Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Exclusive Look Into Ohio 'House of Horrors' Case

Episode Date: July 13, 2026

Four members of the Siders family face 16 felony counts of child endangering in Vinton County, Ohio. Elizabeth Siders, 33, gave birth to the 16 children. Questions have surfaced about the births of the children and whether red flags were ignored. Birth records for the children reveal where and how they were born. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy visited Vinton County and shows us the neighborhood where the children were found in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest: Fanon Rucker https://www.instagram.com/fanonrucker/CRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The person that I met does not come across as pure evil. The lawyer representing Elizabeth Siders, defending his client after law enforcement said they found her 16 children living in a house that wasn't fit for animals. This is a situation that has been absolutely sensationalized by the meeting. I've uncovered new details about the children at the heart of this case and where the Siders have been over the last 18 years as questions remain about the entire situation. How can a whole family live like that and no one know it? I'm Ann Janette Levy and this is crime fix. Let me just start off by telling you, I visited Benton County over the weekend. I went to that small village of Hamden where nearly two weeks ago,

16 children were found in what's been described as conditions, not even seen in a third world country. I am going to tell you about what I saw and what people told me. and I've been digging into records for the children. So many people have been asking, were these children born in homes or hospitals? That's a big question. I've got the answers to those questions. The 16 children are now in state custody in Ohio with foster families.

The parents of the children are Gary Siders Jr. and Elizabeth Siders. They're in jail, along with their grandmother, Christina Lynn Siders. They are all charged with 16 counts of child and children. their grandfather, Gary Sider, Sr., faces the same charges, but he's been released from jail because of a serious medical condition. The last we knew, he was still in the hospital receiving treatment. All have pleaded not guilty to these charges. Deputies in Vinton County went to that house on June 30th to execute a search warrant related to an investigation that remains a secret. We don't know what prompted that investigation or what crime

law enforcement was investigating, all of the documents related to that search warrant remain sealed. A judge signed the order to seal that information on July 6th. Days after that warrant was executed, the order claims the request to seal the warrant was made on June 30th and that the request was an oral one. But the Columbus dispatch is suing to gain access to the record, saying the proper procedure for sealing that search warrant wasn't followed. We don't know if deputies and state agents actually found the evidence. evidence of a crime they were searching for that day. But we do know they said they found the 16

children in the home living in conditions that were absolutely unfathomable. These are serious crimes and allegations that will be investigated fully. Our mission is to protect our citizens and our children. The scene is horrific and these are horrific allegations. I didn't actually go into the room where I just looked through through the door. I was yesterday. I can still smell. I can't get the smell, I cannot get the smell off of me or away from me right now. We just talked about that a little while ago. And then we were talking as a group about some of the others we looked at today where they actually discovered the kids and found the kids. And it really, it's not that different than those old commercials used to see of kids in Africa, like just where they're covered

in bugs and squatting and had that like distant look in their eyes. It's terrible. I mean, It is absolutely terrible. So we've heard this from the Attorney General and the Sheriff. They have said the conditions in the home were beyond belief, feces in a room where children were kept with flies, bugs, and I spoke to someone over the weekend who was actually near the home. That person told me the smell appeared to be coming from the basement. The attorney representing Elizabeth Snyder's pushed back on the comments made by law

enforcement while noting he had not seen medical records for the children. Here's Tommy Stolly on News Nation's Cuomo. Well, Chris, this is a situation that has been absolutely sensationalized by the media. Just by listening to your lead in on this story, you are capturing the essence of the issue here. We're talking about a headline that reads, a house of horrors, pure evil. That is the description that the Ohio Attorney General used. And I believe that that is probably the reason that we're here today. doing this interview is because the Ohio Attorney General and now picked up by the media is using

this inflammatory and invocative language. So we are at the very early stages of this investigation. I was able to meet with my client, Elizabeth. I've met with her now three times. The person that I met does not come across as pure evil. The person that I met comes across as a mother who has been separated from her children who is exhausted and who misses her children and is asking me constantly what she needs to do to see her children again, what she needs to do to ultimately be reunited with her children. So let's talk about the children. We know that Elizabeth Siders gave birth to 18 children, a set of twins died shortly after they were born in a hospital in 2022. And right here in my hand, I actually have the birth certificates. I have the birth certificates

for the older children. They were all born in hospitals in Gallup Police, which is in Gallia County, one county south of Vinton. Elizabeth's attorney has said that she told him that all of the children were born in hospitals and that she was open to having a large family. Now, these birth certificates state that a certified nurse's midwife delivered these children. So this is not a case where Elizabeth Ciders, was giving birth to children at home without anyone knowing. It's likely that Elizabeth had state-issued medical insurance. It's called Medicaid in Ohio. I've reached out to state officials asking whether Elizabeth and Gary Jr.

were receiving benefits, and so far I have not received a response to that question. But a spokesperson for the Department of Youth and Families told me the agency is just beginning its review involving the family. When I visited Vinton County over the weekend, I went to $2 general stores in the area. An employee at one of the stores echoed previous reports about the family. The employee said the family would come in later in the evening and buy random things and that they smelled badly. And the employee said they paid with a food card. Food card would be a government-funded card, something people who receive SNAP benefits get.

I have found addresses for the family in Vinton County before Gary Jr. and Elizabeth moved into the home on Omer Street. There's another address in Vitton County associated with the family on the main drag. through town. The ciders also had a PO box and that would require them to actually go to the post office to pick up their mail. But all of the prior addresses that I uncovered were in Galea County. So let's get to my visit to the home. There's still crime scene tape up around this house, but I'm going to show you how someone might be able to live in a home with more than a dozen children and no one would know that children were living there. I'm going to give you a look at what it looks like out here. A lot of people have been wondering

how on earth did nobody see any children outside of this home? Well, I talked to one neighbor who said she did actually see kids playing outside a couple of years ago, but sometimes the children would be in the yard playing. And she said it was about two years ago. The kids were kind of skinny. And then when they would drive by, the kids would run toward the house. This neighbor actually thought the people had moved out. that the people who lived there had moved out.

She even told me that she would sometimes see Gary Seider Sr. And she said it had been some time since she had seen him. But sometimes she would see him sitting out on the porch. And she'd drive by and wave. And he would wave back. But she said it's been a really long time since she's seen that. I want to show you right here the amount of brush that separates these houses. So there's a house over here.

and then there's this huge bunch of brush here, like a patch of brush. And then there's even more brush that goes down here. So there's all of this brush that separates one house from the other. And it's basically like a whole lot, maybe even two lots on this street that separate these two houses. There's really only three houses on this street. The house where the ciders were living is one of them. So if I turn like this, you see it.

Now I'm going to give you a 360 degree view because you turn like this and there's a railroad track. So we have a railroad track over here and then a barn of sorts, a mobile home across the way, but really there aren't a lot of people who live here at all. So that's what separates all. What's what separates all of these houses? So that's what I found when I went to the house. Just one neighbor who said she had seen two or three children playing outside a couple of years ago. Another neighbor told me that he'd lived there for more than 20 years and had never seen any children.

And he had a bird's eye view of the house. While I was on the street, a number of people came by because they were simply curious, some coming from counties away because they had to see it for themselves. Why did you come by here today? We were about 45 minutes away at a festival, and we're interested in true crime, and we've been following this. Even though it is a couple hours from our home, it is still part of Appalachia in our culture, and anytime something like this happens, it makes the news and gets a lot of attention, and we just wanted to come and check it out, take a little adventure today.

Are you surprised by what you're seeing as you're out here? I used to work for children's services. I have for four years. I worked in North Carolina and in Ohio for children's protective services. So I can't say I'm really surprised. I saw some of this type of stuff firsthand in my life. So unfortunately. To this extent?

No, not this many children. The amount of children is what is really a shocker to me. Are you surprised just standing here looking at it? Or is this something you've seen before? I've definitely seen stuff like this before. Yeah. This is unfortunately pretty common in this area. Yeah.

Yeah. That's really sad, actually. It is. It is. I spoke with another woman who lived in a community nearby. Tell me about why you drove by here today. I drove by because I was just kind of curious to see actually, because there's so many rumors, you know what you mean, of what's real, what's not, what the cops sold,

if they're sensationalizing it. And I really don't think they are based off. What I've seen, it's horrible. And a lot of people are saying it's a poverty thing living poor. A lot of people live poor in this area. I don't have money like that, but I don't live like that. You know what I mean? Poverty and dirty are two of the things.

I mean, the cockroaches, the filth, you don't have to let your kids live like that. So I just kind of wanted to see if I could see from the road myself what it looked like. I mean, obviously you can't see anything from here, but just a lot of concern for them kids. I can't imagine 16 kids in that little house. How long have you lived here in this area? My whole life. I'm 35, so I always lived in Jackson. You ever seen anything like this in this area? No, I mean, you always hear cases of like child abuse, like one or two kids or kids being neglected,

but nothing to this, this extreme. Like, this is insane. You want to think it's something like that happening in this small town. Even this being Hamden, Jackson, Hamden, Welson, Vang County, like, it's all just one little community, essentially. So you don't really hear of anything like this happening. So that's a woman named Allie, who, lives in the area, and I want to tell you a little bit about this area. Hamden is a cute little village from what I saw. Most of the homes were well kept. People were out mowing their lawns and visiting the store. I even saw an Amish couple in a buggy riding down the main road through town. Now, despite the county having some people with lower incomes in it, I didn't see anything

during my visit that resembled what was described by law enforcement in the Siders home. Meanwhile, A family member of the Siders posted on Facebook wondering whether the situation had been blown out of proportion. The family member wrote, I think most of what's happened in this specific case has been blown way out of proportion. I mean, I could be wrong, of course, but I honestly and truly want to believe that because while the entire picture is dark and scary, I don't think it's really as dark and scary as the Internet can be. I can only speak from my own experiences, no one else's. It's sad and tragic all the way around, but maybe they all thought they were doing the best they could with extremely limited resources and its spiraled way out of hand. Resources, as in money, education support, and just outside POV and resources in general. Maybe I'm entirely wrong.

Again, I don't know because no one knows exactly what happened until after the court process plays out. And even then, the Internet has made this whole situation way worse. sex cells, rage bait works, and that's just the way things work. There are a lot of questions here. How does a woman give birth to so many children at one hospital without some questions being asked, or were questions asked and we just don't know about it? I've already told you that children's services workers had some contact with the family in Gallia County.

What will the review by the State Department of Children and Youth reveal? And will the judge presiding over the case modify Elizabeth Cider's bond? Elizabeth's lawyer is asking the judge to modify her bail and allow her to be released without posting any cash, saying she will wear a GPS monitor and follow all conditions imposed. So to dig into the new information that we've learned, I would like to bring in Phelan Rucker. He is a former judge. He's been a prosecutor. Also, he's just generally. Generally speaking, a great all-around guy and attorney. Thank you so much, Phanon, for coming on today.

I appreciate it. And, Jeanette, thanks so much for having me and for that flattering introduction. I always love having you on. You know, you've been doing this a long time, and you've worn many hats in the criminal justice system. What is your kind of take on this case thus far? We've got the 16 children in the home. You know, they were going to have 18, but two of them died shortly after birth. So what's your take on this with the limited information we know at this point?

It's tough to wrap your mind around, number one, how anyone could be subjected to the allegations as what's being alleged to you because we don't know a lot of details. But it's also difficult for us to internalize the fact that children would go through this. It's a very tough, just I haven't seen any pictures yet, which obviously I prosecute a lot of cases, seen a lot of cases where there's going to be a lot of pictures. evidence that's going to be introduced. We haven't seen it yet. But you can just imagine based on the initial description of what these law enforcement officers saw when they went there unrelated to these allegations. One thing I want to talk to you about that really stuns me in this case

is the fact that you have one woman giving birth to 18 children, as I mentioned, two of them died after birth because they were conjoined. They were twins. But she's been pregnant just about every year since she was 15 years old. I went and dug up these. I have the birth certificates for some of these children. They were born, many of them in Gallia County, that is a neighboring county to Vinton County, and they were born at Holzer Medical Center to a certified nursing midwife. If a woman is coming into a hospital over and over again and likely is receiving government-funded health care, and she's giving birth to all of these children, one after another after another, would you think the hospital would maybe think maybe these people need some help?

Maybe there's something going on here. I mean, it's not unusual for people to want large families, but is it unusual for people to have this many kids back to back at the same place and not have anybody maybe step in and say, hey, no, maybe you need to slow down. Well, you know, you get into questions of the right to privacy and government intervention and overreach. It's not illegal to have kids. Now, as I understand it, she got married, her and her husband got married when he was 18 and she was 15. They got married in West Virginia. Where in West Virginia, the law is, as long as the parent consents, there is no age under which a child can get married. You know, reasonable minds.

can disagree as to how comfortable of a feeling we have about that kind of setup. However, once they started having children, you know, that's completely legal. And the idea that a hospital will say, hey, you're having a lot of kids, you know, there's something going on here. I don't know that I agree. Again, that's government intrusion into the private lives of individuals. And unless there was something about how she presented, perhaps she showed up with bruises, and there was a question whether she was being abused by her husband or the children were born

and they were born with some type of, you know, drug addiction or something like that, which gave view into the idea of them conducting or being engaged in criminal activity. I don't know what would have raised the hospital's eyebrows that something weird or untoward was happening that required their intervention. And I can see your point there. And obviously there would be intervention if they believed that the babies were being born with drugs in their system. That would happen. They would intervene.

They would call children's services. But we don't know that that is a factor in this case. We have not been told anything about that just yet. But I just, you know, I question a woman having this many children back to back to back, which is not a crime. That's not what I'm saying. but was there something that the hospital, we don't know if they talked to them and said, you know, you're having a lot of babies back to back to back, or you having an okay time caring for all of these kids, things of that nature.

The Department of Children and Youth in the state of Ohio, this used to all go through job and family services. It's now children in youth. I reached out to them and they said they're just beginning their review of this family and what contacts anybody may have had with them. How thorough or how long do you think that could take, Phon? You know, you're a lawyer. You know, you know how government agencies work.

Sometimes things can go slowly. But I would think that there's got to be some paperwork on this family somewhere. You would think so. With this number of children and with these conditions, you just have to believe that at some point over the past 18 years, there was some interaction with government agencies. There was some type of contact with, you know, services that were being provided, whether it was food stamp assistance or other types of

benefits. What are they applying for benefits? And what did those benefits look like? Who was ensuring that they were properly being used? You just have to believe that. We don't know that right now. But it's just in the way that our society works, we know that people, there are some people who like to live under the radar, who want to live under the radar. It's not an easy thing to do with the way technology is set up and with the way that our society works. But it is possible that this family found a way to live under the radar without being exposed to the attention that would come from them actually seeking, obtaining services and somebody seeing what has been described as deplorable conditions that these poor children were living in.

I've actually gotten from a couple of people surrounding this case, the fact that children's services in Gallia County where the family originally lived had had some contact and a visit with this family and that very well may have been what prompted them to move up to Vinton County several years back in the last four years or so. Is that common do you think for people to move around to avoid children's services? Have you ever seen that before? Sure. And not just to avoid children's services, but to avoid being exposed for other types of activities, activities that they're engaged in. You know, we have 88 counties in the state of Ohio.

Just one state, 88 counties, in fact, Vinton is, I think I read, it's got about 12,000 people, the least populous county out of all 88 in the state of Ohio. It's a largely rural area. As I drive sometimes to Virginia, my alma mater is there, I go through parts of West Virginia, I go through parts of rural Ohio, and it's kind of amazing to me to see how spaced out people are and how disconnected from the rest of the world. Quite a few people. In fact, I would say the majority of people live versus those who live in urban areas. And so, yeah, I think that it happens probably a bit more than we believe, especially when you go from

someplace where there is the ability and the finances to monitor and see what's going on to places where, again, rural areas where people are able to live under the radar. So it does happen, and we do see that from time to time. I don't think it's, I don't think it's something that everybody does all the time, but there certainly are instances where people move around in order to avoid the watchful eye of government agencies that may have knocked on their door at some point. You mentioned the possibility of avoiding detection of other activities that people might be involved in. I mean, let's be frank here. What brought this, what brought the cops to this house in the first place was the fact that they had a search warrant.

They were going in there to look for evidence of a crime. We don't know what crime yet because those documents are sealed. You know, Gary Jr. was charged with public indecency, four counts of public indecency for alleged incidents that happened the last week of May. However, I don't think that the state of Ohio is going into a house looking for evidence. after, you know, for a public misdemeanor public indecency case. And it's my understanding this is not related to that public indecency case. So there was another crime that they were interested in that initially brought them there and then poof, they go in there and they find 16 kids.

So there's something more here. There's more meat on the bone potentially. I think that's right. You know, now I've been practicing for 30 years. I have worked for the federal courts watching and refurb. reviewing FBI affidavits for federal magistrates to sign off on. I've been a prosecutor for several municipalities, obviously as a judge for 13 years. I saw a lot of cases and investigations and a result of great police work.

Like I think we can argue here absolutely is the case. And what's surprising to me and surprising to a lot of people that I talk to is how the truth is many people are not the original targets of an investigation, but by virtue of other conduct that they're engaged in or people that they're communicating with who may be under investigation, they then get caught up in the net or their crimes get exposed. And it's very possible that what they were looking for here, again, unrelated to the children, is absolutely what led them to discover the conditions and the health conditions of the, of these children who they didn't even know apparently were there before that search warrant was actually executed. In order to sign off on a search warrant to enter somebody's home, I mean, do you have to show a good amount of evidence in order to do that? You do. One of the things that the United States Supreme Court in every Supreme Court in the states of our great United States, every single Supreme Court, has ruled that the sanctity of the home is inviolate, meaning you got to have the heaviest

of information before we're going to allow law enforcement to cross the threshold of a person's private residence. And so as a judge, we are required, and I stay with, did that for more of my career than I didn't do that, we're required to look at the facts, and it's probable cause. It's an affidavit that comes in with a law enforcement official, sometimes with health department advocate sometimes with housing, housing officials, and they come in with all of these pictures, and they come in with statements from sworn individuals who have observed stuff, and they presented to the judge, and that says, all right, this, there's smoke here, we need to go and find the fire, but there has to be a whole lot of smoke and maybe some flames peeking through the window

before a judge is supposed to allow law enforcement to enter into a home in order to, you know, to invade the sanctity of our private space as required by the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution. And finally, I wanna ask you about the bail modification motion that Elizabeth Sider's attorney has filed. You know, the prosecutor at the time that we're recording this hasn't yet responded to that motion to modify the terms of the bail.

Her attorney just wants her to be released without her having to post any type of cash bond whatsoever. said she's indigent, she doesn't have any money, that she would behave on GPS monitoring, things to that effect. How likely do you think that's going to happen in this case? Well, you know, that all depends. We are used to sensational cases. When I say sensational cases, I'm talking about, like, you know, serial killers, and we're used to big drug cases. And when they appear in court, there's cameras in the courtroom and the judge will order a $10 million bond or a million dollar bond. And really, the primary purpose of bond at its core, the primary purpose of bond is to ensure that the defendant will appear for trial.

That is the primary purpose of bond. Now, there are several factors that we have to take into consideration in making that decision. But there is no mathematical calculation or any particular formula that judges follow when deciding what bond. is appropriate to place on an individual accused of a crime. Here, what we know is there were 16 children who were in deplorable conditions in a home where the father, mother, and grandparents were living, and they were subjected to, according to the prosecutor,

severe, pervasive, intergenerational abuse and neglect. What bond is appropriate for individuals who are living in poverty circumstances? $300,000 was the bond that was given to each one of them, saying that if you're going to be released while this case is pending, you've got to post $300,000 each. The reality is, what are their financial circumstances? Could that $300,000 might be a million,

or could that $300,000 serve its same cause with the $5,000 bond because they don't have the resources to bond themselves out? And even if they do, what chances with no prior criminal history with few contacts and other places, what is the likelihood that they're not going to come back? That really is the issue, not the allegations of how horrible of a condition they allowed their children to exist in, but what is the current risk of harm to themselves, to the children who we know have been removed, and to others, to the community?

Those are factors that the court must take into consideration or should take in consideration with deciding what the appropriate bail is if a person is going to be released or what are the conditions. So, you know, I understand she doesn't have a prior record. She's 33 years old, started having kids at 15. The kids have all been removed. They don't have financial resources. Personally, based on 30 years of experience in the courts and criminal prosecutions and judicial activities, I would be very surprised if the court does not lower that bill to something less than $100,000. I can't say OR as the grandfather was, but he had health problems and he had to get him out of there because financially the county wasn't going to be able to sustain his medical treatment,

so they let him out on Orban. I don't know that that's what she'll get, but I would be very surprised if her bond was not significantly reduced now that the danger to the children has been cessated or has been diminished by the fact they've been removed and that they don't have contact with those children. We shall see. Phanon Rucker, I really appreciate your time and your great analysis. Thank you so much. Thank you. Have a wonderful day. So right now, Gary Jr., Elizabeth, and Christina Siders remain in jail in Southeast Ohio. Their bail has been set up $300,000. All four defendants have played it not guilty to these charges. So we're going to keep digging into this, keep asking questions, and bring you the latest information as soon as we get it. So stay tuned. That's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I mean, net leave you thanks so much for being with me i'll see you back here next time