Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Ohio 'House of Horrors': 17th Child Abused?

Starting point is 00:00:00 It is the ultimate betrayal because you have these people who are supposed to be acting in the role of a parent in a home where the child is totally dependent on them for everything. Gary Siders Jr. and his wife are accused of sex crimes involving a family member. I'm looking at what we've learned about the allegations as Elizabeth Siders prepares for her first court appearance in months. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy. and this is crime fix. Gary Siders Jr. and Elizabeth Siders have 16 children, of course. We've been telling you that. And they are in a world of legal trouble. They're accused of endangering those 16 children. They range in age from about 20 months now to 18 years old. The neglect that two of the children suffered is

Starting point is 00:00:56 considered severe. Records show that even years ago, back in 2020 and 2021, some of the children could barely read and only knew maybe half of the alphabet. When those children were found in the house on Omer Street on June 30th, prosecutors and police say they weren't in great shape. The house was filthy, full of trash, and there was feces in some places. After the grand jury heard the case, Gary Jr. and Elizabeth were charged with 19 counts of child endangering each. Two of those counts were felonies of the second degree, the most serious form of child endangering, while 10 counts were felonies of the third.

Starting point is 00:01:33 degree and seven armed misdemeanor charges. But there was an entirely different investigation that brought state agents and sheriff's deputies to Omer Street in the first place, an investigation with dark allegations of sexual abuse that did not involve the Cider's 16 children. It's not clear whether the sexual abuse alleged by prosecutors and the grand jury occurred in this house on Omer Street. I think that may be unlikely. because Gary Jr. and Elizabeth had another address in Benton County. Before the Siders and their 16 kids moved to Omer Street, they lived in this house on Main Street. It sits right across the street from a Dollar General store. Gary Jr. and Elizabeth are accused of victimizing a family

Starting point is 00:02:21 member. And if that allegation wasn't bad enough, it was a family member that they were actually caring for. A family member who likely trusted them. A family member. Who likely trusted them. A family member. It was a child. The sexual battery charge in the indictment states Gary Siders Jr. on or about January 1st, 22 through September 1st, 2022 at the County of Vinton did engage in sexual conduct with a person whose name is redacted. The charge states the person is not Cider's spouse and it describes the relationship to the child and states that he was acting in loco parentis of the alleged victim whose name is redacted. So Gary Jr. and Elizabeth Siders face two counts of sexual battery, and they also face two counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor. That charge covers the same nine-month period as the sexual battery count. The same victim, it states that Gary Jr. engaged in sexual conduct with another person who was not his spouse and the victim was between 13 and 16 years old at the time. Elizabeth Siders faces the exact same charges, and the investigation, involving this child, it's actually the reason why investigators went to the house on Omer Street looking for Gary Jr. in the first place back on June 30th. They wanted his DNA. They had a warrant for genetic testing. These cases began as an investigation into family child sex abuse. Law enforcement sought the DNA of Gary Sider's Jr. related to the child sex abuse case.

Starting point is 00:03:58 Once Sider's Jr. was located, search warrants were executed to secure his DNA, for genetic testing. Upon serving the search warrants for the child sex abuse case, the existence in condition of the 16 children at the Omer Street House became known. The child sex abuse cases involve intra-family relations and do not pose a risk to the general public, and I would also add does not involve human trafficking. This case all started with diligent dollar general clerks calling authorities with concerns over children they observed. We asked the public, to be mindful of the circumstances around them, especially involving children. We continue to ask for the public's respect for the rights and privacy of the child victims in this case.

Starting point is 00:04:43 I'd like to add a thank you to the Vinton County Sheriff's Office and BCI for their investigative efforts, which have been amazing. So genetic testing, that suggests more than just a typical DNA test than a crime lab would conduct on an item of evidence. It suggests that a child may have been born from this abuse, as I've told you. you previously. This minor is certainly old enough to have spoken with investigators to give an account of what she says happened to her when she was in the care of the ciders. When Gary and Elizabeth were acting as her parents, that is what in loco parentis means. It means they were standing in the place of this child's parents. Gary Jr. has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges, the sex

Starting point is 00:05:31 crimes charges and the child endangering charges. Elizabeth Siders will be in court this week. At that time, she will enter a plea to those charges. Her attorney, Tommy Stolley, wrote to the court that he has concerns about her mental health. He's asked for a competency evaluation and to determine whether she could be not guilty by reason of insanity. That's an affirmative defense, meaning if you enter a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, you're admitting you committed the crimes charge, but you are disputing whether you are legally responsible due to a mental health condition. The question to be answered is, were you so mentally ill or impaired that you couldn't appreciate that what you were doing was wrong? Will Elizabeth formally enter that plea? We will have to wait and

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Starting point is 00:07:43 I asked Henderson's lawyer, Dorian Baum, about the case last week. Take a listen. I've been digging into Brandon Henderson and looking into the case and the allegation. And it appears that he was married for all intents and purposes, not legally, but living his husband and wife with one of the daughters of Gary Sr. and Christina Siders and they had children together. And it's my understanding that the daughter, Virginia, is now in some type of incapacitated state. And Brandon is now remarried to another woman. So, Is all of that true? What I would say is, you know, I don't know how I would characterize their relationship. I think you're right. They probably at least held themselves out as a couple. They certainly had children together.

Starting point is 00:08:39 It's my understanding that the daughter of the elder ciders is in some sort of care facility. My understanding is speaking with Mr. Henderson is that, you know, he still has some communication. with, if not that facility or not heard directly, some understand that because, again, that is the mother of his children. So he is still keeping aware of that. But yes, my understanding is that he has, he is in a different relationship now, which is not terribly unusual. And it's also not any part of this case.

Starting point is 00:09:14 That would just be, I suppose, some superfluous detail. As far as this case goes, obviously, it's really just the allegations. But my understanding is that, yes, that is how he's connected to the Sider's family. So let's turn now. to Dr. Daniel Bober. He's a forensic psychiatrist, a Dr. Bober, you and I have talked about this case many, many times. We now have the sex crimes charges filed against Gary Jr. and Elizabeth. And what's so disheartening about this, and I think that, you know, it would be disheartening in any case. But we have them with 16 children of their own in a house. They're accused of endangering

Starting point is 00:09:51 those children. But now they're accused of actually. sexually battering and having unlawful sexual conduct with a minor that they were potentially the guardian of. I can't even imagine. They've already been investigated for child endangering, yet you're in a parental role over another child. Like, what is going on? Yeah, you know, this case is really interesting. It's like you keep peeling back the layers and it only gets worse and worse. But what I found particularly interesting in this case is the psychopath. of the co-defendants that were involved in the abuse allegedly. And I think about the movie In Cold Blood or the book In Cold Blood by Truman Capote,

Starting point is 00:10:37 where you had the two defendants who committed the murders and you had one that had the more dominant personality. And there was also another case, I'm sure you know, out of Canada, Paul Berdardo and Tammy Hamulka, the case of the Scarborough rapist, where you had a couple that, where the male was engaging and rape and murder and the female who said she was kind of going along with it because she was afraid, but it turned out later that she was actually complicit.

Starting point is 00:11:06 So it's interesting when you get two personalities that come together because there's really no social reference point, right? When you commit a crime and you're around other people that are quote-unquote normals, if you will, they say, hey, you shouldn't do this, this is wrong, but you lose that. When you have two people who are essentially committing the crime, there's a form of, mutual validation that goes on in normalization, where you don't have the other person sort of putting the brakes on and saying, wait, don't do this, this is wrong, and they go along together. And sometimes one is more dominant, and sometimes they both get gratification from it. So I find that very interesting.

Starting point is 00:11:42 But obviously, you talk about the term in loco parentis, which literally means in place of the parent, it is the ultimate betrayal because you have these people who are supposed to be acting in the role of a parent in a home where the child is totally dependent on them for everything, for food, for clothing, for shelter, for protection. And they are using that power and exploiting the child for their own gratification. So it's particularly disturbing. Very disturbing. And, you know, we're protecting a lot of the details about this child because we want to protect her identity. But we now know that the entire reason that the law enforcement agents and the sheriff's deputies went to this home on June 30th now was they were looking for Gary Sider's DNA. They had a warrant for his DNA.

Starting point is 00:12:38 And it sounds like they had to go find him and track him down because these people are transient and they're moving around. They don't know where he is or whatever. And so they go in there. and that's how they discover the 16 children. But really the root of this investigation is sexual abuse, family sexual abuse. And they wanted his DNA because they said they needed to do genetic testing. These allegations go back to January 2022. This child, this minor, was sexually battered, according to prosecutors from January 22 to September.

Starting point is 00:13:19 of 2022. That's a nine-month period. They're looking to do genetic testing. So it appears that a child was born of this alleged sexual abuse and they were trying to determine paternity. Yeah. Even more horrific. Absolutely. Just absolutely disturbing. Yeah. So we have Gary Jr., of course, charged with this crime and Elizabeth. a mother of 16 children charged with this crime. So I'm thinking to myself, you know, obviously she's charged with the unlawful sexual conduct with a minor. She's not charged with complicity. She's charged with being a participant. So it kind of, I just don't understand. I think we're going to find out maybe some allegations and some details that are very dark.

Starting point is 00:14:13 But have you ever seen such a thing, Dr. Bober, where I have, actually. I have. I have. have. Okay, let's talk about that. I was actually involved in a child custody evaluation when I was living in Massachusetts where this exact thing was going on. And it was also combined with, of all things, bestiality where the husband was using animals with the children and the wife and the mother was participating in it. And I actually did a child custody evaluation on this exact case that I'm talking about. So I have seen cases like this and that again goes back to what I said. Was this someone who went along because she's going to say, oh, if I didn't go along with it, he would beat me or he would do something? Or was she herself involved getting gratification

Starting point is 00:15:04 and committing the criminal conduct of her own free will, if you will? And that takes the case to a whole new level. You don't even have the other parent saying, hey, this is wrong. you can't do this being the protector and stepping in and trying to stop it, they're actually participating in it. And so like I said, this case just keeps getting more and more disturbing as you peel the layers back. If you love digging into crime cases as much as I do, you have to download the Law and Crime Plus app. If you haven't checked it out already, here are three reasons to jump on board today. Number one, you're going to get complete access, watch the best shows from both law and crime and court TV completely ad free. Second, you get the case.

Starting point is 00:15:47 case files, deep dive access to raw trial evidence, including body camera video, 911 calls, crime scene photos, and much more. And finally, you get binge-worthy true crime, dive into a huge library of true crime series, documentaries, and cases whenever you want to. And right now, we have a special offer with my promo code. It's fix fall. That's fix fall. Get your first three months of Law and Crime Plus for just $2.99 a month. That's 50% off the regular month price. Right now, there are no allegations that the ciders sexually abused their own children. Is that, would that be unusual in a case where you have allegations that another minor family member was sexually abused? However, people didn't potentially victimize their own children.

Starting point is 00:16:40 Yeah, it's interesting. Did they have some arbitrary code, if you will, that this is an our child by birth. this is not our blood child. So, you know, we can do what we wish with this child. I don't know. Obviously, you would think that any civilized adult would want to protect a child. But maybe in their mind, you know, they had this idea that because it wasn't their naturally born child that the same rules didn't apply. But I also think about, you know, Elizabeth and the fact that she married so young and she probably, you know, had a lack of self-concept, a lack of identity. And she never really, learned to form, to become her own person, to speak up for herself, to protect others. And I think that's part of it here when I read about these details. You know, this all started with another,

Starting point is 00:17:31 what they called a parallel investigation that came to light back in December of 2025 when some Dollar General store clerks discovered a child apparently wandering around the store and these clerks talked to the child and the child apparently or led them to other children revealed details. And then an investigation started involving this Brandon Henderson and Josh Saunders, the, you know, basically the father of some of Gary Jr.'s nieces and nephews by his sister Jenny. And Josh Saunders, of course, is Gary's nephew. So we have this other, you know, sexual abuse investigation. the attorney for Brandon Henderson says he's, you know, he's saying he didn't do it. But, you know,

Starting point is 00:18:23 do we often see sexual abuse, you know, allegations of sexual abuse running in families? Well, you know, this is something we always say. Every family has its secrets. And in this particular case, that's, you know, taken to a whole new level. We know this family was moving around from place to place trying to fly under the radar, trying to avoid law enforcement. And when you have a situation where there is isolation and concealment and forced secrecy, sometimes these things are very hard to detect. So thank God for those Dollar General store clerks that actually took the time to find out what was going on. People say this all the time. If you see something, say something, and they actually went out of their way to inquire further. So had they not done that, this might

Starting point is 00:19:12 still be going on. Elizabeth Siders is going to be in court this week. She'll be arraigned on these charges. More than likely, she will enter a not guilty plea. And, you know, her competency, she's apparently undergoing or has undergone a competency evaluation. So all of these defendants, with the exception of Brandon Henderson, have raised competency and mental health as a potential issue.

Starting point is 00:19:42 Gary Seniors is back. He's the only one who's been deemed incompetent to stand trial and not restorable. So do you think that's where ultimately these cases are going to go, that there's a mental health defense that will be employed? Listen, defense attorneys can be very artful and creative, and sometimes, you know, they throw everything at the wall and see what sticks. But I think in a case like this where the conduct is so disturbing and deviant, I think that's really the only place to go there's really nothing else that you have. So I think that's what they're going to stick to. Well, it will be interesting to see where it all goes for sure. And we're going to keep a very close eye on it. Dr. Daniel Biber, thank you so much for coming on and offering. Yeah,

Starting point is 00:20:28 offering your expertise and your time is always. Have a great day. You too. So right now, Gary Siders Jr. remains in the Southeast Ohio Regional Jail. He's being held on a bond of $550,000. If he posts that, which he has not been able to do thus far and likely will not be able to do, he will have to wear a GPS monitor. He has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges. And Elizabeth Siders also remains in the southeast Ohio regional jail. She'll be in court on Wednesday. And law and crime will have that covered for you. I will have that covered for you. So stay tuned. That's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.

Starting point is 00:21:10 You know,

Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Ohio 'House of Horrors': 17th Child Abused?

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