Tuesday marks 10 years since the Pike County massacre, when an entire family was murdered in their sleep in southern Ohio.
PIKE COUNTY, Ohio — Tuesday marks 10 years since the Pike County massacre, when an entire family was murdered in their sleep in southern Ohio. Eight members of the Rhoden family were killed across four crime scenes in Pike County on April 21, 2016. The community in the rolling hills of Appalachia, about 75 miles east of Cincinnati, was shaken by the crimes. Three children survived. The killers were members of another family the Rhodens knew, according to prosecutors.
The victims were Christopher Rhoden Sr. and his older brother, Kenneth Rhoden, both in their early 40s; his cousin, Gary Rhoden, and Chris Rhoden Sr.’s former wife, Dana Lynn Rhoden, both in their 30s; their children Clarence “Frankie” Rhoden, 20, and Hanna May Rhoden, 19; Christopher Rhoden Jr., 16; and Frankie’s fiancé, Hannah “Hazel” Gilley, 20. The killers spared three children: a 5-day-old baby girl, a 6-month-old baby boy and a 3-year-old boy.
“They’re gone. Nothing on this earth we can do will ever bring them back,” said Tony Rhoden, brother of one of the victims, back in 2016.19 Investigates is profiling the case in our new podcast episode. It quickly became the largest criminal investigation in Ohio history. State and local investigators logged thousands of hours of work, fielded more than 1,000 tips and conducted more than 500 interviews, according to the Ohio Attorney General’s Office.
Jake Wagner and his mother Angela Wagner took plea deals in exchange for their cooperation and testimony. A judge sentenced Jake Wagner to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 32 years. Angela Wagner was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Jake Wagner’s older brother, George Wagner IV, pleaded not guilty. A judge sentenced him to eight consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole. The patriarch of the family, George “Billy” Wagner, pleaded not guilty and is waiting for a trial date.
Ohio Department of Public Safety Director Andy Wilson, who was a special prosecutor on the case at the time, said the killings stemmed from a custody dispute over Hanna Rhoden and Jake Wagner’s daughter. “Angela Wagner wanted that baby. She wanted-- that baby was going to be raised as a Wagner. And if they had to kill to make that happen, they were willing to kill to make that happen,” Wilson said.“They were pretty sure that the Rhodens would figure out that it was the Wagners that did it and they’d come back and kill the Wagners,” Wilson said. “So the plan evolved from just killing Hannah to, hey, we got to wipe out the entire family, or at least the part of the family that is a threat to us. So that’s, and again, that’s pure evil. I mean, pure evil.”
Investigators did not focus on the Wagner family immediately. The investigation reached as far as Alaska, and shoes, forensics and surveillance video all helped lead investigators to the suspects. Crucial evidence was later found hidden in plain sight. You can hear more about the investigation into this case in our latest episode of Dark Side of the Land,Student dies after shooting herself in cafeteria of Valley Forge High School Rocky River High School baseball team coaches resign after incident with fraternity members in Myrtle Beach, SCFather kills 7 of his children plus another child in shooting after domestic dispute, police say
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