Elizabeth Siders – the mother of 16 who is being charged with s*xual conduct with a minor and child endangerment – walked into court today with what appeared to be a ‘baby bump’
Siders was in the Vinton County Common Pleas Court in McArthur, Ohio, in an orange jail jumpsuit with her hands on her stomach – and pleaded not guilty to:
🔷️19 counts of child endangerment tied to the Hamden house
🔷️2 counts of sexual battery
🔷️2 counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor
The 34-year-old now also faces s*x-crime charges involving a separate minor who, according to the indictment, is her niece.
She was between the ages of 13 and 16 in 2022.
But what’s exploded in today’s hearing is whether she is pregnant.
When her attorney J. Thomas “Tommy” Stolly was asked if she was pregnant, he said,
“I can’t address that at this time.”
The s*x charges allege conduct in 2022 with a minor (her niece) more than 10 years younger than Siders. She is not one of the 16 in the house.
The 16 children were found because investigators were already on a s*x-abuse trail when deputies went to her house to get a DNA sample from Gary Siders Jr.
According to officials, the kids were crowded into about a 12-by-12-foot room, filled with feces and urine, and some looked “like almost feral animals”
The District Attorney called the conditions “pure evil” and unlike anything he expected to see in Ohio.
Seven children went to hospitals, with DA Wilson saying if deputies had waited 24 hours, “there is a very high probability that we’d be dealing with a de*th, or multiple de*ths.”
There were four adults in the house:
🔷️Gary Siders Jr. – father of the 16 children; Elizabeth’s husband
🔷️Elizabeth Siders – mother of the 16 children
🔷️Gary Siders Sr., 73 – paternal grandfather
🔷️Christina “Lynn” Siders – paternal grandmother
Gary Siders Sr., 73, was ruled incompetent and unrestorable. Christina Siders has a bond hearing Sept. 21. Gary Jr. has already pleaded not guilty in both cases.
Should a mother facing 19 endangerment counts and four s*x-crime counts be allowed to keep another child?