Elizabeth Siders, the 34-year-old Ohio woman at the centre of a "house of horrors" case in which 16 children lived in squalid conditions, is pregnant again. Her attorney, Thomas Stolly, confirmed the pregnancy during a court hearing on Monday, though he did not provide a due date or further details.
Siders was arrested in June and charged with 19 counts of child endangerment, two counts of sexual battery and two counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor. She has pleaded not guilty to all charges. The pregnancy is expected to be her 17th child.
Court hearing and competency ruling
Siders appeared in Vinton County court in Ohio on Monday for a hearing to evaluate whether she was capable of standing trial. The judge ruled she was competent to stand trial, after reports that she was suffering from depression and anxiety.
A motion filed by Stolly sought an evaluation of Siders "to determine if she is not guilty by reason of insanity, because she was suffering from a condition which would produce legal insanity at the time of the alleged offenses."
Background of the case
Earlier this year, it emerged that Siders once gave birth to conjoined twin girls who later died. She delivered daughters Bailey Lee and Faith Lee Siders at Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, on November 20, 2022, according to state vital statistics records obtained by local outlet WOWK 13. The babies were born at 24 weeks' gestation with a condition known as thoracopagus, where their faces and chests were fused together in the womb. Records state they died later that same day of natural causes.
Siders, her husband Gary Siders Jnr and his parents Gary Snr and Christina Siders were all arrested at their house in Vinton County after authorities discovered 16 children aged one to 18 living in "pure evil" conditions crammed inside a 12x12ft faeces-filled room.
Charges and investigation
The four are all facing 16 second-degree felony charges each of child endangering. It remains unclear if both Elizabeth and Siders Jr. are the parents to all the kids, as Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson described it as an "intra-family case."
The couple's oldest child, the 18-year-old girl, was reportedly born two months after they tied the knot. Court records show the other children's ages as 16, 15, 14, 13, 11, 10, 8, 6, and 5, along with 4-year-old twins, 2-year-old twins and 1-year-old twins.
Investigators say the children were found while the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the Vinton County Sheriff's Office were conducting an unrelated investigation at the property in Hamden, a village of fewer than 1,000 residents around 60 miles southeast of Columbus.
Children's condition and reactions
Authorities transported the children to hospital, where several have since been examined and released. One youngster was admitted to intensive care at one point, while two others required airlifting to Level One trauma centres due to the seriousness of their injuries.
Vinton County Sheriff Ryan Cain branded the residence as "disgusting", stating it was smeared with human faeces and claiming the children had been restricted to just one 12-by-12-foot room for almost four years. "Most of our livestock was kept in better conditions than the children," Cain said during a press conference not long after the grim discovery.
Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson revealed the conditions within the property had left an indelible mark on him. He informed reporters he couldn't shake the stench of the home "away from me". Authorities also disclosed the profound developmental consequences the youngsters' confinement seemed to have caused. Some were completely unable to communicate, while others possessed only "limited" speech abilities.
