16 Kids Kept In 12x12 ft Room Covered In Feces - Why Internet Thinks Mom of 16 Kids Is Also a Victim

**Stephanie Soo** (0:02)
By 9.45pm, the very aggressive, bright fluorescent LED lights are enough to drive anybody insane and give somebody a headache. Especially if you've been inside this giant Dollar General store all day long. With all the bright neon yellow signs, because of course, that is the store's color, Ariel has been working at this specific location for the past two years. Which like a lot of other Dollar General stores and stores with the word dollar in its name, most things are not a dollar.
The average price of an item at the Dollar General is around $2.50.
But it is still cheaper than other stores, and it's one of the very few stores in this entire town of Hamden, Ohio. The population of the town is around 700 people. I wouldn't be surprised if Ariel has seen at least a good chunk of the entire population. Walk in, grab something, check out at her cash register. Since it is one of the few stores, I can also imagine that Ariel gets a lot of regulars. One particular family, the Ciders, they always come in at 9:45 p.m. just before closing. You can usually smell them before you see them. And that's not meant to be in an offensive way.
Ariel and the Dollar General staff, they have seen families that were struggling. And I think everyone can agree, it is better to buy a bag of rice for the kids than it is to buy shampoo if you really have to choose between the two. And Ariel remembers she and her colleagues would purchase hygiene products with their own money to give to the cider family.
But the next day, they would come in, and it didn't smell like they were using any of the hygiene products. So Ariel says they all kind of backed off from that point because they thought maybe the family was getting offended that they were offering them hygiene products, so maybe it's best to just back off and lay off. But Ariel did notice some really odd things about the ciders. You have the parents, they look to be in their 30s. They do carry with them the very distinct smell of cat urine. Sometimes they would come in alone. Sometimes they would bring along a child or two.
The children would always have hair in their face. Like not just messy hair, but their hair would be covering their face and covering their eyes. But you cannot get a good look at their face. Ariel says the children would also stick very close to the parents, as close to them as possible. And it almost felt like to Ariel that the children were taught to never look up or make eye contact with others.
According to Ariel, the family came in and would always buy the same few things. Sometimes they would purchase sugar once in a blue moon. Very rarely, not all the time, but like once in a blue moon, they would purchase diapers. But they're coming in nearly every day, so what are they buying? They would always buy the same two things, a jug of water and a decent size bottle of vegetable oil. Water and vegetable oil. Water and cooking oil are usually staples in everybody's house. But I don't know how frequently one needs to replenish their oil. Would you need to restock it as frequently as you would a jug of water? Monday, June 29th of this year, Ariel sees the Sider family walk in and purchase their regular items, a jug of water and a decent size bottle of vegetable oil. The next day, June 30th, Tuesday, she sees them on the news after they are arrested in connection to what has now been dubbed the Ohio House of Horror's case, where 16 children were found cramped in a 12 by 12 room, where there are more questions than answers now. The initial questions were, of course, is this human trafficking? Is this a human trafficking ring in the middle of nowhere Ohio? Who are the 16 children? Who are their parents? Where were they born? How long were they in that room for? How did nobody notice? And what were they doing with the vegetable oil? This is the case of the Sider's family.
We would like to thank today's sponsors who have made it possible for Rotten Mango to support the children in today's episode. All the official donation information will be in the show notes. This episode's partnerships have also made it possible to support Rotten Mango's team of dedicated researchers. We would also like to thank you for your continued support. As always, full show notes are available at rottenmangopodcast.com. Today's episode involves mentions of underage marriages, potential speculations of incestuous relationships, DV, CA, deprivation, and torture. Please do not prioritize this episode over your mental health. This case is also super current. There are still investigations, pending court charges, lots of updates. It's evolving every day. So if there are any updates between now and the posting of this episode, we're going to be sure to add a pinned comment below. Lastly, quotes, statements, comments may be shortened for brevity. And there's going to be a lot of times where in the episode, we're going to talk about people who have come forward to speak about the family. Those are unverified individuals. They are not testifying in the court of law. They are not being subpoenaed. These are not sworn statements of truth. They're just like Facebook posts. So with that being said, I'm going to indicate when any of those we should be a little bit wary of. But with that being said, let's get started. I have never seen a house like this before. It is a big lot with a lot of green trees surrounding it. And it's a small house, like 1300 square feet, which that sounds nice, like a little plot of land with a lot of green foliage. I mean, it probably could be nice, but it's also sitting directly across from railroad tracks. There's not even a fence, nothing guarding the tracks. Instead of looking out your front door and seeing your neighbor, you just see railroad tracks. And they're working railroad tracks too. It is considered a class 2 track, meaning run as needed. It's not inactive, but it is very low traffic, which is probably for the best. The houses sitting around the railroads, they don't look like they have the best soundproofing, and it could also be very dangerous for pets and kids.