Elizabeth Siders would also be a “potential risk to the victims in this case” if released from jail, prosecutors said in a memorandum
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Elizabeth Siders.Credit : SOUTHEASTERN OHIO REGIONAL JAIL
The fate of the four adults found living with 16 children in an Ohio “House of Horrors” is now in the hands of a grand jury.
Vinton County Prosecutor William Archer revealed that a grand jury will be considering new charges in the case in a pair of memoranda filed last week in response to motions filed by attorneys for both Christina and Elizabeth Siders, who are seeking to reduce their $300,000 bonds.
The memorandum filed by Archer in response to Elizabeth’s motion also revealed that the grand jury would be deciding whether or not to indict the mother of the 16 children on “new serious felony charges.”
Archer did not say what those charges would be in the memorandum or when the grand jury might vote on whether or not to indict the four members of the Siders family, who were taken into custody on June 30.
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The judge overseeing the proceedings recently granted a motion from Elizabeth’s public defender Tommy Stolly seeking a mental health evaluation of the mother.
Stolly, who was appointed by the court to represent Elizabeth, has said that he is looking into the possibility that his client is also a victim in this case.
Elizabeth was just 15 years old when she crossed the state border with West Virginia so she could marry her husband, Gary Siders II.
She gave birth to the couple’s first child three months later, and in the 18 years since has given birth to at least 18 children whose ages range from 18 months to 18 years. Two of those children, conjoined twins she delivered prematurely at just 24 weeks, passed away shortly after birth.
She was taken into custody after police filed 16 counts of child neglect — one for each child — against her and her husband as well as her husband‘s father and stepmother, Gary Siders Sr. and Christina.
While the grand jury is considering serious charges for Elizabeth, there is no mention of additional charges being considered against Christina in the memorandum prosecutors filed in response to her motion for reduced bond.
At the time of their arrest, the two women were living in a small home in Vinton County, which is the poorest county in the state of Ohio.
Authorities later said that all 16 children were found confined to a single room in the home.
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The county is now tasked with managing the care of all 16 children and overseeing the funding that will allow them to receive the treatment they need in the wake of their traumatic upbringing. The state of Ohio has released $1 million in emergency funds to Vinton County to care for the children.
Elizabeth asked for a reduced bond in hopes of reuniting with her children, according to her motion, but prosecutors wrote in their memorandum that Elizabeth would be a “potential risk to the victims in this case” if released from jail.
In his motion seeking an evaluation of Elizabeth, Stolly asked that the “formal evaluation be conducted in order to determine whether [Elizabeth] is competent at this time to stand trial to the offenses as charged herein.”
He went on to request a second evaluation should the judge approve his motion and the first evaluation determine that Elizabeth is fit to stand trial.
That evaluation would be “to determine if she is not guilty by reason of insanity, because she was suffering from a condition which would produce legal insanity at the time of the alleged offenses,” according to the motion.
She and her three co-defendants have all entered not guilty pleas.
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