Latest Update: A stunned witness breaks silence with haunting new details about the Ohio horror house
NEW details have been shared following the discovery of 16 feral children living in shocking conditions.
A local store employee revealed how she saw the parents of the children just a day before they were arrested.
Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson announced on Wednesday that 16 children were rescued from the “horrific” home in Hamden, roughly 79 miles outside of Columbia.
The Vinton County Sheriff’s Office arrested four relatives, Gary Siders, 73; Christina Siders, 66; Gary Siders II, 36; and Elizabeth Siders, 33, following the discovery.
Ariel Gutierrez, who worked at a Dollar General store in Hamden, said she had just seen Gary and Elizabeth Siders a day before they were arrested.
“It was mind-blowing once I saw the mugshot. I just saw them on Monday. They were my last customers,” she said, according to Ohio ABC affiliate WSYX.
“It’s sad. It’s a crazy, sad situation.”
According to Gutierrez, Siders II would often bring one of his children into the Dollar General, but “she was not allowed to speak” to anybody else.
Gutierrez also recalled the children looking very thin whenever they came into the Dollar General store.
They would all also always have a very “potent” smell, Gutierrez said.
The younger Siders are believed to be the parents of the children.
The oldest child found in the house is 18, while the youngest is just one-and-a-half years old.
All four of the Siders arrested were charged with 16 counts of endangering children.
“This case continues to reveal the unimaginable conditions these children were forced to endure,” Wilson said, calling the situation “pure evil.”
“Our focus remains on protecting these children, supporting their recovery and ensuring everyone responsible is held fully accountable under Ohio law.”
Cops believe that the Sider family has lived throughout parts of Ohio since 2008, and they have sought to avoid any government or medical records.
“The conditions these children lived in were horrific, and we are sickened by it,” said Vinton County Sheriff Ryan Cain.
