16 Feral Kids Found in Flasher Dad’s Hoarder Home

16 Feral Kids Found in Flasher Dad’s Hoarder Home

Part 1: The Background and Marriage

On March 31st, 2008, a 15-year-old named Elizabeth Russell married an 18-year-old named Gary Ciders Jr. in Mason County, West Virginia. That part is not unusual for what West Virginia allowed at the time. What made the trip across state lines necessary was Ohio law, which set the minimum marriage age at 16 for girls and 18 for guys.

So they crossed the river, signed the papers, and went home. They had been living just two houses apart at the time. Marriage records show that at the time of the wedding, Gary Jr. had completed the 9th grade, and Elizabeth the 6th grade. She would later drop out her junior year.

Two months into their marriage in May of 2008, their first child was born. Over the next 17 years, 15 more would follow.

Part 2: The Family Structure and Relocations

Gary Jr., known to the family as Bub, came from southeastern Ohio. His parents, 73-year-old Gary Ciders Sr. and 67-year-old Christina Ciders, known to the family as Lynn, had raised several children in what relatives describe as a normal household. For the sake of simplicity, we will be referring to them as Gary, Lynn, and Bub, respectively, for the remainder of the episode.

Going back more than 20 years, public records show both Gary and Lynn had racked up a few traffic violations and minor civil claims—nothing that would stand out to anyone. And the only blemish on Bub’s record was a 2017 citation for not having a booster seat in his car. He paid a fine that was later suspended.

Elizabeth’s record was completely clean. According to reports, she considered herself a full-time mother while Gary Jr. had been driving for DoorDash and looking to pick up more work.

Over the years, the family moved around quite a bit:

Around 2008: State vital statistics records show the couple living in a trailer park.

2022: They had moved to the Cheshire area.

2024: Records show them on Honeysuckle Drive.

Other locations: Officials say the family may have also had ties to Pike County, Jackson County, and possibly Wisconsin.

June 2025: Records show the family had been in Hampton since at least this time.

Part 3: The Conjoined Twins and Family Isolation

Those same state vital statistics records also show that in November of 2022, Elizabeth gave birth to twin girls at Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus. Bailey Lee Ciders and Faith Lee Ciders were born on November 20th, 2022. They were thoracopagus conjoined twins, meaning they were joined at the chest and upper abdomen. This is the most common form of conjoined twins. Both were born at 24 weeks and each lived just one hour. Their deaths were ruled natural causes due to extreme prematurity.

Wherever they went, relatives say they were kept at an arm’s length. Ronnie Fletcher has known the Ciders family since he was a kid. He married one of the elder Ciders’ daughters and has been with her for 20 years. He said that communication from the family always came through Gary or Lynn, never from Bub or Elizabeth. He later told reporters the following:

“We might have known whereabouts, you know what I mean? In a county or in a, you know, I mean, spot. Most of the time, we felt like that wasn’t really the truth. The last time we heard from them, we gave them a car and it’s probably close to a year ago now. We’ve done what we could for that family at the arm’s length that they was keeping us at.”

Ronnie believed things started falling apart at home after Gary’s health declined. He suffered a stroke and Ronnie said it affected his ability to think clearly and get around. As for Elizabeth, he said she came from a difficult situation before entering the Ciders family.

Part 4: The Investigation and House Conditions

The family made a point of staying invisible. No school enrollment, no regular medical visits, nothing. According to Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson, the family was pretty adept at keeping these kids out of sight and out of investigative eyes: “In every county that they moved to, they kept themselves off the radar successfully.”

In late May of 2026, the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) received reports involving the Ciders’s home on OMR Street in Hampton. The investigation that brought them there had nothing to do with what they were about to find. What BCI had on Bub were four counts of public indecency in Vinton County Municipal Court, all of which he pled not guilty to. The incidents allegedly occurred over four days at the end of May. According to the filings, Bub had recklessly exposed his private parts at the residence in a manner that anyone nearby could have seen.

BCI and the Vinton County Sheriff’s Office worked the case for approximately 4 to 6 weeks. At around 10:00 a.m. on June 30th, investigators arrived at the 100 block of OMR Street with a court-authorized search warrant. According to AG Wilson, and I quote: “It wasn’t about the welfare of these 16 kids. At that point, we didn’t know that there were going to be 16 kids there.”

From the road, the house was easy to see. The place had been standing since 1900. A single-story, wood-frame structure sitting right up against a railroad embankment—close enough that I’m sure the freight trains running through were [music] pretty loud. Out back, the deck and yard were covered in junk, including old tires, a high chair, and other debris. The front door was ajar, and trash was visible from the outside.

Those who got close enough said the smell coming out of the building hit them before they even got to the door. According to AG Wilson: “I cannot get the smell off of me or away from me.”

Part 5: The Discovery of the 16 Children

Now, inside an approximately 12 x 12 ft room, 16 children had been living for the better part of 4 years. The boys and girls range in age from 17 months to 18 years old.

All 16 are thought to be biologically Bub and Elizabeth’s, which is a claim supported by birth records for at least four of the children, though the parentage of the remaining 12 is still being established through records review as of the date of this recording. Court filings show at least two pairs of the children sharing a birthday, suggesting the group included more than one set of twins.

The room was contaminated with human feces and bacteria. Cockroaches were present throughout. For Vinton County Sheriff Ryan Cain: “Most of our livestock was kept in better conditions than the children. There was an extremely high presence of bacteria and human feces. Just a disgusting scene.”

AG Wilson and Sheriff Cain said some of the children were completely non-speaking. Others could communicate with them, but just barely. Sheriff Cain told reporters that “there was joy when we realized we’re about to change 16 lives for the better. But it’s hard.” And according to AG Wilson: “Their physical condition is our number one priority, but we also have to be concerned with their emotional well-being.”

The eldest, who was an 18-year-old with developmental disabilities, couldn’t spell her own name. Prosecutors included her in the charges because she is believed to developmentally still be a minor. As I’m sure you could have guessed, none of the 16 children had ever been enrolled in school.

Part 6: Medical Evacuation and Arrests

The acting fire department public information officer on scene ended up driving four of the kids to the hospital himself. He described it afterwards, and I quote:

“Cockroaches and stuff like that. Bugs just in general and the conditions, you know, bugs get on the children and stuff and they scratch and they bite and all of that stuff. So, their condition wasn’t the greatest. It was just quiet, blank expressions.”

Seven of the children were transported to Columbus area hospitals. Two were airlifted by helicopter to Level 1 trauma centers in the state. At least one child had to be intubated upon arrival and was placed in the ICU in critical condition. Some have since been examined and released. As of the date of this recording, at least one remained hospitalized in serious condition. AG Wilson said the following:

“I think if they would have waited another 24 hours that there was a very high probability that we’d be dealing with a death or multiple deaths of these children.”

All four adults—Gary Ciders Sr., Gary “Bub” Ciders Jr., Christina Lynn Ciders, and Elizabeth Ciders—were present in the home when investigators entered. All four were arrested on site.

The children are now in the temporary custody of the Ohio Department of Children and Youth. According to AG Wilson: “They were hiding these kids. They knew these kids were neglected. They knew if anyone knew what was going on, those kids would have been taken away from them.”

All four adults each faced 16 counts of second-degree felony child endangerment, one count per child. The charges allege all four of them mistreated the children in a manner causing serious physical harm. Under Ohio law, a second-degree felony child endangerment conviction carries 2 to 8 years minimum and up to 12 maximum per count. As the Ciders have yet to go to trial, all four are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

Part 7: Arraignment and Court Proceedings

On July 1st, all four appeared by video link from the Southeastern Ohio Regional Jail for their arraignment before Vinton County Common Pleas Judge Lena Fiedler Rogers. Judge Rogers entered not guilty pleas for all four. At that point, none of them had been assigned counsel yet. Bond was set at $300,000 cash or surety for each defendant. They were ordered to have no contact with one another or the children.

And we’re told that if any of them makes bond, GPS monitoring will be required:

“And you will be required to wear a GPS monitor at the state’s expense. You would also be required to be a law-abiding citizen, keep the court informed of any address or telephone number changes, appear at all hearings, and have DNA and fingerprinting done if you’ve not done so already. Do you understand? Even if you’re not able to post bond, they’re asking that you have no contact with your codefendants. That means each other. I presume the jail will keep you from having contact with the other two codefendants if you remain in jail. No contact with the alleged victims of the offense. And if you are released, that you be fitted with a GPS monitor at state’s expense.

You have four pleas available to you. A plea of guilty is a complete admission of your guilt. A not-guilty plea is a complete denial of your guilt. A no contest plea is not an admission of guilt, but is an admission to the facts that underlie the complaint. If you plead no contest, the state would give a statement of facts, and it would be up to the court to determine whether or not you were guilty of the charged offenses based on those facts.”

Part 8: Defense Statements and Legal Updates

On July 2nd, attorney Dorian Keith Baum, who was tasked to represent Gary, released a formal press statement on the case. He noted that no formal indictment had yet been filed, only a complaint and then an amended complaint with one fewer count. He told reporters: “We ask that the community at large, as well as anyone who might have interest in this case, to take a deep breath and let the case play out and the facts play out.”

Attorney Thomas Stoll, representing Elizabeth, met with her at the Vinton County Jail on July 2nd. He spent about an hour and a half with her. He described her as crying and exhausted, and came away with a different read than the one presented at the press conferences. He said:

“The person that I met with is not someone who comes across as pure evil. Evil requires malice and the person that I saw there, Elizabeth, she doesn’t have that in her eyes, at least from this initial meeting.”

Her first questions, he said, were about the children. He continued:

“She asked if her children were okay. She asked if I knew where they were, and she asked when she’d be able to see them again. Usually when people are in jail, they ask, ‘Can you get me out of here? When can I get out?’ So, I think that was telling.”

He also told reporters:

“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 because if that’s all you know, and you have to think someone at 15 years old doesn’t know a whole lot about being an adult, about being a mother, about being a wife, and that’s been your worldview for the past 17 or 18 years, you get shaped by that. While the headlines may be sensational, there is a real human component to this and so I would ask people to give this process time to play out.”

Attorneys for Bub and Lynn both declined to comment. Bub is also due in court on July 9th for a pre-trial hearing on the separate indecency charges. As for the endangerment case, attorney Baum told reporters he’s expecting the matter to go before a grand jury sometime around mid-July.

And on some breaking news that we received before recording on July 7th of 2026, all four adults have now waived their preliminary hearings. The search warrant affidavit connected to the initial investigation remains sealed by Vinton County courts. The prosecutor’s office has indicated additional charges are expected as the investigation continues.

Anyone with information about the Ciders family is asked to contact the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation at 855-224-6446. We’ll have that on screen as well as in the pinned comment and show notes.

Part 9: Community and Neighbor Reactions

The village of Hampton is home to around 720 people. The days after the arrest, those who had lived near the property for years said they were only beginning to understand what had been really going on next door:

Josh Odell, who lived nearby, thought the place was abandoned.

Mark Wesley and his neighbor PD Angels both lived one street up, and they said they never saw children near the property.

Joseph Stewart, who has lived three houses down for six years, told reporters that he had seen no kids at all.

Hampton Mayor Mike Neri told reporters that he had stopped by the property from time to time, checking the grass and reading the meter, and he never picked up on anything. The most he ever saw was an older woman out front.

But a few members of the community had seen the kids:

Food Pantry Employee: An employee of a local food pantry told reporters that the family came in every week and sometimes a few kids would be with them. From those encounters, he had no idea what was going on behind the scenes.

Local Dollar General Worker: A woman who had regular contact with the family described what those children looked like, saying: “The kids were all very thin, very, very thin. Ghost white, didn’t have no weight on their body. They had their hair over their face like to block out the outside world.”

Marcia Kessler (Neighbor): Said she had seen some of the children once at a yard sale and noticed they were dirty but assumed they had just been playing outside. She told reporters: “It’s just shocking. 16 kids in that kind of condition. This is going to last a long time. Being shocked… it’s not going to go away in a year. It’s not going to go away in a couple years. It’s going to be long-lasting. That’s the truth.”

Carissa Gonzalez (Hampton Resident): Told reporters: “You wouldn’t suspect that they had 16 kids living there. That’s just something crazy to me. I am still trying to process it.”

Part 10: Extended Family Impact

The extended Ciders family on the outside found themselves caught in the public’s anger. Ronnie Fletcher says his family has been receiving death threats since the news broke:

“I mean, we’ve had death threats. Um, we’ve been told that we need to be put in front of, you know, execution line of guns and, you know, killed and, you know, burned in. You know what I mean? It’s been bad. Gary and Lynn did not raise their children that way. The four daughters that got out are successful members of society. We raised our children. Our children have, you know, college degrees or, you know, I mean, whatever. Like, you know what I mean? And for us to be put into all this and there’s generational incest and, you know, I mean, this is going on generational… It’s not true. This is all into that one home.

The last time we heard from them, we gave them a car and that’s probably close to a year ago now, other than them, you know, Lynn calling us and asking for money or, you know, they needed help with the water bill or, you know, I mean, whatever. And if we had it, we sent it. If we didn’t, one of the other daughters did, you know, so we’ve done what we could for that family at the arm’s length that they was keeping us at.”

His wife is afraid to go to work. He says vehicles have been driving past their house and taking pictures of them.

“My daughters and stuff has been threatened and death threatened, to the point that we’ve had our pictures taken off of our accounts and we’ve had to delete all our social medias, and I mean it’s been awful.”

When asked what he wanted people to know, this is what Ronnie shared:

“Well, I mean, I just want them to know that we… my wife would take the last $5 out of her pocket and buy somebody a meal and chance running out of gas to get home. If we didn’t know this was that way, we would have helped there.”

“Yeah.” “Yeah. Does it make you sad that you guys didn’t know?” “Yeah.” “Yeah. I’m sorry.”

Tessy Ciders, whose late husband was a cousin of Gary Ciders Sr., told reporters she hadn’t seen the family in about 8 years. Last year at her husband’s funeral, Gary didn’t show up. She said the following:

“I expected to see Gary and them there, and he didn’t even show up. So, I wonder what’s happened. I wish I would have known. If I would have known babies were not being cared for, that wouldn’t fly. That’s horrible.”

Part 11: Online Claims and Unanswered Questions

While all of this was playing out, there have been reports regarding a man identifying himself online as the brother of Elizabeth. He allegedly made a post on social media claiming that she had been indoctrinated by the Ciders family, and that he had only recently reconnected with her after about 15 years apart. He referenced possible welfare involvement and suggested that the state knows something, though he didn’t elaborate or provide any evidence.

The brother hasn’t been identified publicly and none of the claims have been independently verified. But pair that with a 15-year-old with an eighth-grade education spending the next 18 years raising 16 children inside a family that cut off all outside contact, and there are very real questions about Elizabeth’s situation that this case hasn’t answered yet.

Now, as more and more information is being released day by day, we’ll keep an eye out for updates as they become available, and anything that’s not been mentioned during this episode will be added to our pinned comment.

Part 12: Expert Commentary and Conclusion

Columbus psychologist Dr. David Loewenstein, who is not assigned to this case in any way, shared his thoughts with reporters. He said that:

“This is going to affect them the rest of their life. It’s a major trauma.”

He broke it down by age, saying:

“The younger the age, if there’s something good about that, there won’t be as much of a memory because their minds are pretty young. But anybody who’s like third or fourth… four years old and older, and there was up to 18, I think, those kids are going to need long-term treatment.”

He said treatment has to start at the most basic level: getting the children to trust another person.

“A lot of treatment. There’s a lot of work to be done before they know what direction to even go in.”

Dr. Loewenstein said cases like this are a reminder: if you think something is off with a child, speak up. It’s like we’ve said time and time again, if you see something, say something.

“I’d rather you be wrong than miss something as serious as this.”