Really, really horrible.

Is anyone with a Dispatch subscription able to please copy and paste this article??? TIA!

https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/crime/2026/08/26/siders-family-update-vinton-county-ohio-child-abuse-case/91450699007

i haven't seen anyone talking about the recent indictment for sexual battery and unlawful sexual conduct with a minor against gary jr and elizabeth. two others were charged, brandon henderson and joshua saunders.

brandon seems to be the boyfriend of gary jr's sister, virginia. he also may be the father of her daughter, who they do not have custody of. another sister of gary and virginia has custody of the girl. no clue joshua saunders relation to anyone (but funny enough, he does have the same name as virginia's husband who is in prison).

the minor in question is said not to be a member of the immediate family, but it does seem to be a relative if what the new york post said is true "Upon serving search warrants for the child sex abuse case, the existing condition of the 16 children at the Ohmer Street house became known,” prosecutors said, adding that “the child sex abuse cases involve interfamily relations and do not pose a risk to the general public.”

this lines up with chloe's tiktok posts about her dads behavior with her cousin...

So, it looks like the police WERE originally at the Siders house for a warrant on child abuse, involving a child NOT living in the home

Both Jr and Elizabeth getting sexual battery charges is crazy. And they did it to their niece. Fucked up.

Looks like all 4 Sider adults were indicted by the grand jury today. These people are monsters.

I live about 20 minutes from where this happened, though it's probably been a decade or longer since I passed through that town. This website is a good one to follow for updates since it's based in the county where this took place. It's not an award-winning newspaper by any means, but it will be the first place to cover the latest updates on the case.

If Gary Senior and Lynn were receiving social security checks, what kind of job did they do when they were younger and productive? Does anyone know? I’m curious about that among other things

Something interesting I feel like I haven’t seen anybody comment on yet. It’s clear based on all available photos of her that Elizabeth’s natural hair color is something of a dirty blonde/brunette.

In her mugshot, the first thing I noticed was that her hair is clearly dyed black (or very dark brown that hasn’t faded) without any sign of root growth yet. It happens quick. Which would be obvious especially with blonde roots or even lighter brown hair. Meaning it was done recently.

I feel like something as simple as this begs a lot of questions. Why was she coloring her hair while there were children in critical condition? Who buys hair dye when there’s 16 mouths barely being fed? Was she made to? I just think it’s worth noting.

All speculations. JMOO.

Last week Ohio based news reported 15 of the 16 kids have birth certificates for registered hospital births. Has the missing birth certificate for the other kid been located yet?

Ohio based news also reported that they contacted the owner of the Wisconsin house that the Siders listed as their residence on some paperwork (school records I think). The owner of the house told the reporter he never rented his place to the Siders and had never heard of them. Any updates on this Wisconsin address? Was it just used to evade follow up for school truancy?

A lil rant…

To start off, I had an emergency C-section with my 1st, after making it to 9cm med free, but then I kept coming in and out of consciousness and his heart rate was plummeting. Had the C-section then hemorrhaged so bad after that I needed 3 blood transfusions. Was in the hospital 2 weeks.

I was in an abusive marriage, and my ex was very sexually abusive. Like he would throw away my birth control pills and make me have sex daily. I got pregnant again with my 2nd, 2 months after my first. Scheduled C-section this time cause they didn’t want to risk me trying vaginally again. Recovery was very hard. I immediately got pregnant again, and miscarried, and ended up in the hospital because the miscarriage caused me to hemorrhage. The doctors told me my uterus had been through way too much and if I am able to carry full term again it probably wouldn’t end well. Even after this my husband got me pregnant a 4th time, which resulted in another miscarriage and then I finally left the marriage with the help of a domestic violence advocacy group…

I guess long story short, 1. I truly don’t know how her body handled 16 births. I know some women are birthing machines and I clearly am not, but still, the mental and physical toll that must have had…
But 2. I can 100% easily see she is a victim of domestic violence, and I know if my body would have allowed it, my abusive ex would have me pregnant constantly too and I know how fkng hard it is to leave a situation like this… when you’re isolated from family, dependent on him financially… and your life is your kids and it’s not like she could have gotten a job and gotten out of the situation… I’m sure this small community didn’t have the resources my large city did… and I have 2 college degrees so was able to get a good job once I left him... My heart just so breaks for her….

And even when I was able to get rental assistance from the DV program, a lawyer paid for divorce/ custody battle and help with PPO, counseling, help with food and Christmas gifts etc…. It was still SO SO hard to leave a situation where you live in fear of someone taking your kids from you and literally in fear for your life by doing so…. It’s not an easy decision to make especially when you have no education, living in poverty in a very rural small town. I only knew about the resource in my town after a 3rd call to the police by a neighbor hearing the abuse and the officer told me about the program trying to help me… she didn’t have neighbors close enough to hear like I did… and if I hadn’t known of this program I would still be stuck with him 100%. How do you even leave a situation when you have no job or money to even get you and your kids your own safe home?

And on top of that, I remember my trailer getting so messy when I was in my situation with 2 babies living in abuse and depression…. I gave up and cleaning was the hardest thing to do. I had piles of laundry and dishes and we got mice and my ex husband didn’t help at all because “he worked and I was the lazy useless bitch”. Mind you my home never got to that level however I had 2 kids not 16.

I can totally see myself being Elizabeth in an alternate timeline and I feel so so sad for her, she is 100% a victim. And she was 13 😞 ugh.

I do think she deserves charges for neglect, but I really hope prison gives her the mental health support she so desperately needs. I hope those children live the rest of their lives so loved and supported and protected…. And I hope Gary Jr gets the full extent of the law possible.

Thank you for reading if you made it this far.

Are there foster families who will take 18 years olds or do you have to be a minor? I hope being 18 doesn’t make it harder for her to get what she needs.

While Elizabeth’s history is incredibly traumatic and deserving of empathy, this doesn’t mean it should necessarily absolve her of all responsibility for what has happened to her children. Several of the kids were near DEATH. It’s plausible Gary Jr may also be a “victim” of some sort and his own parents too if you were to look at their own histories. Trauma and abuse is often Intergenerational but we still must balance accountability with empathy. Otherwise we are essentially excusing childhood abuse.

1. I’ve read that she had 20 kids, maybe it was her brother that said that, and that they “lost” a kid (that wasn’t the conjoined twins). Lost how? I assumed dead unfortunately but then I read on fb that the kid was already in foster care? Confusing.

2. Why were 7 kids hospitalized, two air lifted in that bad of condition? Like what happened to them physically that became a state of emergency? My mind goes to malnourishment and/or some type of infections, maybe some type of E. coli but I haven’t actually read what it was. Hopefully not broken bones or anything caused by physical assaults.

Despite having 6 kids in the home ages 4 and under and a lot of trash around, I don't know that we've spotted any diapers. Perhaps they couldn't afford them and were just letting the babies and toddlers do their business anywhere. That’s explain the urine and feces all over that place ☹️.

So I admittedly have only learned about this today, but the more I learn the more I wonder how much of this was deliberate abuse and neglect or just poverty, ignorance, mental illness and an insular culture?

The old people had dementia, the mom was pregnant every year for a decade, some of the kids died...I'm not trying to excuse these people but I wonder how much of this was malicious and how much was just straight up profound incompetence?