Sixteen Children Found Locked in 12-Square-Meter Room for Years in Ohio

Police in Hamden, Ohio discovered sixteen siblings aged 1 to 18 imprisoned in a cramped room for approximately four years by their own parents and grandparents during an unrelated search warrant.

Sixteen Children Found Locked in 12-Square-Meter Room for Years in Ohio

Officers executing an unrelated search warrant in Hamden, Ohio stumbled upon a horrifying discovery: sixteen siblings, ranging in age from one to eighteen, had been kept locked inside a single room measuring roughly twelve square meters for about four years. La Dépêche reports that the youngsters' own parents and grandparents were responsible for their confinement.

The children were living in squalor, surrounded by feces. None had medical records or attended school. One child with a mental disability could not even spell her own name.

Vinton County Sheriff Ryan Cain described the scene as deeply disturbing, stating that livestock receive better care. Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson said he could not get the stench out of his nostrils, remarking that the children seemed almost like wild animals.

Neighbors expressed shock. Joseph Stewart, sixty, told the Associated Press he had never seen any children since the family moved in. Petey Angels, sixty-four, told the Columbus Dispatch that nothing ever happens in the quiet village.

Seven children were transported to Columbus hospitals, while two were airlifted to level-one trauma centers. The parents and both grandparents each face sixteen counts of second-degree child endangerment, with bail set at three hundred thousand dollars each.

Source: Google News LU FR