An Ohio woman facing child neglect charges for allegedly confining her 16 children to a single room previously gave birth to conjoined twins who died an hour after delivery, according to newly uncovered public records.
The revelation comes as prosecutors prepare to present child neglect charges against Elizabeth Siders, her husband and her in-laws to a grand jury following a police raid in Hamden, Ohio. Authorities discovered the 16 surviving children, who were never enrolled in school and lacked medical records, living in a single, waste-filled room.
Elizabeth Siders, 33, remains held at the Vinton County Jail on a $300,000 bond. She faces 16 counts of child neglect following a police raid at a home in Hamden, Ohio, where authorities say her children, aged 18 months to 18 years, lived in filth.
Birth and death certificates obtained by NBC affiliate WCMH show that Siders delivered conjoined twin girls on November 20, 2022, at Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus.
The twins, reportedly named Faith Lee and Bailey Lee Siders, were born prematurely at 24 weeks and died from respiratory failure. Medical records indicated the infants were thoracopagus conjoined, meaning they were connected face-to-face at the chest and likely shared a vital organ.
The Garrett Cardaras Funeral Home confirmed the births and deaths to People. According to reports, the twins were part of a pattern for Siders, who has had twins in her last four known pregnancies, including births in February 2022, January 2024 and January 2025.
The 16 surviving children were discovered by chance when deputies executed a search warrant for Siders’ husband, Gary Siders Jr., regarding unrelated misdemeanor indecent exposure charges from May.
Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson said during a July 1 press conference that investigators did not expect to find 16 children inside the residence. Authorities described the environment as a 12-foot-by-12-foot room covered in human waste.
“They looked like almost feral animals,” Wilson said during the press conference. “It was terrible”
Vinton County Sheriff Ryan Cain told reporters that the oldest child, an 18-year-old girl, could not spell or write her own name.
“Most of our livestock was kept in better conditions than the children,” Cain said.
The school district confirmed it had no records of the children ever being enrolled, and officials believe the family intentionally avoided creating medical or government records as they moved across southern Ohio, The Independent reported.
The children’s paternal grandparents, Gary Siders Sr. and Christina Siders, were also arrested and face 16 counts of child neglect. All four defendants recently waived their right to a preliminary hearing, sending the case to a grand jury.
Defense attorneys have urged the public not to rush to judgment. J. Thomas Stolly, the defense attorney for Elizabeth Siders, told ABC affiliate WSYX that all 16 children are the biological offspring of Elizabeth and Gary Jr., and that Elizabeth considered herself a full-time mother. He also said that Siders married her husband at age 15 in West Virginia, shortly after leaving high school, when he was 18.
Stolly told the Associated Press that when he first met his client, she was crying and exhausted, and her first questions were about the welfare of her children rather than her own legal status.
“I think that this is more so a case of isolation than a case of evil, and I think that there’s an important distinction there,” Stolly said, suggesting that his client’s worldview was shaped entirely by entering this isolated marriage at a very young age.
Dorian Baum, the attorney representing Gary Siders Sr., told the Associated Press that the community needed to let the facts play out in court before reaching a conclusion.
Social media posts from relatives have added complexity to the family’s background.
A Facebook post from a man identifying himself as Elizabeth Siders’ brother claimed she had been “indoctrinated” and noted that he had been estranged from her for 15 years, according to Los Angeles Magazine.
In the small village of Hamden, which has a population of fewer than 1,000 residents, neighbors expressed shock over how the children remained hidden for years. The house sits on a rural road near a railroad embankment, shielded from immediate view by dense trees and brush.
Joseph Stewart, a neighbor living three houses away, told reporters he had never seen any children at the residence.
“It’s a sad situation,” Stewart said.
The 16 children are currently in the temporary custody of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. Several of the siblings remain hospitalized to receive advanced medical care for their conditions.
