In The News 1 July 2026

DeWine issues statement on Vinton County children neglect case

Four people were arrested this week after a search found 16 children inside a home in the Hamden area of Vinton County, officials said during a news conference.

“This is pure evil what we saw down here,” said Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson, who described it as one of the worst scenes he has ever seen.

Governor Mike DeWine has issued the following statement.

"Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson has kept me informed about the tragic situation in Vinton County. I have talked to Vinton County Sheriff Ryan Cain to offer any help that we might be able to provide," DeWine said. 

"The director of the Ohio Department of Children and Youth, Kara Wente, has been working today to assist Vinton County Children’s Services, and will continue to help in the days ahead.

"It is heartbreaking to learn the conditions that these children were living in, and to learn of their medical conditions. Attorney General Wilson is an experienced prosecutor and he has told me he has never seen anything like what he saw today. Fran and I pray for these children, and thank the children's services workers, law enforcement officers, and medical personnel who are helping them."

The suspects were identified as Gary Siders Sr., Gary Siders Jr., Christina Siders and Elizabeth Siders. They are charged with 17 counts of endangering children.

Add new comment

This is not for publication.
This is not for publication.
About text formats

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
Article comments are not posted immediately to the Web site. Each submission must be approved by the Web site editor, who may edit content for appropriateness. There may be a delay of 24-48 hours for any submission while the web site editor reviews and approves it. Note: All information on this form is required. Your telephone number and email address is for our use only, and will not be attached to your comment.
CAPTCHA This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions. Image CAPTCHA
Enter the characters shown in the image.