Ohio town in shock after 16 kids found in squalor 'right under our noses'

Just days after authorities removed 16 children from a squalid home and arrested four adult relatives, the question looms over their village in the US state of Ohio: how could this have happened, for years, unnoticed?

Neighbours of the Siders family in tiny Hamden, employees at local stores where they shopped, and even the investigators who responded to the scene have been left to wonder that aloud and to themselves.

The limited information shared by investigators does not offer a full answer.

The children were not enrolled in school, the family moved around over the past two decades, and neighbours said they had never even spotted the kids.

The children remained mostly confined to a small room in the house, investigators said, under deplorable conditions.

"Right under our noses and nobody was able to help them sooner," said Emily Collins, a business owner in a nearby town.

"It's just crazy that of all the wonderful things going on in our little Hallmark town and this is what puts us on the radar. It's really sad," said the 27-year-old mother of three, who was compelled to decorate the house's footpath with bright flowers and stars drawn in chalk to cheer herself up.

'Let the case play out', lawyer says

Authorities said they had gone to the home Tuesday on an unrelated investigation and discovered the children, aged one-and-a-half to 18 years, some of whom were unable to speak.

Seven were taken to hospitals, including one who was in critical condition, investigators said.

Their current conditions were not immediately known Thursday.

Child welfare officials have temporary custody of the children.

A man who lives three houses down from the Siders family said he had seen "no kids at all" there.

"It's a sad situation," said Joseph Stewart, 60, who has lived in the "quiet neighbourhood" for six years.

Four people who are the children's parents and grandparents were arrested on child endangerment charges.

Gary Siders Jr, 36, Gary Siders, 73, Elizabeth Siders, 33, and Christina Siders, 67, pleaded not guilty to child endangerment.

Bond was set at $US300,000 ($434,000) each.

An attorney for the elder Mr Siders said he was presumed innocent.

"We ask that the community at large, as well as anyone who might have an interest in this case, to take a deep breath, step back, and let the case play out and the facts play out," Dorian Baum told The Associated Press.

Attorneys for Mr Siders Jr and Christina Siders declined to comment.

Messages seeking comment from Elizabeth Siders's lawyer were not immediately returned.

Little traffic on home's rural road

Authorities would not publicly share the nature of the other investigation that led them to the house on Tuesday.

However, court records show a warrant was issued for Mr Siders Jr that day on misdemeanour indecent exposure charges related to alleged incidents on four days in May. He has pleaded not guilty.

On Thursday, windows and doors at the formerly wide-open home, about 97 kilometres south-east of state capital Columbus, had been boarded up.

Police tape and piles of refuse remained.

The previous day a door was ajar and piles of trash and children's toys were visible inside.

A wood deck and the backyard were filled with discarded tyres, a high chair and other debris.

The house sits on a road tucked alongside a steep railroad embankment where tracks carry rumbling trains to a rail yard in the village of fewer than 1,000 residents.

The closest neighbours are separated by trees and thick brush, but the house is easily visible from the road.

Kids not enrolled to school

Investigators said members of the family had moved around southern Ohio over the past two decades and that it looked like they avoided creating a medical or governmental paper trail.

The Vinton County Local School District, the only one in the area, said it had no records indicating that any of the children were ever enrolled.

"These folks were pretty good at hiding these kids," Ohio attorney-general Andy Wilson said Wednesday.

The children's absence from school, and the apparent lack of regular visits with medical professionals, likely contributed to keeping the dire situation unknown, said Jacqueline Yahn, an associate professor at Ohio University specialising in rural education and poverty.

"When kids are isolated or not participating, you don't have someone who's trained to [spot] the clues,"

Ms Yahn said.

"A 'well-check' is called that for a reason — they're checking for wellbeing and development."

Investigators were reviewing whether the family was reported to any children's services agencies in the past.

The 16 children spent most of their time in a roughly 3.5-metre-squared room, according to investigators, who noted that human waste was all around.

"They looked like almost feral animals. It was terrible," Mr Wilson said.

AP