Six people were arrested on Tuesday for the 2016 murders of eight members of the Rhoden family in Pike County, Ohio. On Thursday, the defendants will appear in court for a hearing. Watch live in the player above, courtesy of WXIX.
The six suspects are all members of the Wagner family. George “Billy” Wagner III, 47; Edward “Jake” Wagner, 26; Angela Wagner, 48; and George Wagner IV, 27, are all facing aggravated murder charges. Rita Newcomb, 65, and Fredericka Wagner, 76, who are appearing before the judge on Thursday, are charged with perjury and obstruction of justice.
Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine has already said that no one else was involved, and that “The people who did it are in custody.”
The victims in the case are Christopher Rhoden Sr., 40; Dana Manley Rhoden, 37; Hanna May Rhoden, 19; Christopher Rhoden Jr., 16; Clarence “Frankie” Rhoden, 20; Hannah “Hazel” Gilley, 20; Kenneth Rhoden, 44; and Gary Rhoden, 38.
Among a slew of other charges against the defendants, Jake Wagner is facing allegations of unlawful sexual contact with Hanna May Rhoden when she was a minor, just 15 years old. That relationship produced a child who was 2 when Hanna died. DeWine indicated that
The probe into the murders was the “longest, most complex” that the Ohio Attorney General’s Office ever faced, DeWine said.
[Image via WXIX screengrab]
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