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(NewsNation) — The attorney for Elizabeth Siders pushed back on suggestions 16 children recently pulled from squalid conditions in Hamden, Ohio, are “almost feral,” as one authority described.
“We’ve already debunked the myth that these kids were almost feral,” lawyer Tommy Stolly tells Chris Cuomo on the latest “Crime Time” podcast. “The ones that were of appropriate age had social media pages. There’s evidence of that online now.”
Authorities on June 30 raided the Vinton County residence of 33-year-old Siders and her husband, Gary Siders Jr., 36, and charged them with felony child endangerment. Inside, officials said, police found children ranging from 18 months to 18 years old living in deplorable conditions. Some reportedly needed immediate medical care.
“They looked like almost feral animals,” Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson told reporters. “It was terrible.”
Stolly said he doesn’t know if Wilson was even at the scene but noted, “These kids could talk. They spoke when the police came in.”
He said his own assessment is based on details provided to him by the mother — information that “dispels a lot of the nonsense that we’ve seen about this case.”
“If we’re talking about feral children, those are children who do not understand the world,” Stolly said. “If the kids can speak, I think that changes the analysis.”
Also arrested and facing charges are Gary Siders, Sr., 73, and 67-year-old Katherine Siders, who also lived in a 1,300-square-foot home that has been described as having only one full bathroom.
“This is very clearly a case where my client and the Siders family were living in extreme poverty,” Stolly told Cuomo. “Sometimes … that’s what you’ve known for years and years. You don’t necessarily see how bad things have gotten.”
Pressed about some of the disturbing details in the case, including the presence of human feces in the home, Stolly said his client loves her children.
“What she’s said to me is that with 16 kids, things could get messy fast. So, I don’t know more beyond that,” he said.
Elizabeth Siders’ attorney: Ohio case different from Turpin case
Stolly also disagrees with observers who say the Hamden, Ohio, case has similarities to the Turpin saga in which 13 siblings were held captive in a Southern California home before being rescued in 2018. Parents David and Louise Turpin pleaded guilty to torture, child endangerment, false imprisonment and other charges and are serving potential life sentences.
Stolly said the Turpin parents were not living in poverty and consciously deceived people about the well-being of their children.
“The Turpins made choices,” he said. “They had a depiction of their family online. Those were their choices. That’s why people didn’t know what was going on in that home. It was because they portrayed this folksy family image online.”
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