{"id":5247,"date":"2026-07-24T12:10:53","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T12:10:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=5247"},"modified":"2026-07-24T12:10:53","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T12:10:53","slug":"house-of-horrors-mom-denies-16-kids-were-feral-animals-just-messy-and-poor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=5247","title":{"rendered":"House of Horrors mom denies 16 kids were ‘feral animals,’ just messy and poor"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The mother accused of keeping 16 kids crammed in a filthy house of horrors denied that the children lived like \u201cferal animals\u201d \u2014 blaming the deplorable living conditions on \u201cextreme poverty\u201d and messy kids.<\/p>\n

Read more Country singer Aaron Lee Tasjan\u2019s fans walk out of Texas concert over political song as he warns of America\u2019s \u2018descent\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

Elizabeth Siders, 33, was one of four adults arrested last month after her 16 children \u2014 ranging in age from 18 months to 18 years \u2014 were found living in squalor in a tiny, trash- and feces-filled home in rural Ohio.<\/p>\n

The children, who have never been to school, were living \u201clike almost feral animals,\u201d Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson said \u2014 something the mom \u201cabsolutely disputes,\u201d her attorney, Tommy Stolly, told Chris Cruomo on his Cuomo Crime Time podcast.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, if we\u2019re talking about feral children, those are children who do not understand the world,\u201d Stolly said, denying the allegations that some of the kids could not speak or otherwise communicate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose are children who we really would want to examine the conditions in which they were living for some sort of abuse. If the kids can speak, I think that changes the analysis.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ones that were of appropriate age had social media pages. There\u2019s evidence of that online,\u201d the lawyer also claimed.<\/p>\n

The children, who were never enrolled in school, could barely communicate and some cannot even speak, authorities previously said after making the grim discovery.<\/p>\n

But Stolly, who has not spoken with the children personally, said that the kids talked to police when they raided the Hamden home and claimed the attorney general made these remarks \u201cprior to a thorough investigation being done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Cops fume as Mamdani urges New Yorkers to take to streets to protest Netanyahu after arrest fail: \u2018Edge of chaos\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

When pressed on the conditions of the home, Stolly said Siders told him \u201cwith 16 kids, things could get messy fast\u201d and painted the family as victims of \u201cextreme poverty.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is very clearly a case where my client and the Siders family were living in extreme poverty,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd sometimes when you\u2019re living in a case like that, you\u2019re living in a home and that\u2019s what you\u2019ve known for years and years, you don\u2019t necessarily see how bad things have gotten. You don\u2019t necessarily see this the way that the rest of the world would.\u201d<\/p>\n

The young victims were mostly confined to the cramped space at their home for at least the past four years, according to authorities, who have\u00a0described the grisly scene as \u201cdeplorable\u201d and \u201cthird-world\u201d\u00a0\u2014 and even said local livestock have better conditions than the kids did.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

The children were taken to hospitals across Ohio after the June 30 rescue. Some were listed in serious condition, including two who were airlifted to trauma centers and at least one who had to be intubated, officials said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Elizabeth Siders, her husband Gary Siders Jr., 36 and grandparents Gary Siders Sr., 73, and Christina Siders, 67, were arrested.<\/p>\n

Each family member was slapped with 16 counts of felony child endangerment charges.<\/p>\n

Read more Long Island residents fume over all-boy, Muslim boarding school in residential neighborhood<\/a><\/p>\n

Elizabeth Siders is currently being held on a $300,000 bond.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The mother accused of keeping 16 kids crammed in a filthy house of horrors denied that the children lived like \u201cferal animals\u201d \u2014 blaming the deplorable living conditions on “extreme poverty” and “messy” kids.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5246,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-news"],"yoast_head":"\nHouse of Horrors mom denies 16 kids were 'feral animals,' just messy and poor - Metro Transit Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=5247\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"House of Horrors mom denies 16 kids were 'feral animals,' just messy and poor - 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