4 arrested in mass murder of Pike County family

[Quackers]

Source: NBC

Four people have been arrested in connection to the mass murder of a Pike County family, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said Tuesday.

The following four members of the Wagner family, of South Webster, were taken into custody Tuesday afternoon and are charged with planning and carrying out the murders:

George "Billy" Wagner III, 47
Angela Wagner, 48
George Wagner IV, 27
Edward "Jake" Wagner, 26

Seven adults and a teenage boy were shot "execution-style" in rural Ohio on the night of April 21-22, 2016.

Eight members of the Rhoden family were shot and killed at four homes near Piketon, about 90 miles north of Cincinnati.

Read more: https://www.wlwt.com/article/4-arrested-in-mass-murder-of-pike-county-family/25055118

---

This is local for me but it was national news at the time. They originally said it was a cartel hit.

[ck4829]

1. K&R

[Lindsay]

2. That was a long investigation.

I'm originally from Ohio, so paid some attention at the time.

Thanks for posting.

[ck4829]

10. People were so convinced they'd find a cartel connection IMHO

People talked about it up here in central Ohio, everyone said "Oh it must have been the cartel"

And I hear the Wagner clan was looked at several times, but I guess they weren't Mexican-y enough.

[IronLionZion]

3. Ban everyone from their country!

It could have still been a drug-related execution if people weren't too racist to acknowledge that whites sell drugs and kill each other.

[Quackers]

5. They definitely had several drug growing locations but

The local rumor is it was over a nasty custody battle but made to look like it was about drugs.

[Shell_Seas]

4. I'm so happy to hear this.

I remember that incident profoundly and think about it often.

[DoctorJoJo]

6. EAST of Cincinnati, Not North!

[Quackers]

8. Yeah, I saw that.

Not even sure it’s that far East. I’m about 60 miles from Cincinnati and it’s not too far from here.

[True Blue American]

13. East?

[True Blue American]

14. 50,60 miles from Cincinnati,east.

[True Blue American]

12. Closer to Portsmouth

And Waverly, Chillicothe.

[No Vested Interest]

16. That Southeast portion of Ohio is often referred to as Appalachia.

Ted Strickland, former governor of Ohio was from that area.

[FarPoint]

7. DeWine is just an empty suit...

DeWine wants the credit but we know the FBI and Profilers etc really brought in the arrest.

[Judi Lynn]

9. Here are photos of the 8 victims:

- click for photo -

https://www.daytondailynews.com/rf/image_lowres/Pub/p9/WHIO/2018/04/23/Videos/4377166.vpx

~ ~ ~

Also, an additional strange story:

Cousin to Rhoden family found dead, no link to massacre investigators say
by WKEF/WRGTThursday, June 14th 2018

UPDATE: A spokesperson for the Ohio Attorney General's office Bureau of Criminal Investigation says there is no evidence that links Violet Rhoden Taylor's death to the Rhoden family massacre in 2016.


----

PIKE COUNTY, Ohio (WKEF/WRGT) - A cousin to the Rhoden family has been found dead two years after the massacre in Pike County.

Investigators said they found 35-year-old fatally shot in the woods.

BCI is investigating the case, and has called it suspicious. An autopsy was performed in Montgomery County, but so far, her cause of death has not been determined.

Eight members of the Rhoden family were found shot in four separate homes in April 2016. Their murders remain unsolved.

https://fox45now.com/news/local/cousin-to-the-rhoden-family-found-dead-2-years-after-massacre

(Short article, no more info. at link.)





Violet Rhoden Taylor

[True Blue American]

15. Montgomery County?

That is Dayton.

[True Blue American]

11. My Dad worked at the Piketon Nuclear plant

And I have numerous friends, even some distant famiy members from South Webster.

[WhiteTara]

17. I remember this

and I always thought meth was involved and looking at the people arrested, they don't look very upstanding.

[BumRushDaShow]

18. I think I remember this too

"White on white crime."

[Progressive Jones]

19. Hillbilly feud? nt

[Maeve]

20. Custody battle

Family fighting family over family.

[Judi Lynn]

21. Child at center of Ohio mass killing is safe, family says

Andrew Welsh-huggins and Dan Sewell, Associated Press
Updated 8:13 pm CST, Thursday, November 15, 2018



COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A child at the center of a custody dispute that may have set off a gruesome Ohio massacre is safe in state custody, her great-grandfather said Wednesday, before one of the four suspects in the killings appeared in court.

Leonard Manley, whose daughter and grandchildren were among the eight people killed in 2016, told The Cincinnati Enquirer the 4-year-old girl is in state custody.

One of the suspects, Edward "Jake" Wagner, was the long-time former boyfriend of 19-year-old, one of the victims, and shared custody of their daughter at the time of the massacre.

On Wednesday afternoon, Wagner's father, another of the suspects, agreed to return to Ohio following his arrest in Kentucky. George "Billy" Wagner III was arrested after being found in a horse trailer in Lexington Tuesday. The 47-year-old Wagner waived his rights to an extradition hearing in a brief appearance Wednesday in Lexington district court.

More:
https://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Authorities-Prosecuting-Ohio-massacre-case-could-13390745.php

(It looks as if the child was born when the mother was fifteen years old! Yikes.)



Mother, Hanna May Rhoden, mother of Sophia.










Were eight members of the Rhoden family murdered in an extreme case of ‘hillbilly justice’?
COCKFIGHTING, pot growing; the Rhoden family’s hobbies earned them plenty of rivals but El Chapo was probably not one of them.

Marnie O’Neill@marnieoneill7
news.com.auMAY 7, 20167:44PM

- click for image -

https://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/59f9763c69f8b0b85df965d1400179f8


COCKFIGHTING, pot growing, demolition derby, pitbull breeding. You name it, the Rhoden family of Pike County, Ohio, were into it.

Rivalries go hand-in-hand with such interests and it’s no surprise many of the theories regarding who executed eight members of this ragtag clan last month centre around feuds and turf wars.

But the truth is, the Rhoden family didn’t roll much differently to anyone else in their neck of the woods. They lived in mobile homes on sprawling, rural properties littered with rusty trucks and animal cages, supplementing their incomes selling dope and betting on roosters.

- click for image -

https://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/3d808813f6e7c3d56ad560fa5bd181e5

Clarence “Frankie” Rhoden, 20, was murdered along with his fiancee Hannah Gilley, 20 and six other family members. The couple’s two small children, one just four days old, were spared.Source:Supplied

More:
https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/were-eight-members-of-the-rhoden-family-murdered-in-an-extreme-case-of-hillbilly-justice/news-story/1b45bdf93e2acea8da0a4701357cbfb0

(Many photos in this article from Australia.)