Ex-FBI agent reveals how 16 kids 'left to rot' in squalid home went undetected
A former FBI agent has revealed how 16 children in Ohio, were living in such poor conditions without anyone suspecting for so long.
Authorities rescued the children, revealing they were aged between one and a half and 18 years old.
However, according to a neighbor of the Ohio property, they didn’t notice children were there ‘at all’.
Joseph Stewart, 60, lived three houses up from the property for six years and said that he saw 'no kids at all', even though he could see both the home and yard clearly.
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"It's a sad situation," he said.
However, the children had allegedly been there for four years and kept away from the outside world.
After officers discovered the children, they revealed that some couldn't speak, and the eldest didn’t have the ability to spell her own name.
Per the Vinton County Sheriff Ryan Cain, the conditions were deplorable, explaining: “Most of our livestock was kept in better conditions than the children. Just a disgusting scene.”
But how did they go undetected for so long when the neighbor could see their yard, and there were 16 of them cramped in the home?
It’s because they appeared to have been confined to a 12ft-by-12ft room, which was covered in human waste.
Police also explained that none of the kids had been enrolled in school, and nobody outside of the family were aware of them.
At a news conference, Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson said: “These folks were pretty good at hiding these kids. We didn’t know there were going to be 16 kids there. It’s the type of thing that we’re not used to seeing here in America.
"They looked like almost feral animals. It was terrible.”
On NewsNation’s CUOMO, Jennifer Coffindaffer, a former FBI special agent talked about the specifics involved in concealing so many children.
Apparently, a tactic deployed by the family was to evade detection via location changes.
“You get away with it because you conceal it by moving over and over again,” Coffindaffer said. “You don’t let the children out of the house, and you keep them in that basement.”
Four adults are now facing 16 felony child endangerment charges, as they have been named Gary Siders Jr., Gary Siders Sr., Christina Siders, and Elizabeth Siders, who authorities say are potentially the children’s parents and grandparents.
Coffindaffer suggested there could be more charges, noting: “I think there are going to be other charges. I believe these older children, the females that were able to be of childbearing years, I think they’re going to have to do full DNA.”
The investigation is ongoing.
Britt Jones