The mother of 16 “almost feral” children who were kept in a feces-covered, sickening Ohio house of horrors has requested a mental health evaluation to determine whether she’s fit to stand trial.
Elizabeth Siders, 33, may be “suffering from mental health issues and that competency may be an issue and a clear impediment to the defendant’s ability to assist in her own defense,” her lawyer, Thomas Stolly, wrote in a new motion, according to FOX8.
Stolly also claimed in the motion that Siders’ mental state “would also have affected her ability to understand the wrongfulness of her conduct at the time of the alleged offenses.”
If the motion is approved, Southeastern Ohio Regional Jail — where Siders is being held — will have 30 days to get a psychiatrist to perform an evaluation.
Siders, her husband Gary Siders Jr., 37, and her mother-in-law Christina Siders, 67, and father-in-law Gary Siders, 73, were arrested in June after authorities targeted their home in Vinton County, Ohio, and found the children who “looked like almost feral animals,” according to police.
The children, ranging in age from 18 months to 18 years, were found living in squalor inside a cramped 12-by-12 room in a scene Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson described as “pure evil.”
The suspects are each facing 16 counts of 16 counts of disturbing child abuse charges.
Christina and Gary Siders Jr. were cleared for evaluations last week. Siders Sr. has been released from custody due to an unexpected medical emergency.
Elizabeth recently looked sheepish and horrified as she was searched by officers at Southeastern Ohio Regional Jail last month, attempting to abscond a mysterious mark on her arm, according to video obtained by Plunder True Crime.
