16 children rescued from 'third world' conditions in Vinton County — Full news conference

[0:00] good afternoon my name is steve erwin i'm the communications director for the ohio attorney [0:04] general's office we will hear this afternoon from vinton county prosecutor william archer [0:10] vinton county sheriff ryan kane and then ohio attorney general andy wilson at the conclusion [0:16] of the prepared remarks we will take a brief question and answer session thank you good [0:23] afternoon at 10 30 today the four defendants were arraigned on 16 counts of [0:31] uh second degree felony non uh child endangering they were assessed a three hundred thousand [0:39] dollar cash or surety bond per defendant they were ordered to have no contact with each other as [0:44] co-defendants they were ordered to have no contact with the victims they we believe will be requesting [0:51] court-appointed counsel and will anticipate getting ready for the next stage which at this point would [0:58] be a preliminary hearing if they request that or if they don't waive it and that'll be with their [1:04] counsel right now the abuse neglect dependency complaints that have been filed are being heard [1:11] by the vinton county juvenile and probate court the initial hearing occurring now we are asking for [1:18] temporary custody to job and family services the children are safe they are in they have been placed [1:25] uh we have uh some other issues we're still dealing with for their safety but they are uh currently in [1:32] a good situation and are being protected the last thing i want to mention very quickly uh particularly [1:38] for our local community folks is this is an intra-family situation this is not human trafficking there [1:46] there is nothing to put our other children at risk this has clearly involved a multi-generational [1:53] family in a very limited situation we know the early reports came out that some of this might be [1:59] going on but we want to assure the public that their children in vinton county are safe and they do [2:05] not have to worry about these defendants i will now turn it over to attorney general andy wilson [2:12] sorry about that uh i just wanted to touch on what the prosecutor had said uh yesterday i know [2:18] everybody's got a lot of questions uh the nature of the crimes we have a lot of hurdles that are real [2:24] sensitive that we have to we want to get you guys information as quick as we can but the the age [2:31] range of the kids has there's a lot of specific hurdles involved in this crime we will get you that [2:37] information as soon as we can we just want to let you know that also to touch back on that the community [2:41] is safe they're just as safe as the day before you learned that this had happened um and we're still [2:48] working on it and we're going to do the best we can to make sure you guys are informed so thank you [2:53] okay i'm andy wilson ohio's attorney general i want to open up by saying like i did yesterday [3:01] like i do every time i talk about a criminal case that's just been charged that under our american [3:07] criminal justice system everybody who is charged is cloaked in the presumption of innocent and they [3:11] remain innocent unless and until they are taken into court and proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt [3:18] that being said i'm coming uh to this press conference uh directly from the sheriff's office where i had [3:24] the opportunity again to to sit down with sheriff's office detectives and with some of our bci agents [3:31] and i was briefed uh again updated on the status of the investigation and the case and i actually [3:39] had the opportunity today to look at some of the evidence of the case i was out at the scene with our [3:45] agents and the detectives yesterday so i saw the location i saw the condition that it was in some of the [3:52] evidence uh well yesterday when i saw the the location uh the kids were already gone they were [3:58] being treated at the hospital the evidence i got to see today uh was some evidence where uh the initial [4:05] discovery of the of the children uh was was captured or documented and uh again i i've done these types of [4:12] cases uh for a long time and i've been in incredibly uh poverty poverty-stricken areas uh in the inner city i've [4:19] been in in poverty-stricken areas in in rural ohio uh and i've never i've just never seen anything uh like [4:28] i saw uh today uh with with respect to those kids as we sat and we talked about as the team kind of [4:34] talked about it uh it really looked third world uh it's the type of thing that we're not used to seeing [4:40] here in america where uh you know our children are really our most precious resource uh and we have an [4:48] obligation as parents guardians and custodians to to love our kids to care for our kids uh to ensure [4:57] that they they are safe that they are well fed that they have a safe conditions uh to live in that's [5:03] what we expect uh here in america and again what i saw uh today in the evidence what i've seen uh up to [5:10] this point in this case is is um just almost beyond comprehension that that this stuff can happen in [5:18] our country and that it can happen and in a house at the hands of people who are in charge of of taking [5:24] care of of kids uh in looking at the evidence i i can tell you without hesitation that a lot of credit [5:34] has to go to uh local law enforcement to ohio bci i have uh the supervisor excuse me superintendent of [5:42] bci bruce pigeonowski with me uh here today and i have the on-scene uh supervisor jim mulford uh who [5:49] really it was his team that put this case together and uh worked with local sheriff's uh deputies and [5:55] sheriff detectives in putting this investigation together and they took it uh to the prosecutor's [6:00] office to to get the warrant or at least had the warrant approved and the reason i say that is [6:06] because uh again a lot of credit goes to the men and women of this investigative team because i'm [6:12] telling you in in what i've seen up to this point i i think if they would have waited another 24 hours [6:18] there was a very high probability that we'd be dealing with uh with a with a death or or multiple [6:25] deaths of the these children i'm not going to go specifically into the medical conditions of the [6:30] kids other to say that that is since since the discovery of this uh situation as you heard the [6:36] prosecutor say yesterday our number one concern has been the physical well-being of those children [6:44] several of the children were all of the children were examined and treated several of the children [6:49] i believe seven of them were taken to columbus hospitals and as i told you yesterday i think at [6:54] least two of them were care flighted those uh children uh again continue uh we continue to treat [7:02] and make sure that they are okay their physical well-being is our number one concern but we also have [7:08] to be concerned uh with their mental and emotional well-being as well and i can tell you uh on behalf [7:14] of the investigative team on on behalf of the prosecutor on the sheriff's office that is the number one [7:20] priority is to is make sure that these kids are are taken care of physically mentally and emotionally [7:26] and part of that as you heard uh the prosecutor say uh is making sure that they are they are placed [7:31] that that custody of these children is is removed uh from the people who did this to them and that these [7:38] kids are placed in safe uh loving environments where uh again it's going to take it's going to take a lot of [7:45] work to address uh the the emotional harm and some of the some of the issues that are going to result from [7:52] this uh but we need to make sure that those kids are surrounded and loved and supported uh by people who [7:58] truly care for them and we talked to the investigative team this morning and it appears from the evidence [8:07] in this case that uh these kids have been in a position where people they should have been able to trust [8:13] to take care of them have failed them uh not only failed them but harmed them and it's now up to us [8:20] to to to stand up for those kids and you saw that yesterday uh from the the detectives of the agents who [8:26] went in and removed the kids from this physical location uh but now it's on the the system and working [8:33] with prosecutor archer uh and talking with him uh through the case he understands fully that uh one of the [8:42] best ways that you can help these kids one of the best ways that you can address their their long-term [8:48] emotional and and mental needs is by holding accountable the people who harm them and and [8:54] talking to him about the evidence and talking to him about his plan uh for the case uh i am confident [9:00] that he's dedicated uh to seeing that justice is done for these kids and uh that the community uh again [9:08] remains uh safe uh for for everybody uh we have offered uh the help of the ohio attorney general's [9:15] office any way we can uh we have our special prosecutions division i have jimmy lowe who's the [9:21] deputy attorney general for law enforcement he's been down with us all morning we've offered up uh [9:26] prosecutors from our special prosecution division to to assist uh and i believe we're gonna we're gonna [9:32] partner in helping with that that case but our role is one of support uh and leveraging our resources [9:39] i i want to thank governor mike dewine i talked to governor dewine a couple times yesterday i talked [9:44] to cara wendy who is the director of the department of children and youth uh ensuring that uh the needs [9:52] of these kids the placement of these kids because as you can imagine placing 16 kids in a county of this [9:58] size taxes the resources uh i have assurances from the governor and from the department children and [10:03] youth the governor's staff uh that they will provide whatever we need whatever resources we need to [10:09] support these kids and help protect these kids the other thing i want to say is this as as the [10:15] prosecutor said this is isolated to an inter-familial event the citizens of this community don't have to [10:23] worry about their kids uh being a part of this or or somebody out there uh in addition to this that [10:30] that may be doing harm uh to their to their kids but if anybody out there has information about this [10:40] family and about these kids uh if they call uh the ohio attorney general's office uh and we'll have a [10:48] number we'll have that number here uh available after this press conference they call the ohio attorney [10:53] general's office uh to our tip line uh we certainly will get that to bci and we will want to talk to [10:59] you as the investigation moves forward so with that uh i certainly uh appreciate uh the good work of [11:07] everybody involved in this case and steve i think at this point i'm going to turn it over to a few [11:11] questions attorney general wilson i'll start real quick because i think it would be helpful for others [11:15] to know you said yesterday that his family has been traveling and has been here for i don't know how long [11:21] a period of time can you talk about how long we've been in benton county and then can you [11:26] share any information about where they have been prior to perhaps help other families in other parts [11:29] of the country that they see this and wonder wait the siders were living here and i'm worried about [11:35] what might have happened in my hometown what have you been here where do they come from sure we we know [11:41] that they have ties to gallia county um there was some talk that they may have been down in pike [11:45] county there was some talk that possibly in jackson county uh there's some talk that they were up in [11:50] wisconsin uh for a little bit uh and it appears that they've been back here in benton county for [11:55] about four years i'm not going to answer that because it's an ongoing investigation attorney general [12:05] can you you said the conditions the third world like can you describe some of the conditions who it's [12:16] almost indescribable uh so i i the sheriff sheriff was on the scene as well i probably ought to have him [12:24] come up but um boy it it i've seen livestock live yeah mostly kept better so you've got to come up [12:35] there um as i was saying uh most of our livestock was kept in better conditions than the children [12:45] it was extremely uh high presence i'm sure of bacterial and human uh feces uh it was just a disgusting scene [12:55] can i ask for both of you what did you feel like walking through there not necessarily what it looked [13:02] like with the description but what was going through so it was it was disgusting even where the kids [13:09] weren't um i would think it's typical most law enforcement have experience with homes in a similar [13:17] fashion um a large number of people though uh the children were kept in a roughly 12 by 12 area [13:29] that it seems like is where they've spent the most of the last four years and that's what it looks [13:34] like um in a weird way you're hit with most two emotions um there's there is joy when we get when we [13:46] realize that we're about to change 16 lives for the better but you're also uh it's hard were there any [13:55] signs of sexual abuse towards the children and did they ever that's still part of the ongoing [14:00] investigation yeah when did this system become yeah yeah it's uh i'll answer that's part of the [14:06] ongoing investigation we can't answer i will tell you this um you know there there isn't much evidence [14:15] that kids live there uh as as uh we've talked to some of the neighbors we've talked to some of the [14:21] people from from the neighborhood these people have been here for about four years and um we've talked [14:26] to some people who live in the neighborhood who said i had no idea that kids were even there and talking [14:32] about somebody asked about uh to describe the conditions adding on to what the sheriff said [14:38] uh i didn't actually go into the room where the the kids were i just looked uh through through the [14:42] door that was yesterday i can still smell i can't get the smell i cannot get the smell off of me or [14:49] away from me uh right now we were just talking about that a little while ago and then we we were [14:53] talking as a group uh about uh some of the evidence we looked at today uh where where they actually [14:59] discovered the kids and found the kids and it really it's not that different than those old [15:04] commercials you see of like kids in africa like just where they're covered in bugs and and squatting [15:11] and and had that like distant look in in their eyes it's terrible i mean it it is absolutely terrible [15:19] and again we gotta make sure the kids are safe we gotta make sure they're placed in in good solid [15:24] therapeutic placements and we have to hold accountable the people who are willing to do [15:29] this to their own family yeah well obviously we'll look at every you look at every single case and look [15:54] at lessons you can learn or how you can do it better so so conditions don't repeat themselves so we're [16:00] certainly looking at that um again the evidence shows that these these folks were were pretty good [16:07] at at hiding these kids and i think you're going to see that part of the reason they were hiding these [16:11] kids is they knew that these kids were neglected they knew that if anybody actually knew uh what was [16:16] going on these kids probably would have been removed and and they would have lost they would have lost the [16:20] kids so uh you know they they were pretty adept at keeping these kids out of sight and out of out of the [16:27] eyes out of investigators eyes but we have an obligation and again that's one of the things i [16:31] talked to um carol wendy about yesterday at department children youth we always have an obligation to go [16:37] back and look at these situations and look at areas where we can make improvements and having worked with [16:43] governor dewine for a long time i know i know that's exactly uh what he does in every single case [16:48] so so we'll go back and look at the full the full case the full investigation really right now i i told the [16:53] investigative team this morning even though this all blew up yesterday we're really just at the [16:57] beginning of of all of this you know we're dealing with making sure the kids are safe making sure [17:02] that the kids get placed gathering the evidence uh you know doing the doing the search warrants [17:07] taking in the property doing all the the case work type of stuff we have to do i'm certain that that [17:13] down the road will look broader at those type of issues as well i read in the system or any mandatory [17:20] order become aware of this or was this done directly by law enforcement and it came to the [17:26] sheriff's department first or or how did how did you guys learn about it yeah all i all i can tell [17:32] you on that part is there was a there was an investigation there's a parallel investigation going [17:36] on uh for something else that led law enforcement to that house uh on the search warrant and they [17:41] went into the house on the search warrant and discovered this should all the kids survive [17:45] and are they hospitalized uh so as as of this morning um you know some summer some were basically [17:54] examined and released last night some were admitted to columbus hospitals last night i know that there [18:01] was one that was in icu that was in critical condition was intubated at one point um and and i don't [18:09] know who all's been released and and who hasn't other other than the seven where stayed overnight [18:14] with the children being isolated like this when you were coming when you rescued them were they [18:19] able to talk and communicate that's one of the challenges we're facing during the yeah sorry that's [18:25] one of the challenges we're facing um that's why there's kind of contributes to a lack of information [18:31] um it's one of the investigative challenges we have to face is that they are limited uh they can't [18:37] communicate but it's it's extremely limited and some not at all at the moment why were the conditions [18:49] deemed unsafe from office i mean i'm sorry i couldn't hear you so so as they were doing the [18:57] search warrant yesterday uh and moving property they literally were about to fall through the floor [19:01] uh so yeah yeah was there any indication that the kids were involved in public life or education [19:06] prior to moving in county not at this time no how long was this investigation going on and were there [19:13] any complaints that were made to the local child welfare authorities well again i i'm talking about the the part of the [19:21] investigation that got us to the to the search warrant and that was an ongoing cooperative [19:27] investigation that had gone on again something unrelated it wasn't about the welfare of these 16 [19:31] kids at that point we didn't know we didn't know that there was going to be 16 kids there we weren't [19:37] again this when they talk to people uh people were like no i haven't seen any kids i haven't seen any [19:42] kids there um so so some of that some of that is out there uh with respect to um that the parallel [19:52] investigation um that was going on i don't know it was a joint effort between venton county and dci [19:58] what maybe a month maybe a month six weeks is is but that was not related to the conditions of the [20:04] house or or the welfare literally they were working they were coming to the culmination of that other [20:09] investigation which led them to do a search warrant at that at that house [20:13] that's still part of us that's something we're working on how exactly are the four defendants [20:26] related to each other i don't want to make an assumption here yeah i think i think you can tell [20:31] that yeah yeah grandma grandpa father and mother at this point that's what we know [20:40] yeah so is it fair to say that what led you to uh find those kids was a on a parallel ongoing [20:47] investigation at that time yeah i think so yeah that's that's a correct statement absolutely [20:51] can we expect more charges for these people it's possible yeah obviously it's a it's an ongoing [20:57] investigation uh and there there there could be more charges as uh we continue to uh to uncover [21:03] evidence and and currently uh at the regional jail they are aware of their crimes and um or the [21:17] allegation of their crimes and uh appropriately are treating them as any other inmate accused of [21:24] those crimes are while in population how can these children have gone to school necessarily for for [21:30] several years and no one checked on them there is no record of them yeah yeah that's again that's i i [21:39] don't know if you were here for this part but they they clearly were bouncing around uh a little bit [21:45] so that's part of the investigation we're still working on is is and that's why i ask uh you know if [21:50] people out in the community have information about this family uh we certainly we certainly [21:54] want that information and steve what steve what's the number eight five five bci ohio eight five five [22:02] bci ohio and how were you able to acquire the dates of birth were you able to get hospital records [22:08] or were some of these children born inside that home yeah so there's there's no evidence that any of [22:15] the children were born inside that home although that is that is something that they were initially [22:19] investigating once they discovered this but they were able they were able to obtain that from outside [22:24] sources okay and the first victim it shows that they are 18 years old why is that in a child [22:29] endangerment charge yeah i think that's good good question uh the young person's mental capacity she is [22:39] we believe developmentally disabled um couldn't even spell her name um at 18 and so she is [22:48] developmentally still a minor is it possible that that might be due to educational neglect and not [22:54] developmental delays oh you don't go to school you can be educated did these children know how to read [23:00] and write these are challenges yeah again we're working through that right now some of these children [23:07] couldn't even speak yeah so i mean we're talking this is this is this is very it was terrible i mean [23:16] they they really they looked it looked like almost feral animals it was it was terrible so so when we're [23:23] talking reading and writing in education we're talking a whole nother level of of expectations here [23:29] like the it's hard enough just to get these kids to be able to the 18 year old can't spell her name [23:35] attorney general listen real quick it sounds like an almost impossible scenario for law enforcement [23:40] if you don't know you don't know and things are happening inside a home and i'm sure you all [23:43] can appreciate that is there anything to say to other communities that you know neighbors like [23:49] to be neighborly and not infringe and live and let live and all the things but this sounds rather [23:53] awful obviously you would hate to think it's happening anywhere else but it very well could be [23:58] what are some things you you can touch on on that front maybe some recommendations just to keep an [24:03] eye out and you see something really strange it's very important if you see something suspicious or [24:07] you have a gut feeling there's no harm in calling us i think a lot of people have this misconception [24:12] of well they're busy i don't want to bother them or whatever reason that they fill in their mind but [24:16] when you see something or you think something's odd there's no nothing wrong with calling us so we can [24:22] start documenting it maybe it brings it to the patrol officer's mind just keep an eye on the house maybe [24:27] he's catches something but uh yeah if you if you there's no reason not to call the sheriff's office [24:32] if you feel like there's a there's nothing too small we will look into it sure uh the attorney general [24:38] said they were in a 12 by 12 inch room was there a cage in there well foot but that was an approximation [24:44] by the way was there a cage no you're only being kept in there by the door the household door we're [24:50] getting a little bit that's yeah that's uh yeah again that's part of what we're running down right [25:00] now uh we we we look like i told you we're looking at the criminal investigation we're looking at the [25:07] placement and protection of the kids um and and part of the longer term investigation is figuring out [25:12] who who's known what about these kids did elizabeth cider birth um any or all of these children [25:21] and is she a victim herself that is all still part of the ongoing investigation um at this time we [25:29] can't continue on that if i may just one last question the property owner i think that's an [25:34] important issue who owned this property who is responsible for the property it looked like the [25:39] owner passed away last april yeah it was owned by a trust so at this point uh we haven't we're [25:47] continuing to look at that but the deeded owner is actually the deceased woman's trust let me know what [25:53] the next steps are right here thank you that's it that's all we're gonna do so thank you very much [25:57] appreciate it appreciate it thanks for watching for more nbc4 download the nbc4 streaming app you'll [26:04] get free 24 7 local programming streamed straight to your living room just search nbc4 columbus on [26:10] on your apple tv amazon fire roku or samsung device