Hamden

You can find more of these stories at WeirdDarkness.com slash news.

Earlier this week, Tuesday, October 6, Judge Lena Featherolfe Rogers filed an entry in Vinton County Common Police Court dismissing the criminal case against Gary Siders Sr., the 73-year-old grandfather arrested on June 30 after 16 children were found living in a house on Omer Street in Hamden, Ohio.

All 16 counts of endangering children went with it, ten of them third-degree felonies and six of them misdemeanors.

The dismissal is without prejudice, which means the state can bring the charges again and the entry doesn't simply just turn him loose.

We saw the charges dropped for Gary Sider Sr.

He is the older family member, the grandfather of those 16 children found in that house in Hamden.

So we're diving into that with an interview with his defense attorney.

Yeah, and then pumpkins aglow.

Yes,

yeah.

And so this all goes back to that case of the 16 children between 18 months and 18 years old, all found in that house in Hamden there in Vinton County.

Now, even though the charges against Gary Siders Sr. have been dropped, the charges still are there for Gary Siders Jr., Christina, and Elizabeth Siders.

The Siders are facing anywhere from 16 to 128 years in prison.

The house is located in the small village of Hamden, part of Ohio's rural southeastern Appalachian region.

There isn't much evidence that kids lived there.

I didn't actually go into the room where they... th- that the kids were.

This is the most recent, really.

On June 30th, investigators found the Vinton County Sheriff's Office and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation showed up at a house on Omer Street in Hamden, a small community of about 80 miles south of Columbus.

They were there to collect a DNA sample from Gary Siders Jr., the grandfather's son, in connection with a separate child S abuse investigation.

They weren't looking for children, but they found 16 of them.

It's like a classroom of children.

Picture that.

16, crammed into a tiny 12 by 12 foot room in Hamden, Ohio, living in filth, feces, and insects.

The attorney general called it pure evil.

This is the case that made national headlines this summer after authorities found 16 children living in conditions that investigators described as absolutely horrific.

The children, ranging from toddlers to 18 years old, were found inside a deteriorating home in Hamden, Ohio.

Authorities say they had largely been confined to a roughly 12 by 12 foot room.

None of them were enrolled in school.

Picture that.

16 crammed into a tiny 12 by 12 foot room in Hamden, Ohio, living in filth, feces and insects.

The attorney general called it pure evil.

Seven of those kids were rushed to the hospital.