Published 00.08
The police came to the house on a completely different matter.
Then they found 16 children who had lived surrounded by feces on 12 square meters – for several years.
– A disgusting sight, says Sheriff Ryan Cain.
It was on Tuesday that US authorities conducted a house search in the small town of Hamden Ohioreports AP.
Unexpectedly, they found 16 children in the house, all from the same family, as well as four suspected perpetrators.
– Our cattle were kept in better conditions than the children did. A disgusting sight, said Vinton County Sheriff Ryan Cain.
Surrounded by feces
The children, boys and girls between the ages of one and 18, lived in appalling conditions surrounded by human excrement in a single small room of about 12 square meters, according to authorities.
– Some of the children could not even speak. It was terrible, says District Attorney Andy Wilson.
Seven of the children were taken to hospital, two by helicopter. One child was in critical condition.
Four family members arrested
What are said to be the children’s parents and grandparents have been arrested and charged with 16 cases of gross child neglect. All deny wrongdoing.
According to investigators, for the past two decades the family has moved around southern Ohio and avoided leaving a trace in public records. The children did not go to school, and no one outside the family seems to have known about them.
A neighbor of the family tells AP that he “hasn’t seen any children at all” since the family moved in four years ago.
– It is a sad situation, he says.
