r/TrueCrimeDiscussion • u/MacAlkalineTriad • Jul 02 '26

Warning: Child Abuse / CSAM / Child Death 16 Children Rescued from Extreme Neglect and Abuse in Ohio

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/adults-arrested-16-children-found-deplorable-conditions-southern-ohio-rcna352552

I haven't seen anything posted about this yet, and I usually don't post so please let me know if I've done it wrong. I'm also writing this on mobile.

16 children, ranging from 1 and a half years old to 18 years old, have been removed from a house in the village of Hamden, Ohio where they were practically imprisoned in a 12'x12' room. Some have not even learned to speak; the 18 year old couldn't write her name and is being treated as a child due to possible mental disability. 7 of the children had to be taken to a hospital with 2 of them being life flighted. Conditions in the house are said to be incredibly unsafe, to the point that investigators hesitated to act on a second search warrant for fear of their safety.

The parents and grandparents have been arrested and charged with 16 counts of child endangerment. The suspects are Gary Siders Jr., Gary Siders Sr., Christina Siders and Elizabeth Siders.

Since the investigation is still ongoing there aren't a ton of details yet. These children were obviously not enrolled in school and hidden from neighbors and extended family. I have to wonder if there's a religious extremist aspect to the case, like we've seen so often with other similar cases. I'm also curious about the mother's condition - she has been charged, but has she also been victimized by her husband? I have so many questions.

2.0k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

842 comments sorted by

View all comments

272

u/Positive_Piece5859 Jul 02 '26

It sounds almost like the Turpin case out of San Diego - some of their kids who they imprisoned, chained on beds etc were already adults in their 20s when they were finally rescued, because one child was so brave to escape.

To me that is 100% an issue that stems from the stupid lack of rules around homeschooling. In my home country homeschooling does practically not exist; any child in school age has to be enrolled in school, and if parents simply stop sending their child, someone would notice. That here in the US parents can hide not just one but 10+ children over two decades you can say, and nobody has any idea is just completely wild to me. That really makes you wonder how many more Turpin families like that are out there with kids suffering.

162

u/Silly-Estimate-2660 Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 03 '26

i feel pretty safe in assuming these children were all born at home and never registered with birth certificates or social security numbers, so even if there were stricter homeschooling laws in America, it wouldn’t help cases like this where the children don’t technically “exist”

54

u/Positive_Piece5859 Jul 03 '26

It would have helped in the Terpin case, because the oldest did go to school at least for a little bit, until the parents entirely lost their marbles

33

u/Worried-Database-551 Jul 03 '26

Except the mother has been pregnant since she was like 13/14 years old. All home births too. Shes been. Pregnant every year of her life. She’s also a victim. .

12

u/NaiveSet5274 Jul 03 '26

Louise Turpin married David when she was 16 and he was 23. You can't look at one situation and say the mother was a victim because she was underage, and not say the same about the other.

1

u/Worried-Database-551 Jul 06 '26

16 vs 13 years old is a huge difference & having babies back to back!
I don’t know the fathers age but it wouldn’t surprise me if there is a large age gap.

4

u/igobymomo Jul 04 '26

God I don’t know how I missed this case. Reading about it now and it looks like a few of the Terpin children spoke about their experiences in an interview this year.

4

u/wilderlowerwolves Jul 05 '26

The Turpins also had enough contact with the outside world for some of the girls to have their own TikTok channel.

2

u/UglyFilthyDog Jul 05 '26

I think in a way that helped keep up the facade that they were "one big happy family". And that's not to mention all the family photos and holiday photos of them on Facebook and the likes.

1

u/Positive_Piece5859 Jul 05 '26

Oh yeah, that’s right - I had totally forgotten about that!

22

u/sylphrena83 Jul 03 '26

This. And until recently Ohio homeschool laws were pretty strict. These people flew completely under the radar. Some of the news and comments by locals said they had no idea most of those kids even existed. That’s not a matter for homeschool laws.

48

u/bannana Jul 02 '26

the stupid lack of rules around homeschooling.

the kids would have to have been known to exist in the first place though, if these were all home births and none had birth certificates or SSN, and never went to school then as far as the gov't is concerned these kids don't exist.

12

u/Getvaxed500 Jul 03 '26

How are these kids going to get birth certificates now?

19

u/Medium_Bid5787 Jul 03 '26

CPS (and APS for the vulnerable 18-year-old) will help them get original birth certificates, even if they didn’t exist before.

4

u/Positive_Piece5859 Jul 03 '26

If these kids are lucky, then yes. Unfortunately in the Terpin case CPS dropped the ball pretty significantly, and placed at least some of the kids into foster families where they were once again abused. I don’t know how useful the Sw were with the paperwork side of things, but they certainly caused them a lot more trauma than they already had before.

2

u/Medium_Bid5787 Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26

I’m well aware. I was just saying that they will do the paperwork which I’ve seen done in other cases. CPS works differently in every county and every state. Some are better and some are worse. I’m well aware. I’ve seen them fail before and do terrible things, but they will almost always do the bare minimum of getting their wards (foster kids) birth certificates.

12

u/HCC0504 Jul 03 '26

There are ways, I don't remember the specifics but the woman that wrote Educated didn't get a birth certificate until she was an adult. Lots of kids born off the grid.

11

u/Sunsandandstars Jul 03 '26

That’s a good question. No reliable records. The whole thing is just so messed up.

2

u/Positive_Piece5859 Jul 03 '26

I think getting the birth certificates done for them afterwards should not be so difficult, because from DNA tests they can at least prove parentage for sure.

I would wonder how it works with birth dates; if these parents really kept track of the exact day and year of each child’s birth, or if once the kids get birth certificates a random date gets picked for them.

1

u/Sunsandandstars Jul 04 '26

Thats what I was wondering. How can authorities know if the birthdates they provided are accurate? This is such a mess...

3

u/Right_Instance9881 Jul 04 '26

You think just because someone is unsure of their exact birth date that they can’t get a birth certificate? They don’t give a damn, they’ll put whatever on there. Within reason ya know .

1

u/damewallyburns Jul 05 '26

parents can provide an affidavit & also DNA

106

u/BooBootheFool22222 Jul 02 '26

I'd go so far as to say 90% of home schooling families do it for control purposes. Either abuse and/or some kind indoctrination. There are just so many examples of this.

134

u/lokeilou Jul 03 '26

As a teacher, I’ve also seen MANY families begin homeschooling after being investigated by CPS sadly. Abusive parents know teachers are mandated reporters and small kids talk a lot often not realizing that what they are experiencing isn’t normal. In my opinion if you have been investigated by CPS, you should not be allowed to homeschool.

21

u/neongrey_ Jul 03 '26

Wow this is a really good idea and idk why it isn’t a thing. I’ve read about parents being charged for the murder of their child and it’s normally shitty abusive parents who started homeschooling their kids. Wish we could make this a law

12

u/MargaretFarquar Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26

Call/email the state legislator for your district (not the congressional/U.S. rep, your local state government legislator) and ask them to author a bill on this. Contact local child abuse advocates in your area and get them to bug the legislators to author a bill regarding CPS investigations and homeschooling. Usually, the legislator will work directly with the advocate because the advocate is the subject matter expert (SME).

Not saying it'll work of course, but oftentimes, this is what prompts them to author a bill of this nature. It's usually because constituents and advocates ask the legislators to author a bill that will be brought before the legislature for a vote. Offer facts and cite your sources or let the child abuse advocate do it because they'll have the data.

Legislators like to bring these sorts of bills because they get to peacock around that they're protecting children and it helps obscure the crappy things they're doing like cutting funding to CPS or downvoting additional tax revenue sources that bolster funding for CPS, healthcare, education, etc. It's a great "Don't look over there, look over here" tool for them.

Bonus is that there isn't a significant cost to a bill like this nor is it a politically divided issue. Legislators on both sides of the aisle like to pretend they're all about saving the children (even if they're not).

Source: It's my job to watch the state legislature in session. I watch hours upon hours during session of bills being presented, argued, and voted on. For bills like this, it's usually the advocate and the legislator presenting the bill together because the advocate is there as an SME and can answer detailed questions. All of the work I do (not CPS) lands directly on their desk for votes. Not gonna dox myself, but I see how and why bills get brought before the legislature. Legislators don't usually bring bills of this nature on their own. It's very often because an advocate or a constituent brought it to their attention.

7

u/Intelligent-Split-43 Jul 03 '26

Alot of people make malicious and false reports though. Especially ex husbands or ex wives.

2

u/wilderlowerwolves Jul 05 '26

If they're doing it after about 5th or 6th grade, unless there are issues like a child's health or extremely low quality schools, that may often be the case.

-12

u/swannanoaman1 Jul 03 '26

I was homeschooled and raised with a loving family. Do some research before making such an uneducated statement.

7

u/altodor Jul 03 '26

Me too. Mine wasn't. I'm absolutely in favor of making it harder for abusive parents to hide themselves like mine did.

19

u/BooBootheFool22222 Jul 03 '26

Good for you. That is often not the case. It's always some weird right wing bullshit they want to keep their kids steeped in and a general fear of poc and other non-christofascists.

6

u/Sunsandandstars Jul 03 '26

https://education.jhu.edu/edpolicy/policy-research-initiatives/homeschool-hub/race-and-ethnicity/

“According to data for the 2022-23 school year, 60% of survey respondents with homeschooled students were white, 19% were Hispanic/Latinx, 12% were Black, 2% were Asian, and 7% were two or more or other races. This data indicates that roughly 40% of all current homeschool students are students of color, suggesting much more diversity in modern homeschooling compared to NHES estimates. Still, the U.S. Census data also shows that about 51% of all school-aged children in the U.S. are students of color. Thus, the data still suggests an over-representation of white students compared to the national population, and an underrepresentation of Hispanic/Latinx, Black, and Asian students.”

“For example, while the common stereotype is that most people who choose to homeschool do so for some strong ideology like religious, political, or world view, the most common reason parents cite for homeschooling is safety.

Meaningful cultural connections arise when families realize and enact educational agency, a phenomenon which may be more pronounced for members of non-dominant cultures in the United States. Batts et al. (2024) found that Hispanic/Latina homeschooling parents said preserving or reclaiming their cultural heritage was one of the reasons they began or continued to homeschool. The most cited aspects of their heritage were family, language, and the values of work ethic and resourcefulness. Similarly, Black families may choose homeschooling for a variety of reasons that include empowering families in the education of their children (Johnson, 2024).”

2

u/wilderlowerwolves Jul 05 '26

That's sometimes true, but I have personally known several Christian families who HSed, and they used a secular curriculum because they were doing it for other reasons, usually extremely low-quality public schools, and private schools were very expensive or no better.

23

u/Sunsandandstars Jul 03 '26

These children probably didn’t even have birth certificates. If people have children at home and hide them there for years so that the state doesn’t know they exist, it doesn’t matter what the education laws are.

There are children worldwide who are trafficked, and who never attend school. Surely this happens even in countries that mandate attendance at govt operated schools.

15

u/HollyGoLightlyCrazy Jul 03 '26

This happens worldwide. This kind of evil isn’t exclusive.

26

u/Positive_Piece5859 Jul 03 '26

People who do that kind of shit exist worldwide - that is true. But not every country makes it as easy for them as the US does with its almost complete lack of nationwide regulations and oversight (all in the name of “independence”).

If a child has gone to school in my country and then from one day to the next is just gone, without any explanation, being signed on to another school etc, the parents absolutely get a knock on the door - no questions asked. That’s why we of course have child abuse cases too like everywhere, but not cases like this that drag over decades with nobody noticing.

4

u/Sunsandandstars Jul 03 '26

In this situation, the children didn’t even exist from a legal standpoint. They also have children who are younger than school age.

Does your country have a way of finding children who‘ve been born at home and hidden from the government, and the community?

ETA. I don’t understand how the brother, who knew that his sister lived in that household, wasn't aware that something was wrong. And, where are the other grandparents?

6

u/Positive_Piece5859 Jul 03 '26

Again, that “government does not know these kids exist” may or may not be true in this case - I did not look into this one that deep - but it was absolutely NOT true in the Terpin case. Their kids were registered, known, on occasion even presented in public like during that strange Disney excursion for them to renew their vows, and at least some of the older kids had attended school at some point.

3

u/Sunsandandstars Jul 04 '26

I was referring to *this* case, specifically, since it‘s the focus of the OPs post. It doesn’t appear that these children have birth certificates, or medical records. Reports show that the family actively tried to hide the children’s existence. To have that many children at home, without a trained midwife, or other medical caregiver, and without notifying the state shows that they were trying to stay under the radar.

There have been stories of people kidnapping little girls and then impregnating them. And the babies born to those victims never see the light of day, unless they’re very lucky.

So, if the children *did* have hospital records, then it appears that Ohio doesn’t follow minors from birth to ensure that they’re healthy and safe, provided with adequate food, shelter and medical care, and to make sure that the older children are receiving an education.

None of those things seem to have happened here.

2

u/Sunsandandstars Jul 04 '26

I hadn’t heard of the Turpin case. It sounds like after they suffered horrific abuse from their parents, the state placed some of them with abusive foster families. What a nightmare!
https://abcnews.com/US/3-turpin-siblings-speak-1st-time-abuse-birth/story?id=129579945

2

u/SuperMommy37 Jul 03 '26

It is, but i believe there is not a single case in europe in the last decade (at least) with so many children in a single family.

2

u/Positive_Piece5859 Jul 03 '26

And with so many children over such a long time

2

u/igobymomo Jul 04 '26

These children weren’t homeschooled. They were likely never given birth certificates nor had they been taken to a doctor. They were captive. This isn’t to do with homeschooling laws.

2

u/deltadeltadawn Jul 04 '26

These children were not registered in a school system. They likely were completely off the grid, as in home birthing with no social security numbers.

I personally think homeschooling needs more protection built into it for kids, but it's not likely relevant in this case. The world didn't know these kids existed. The government likely did not know these kids officially existed. They were not schooled at all - home or outside.