THE mum of 16 “feral” kids found in a house of horrors once gave birth to conjoined twins – as grim new details of the harrowing case emerge.
Elizabeth Siders, 33, and three others have been charged with child endangerment after the youngsters were found living in stomach-churning conditions.
Elizabeth Siders, 33, reportedly gave birth to conjoined twins once Credit: Southeastern Ohio Regional Jail
Gary Siders II, was previously wanted on unrelated indecent exposure charges Credit: Southeastern Ohio Regional Jail
Reports have now emerged that Elizabeth once delivered conjoined daughters at Riverside Methodist Hospital in November 2022, medical records show.
Tragic Bailey Lee and Faith Lee were born at just 24 weeks’ gestation with the condition thoracopagus.
The pair’s faces and chests were fused together in the womb.
On the same day they were born, they died from natural causes, according to documents obtained by WOWK 13 .
Police seen outside the home in Ohio Credit: NBC4I
Gary Siders Sr. was also arrested and charged with 16 counts of felony child endangerment Credit: Southeastern Ohio Regional Jail
The report comes just days after their mum, dad and grandparents were arrested in the family‘s Vinton County home.
Authorities discovered 16 children, ages one to 18, living in horrendous conditions inside a 12-foot by 12-foot room at the property.
Elizabeth, her partner Gary Siders Jr., as well as Gary Siders Sr. and Christina Siders pleaded not guilty to 16 charges of felony second-degree child endangerment.
It is unclear if both Elizabeth and Siders Jr. are parents to all of the children, with Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson calling it an “intra-family case”.
The children were found in squalor conditions, police say Credit: WHSV
Christina Siders (pictured) and her husband Gary Siders Sr. are the grandparents of the 16 children Credit: Southeastern Ohio Regional Jail
But according to Elizabeth’s lawyer, she is the mother of all of the children.
The youngsters were forced to live in a single room littered with faeces for at least four years, authorities say.
They called the scene “deplorable” and compared it to “the third world”, adding that some livestock exist in better conditions.
The children were barely able to speak and some were unable to talk at all.
Objects from the property seen outside Credit: WHSV
The kids were allegedly forced to live in a single room Credit: NBC4i
None of them had ever been enrolled in school – with the oldest child, 18, developmentally disabled and unable to write her name, cops say.
On Monday, the children’s horrified uncle claimed that other family members didn’t know how many kids Elizabeth and Siders Jr. had.
Ronnie Fletcher, whose wife is one of the grandparents’ adult daughters, said he and his wife thought the couple had a big family of around 10 children.
But they later learned there were 16 kids in the house after reports of the alleged abuse emerged.
He said: “If we would have known that it was like that in that home, we would have done something about it – even if it was just to go there and take the kids ourselves or give them money.”
Fletcher also shed light on Elizabeth’s marriage to Siders Jr. in 2008, when she was just 15 years old and he was 18.
“She did not have a very good home life when they got together, and she escaped to Lynn [Christina] and Gary’s house, which … was back then a normal American home,” he said.
The couple’s oldest child, an 18-year-old girl, was allegedly born just two months after they married.
The other kids’ ages have been listed in court documents as 16, 15, 14, 13, 11, 10, eight, six, and five, as well as four-year-old twins, two-year-old twins and one-year-old twins.
All four defendants have pleaded not guilty to the charges and their bail has been set at $300,000 each.
If convicted, each accused faces a maximum sentence of up to 192 years in prison.
It has also been revealed authorities executed a warrant at the property on unrelated indecent exposure charges against Siders Jr., 36, when they found the youngsters.
When Vinton County Sheriff’s deputies visited the home, about 80 miles southeast of Columbus, on June 30 they uncovered the disturbing scene.
Eze Chidiebere Paul
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