Lawyer reveals chilling first impression of Ohio 'house of horrors' mom after arrest
Sixteen children aged between one and 18 were found confined to a single 12-foot room in rural Hamden, Ohio, last week, in what is being called the house of horrors.
Officers described the conditions as comparable to the 'third world', and Ohio's Attorney General Andy Wilson called the situation 'pure evil', saying the children looked like 'almost feral animals.'
The discovery in rural Hamden last week has shocked the US, after authorities responding to an unrelated incident stumbled across the children, aged between one and 18, confined together in squalid conditions officers likened to the 'third world'.
Seven were rushed to hospitals in Columbus, with two flown to level one trauma centres by helicopter.
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Four family members, believed to be the children's parents and grandparents, Gary Siders Jr, 36, Elizabeth Siders, 33, Gary Siders Sr, 73, and Christina Siders, 77, have since been arrested and charged with 16 counts of second-degree felony child endangerment. All four have pleaded not guilty.
What Elizabeth Siders' lawyer said about meeting her
Now, the attorney representing Elizabeth Siders has broken his silence on what she was actually like in the immediate aftermath of her arrest, and it's a description that doesn't match the 'pure evil' headlines that have dominated the story so far.
Thomas Stolly spent an hour and a half with Siders straight after she was taken into custody, and told Criminally Obsessed she was 'timid', 'exhausted' and 'fragile' throughout their meeting.
"I had no idea what I was walking into. I saw the same headlines everyone else did. At one point, the term 'pure evil' was used to describe Elizabeth and the home, and at another point, there was a comment that livestock had been treated better," he explained.
"I met a woman who was timid and who was exhausted. It looked like she had been crying quite a bit. She looked distraught. And she was willing to talk to me. Able to talk to me."
Why the lawyer chose not to tell his client about the case's coverage
Stolly revealed he deliberately avoided bringing up the wall-to-wall coverage of the case during their conversation, after realising Siders had no idea how the story was being reported.
"We sat down for about an hour and a half to go through the basics of this case. I asked her if she had seen any of the coverage that has been online for the better part of a day now. She hasn't. She does not know how the home, the conditions, the investigation is being described."
He said he made the call not to share those details with her given how "fragile" she appeared to be in that moment.
Stolly went further, insisting the woman he sat across from didn't fit the narrative that's built up around the case. "[She's] not someone who comes across as 'pure evil,' because evil requires malice," he said, before adding: "The person that I saw there, Elizabeth, she doesn't have that in her eyes."
The case is still under investigation, with all four family members due back in court.
UNILAD has contacted Thomas Stolly and the Vinton County Prosecutor's Office for comment.
Thomas Bamford