Brandon Henderson Sr., an Ohio man indicted in an investigation connected to the 16 Siders children found living in squalid conditions in Vinton County this summer, is scheduled to appear in court later today.
Henderson, 40, is set to appear for a Sept. 21 pre-trial hearing in Vinton County Common Pleas Court, according to online court records. He is one of six people facing criminal charges connected to a Vinton County investigation that included authorities finding 16 children in one room of a Hamden home, living in what officials described as "deplorable" conditions, on June 30.
Henderson was indicted Aug. 21 in connection with an investigation that initially led to law enforcement to the Siders family's home. He faces one second-degree felony
and two third-degree felony counts of endangering children, as well as two first-degree misdemeanor counts. Henderson also faces eight counts of gross sexual imposition and eight counts of sexual battery.
His third- and fourth-degree felony counts of gross sexual imposition stem from an offense on Jan. 27, 2020, and the third-degree felony count of sexual battery dates back to an offense on March 21, 2025.
How is Henderson connected to the Vinton County case?
Vinton County Sheriff Ryan Cain previously said his office requested help from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation's special victims unit in December 2025 while investigating allegations of child abuse involving Henderson and Joshua Saunders III.
Saunders is Gary Siders Jr.'s nephew, and Henderson is Saunders' mother's partner.
Information uncovered during that investigation led authorities in March 2026 to open an investigation into the Siders family based on allegations of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor.
On June 30, authorities with a search warrant went to the Siders family's rented home on the 100 block of Ohmer Street in Hamden, about 80 miles southeast of Columbus, to collect Gary Siders Jr.'s DNA. It was during the execution of that search warrant that authorities discovered the 16 children in a rear room of the house, Vinton County Prosecutor William Archer previously said.
After the Vinton County Sheriff's Office and Ohio Attorney General's Bureau of Criminal Investigation removed the children from the home, authorities arrested four adults: Gary Siders Sr., Gary Siders Jr., Christina Siders and Elizabeth Siders.
Those four initially faced child endangerment charges, but the scope expanded in August when Gary Siders Jr. and Elizabeth Siders were indicted on additional sex crime charges. Two other relatives, Henderson and Saunders III, were also charged in related cases.
Archer has said the cases "began as an investigation into family child sex abuse."
Higher education reporter Sheridan Hendrix can be reached at shendrix@dispatch.com and on Signal at @sheridan.120. You can follow her on Instagram at @sheridanwrites.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Brandon Henderson Sr. to appear in court related to Siders family case
