Sixteen children were found in dire condition in a rural Ohio house on Tuesday in what the state’s attorney general, Andy Wilson, called “one of the worst environments that I’ve seen in my career.”
“What we saw down here today is pure evil,” Mr. Wilson said at a news conference on Tuesday.
Gary Siders Sr., Gary Siders Jr., Christina Siders and Elizabeth Siders have been charged with felony child endangerment involving “serious physical harm,” said William Archer, a prosecutor, at the news conference.
The defendants were to be arraigned Wednesday morning. Rebecca Myers, a spokeswoman at the Office of the Ohio Public Defender, said she knew of no legal representation for them.
The four adults aren’t from Vinton County, the area in southeastern Ohio where the children were found, Mr. Archer said, but were “traveling.”
The boys and girls at the home ranged in age from 1-and-a-half to 18, Mr. Wilson said at the news conference. The children are being treated at hospitals throughout the state, Mr. Wilson said. Several are in serious condition and two had to be airlifted to trauma centers.
“It may not even be safe for our deputies and the agents to go into certain places of the house, because again, it’s just deplorable — conditions you cannot even imagine people being in, let alone children living in,” Mr. Wilson said.
The Vinton County Sheriff’s Office and state investigators searched the home, said Sheriff Ryan Cain. Mr. Wilson said the state’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation had sent agents from its major crimes and special victims unit and would assign computer forensic specialists and lab personnel.
Governor Mike DeWine said in a Tuesday statement that the director of the Ohio Department of Children and Youth was working with Vinton County Children’s Services.
“It is heartbreaking to learn the conditions that these children were living in, and to learn of their medical conditions,” Gov. DeWine said.