OHIO -- RHODEN FAMILY EXECUTIONS

[HairOfTheDog]

Family Murder in Ohio

Typically when a bunch of members of the same family are executed like this, the killer turns out to be a relative by blood or marriage. But, it's not clear if authorities have any suspects for this one yet.

Snip:
At least eight people from the same family have been fatally shot in Ohio, according to authorities; the youngest was 16. They were reportedly found in four homes in Pike County, about 90 miles east of Cincinnati.

Pike County Sheriff Charles Reader said a 3-year-old, a 6-month-old and a 4-day-old infant survived the shootings. He said there had been no arrests, and the shooter or shooters may still be on the loose.

Some of the victims were found in their beds, including the mother of the 4-day-old newborn, authorities said.

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said that none of the victims appeared to have committed suicide. “Each one of the victims appears to have been executed,” he said. “Each one of the victims appeared to be shot in the head.”

Other relatives “should be very careful and take particular caution,” he added. Law enforcement is trying to contact family members who live in the area to alert them to potential dangers.

Ref: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ohio...042da90734

[Duchess]

I read that 100 of their relatives had been gathered together and were warned they better be on guard.

These two were about to be married. They are now dead -



Mother & son. Dead -



This is Hannah. She was several months pregnant -



Story

[Donovan]

I'm guessing an angry boyfriend or ex. This has young trash idiot written all over it. Don't know if it was mentioned or if I missed it but the father of the one girl's pending baby and/or previous baby was not named.

[Duchess]

I have the 911 calls, they are from two different locations and in both it was a relative who found the bodies and made the calls. Please don't ever let me discover anything like this. Oh man.

[HairOfTheDog]

It's sad to look at those Rhoden family photos. RIP.

Pike County, Ohio LE issued an update yesterday. They've received about 100 tips, interviewed more than 50 people, and gathered evidence at the scenes.

They confirmed that the killings weren't done by someone who got mad and flew into a rage; the hits were instead pre-planned, well-organized, and carried out so as to leave little evidence.

Three of the four family residences / murder scenes were marijuana grow sites for a sophisticated organization.

In 2012, Pike County arrested some Mexican nationals who were running a pot growing operation and who LE believed were linked to cartels. Police haven't indicated that they believe there's any link to these murders.


http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/24/us/marijua...ing-sites/

[HairOfTheDog]

RHODEN FAMILY MURDERS, OHIO -- UPDATE



General
-More than 300 tips have been received since Friday, all of which are being investigated, the Ohio Attorney General’s office said today.

-LE has followed up on a Facebook threat posted last week towards the 16-year-old murder victim; no charges were filed.

-Two of the family residences were very near each other (pic above) and the other two were within a few miles. LE believes that there may be more than one killer involved, but it hasn't been released yet whether all of the bullets came from the same gun or anything like that.

-There is evidence that cockfights were going down at the residences, but LE doesn't know if the cockfighting or the pot growing operation is relevant to the murders.

-The father of Dana Rhoden told media yesterday, "Whoever done it knows the family. There were two dogs there that would eat you up."

Coroner's Report
-One of the eight relatives all killed "execution style" in rural Ohio suffered nine gunshot wounds, according to the local coroners offices.

-Two victims suffered five gunshot wounds; one was shot four times; and the others were shot once, twice or three times, the Pike County Coroner and Hamilton County Coroner said today. Officials did not identify which of the victims was shot how many times.

-Bruises were also reportedly noted on some of the victims' bodies.

Refs:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/ohio-family-kil...d=38674426
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/fa...-1.2614039
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/lates...g-38675756

[HairOfTheDog]

(Copied from 'Misc Cases II' thread) I was reading some of the comments written by members of the family on FB, and there was mention of family being involved in demolition derbies....and mention of a dispute/anger over a $3,000 car, but no details. I don't see any of this mentioned in the news media so thought it was worth a mention......

Thanks blueberrry, I hadn't seen anything about that. Interesting.

The Rhoden family sure isn't the Waltons -- tens of thousands of dollars worth of pot plants growing at home, cockfights, people-eating dogs, demolition derbies...

Sounds like there are probably a lot of different avenues, suspects, and motives that LE will have to explore and eliminate. If they have solid suspicion as to who's behind the murders already, they aren't saying. The official word is that they don't know if the motive was personal vendetta, business/money-related, cartel, or something else.

I hope LE knows more than they're saying or there's a break in the case soon. It's gotta be scary for the town and the remainder of the family to know there's someone(s) capable of brutally executing a whole family -- including a pregnant woman, and in the presence of small children -- on the loose.

There are about 2,000 people in the town of Piketon, which is said to have a big problem with meth and other drugs, and about 30,000 in Pike County. Pike County Sheriff Charles Reader told the press this weekend that he's unaware of threats made against anyone else in the family. But, since he and his department can't be everywhere all the time, he recommends that Rhoden family members and other concerned community members arm themselves at all times.

[Maggot]

I'm surprised the pot growers weren't armed, and that makes me believe silencers were used which makes me think of professional hit men, or drug enforcers. Something will come out after they comb the area a bit more, it looks like a big place. There are plenty of good detectives called out on it I'm sure.

[Duchess]

The number of shotgun blasts is kinda interesting to me. The overkill of it.

[Maggot]

It was shotgun? There must have been enough assassins for each bedroom. Someone should have bolted upright when one went off.

[Maggot]

RHODEN FAMILY MURDERS, OHIO -- UPDATE



General
-More than 300 tips have been received since Friday, all of which are being investigated, the Ohio Attorney General’s office said today.

-LE has followed up on a Facebook threat posted last week towards the 16-year-old murder victim; no charges were filed.

-Two of the family residences were very near each other (pic above) and the other two were within a few miles. LE believes that there may be more than one killer involved, but it hasn't been released yet whether all of the bullets came from the same gun or anything like that.

-There is evidence that cockfights were going down at the residences, but LE doesn't know if the cockfighting or the pot growing operation is relevant to the murders.

-The father of Dana Rhoden told media yesterday, "Whoever done it knows the family. There were two dogs there that would eat you up."

Coroner's Report
-One of the eight relatives all killed "execution style" in rural Ohio suffered nine gunshot wounds, according to the local coroners offices.

-Two victims suffered five gunshot wounds; one was shot four times; and the others were shot once, twice or three times, the Pike County Coroner and Hamilton County Coroner said today. Officials did not identify which of the victims was shot how many times.

-Bruises were also reportedly noted on some of the victims' bodies.

Refs:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/ohio-family-kil...d=38674426
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/fa...-1.2614039
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/lates...g-38675756

Now that I've re-read this all I can say is "If you lay with dogs you get fleas"

[HairOfTheDog]

Authorities will be holding a press conference on the Ohio family murder case this morning. Hoping it includes the announcement of a solid arrest.

[Duchess]

This is going to sound a bit odd so I hope you get me. I'm still thinking about those shotgun blasts. Shotguns are so powerful, they'll take a head off, an arm too, they take huge hunks off whatever they hit. To be shot 9 times with a shotgun sounds like so much anger. Murder is never happy of course but there seems to be a lot of anger, anger as in a personal type thing. Without knowing anything other than what's been reported I don't think this was a drug cartel hit, I think it was someone who knew these people and they were pissed in a major way.

[HairOfTheDog]

This is going to sound a bit odd so I hope you get me. I'm still thinking about those shotgun blasts. Shotguns are so powerful, they'll take a head off, an arm too, they take huge hunks off whatever they hit. To be shot 9 times with a shotgun sounds like so much anger. Murder is never happy of course but there seems to be a lot of anger, anger as in a personal type thing. Without knowing anything other than what's been reported I don't think this was a drug cartel hit, I think it was someone who knew these people and they were pissed in a major way.

The description of the murder scenes was 'very bloody', so that doesn't sound odd to me. Some of the victims at the four locations were shot multiple times, including in the head, and most while they were sleeping. This family pissed some individual or organization off big time.

Unfortunately, today's news conference by Ohio Attorney General, Mike DeWine, contained no new information.

DeWine told the media that he expects a long investigation. He said there are a lot of rumors floating around, but he's not going to bother correcting all the rumors.

DeWine didn't indicate if any potential motives/suspects have been eliminated.

[HairOfTheDog]

I don't know if this guy, who has been questioned by police, has been ruled in or out of the potential suspect pool.


^ This is the Facebook threat he made against Chris Rhoden week before last.

============================================





^ These are his Facebook posts after the murders.

[HairOfTheDog]

At today's press conference, AG DeWine also referenced this chart identifying the murder victims and their relationships.


http://www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov/Files...amily-Tree

[Duchess]

I hadn't really thought about how they all were connected apart from them being family. It looks like an entire family within the family were killed. That made sense in my head.

[blueberryhill]

I don't think this has anything to do with a drug cartel...I mean this is about growing pot, not meth, not heroin, etc.....

Maybe someone in the family felt cheated (love or money) for ex, a love triangle, custody issues, or something that simple. Where is the father of the 4 day old baby..Did I miss that? Also not clear who is mother of Frank's 3 year old. She and father of 4 day old baby seem to be missing from family tree......

[HairOfTheDog]

Donovan noticed the missing father too. I imagine the father of the 4-day-old and the mother of the 3-year-old are accounted for by LE or we would have heard about it, but I'm not sure. I could see LE failing to release details about them publicly because it could endanger them, or because LE does want to show their hands if either or both are POIs.

It does seem like the murders were likely personal in nature, given the overkill. But, a cartel hit isn't as unlikely to me on this one as it is in most cases where it gets thrown into the speculation. That area of Ohio is prime for grow operations and the indoor operations are producing such high grade pot that it's making it hard for Mexican cartels to compete, so the cartels are teaming up with locals. That's my understanding from this piece: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/20...iness.html

You mentioned demolition derbies yesterday, blueberry. I saw demolition derbies mentioned again in a 'Daily Beast' article I read tonight. Sounds like Frankie and Chris Jr. were heavily involved in the derbies, and that they were also beat-down artists. I wonder if they finally fucked with some people they shouldn't have? It's possible to me, but seems unlikely such a retaliation would involve killing other family members at 4 locations. Article: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/20...sacre.html

I don't know. This seems like a really tricky one for LE. I hope they were able to gather some incriminating physical evidence in their searches. Given the number of victims and the family's activities, there are probably a shitload of potential suspects.

[HairOfTheDog]

Donald Stone ^ is the man who found his cousin, Kenneth Rhoden, dead in his camper.

Stone claims Kenneth had a pitbull who would have gone off on a stranger. The dog was unharmed.

Stone also says that about a thousand dollars was strewn around Kenneth's feet when he found his cousin's body.

According to Stone, Kenneth was paranoid about security and had installed a network of security cameras at his camper home, but the killer removed them.

Police haven't confirmed or denied Stone's claims, but they have said that the killer(s) planned carefully not to leave evidence behind.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...erers.html