like how would they even.

00:13:11
Speaker 1: Know that he volunteered that without anybody asking? But he did throw that in there and that. But yeah, it's just we don't know a lot right now. We're desperate for some answers, but we don't. And my first who are these kids? Who do they belonged to? And did you see these as you see the munk shots of the yes, I did say, yea. These folks do not look to be in good health. Now, if you told me that there was drug abuse, I would believe you, especially the young woman thirty three years old. She's got a lot of puffiness and redness. And I'm not sure what's going on, but that they were clear that they're in they're rough.

00:13:51
Speaker 2: Everybody looked extremely unwell, and that's putting it mildly. And to add to that, the fact that police found these children because they had a separate but parallel investigation, So that might mean that there were other crimes that were going on. I mean, it certainly does mean that other crimes are they suspected other crimes are going on among this group and in that home, and that is why they got a search warrant in the first place. So it is a likely it isn't unlikely to think that maybe it was a drug investigation, something else was going on, that they were trying to figure out what was going on inside that home. By the way, each of those folks, the adults, were charged with sixteen counts of endangering children, which is a second deary felony. They all pleaded not guilty. The bond was set at three hundred thousand dollars for each of them, and each charge carries a minimum sentence of two to eight maximum of twelve for each count. So you mentioned someone should go to prison for the rest of their lives for this if they are found guilty of these charges. That is exactly I'm terrible at mass sixteen times twelve. If someone through the maximum sentence at them, you're looking at, yes, a life sentence, So that is at least good to know that they have been arrested, they have been charged, and they are nowhere near those kids anymore.

00:15:11
Speaker 1: Well that's step one, right, And they use that word these kids were rescued, robes rescued. I just just what's happened to these kids? And then they made the point, didn't they as well as the prosecutor did that. You have to remember there was a presumption of innocence, and these people right now are innocent until otherwise proven. But this is just a horror story. This is a horror story. What's happened to these kids?

00:15:35
Speaker 2: And they said that more charges are pending or possible, And I'm curious hearing the Attorney general say that these children were within hours of their death, or at least some of them were. Wouldn't you think attempted murder charges would be possible on the table? I mean, to make those kinds of statements, that strong language, and to have the four people who were in charge of those kids, I wouldn't be surprised if something as serious as attempted murder came along as well. With the way they're describing things.

00:16:03
Speaker 1: And what they're describing right now is a kid, one kid who's fighting.

00:16:06
Speaker 2: For his life critically and intubated.

00:16:10
Speaker 1: That's so hopefully that kid certainly pulls through. But Robes the idea of if a child dies or had died, Yeah, you're looking at absolute on serious possible manslaughter, murder chargers there est.

00:16:27
Speaker 2: And the other thing that I am thinking about. You mentioned their childhoods were stolen, their lives were stolen. Because you do you ever get over this? Can you ever undo completely eighteen years of mental and physical abuse where you can't even spell your own name. Maybe the eighteen month old has the best shot at having a chance at a somewhat normal life.

00:16:51
Speaker 1: Life just got better, no matter did just get better, And that's it's got to start somewhere. This is a whole new It was almost like a death just had to happen in a rebirth. We don't know what it's going to look like, Robes, but it's so and we have in our careers we've seen people go through all kinds of trauma and come out on the other end. Sometimes it's five ten years, who knows how long, So we know it's possible. But this is a long journey for these kids just finding a home, So you know how much of a task that is, and someone's going to have to take on to have these kids into your home and commit to building them up, even finding good people to do that. Robes not necessarily going to be easy.

00:17:31
Speaker 2: No, And that's what that is what authorities are trying to do right now. But I just was trying to get my head around this. These are kids who don't know what a television is. They don't know because if they did, they'd have communication skills. I mean, that's what you have to infer that. Obviously they weren't exposed to language, they weren't exposed to anything that would allow them to communicate. So no phones, no TVs, no exposure to the outside world there is. They're going to have to be slowly inter do is to society, which is just an unthinkable thing in this day and age, in this country that something like this could happen.

00:18:10
Speaker 1: Like he said, he kept comparing in the Third World. He said, this is not something we see in America. But he made comparisons a plenty during his press conference, comparing this to a third world occurrence, if you will.

00:18:22
Speaker 2: Yes, made lots of comparisons indeed, But we will continue to follow because there will be certainly more information that comes out of this, and certainly we'll be keeping an eye on what happens to the Ciders, the adult Cider family who is now behind bars and without everyone. We always appreciate you listening to us. I'm Aye robach on behalf of my dear TJ. Holmes. We'll talk to