Damning new timeline reveals YEARS of missed warnings before 16 kids were rescued from Ohio 'house of horrors' as records reveal 'non-reading' 11-year-old, and four-year-old who couldn't speak

The parents of the 16 kids discovered in an Ohio 'House of Horrors' were investigated by children's services as early as January 2020 over fears about the kids' health and stalling education, which left them unable to read or speak properly, the Daily Mail can reveal.Elizabeth and Gary Siders Jr were at the center of three probes in just two years over concerns that some of their children were absent from school and at risk of 'possible abuse and severe neglect' at the family's previous homes in Gallia County, according to a trove of newly released juvenile court records obtained by the Daily Mail.In December 2020, Gallia County Family Services launched an investigation over the couple's failure to take their kids to medical follow-up appointments after four of them were diagnosed with 'high levels' of lead in their systems.The revelations were made in a court affidavit submitted by caseworker Erin R Canter of Gallia County Department of Jobs and Family Services, as part of a January 2021 neglect and dependency complaint filed by the county.Canter claims the couple later blocked her from seeing the children upstairs in their Cheshire home, claiming they were asleep.When she later gained access, Canter found the home infested with cockroaches, flies and gnats, which left one child covered in insect bites and scratches, she wrote in her affidavit.She said a doctor had flagged concern over the children's 'odor,' as well as one child's teeth, warning they were not in 'good condition.'Meanwhile, one four-year-old child could not 'speak any clear language' and was recommended to undergo a speech evaluation, she wrote.Though the couple later complied with completing medical follow-ups, the caseworker wrote their initial refusal to allow her upstairs to see the children raised 'new concerns' of 'possible abuse and/or severe neglect.'Elizabeth, 34, and Gary Siders Jr are the parents of the 16 children found living in the house of horrors in June. They are being held in jail in the wake of the disturbing charges and pled not guilty to the initial complaint. Gary Jr has pleaded not guilty to the new indictments and Elizabeth is yet to be arraigned Court records obtained by the Daily Mail have revealed authorities had been raising the alarm about Elizabeth and Gary Siders Jr's children as far back as January 2020 Canter reported seeing 'bruising' on one child's thigh, while another was 'tugging her ear and scratching her head profusely.'She said their parents always wore the same clothes and they and their children 'lacked consistent hygiene.'The couple had already been investigated months earlier, in January 2020, over their seven-year-old child's 'significant development delays' while enrolled in a digital home-school program.In a March 2020 court complaint, another case worker, Olivia Meadows, said the child showed an 'inability to speak in complete sentences or initiate in conversation' and had not been seen by a pediatrician for 'any medical or developmental delays'.She said their 13-year-old child had not completed any of her schoolwork set through the online academy, which she officially withdrew from in February 2020.According to Meadows, the school later raised concerns over three of the Siders kids aged 12, 11, and nine and their low academic performance below the level expected at their grade.The 11-year-old was reported to have been assessed in January 2020 by a teacher as a 'non-reader' who only knew 14 of the 26 letters of the alphabet, no letter sounds and could only count 1 through 12 before making mistakes, according to the affidavit. The social worker pointed out Christina Siders, 68, the children's paternal grandmother, was the point of contact between the school and the family and not their parents. The couple's 16 children were found living in squalor in their Hamden, Ohio home on June 30. Debris could be seen through an open window of the home Huge piles of junk were spotted outside the house of horrors, including multiple bikes and children's toys, after the sickening allegations came to light Pieces of discarded furniture, cardboard boxes, and trash were also seen strewn across the front yard But Elizabeth and Gary Jr were still singled out in the complaint for their failure to heed the school's advice to take their children for medical exams, speech therapy, vision and hearing tests, and taking part in support programs.'It appears the parent/caretakers are either unwilling to, or are not capable of, assuring the children's well-being when it comes to educational, developmental, and mental health needs,' the complaint stated.In both cases, children's services asked judge Thomas S Moulton Jr to order protective supervision of the children until their 'safety and well-being can be assured' by their parents.But instead of removing the children from the home, the judge ruled the kids could stay with their parents under protective supervision so long as the adults completed case plans.In an update in the first case in August 2020, the court heard Gary Jr and Elizabeth had made 'significant progress' on their case plan, had completed parenting classes and found 'appropriate housing' but other evaluations were stalled by the COVID-19 pandemic.Two months later, the judge closed the case and terminated the protective supervision.He closed the second case and ended court-ordered protective supervision on June 15, 2021 after Elizabeth and Gary completed case plans.But four months later, the couple would be back in court again after six of their children were labelled 'habitual truants' for missing school at their local elementary school in Cheshire. The children's paternal grandparents Christina Siders, 67, and her husband Gary Sr, 73, were arrested alongside their son and daughter-in-law. The couple, who are pictured together in an undated photo, have pled not guilty Christina Siders and her daughter-in-law, Elizabeth Siders, 34, during their intake. They have been indicted on recent child endangerment charges and have yet to be arraigned. They both pled not guilty to the charges in the initial complaintThe Daily Mail previously reported how the children, aged seven to 13 years old at the time, were labelled an 'unruly child by way of being a habitual truant' from school in October 2021 complaints lodged with Gallia County Juvenile Court.The complaint filed by a school attendance official said the children had been 'absent from school without legitimate excuse for the entire 2021-2022 academic year to present, an amount in excess of 72 hours for the school year; and as such is thereby a habitual truant.'But months later, the same judge abruptly closed the case because the Siders family could not be found, after leaving the state altogether.The cache of freshly released court papers appears to reveal missed opportunities for officials to remove the children aged 18 months to 18 years old from their parents and the squalid conditions they were allegedly found in at their family home in Hamden, Vinton County, in June.The Daily Mail has sought comment from Gallia County Family and Children's Services and attorneys for Henderson, Saunders and the four Siders adults.In an earlier statement, Dorian Baum, attorney for Gary Siders Sr, said he will 'vigorously and zealously defend' his client, who is out of jail on recognizance bond after needing medical treatment.Baum pointed out 'the number and severity' of the charges against Siders Sr had 'continued to decrease significantly' since the initial complaint at the end of June.The revelations come days after Elizabeth, 34, and husband Gary Jr, 36, were indicted on bombshell felony sex charges, alongside their children's de-facto uncle, Brandon Henderson, 40, and cousin, Josh Saunders III, 23, following a string of interconnected investigations.Elizabeth and Gary Jr were indicted last week on two counts of sexual battery and two counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, the Vinton County Prosecutor's Office said in a news release.In a shocking twist, the indictments alleged the couple engaged in sexual conduct with a child more than a decade younger than them and who is not a member of their immediate family between January and September 2022.The pair have also been indicted on 19 child endangerment charges over allegations their own children suffered 'serious physical harm' in their Hamden home.Joshua David Saunders, 23, and Brandon Scott Henderson Sr, 40, were indicted after the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation began probing into alleged sex abuse involving two children Vinton County Prosecutor William Archer said Friday the 16 kids were found after authorities began investigating 'family child sex abuse' and sought Gary Jr's DNA in connectionGary Jr has pleaded not guilty to the indicted charges in his arraignment last week. Elizabeth has yet to be arraigned on the new indictments, but pled not guilty to the initial child endangerment charges.The children's paternal grandmother, Christina Siders, 68, has also been indicted on 19 child endangerment charges while their grandfather, Gary Siders Sr, 73, has been indicted on 16.The elder Siders have yet to be arraigned on the indictments, but they pleaded not guilty to the initial child endangerment charges.The Siders adults were busted by cops over the kids' allegedly squalid living conditions following an investigation by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation's Special Victims Unit into the alleged abuse of two different children.This initially led to the arrests of Henderson and Saunders, both of South Bloomingville, Ohio, last Friday.Henderson, who was in a long-term relationship with Gary Jr's sister, Virginia 'Jenny' Saunders, has been indicted on 21 charges ranging from gross sexual imposition and sexual battery to endangering children. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.Saunders, Jenny's son from another relationship and Henderson's stepson, was indicted on three counts of rape and one count of gross sexual imposition. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.When law enforcement went to the Siders' Hamden home seeking Gary Jr's DNA in relation to the sex abuse case, they found the 16 children and the allegedly putrid conditions they were living in – arresting the adults and taking the kids into state foster care.The grandparents, Christina and Gary Sr, were already living in the rented house when their son and his wife moved in June last year, records show Gary Siders Jr, 36, and his 73-year-old father, Gary Siders Sr, pleaded not guilty to the child endangerment charges in the initial complaint. Gary Jr has pleaded not guilty to the new indictments, while his father has yet to be arraignedHenderson and Jenny, 38, had six children and the family had lived in Wisconsin and Ohio, according to property records.She is still married to one Joshua Saunders Jr, who is in Chillicothe Correctional Center in Ohio for murder, and is the father of Josh Saunders III, 23.In a tragic development, Jenny became paralyzed between late 2024 and early 2025, according to a still active GoFundMe set up by her sister Amanda's husband, Ronnie Fletcher, and shared on social media by several family members.In it, he wrote that after Jenny's 'sudden' paralysis, Henderson, 'her partner of 20 years, put her in a home and started abusing the children and neglecting them.'As a result, he said he and Amanda took custody of three of Jenny's children 'plus their oldest daughter's two-year-old' while Henderson married another woman and had another child with her.At least three of Jenny's children – aged 15, 13, and 14 – were transferred into the Fletchers' care following a November 7, 2025, order in a Vinton County court, according to three complaints filed in March with Gallia County Common Pleas court and obtained by the Daily Mail.The complaints filed on the children's behalf asked magistrate Thomas E Saunders to order Henderson and Jenny's incarcerated husband Saunders Jr to undergo genetic testing to confirm who their father is. The requests were granted earlier this month.Sign up to the weekly The Crime Desk newsletter for free for more on the chilling cases that have stunned the world