October 4, 2018 • 38 mins
The investigation into the killings of 8 members of an Ohio family in 2016 appears to have turned cold, which prompted a judge to order the release victim autopsies. Nancy Grace re-examines the Rhoden family massacre in light of the new revelations with a panel of experts including death scene investigator Joseph Scott Morgan, medical examiner Dr. Michelle Dupre, psychologist Caryn Stark, lawyer Ashley Willcott, and reporter Nicole Partin.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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(01:37):
It's horrible. I don't I don't know how to described.
It's horrible for the whole family. That's how a family
friend described the deaths of eight family members back in
April of two thousand sixteen. It's a mystery that has
captivated the state and has apparently puzzled authorities. Now a
little more is being revealed about the deaths of the
members of the Rodent family. We knew the family had
(02:00):
been shot to death, but now we are learning graphic details.
You're hearing from our friends at ABC. That was Tom
Bosco with ABC six. How did an entire family? And
and I say this with great pride that I also
went from the middle of nowhere, a family of eight
(02:20):
murdered in the middle of nowhere. And I say that
with great love and wonderment and incredulity because in an
area like Pike County. You don't expect a crime to
take place uh in the middle of Pike County, Ohio,
(02:42):
but especially a mass murder and execution style form. A
family of eight all shot dead, most of them as
they lay sleeping in their bed, except for one, the senior,
who had defensive wounds, showing that he tried to fight back.
(03:04):
Let's start at the beginning. Joining me right now, Karen Start,
New York psychologists joining us from Manhattan. Also Ashley Wilcot,
judge lawyer, founder of child Crime watch dot com. And yes,
there are three surviving children to think about. Ashley Joseph
Scott Morgan, Professor of forensics, Jacksonville State University, death investigator
(03:25):
and author of Blood Beneath My Feet on Amazon, and
renowned medical examiner Dr Michelle Dupre out of South Carolina.
But joining me right now. Crime Online dot Com investigative
reporter Nicole Pardon. Nicole, I really don't know where to start,
but let's start where every homicide investigation starts. We'll start
(03:47):
with the timeline and specifically the murders themselves. What can
you tell me about the crime scene. Here's what we know.
Nancy it's the largest homicide investigation in Ohio history. Sometime
in the early morning hours of April, all eight family
members were killed in that rural area of Pike County three.
(04:11):
Right a minute, Nicole, Nicole, I hate to interrupt you,
but I want to clarify something, because every single fact counts.
You say the early morning hours for timeline purposes, can
we narrow that down at all? We're being told sometime
between the hours of two a m. And six AM. Okay,
(04:33):
that's important. That's important to me because that means that
someone was intending to do this. And it's over three
different homes. These eight family members, they weren't all sleeping
and like the Walton's, the Walton family and one big
family home. Uh, this was a big farm covering multiple properties,
(04:56):
and there were different homes across the property for the
various family members to live in. They were adults. So
Nicole parton sometime after to a m. Right when everybody
is really getting into the deep r E M sleep.
What happens? We know that a killer or killers entered
into these three homes and viciously murdered these family members.
(05:21):
Also traveling about three miles away to a camper home
where an additional family member lives, killing them as well.
You know this person didn't stop with just one home,
going to three separate properties to murder in the middle
of the night. Let's start with so many investigations. Start
with the nine one one call um, Okay, given me
(06:01):
his seat here, man, man going on? There's black all
over the house. Okay, my brother in lawson says, he
looks like I think the hell I love them, okaycause
all parts. Maybe can you coming with county? That's then
(06:25):
it is my down, it's my county. Okay, okay, how
do you do to get out of the house? Thank you?
Drive over there? Nice idea. Okay, what's your name, Mike?
What's your brother in law's name? What's your brother in
(06:45):
law's name? Dam Yeah, what's your name? Chris Burnsing, Garry
Ray Rank and Gary Broad First, I's in here, looks
like the dad think you're both dead. I think you bad? Okay,
(07:05):
anybody else in the house. I don't know us. Okay,
the door was lawful. We got here, but I hope
we see herr leting on the bloord. I need let
out of the house and now okay to stay out
of the house. Don't let anybody going there playing. Yeah,
(07:27):
all right, we don't Deputies on the way, Okay, I
say you. You're hearing a brutal nine on one call
by a sister, a sister in law Chris Rodin trying
to describe to the operator of the scene of blood
(07:49):
spatter and bodies, both men dead. She and other adult
family relatives have been ruled out to Nicole. Parton Crime
Story is investigative reporter Dr. Michelle Duprie, Joe Scott, Morgan,
Ashley Wilcot, and Karen start joining me from Manhattan to you.
Ashley Wilcot, the way the bodies were found, the fact
(08:15):
that the adults were killed, three little children survived. One
was lying between the two adult parents. What does that
say that they would come in? And another thing I
noticed is that these gunshots didn't wake anybody up. So
did the purp or purps use silencers, which suggests a
(08:35):
professional hit, But leaving the child asleep between the two
dead parents in the same bed, Ashley, what does that mean?
You know, Nancy, this is so hard to imagine that
they would come in and commit this heinous, heinous crime.
Why would they leave that child sleeping. I don't know.
Maybe because the child was asleep didn't wake up, they
felt like it wasn't a threat. But the other thing
(08:58):
is that this has been described as a very methodical crime,
and so I believe that in this particular case, it
was someone that had the motive to say, we're gonna
do it in a methodical way. These are the people
were killing. These are the people were going to kill
in this particular order, and that's how they executed this
family the way they did. Straight back to Joseph Scott Morgan,
(09:21):
death investigator, author of Blood Beneath My Feet way in Hey,
you know, Nancy, Uh, we keep using plural uh they
that sort of thing. I gotta tell you. You mentioned
three locations. I have to imagine at least I'm imagining
that there was more than one perpetrator potentially involved in this,
that this would be coordinated. In this world that we
(09:43):
live in, where we've got all these abilities to communicate
with one another, I don't see how you could pull
this off without having multiple shooters uh involved in this event.
And also to you, Dr Michelle Dupree, medical examiner renowned
pathologies joining us from South Carolina. The way the people
(10:03):
were murdered, an entire family wiped out. What does that mean, Santia?
That means that they the reason that these people were
killed is because they knew something or potentially could say something.
The children that didn't recognize these people or didn't know
anything they were, they were spared. But the adults, they
all must have known something or seen something that could
(10:24):
have told on someone. There's so many clues left behind.
Take a listen to this nime on one call. Yeah,
I need amy amount to post. Okay, uh, it's all
that stuff. It's going to move. I just found just sound.
My cousins was against don't wound, so okay, No, I
(10:55):
don't know what his address is. You don't You don't
have a boss, you don't have a Okay, I'll be
staying out my very way going. What do you think? Yeah, okay,
(11:16):
how does the house? I'm I'm out of the house
right now. I just went in hard night and checked
and he had a game shop wind reonder, when would
you want people to know about your daughter? Well, she'd
give you a short we're back. She will work hard
(11:38):
and she took oh old people in nursing home. The
people's houses, I mean if you want to eaything with
my daughter, go to pebbles after anyone how close the
family was. But I mean, you know, but you know
that a lot of things have been covered up, Biggar
(12:00):
and Pat Kelly Leondard. What's been covered up? What are
you figured? No, No, I can't say that. Yeah, that
was how you found out the news about your daughter. Well,
my daughter feed them animals out there every morning, and
Babba Joe the one made the nine one one call
(12:21):
and she got to keep the place. She went in.
My grand son and his girlfriend. Dad went down and
thought my brother as a sudden law and his cup dad,
and then she come out and got me and I
went out there and my boy went to my daughter's
house and they felt them and my daughter, her daughter
(12:46):
and her son whose home was her? Whose home was
your daughter in? She and her home? She is in
her home. They was They just booked, They just bought it.
All the victims in this case reported to be asleep
when they were gunned down dead, except for Christopher Senior,
who is understood to have been awake. There were bullets
(13:06):
fired through his bedroom door, and he has defensive wounds
on his arm in hand to Nicole Parton, Crime online
dot Com investigative reporter Nicole Parton, I understand that this
place had multiple security cameras, yet they were all dismounted
(13:27):
and taken by the killers when cops got there E. M.
T's got there, all the security cameras were gone. That's
what we're being told, Nancy. No security, no surveillance, nothing
that they can look at to see who or how
many people came in, when they came in, why they
came in. But we are being told that even the
(13:49):
mobile homes, the trailer holmes themselves were moved into warehouses
so that the investigation could continue and they could comb
through every ounce of evidence that was available on I mean, now,
Dr Michelle Dupre, Dr Dupree, what can we learn from
the positioning of the body and the trajectory paths of
the bullets, Stancy, we can tell where those people were
(14:10):
when they were shot. The interesting thing is is you
mentioned an apparent defensive wound, so that does indicate that
this person did try to fight back to some extent.
The others apparently don't show that they very well may
have been asleep, which begs the question why didn't someone
else and the and the residence here the gun shot on.
You know, I want to go down to Kieran start
(14:32):
New York psychologists joining us. I noticed that, for instance,
with Christopher Rodent Senior um he was shot twice in
the head, a third time in the face. And the
autopsy report, which, by the way, he's breaking now. The
autopsy reports have just been released. The autopsy report says
a muzzle stain was left on his head. That means
(14:56):
that the shot was fired with the gun pressed up
against his head. He wasn't the only one, So these
were murders of an entire Family's been two years, it's
still unsolved. A thousand tips, five hundred interviews processed, over
a hundred pieces of evidence. Still we don't know who
(15:18):
did it. What does the point blank shootings mean to
you as a psychologist. To me, it means that it's
a personal vendetta that whatever was going on there, each person,
from what I could tell, was shot in the face,
one was shot in the eye, somebody in the cheek.
So you have to be very close intimate to do that,
(15:44):
and that's pure anger and revenge. I don't believe that
these were strangers. These are people who are out to
get this family, wanted to make a point, took away
the security cameras. Obviously this property knew where they were
and really we're seeking revenge and vengein too just got
(16:08):
Morgan death sing investigator. What does that mean when the
autops he says, quote muzzle staining, Well, it means that
the that the weapon, the tip of the muzzle was
in close proximity to to the skin. And I think
that this is is a salient point, Nancy. The reason
is is that Chris Sr. Was shot, Uh was shot
(16:30):
multiple times. He had defensive injuries. However, However, the other
person that was in the trailer with him UH was Gary.
Gary is the one that actually had uh the muzzle
imprint on the side of his head. And I really wonder, Nancy,
if Gary might not have been the target for this.
(16:50):
It's very difficult. It's very difficult to it's I'm not
gonna say that's rare, but it's it's difficult to have
someone were the pressed. And I don't know if this
is pressed, but it's kind of implying that it might
be a press gunshot one to the side of the head.
If they shot this guy in as he was awake, Uh,
(17:11):
that is the cousin where they had attempting to extract
information from him. They've killed the older fellow in the trailer,
and then they come after this guy. Uh. And considering
that we do not know what exact position they were in, UM,
I'd like to know more information. Just got Morgen. We
know that the homes were actually moved, much of the homes,
(17:34):
the rooms were moved to gather evidence. How much evidence
was lost by doing that? Uh, you know, I think
that things can rattle around a bit. You know, we've
done this in the past, where we have cases inside
of vehicles, where we have people shot in cars will
essentially flatbed car into the crime lab. However, I think
(17:56):
there's much more to be gained, much more to be
gained by removing these uh, these trailers to a secured
location where you can methodically take your tom. The big
tie back here, Nancy, the big tie back for me
is hopefully keeping as many people away from these things
and looking for trace elements such as touch DNA in
(18:18):
all of these cases. I want to go back to
Nicole parton crimal Line investigative reporter, Nicole, tell me what
else you've learned about the crime saints. It's just hard
for me to believe an entire family and three separate
properties can be broken in on, all of them murdered,
except the tiny children and the people the killers walk
aways scot free. Well, we know that the crime scene
(18:41):
was gruesome. We know that there were multiple gun shot
wounds to each victim. Christopher Roden Senior nine gun shot wounds.
We know that these surviving children five days though, six
months old and four years old, two of them sleeping
between their parents covered in blood. Parents deceased, but the
(19:01):
children survived, with a four year old sleeping on the sofa,
yet he was not wounded or injured. We know that
it was calculated, it was vicious, and it was just
downright evil. We were talking about an entire family, the
road in family wiped out in a rural area in
Pike County, and then interestingly, their next door neighbors pick
(19:25):
up and move to Alaska right after being questioned. But
take a listen to this. You came in like thieves
in the night and took eight lives, some being children,
the most horrific way I've ever seen in my twenty
plus years. We are getting closer. We will find you
(19:57):
but the family and the victims well have justice. One day.
We are coming. The countdown is on big announcement on Monday,
and we're all very excited about it. I can't say
much yet, but I will say if you're a parent,
you will not want to miss this. We are taking
(20:19):
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If you want to be one of the first to
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(20:43):
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Go to Nancy Grace dot com and sign up. Doesn't
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Grace dot com. Please go there now. I'll be looking
(21:03):
forward to speaking to you. This was a pre plan
execution of eight individuals. It was a sophisticated operation and
those who carried it out were trying to do everything
that they could do to hinder the investigation and their prosecution.
(21:32):
And I just state that because, as the sheriff is indicated,
we would anticipate that this could be a lengthy investigation.
This is not your case where someone's got mad at
somebody else they shot him. There's a witness to witnesses.
(21:53):
It is very, very, very different type case you're hearing
from Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine describing a horrific mass murder,
entire family wiped out. But there is a fly in
the ointment, Nicole Parton. This family had quite the business
(22:13):
going on, didn't they. They did, that's correct. Um. They
were busy in the lumber business, busy building, doing things
like that. And it's been told to us that they
had ties to the Wagner family that have now moved off.
What do you mean by ties? We're being told that
Billy Wagner, the father, husband of the fourth four family
members that moved away to Alaska, was somewhat a business
(22:37):
partner to Mr Roden Senr. And that just before this
crime took place, they had had a huge falling out.
To what extent we don't know, but there had been
some sort of disagreement within their business plans together. Bottom line,
Jesse Scott Morgan, author of Blood Beneath My Feet death Investigator.
They ran a plot farm, a big pot farm. There's really,
(22:57):
you know, no nice way to say it. Joe Scott
oh uh, and Hell followed with them, the scope of
this thing is mind blowing. Nancy to be able to
recreate this thing is going to be um, it's it's
going to be very difficult. Uh. And here here's what
I believe. I I truly believe that this is highly coordinated.
I would not even be surprised if people were not
(23:20):
brought in from the outside in order to facilitate something
like this. Karen and talked just a moment ago about
how personal these cases are. Also, there is an intimacy
involved here. You had alluded to the fact that all
that all of the surveillance equipment has been removed. And
what's curious about this is that this would require an
intimate knowledge of the property itself, the going on, how everything,
(23:44):
the day to day operations. And so I think there
will be tie backs to two local people obviously, and
h yeah, if they're in the drug trade, lord only
knows how far the tentacles of the same extent. Nancy,
this is actually this is like a hit right, all
of the criteria, all the elements, all of the pieces.
It's so methodical and all of those specific steps. It's
(24:04):
like someone there was aware of the surveillance in the
house and the property, but all the other items are
classic for a hit on this family. I think there's
absolutely a hit. And what I don't understand is why
now two years have passed and nobody seems to have
a clue. I want to talk for a moment about
the Wagner family. These are the neighbors. The next real
(24:26):
neighbors is very rural area that took off and moved
to Alaska, to the point where local law enforcement in
Ohio there in Pike County sent out a notice, if
anybody knows where the wagoners are, please tell us we
want to talk to them. A neighbor up in Alaska
had stopped in on his brand new neighbors to say hello.
(24:48):
He realized they were the wagoners, and he called the
police when he found out about it. So I'm concerned
as to why they are being questioned. To Karen Start,
New York psychologist, it could be any mixture of things
when neighbors don't get along, but the fact that they
just got up and left and moved and left everything behind.
And I mean, come on, you moved from the Lower
(25:09):
forty eight to Alaska. I mean that clearly says I
don't want to be found. For whatever reason it might be.
Maybe they were afraid that whoever killed the road and
family would come after them too, or they were a
part of what happened. And it's just so hard to
believe that they would move all the way to Alaska
(25:30):
and not think that that would look extremely suspicious. And
from what I'm hearing, they feel like they're being hounded
as a result of this. They were in a business together,
and it was a business where you could attract a
lot of nefarious characters, and because of the nature of
the crime stancing, because it's so close up and personal
(25:53):
and revengeful, you really wonder how much they were involved
in this and what should be done to get them
to be investigated when they live in Alaska. You know.
Another issue is that we believe some of the gunshot
wounds were inflicted post mortem. Dr Michelle Dupre, what does
that mean? Fancy? Again, that just points back to how
(26:13):
personal this was. They were making a statement they didn't
just want to kill these the families, they wanted to
make a statement to anyone who found the bodies as well.
That sends a message. You know, another issue too, Ashley Wilcott.
You know they had a pitbull and another dog or
two that didn't raise a paw during all of this.
(26:34):
What does that mean? I don't know what does that mean?
Did she know something? Was there some reason that that
she didn't say anything, didn't didn't raise the ball. It's
it's I don't know. It doesn't necessarily make sense. But again,
I think in terms of the aspect of this crime
that makes it sound like a hit. They had a
very clear plan as to who they were going to kill.
The patriarch was killed first by all accounts, and they
(26:56):
were going to do it in a specific order. And
I think they'd already predetermined who they were going to
kill them who they weren't unless someone resisted or caused
an issue or could identify. Well, it's horrific is these
murders were of the Rodent family. Professional assassins usually don't
draw the line at children. If they think there's a
way they're going to be identified, they'll go ahead and
(27:17):
kill the children too. These three children were allowed to live. UM.
At first, the the general speculation wise the cartel was
somehow involved the Mexican drug cartel and these murders because
who would have thought it, But apparently El Chapo out
of Mexico had strong connections to the Ohio drug trade.
(27:40):
M M. I'm not I'm not convinced this is a
cartel move. What I do know, Joseph Scott Morgan, is
that as someone intimately familiar with not one, not two,
but three separate properties, rural properties, you gotta know how
to get there, how to find the locations, how to
get into the homes, how to remove the surveillance cameras,
(28:04):
how to kill these family members without waking the others up,
to know their habits, to know who lived where. I
find that very telling, Joe Scott. But what Yeah, it
has a real intimacy to it, doesn't it, Nancy, that
you would have this much familiarity, uh, to know these
little details. This is another curious thing. Uh. You know,
(28:26):
this county is located just north of the southernmost border
of Ohio. It's in rural Appalachia. You know, weed pot
up in that area has become the new Moonshine there
are a t F agents that go through these areas
and state law enforcement agents that go through these areas,
such as like down in the Daniel Boone National Forest
that's just below this, where they have to look out
(28:49):
for booby traps, all kinds of things that are planted
on these pot fields that are down there. This is
high dollar business. These people are highly they are very violent.
There's a ton of money tied up into this, and
you know, a lot of it has to do with
this is a way. You know, we're talking about how
rural it is. This is a way that some of
these people may make money up there. This is their
livelihood and people take it very seriously. And boy, they
(29:11):
really brought the wrath of God with them. They make
money and a lot of it. But it seems to
me whoever did this absolutely knows the family. And those
were words also declared by Leonard Manley, who lost his
daughter Dana and two grandchildren, Hannah nineteen, Christopher sixteen. The
victims for ages sixteen to forty four. Eight people dead
(29:35):
on an old dirt road and Pike and that's Pike County, Ohio.
Two dogs were there that would chew you up, but
they didn't raise a paw. Also, mercy was shown to
the babies and the dogs, that indicates this was not
a professional Yet, how can an entire family be wiped
(29:56):
out and still no arrests. Inside the same trailer, Gary
Roden was shot three times in the head and face,
including one shot that left a muzzle stamp on his temple,
indicating a point blank shot. Next do her, a couple
shot while in their bed with their week old baby
between them another child on the floor. Frankie Roden was
(30:17):
shot three times in the head and face. His girlfriend,
Hannah Gilly, was shot five times in the head and face.
One of the shots was through her eye. Both baby
and the young child left unharmed. Just down the road,
three more killed Dana Roden, Chris Sr's ex wife. She
was shot five times across the forehead and in the temple,
(30:38):
then up through the chin. Chris Roden Jr. He Was
sixteen shot four times, including two through the top of
his head, and his sister Hannah was shot twice in
the head and in a trailer a few miles away.
Kenneth Roden he was shot once through the right eye.
Since the entire road and family was asleep, at the
time of their execution. It seems to suggest hatred varying
(31:04):
amounts of hatred for each family member, as opposed to
trying to subdue members of the family that were most
likely to fight back, which is what you would expect
at a mass killing. This takes a lot of thinking.
To Joe Scott Morgan, death investigator and author, you would
have expected for some of the family members to be
(31:27):
fighting back and to be shot during the struggle. That
did not happen. They were all in their beds, and
these properties was a huge, sprawling hundreds of acres of farmland.
These three properties were a couple of miles apart each,
so someone had to know to go. You couldn't just
look across the field and see the other home. They
(31:49):
were miles apart, so someone had to have been surveilling
or know the area intimately to know how to get
to each of the three homes. Joe Scott More, Yeah,
you're absolutely right, and Nancy, you and I both grew
up in kind of rural areas, and the old saying
you can't see your hand in front of your face
is so dark outside. You would have to have very specific,
(32:10):
very specific knowledge of the area, or sophisticated equipment like
night vision goggles, that sort of thing, in order to
move around into pitch black darkness. Remember what we said
when we talked about how this apparently took place. This
apparently took place between two am and six am. If
I'm if I'm getting my time's right there, So we
got a four hour window. You've got the cover of
(32:31):
darkness that this is all occurring. This took planning, they're
thinking about doing it and then moving about. And then
this brings us to the big issue. And i gotta
tell you, I'm not a big I'm not a big
person when it comes to things like muzzle suppressors and
all this sort of thing. However, I'm scratching my head.
How did nobody react to this? They were all many
(32:52):
of them, not all, but many of them were found
in their bed as if they had been sleeping. And
I'm just I'm baffled by this. We can't ignore the
marijuana trade, Okay. People think it's innocent, it's harmless. It's not.
It is not. There in that area of Ohio is
extremely economically distressed. This is where the road and murders
(33:13):
took place. Many people in that region have relied on
growing marijuana for years to support themselves. Um, it is
illegal there, but maybe that's why marijuana is such a huge,
huge cash crop. Drugs are so prevalent there. At the highway,
(33:34):
signs give numbers to report impaired impaired drivers, not drunk drivers.
And the day of this massacre, all along Main Street
in Piketon, that's the county seat of Pike County. There
were trucks and vendors. It was the annual Dogwood Festival,
(33:56):
t shirts, candy, popcorn, corn dogs, elephant ears, selling things
out of boxes, socks with marijuana leaf printed on them.
So that's the the atmosphere in which the murders took place. Now,
(34:16):
when I talk about a dogwood festival and the vendors
in the streets, there's something behind that. El Chapo, El Chapo,
the drug lord and his Cinelo, a cartel had infiltrated
the area. It wasn't just your rural pop grower anymore,
but the cartel was there. Nicole Parton joining me Crime
(34:41):
Online investigative reporter Nicole. Many people, including myself, I believe
this may have been a mass murderer. May to look
as if the cartel had done it. That's true, Nancy.
And it's also interesting to point out, going back to
the Wagner family that the son Jake w There had
been a long time boyfriend to Hannah Road who one
(35:03):
of those who were murdered in the home there. They
actually shared a daughter together and had just finalized in
agreement for a custody battle that had been ensuing over
their child. So there was a custody battle going on
for the baby. That is part Road, part Wagner just
finalized the custody battle. The Road and family saying that
it was tumultuous, the Wagner family saying that, oh no,
(35:25):
it was an agreement that was settled peacefully. So we
don't know all of the details, but we do know
that the son, Jake Wagner, one of those who fled
to Alaska, was actually a longtime boyfriend to Hannah Roden's
who was murdered. Interesting, now you gotta wonder why two
years have passed and nobody has been able to crack
this case. Think about it. This is about eighty miles
south of Columbus. People are afraid. You see eight people
(35:49):
asleep in their beds, mass murdered. It looks like it
may have been professionally done. There are no fingerprints, there's
no security camera footage because killers had the wherewithal to
remove all the surveillance video. No witnesses have come forward
if there is one. Uh, the neighbors took off to Alaska.
(36:11):
So what do you expect to happen to? Dr Michelle Dupre,
South Carolina medical examiner and author of a field guide
to homicide investigation. So how often the murders remain unsolved
because people are afraid to come forward? And Nancy being
afraid to come forward is is very common, but typically
there are things that we do find. We find physical evidence.
(36:34):
This case is so interesting because there isn't any. And
another interesting part about this is when we look at
this crime scene, it was well organized. That means that
the perpetrator themselves was well organized. It was planned out,
they were comfortable in their surroundings. You discussed how they
knew what the security cameras were. This leaves a lot
of thought in my mind anyway, but there was somebody
(36:56):
very close to this family. They knew the ins and
outs of this. It's it's not a wonder that it's
not foved yet. Take a listen to our friend at
w LWT needs five Brian hamering. Eight people murdered inside
four Pike County homes. The case was so shocking it
made national headlines tonight. The mystery of who's responsible grows
even deeper with new details about the brutal nature of
(37:19):
the murderers. The Corners preliminary report shows Christopher Roden Senior
was shot nine times, including five times in the phase,
three in the torso, and once in the arm. He
appears to be the only one of eight with defensive wounds,
indicating he may have been a week when the attack
happened and was most likely the first one killed. If
you have information related to these brutal murders leaving three
(37:42):
children orphaned, please called Southern Ohio Crime Stoppers seven four
zero seven seven three tips seven four zero seven seven
three eight four seven seven Anonymous tips are being taken
at the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation eight five five
two two four six four four six eight five five
(38:05):
two two four six four four six. There's a nearly
twelve thousand dollar Crimes Stoppers reward. Nancy Grace crime story
signing off goodbye friends,
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this is making me sleepy. Crime stories with Nancy Grace.
(01:37):
It's horrible. I don't I don't know how to described.
It's horrible for the whole family. That's how a family
friend described the deaths of eight family members back in
April of two thousand sixteen. It's a mystery that has
captivated the state and has apparently puzzled authorities. Now a
little more is being revealed about the deaths of the
members of the Rodent family. We knew the family had
(02:00):
been shot to death, but now we are learning graphic details.
You're hearing from our friends at ABC. That was Tom
Bosco with ABC six. How did an entire family? And
and I say this with great pride that I also
went from the middle of nowhere, a family of eight
(02:20):
murdered in the middle of nowhere. And I say that
with great love and wonderment and incredulity because in an
area like Pike County. You don't expect a crime to
take place uh in the middle of Pike County, Ohio,
(02:42):
but especially a mass murder and execution style form. A
family of eight all shot dead, most of them as
they lay sleeping in their bed, except for one, the senior,
who had defensive wounds, showing that he tried to fight back.
(03:04):
Let's start at the beginning. Joining me right now, Karen Start,
New York psychologists joining us from Manhattan. Also Ashley Wilcot,
judge lawyer, founder of child Crime watch dot com. And yes,
there are three surviving children to think about. Ashley Joseph
Scott Morgan, Professor of forensics, Jacksonville State University, death investigator
(03:25):
and author of Blood Beneath My Feet on Amazon, and
renowned medical examiner Dr Michelle Dupre out of South Carolina.
But joining me right now. Crime Online dot Com investigative
reporter Nicole Pardon. Nicole, I really don't know where to start,
but let's start where every homicide investigation starts. We'll start
(03:47):
with the timeline and specifically the murders themselves. What can
you tell me about the crime scene. Here's what we know.
Nancy it's the largest homicide investigation in Ohio history. Sometime
in the early morning hours of April, all eight family
members were killed in that rural area of Pike County three.
(04:11):
Right a minute, Nicole, Nicole, I hate to interrupt you,
but I want to clarify something, because every single fact counts.
You say the early morning hours for timeline purposes, can
we narrow that down at all? We're being told sometime
between the hours of two a m. And six AM. Okay,
(04:33):
that's important. That's important to me because that means that
someone was intending to do this. And it's over three
different homes. These eight family members, they weren't all sleeping
and like the Walton's, the Walton family and one big
family home. Uh, this was a big farm covering multiple properties,
(04:56):
and there were different homes across the property for the
various family members to live in. They were adults. So
Nicole parton sometime after to a m. Right when everybody
is really getting into the deep r E M sleep.
What happens? We know that a killer or killers entered
into these three homes and viciously murdered these family members.
(05:21):
Also traveling about three miles away to a camper home
where an additional family member lives, killing them as well.
You know this person didn't stop with just one home,
going to three separate properties to murder in the middle
of the night. Let's start with so many investigations. Start
with the nine one one call um, Okay, given me
(06:01):
his seat here, man, man going on? There's black all
over the house. Okay, my brother in lawson says, he
looks like I think the hell I love them, okaycause
all parts. Maybe can you coming with county? That's then
(06:25):
it is my down, it's my county. Okay, okay, how
do you do to get out of the house? Thank you?
Drive over there? Nice idea. Okay, what's your name, Mike?
What's your brother in law's name? What's your brother in
(06:45):
law's name? Dam Yeah, what's your name? Chris Burnsing, Garry
Ray Rank and Gary Broad First, I's in here, looks
like the dad think you're both dead. I think you bad? Okay,
(07:05):
anybody else in the house. I don't know us. Okay,
the door was lawful. We got here, but I hope
we see herr leting on the bloord. I need let
out of the house and now okay to stay out
of the house. Don't let anybody going there playing. Yeah,
(07:27):
all right, we don't Deputies on the way, Okay, I
say you. You're hearing a brutal nine on one call
by a sister, a sister in law Chris Rodin trying
to describe to the operator of the scene of blood
(07:49):
spatter and bodies, both men dead. She and other adult
family relatives have been ruled out to Nicole. Parton Crime
Story is investigative reporter Dr. Michelle Duprie, Joe Scott, Morgan,
Ashley Wilcot, and Karen start joining me from Manhattan to you.
Ashley Wilcot, the way the bodies were found, the fact
(08:15):
that the adults were killed, three little children survived. One
was lying between the two adult parents. What does that
say that they would come in? And another thing I
noticed is that these gunshots didn't wake anybody up. So
did the purp or purps use silencers, which suggests a
(08:35):
professional hit, But leaving the child asleep between the two
dead parents in the same bed, Ashley, what does that mean?
You know, Nancy, this is so hard to imagine that
they would come in and commit this heinous, heinous crime.
Why would they leave that child sleeping. I don't know.
Maybe because the child was asleep didn't wake up, they
felt like it wasn't a threat. But the other thing
(08:58):
is that this has been described as a very methodical crime,
and so I believe that in this particular case, it
was someone that had the motive to say, we're gonna
do it in a methodical way. These are the people
were killing. These are the people were going to kill
in this particular order, and that's how they executed this
family the way they did. Straight back to Joseph Scott Morgan,
(09:21):
death investigator, author of Blood Beneath My Feet way in Hey,
you know, Nancy, Uh, we keep using plural uh they
that sort of thing. I gotta tell you. You mentioned
three locations. I have to imagine at least I'm imagining
that there was more than one perpetrator potentially involved in this,
that this would be coordinated. In this world that we
(09:43):
live in, where we've got all these abilities to communicate
with one another, I don't see how you could pull
this off without having multiple shooters uh involved in this event.
And also to you, Dr Michelle Dupree, medical examiner renowned
pathologies joining us from South Carolina. The way the people
(10:03):
were murdered, an entire family wiped out. What does that mean, Santia?
That means that they the reason that these people were
killed is because they knew something or potentially could say something.
The children that didn't recognize these people or didn't know
anything they were, they were spared. But the adults, they
all must have known something or seen something that could
(10:24):
have told on someone. There's so many clues left behind.
Take a listen to this nime on one call. Yeah,
I need amy amount to post. Okay, uh, it's all
that stuff. It's going to move. I just found just sound.
My cousins was against don't wound, so okay, No, I
(10:55):
don't know what his address is. You don't You don't
have a boss, you don't have a Okay, I'll be
staying out my very way going. What do you think? Yeah, okay,
(11:16):
how does the house? I'm I'm out of the house
right now. I just went in hard night and checked
and he had a game shop wind reonder, when would
you want people to know about your daughter? Well, she'd
give you a short we're back. She will work hard
(11:38):
and she took oh old people in nursing home. The
people's houses, I mean if you want to eaything with
my daughter, go to pebbles after anyone how close the
family was. But I mean, you know, but you know
that a lot of things have been covered up, Biggar
(12:00):
and Pat Kelly Leondard. What's been covered up? What are
you figured? No, No, I can't say that. Yeah, that
was how you found out the news about your daughter. Well,
my daughter feed them animals out there every morning, and
Babba Joe the one made the nine one one call
(12:21):
and she got to keep the place. She went in.
My grand son and his girlfriend. Dad went down and
thought my brother as a sudden law and his cup dad,
and then she come out and got me and I
went out there and my boy went to my daughter's
house and they felt them and my daughter, her daughter
(12:46):
and her son whose home was her? Whose home was
your daughter in? She and her home? She is in
her home. They was They just booked, They just bought it.
All the victims in this case reported to be asleep
when they were gunned down dead, except for Christopher Senior,
who is understood to have been awake. There were bullets
(13:06):
fired through his bedroom door, and he has defensive wounds
on his arm in hand to Nicole Parton, Crime online
dot Com investigative reporter Nicole Parton, I understand that this
place had multiple security cameras, yet they were all dismounted
(13:27):
and taken by the killers when cops got there E. M.
T's got there, all the security cameras were gone. That's
what we're being told, Nancy. No security, no surveillance, nothing
that they can look at to see who or how
many people came in, when they came in, why they
came in. But we are being told that even the
(13:49):
mobile homes, the trailer holmes themselves were moved into warehouses
so that the investigation could continue and they could comb
through every ounce of evidence that was available on I mean, now,
Dr Michelle Dupre, Dr Dupree, what can we learn from
the positioning of the body and the trajectory paths of
the bullets, Stancy, we can tell where those people were
(14:10):
when they were shot. The interesting thing is is you
mentioned an apparent defensive wound, so that does indicate that
this person did try to fight back to some extent.
The others apparently don't show that they very well may
have been asleep, which begs the question why didn't someone
else and the and the residence here the gun shot on.
You know, I want to go down to Kieran start
(14:32):
New York psychologists joining us. I noticed that, for instance,
with Christopher Rodent Senior um he was shot twice in
the head, a third time in the face. And the
autopsy report, which, by the way, he's breaking now. The
autopsy reports have just been released. The autopsy report says
a muzzle stain was left on his head. That means
(14:56):
that the shot was fired with the gun pressed up
against his head. He wasn't the only one, So these
were murders of an entire Family's been two years, it's
still unsolved. A thousand tips, five hundred interviews processed, over
a hundred pieces of evidence. Still we don't know who
(15:18):
did it. What does the point blank shootings mean to
you as a psychologist. To me, it means that it's
a personal vendetta that whatever was going on there, each person,
from what I could tell, was shot in the face,
one was shot in the eye, somebody in the cheek.
So you have to be very close intimate to do that,
(15:44):
and that's pure anger and revenge. I don't believe that
these were strangers. These are people who are out to
get this family, wanted to make a point, took away
the security cameras. Obviously this property knew where they were
and really we're seeking revenge and vengein too just got
(16:08):
Morgan death sing investigator. What does that mean when the
autops he says, quote muzzle staining, Well, it means that
the that the weapon, the tip of the muzzle was
in close proximity to to the skin. And I think
that this is is a salient point, Nancy. The reason
is is that Chris Sr. Was shot, Uh was shot
(16:30):
multiple times. He had defensive injuries. However, However, the other
person that was in the trailer with him UH was Gary.
Gary is the one that actually had uh the muzzle
imprint on the side of his head. And I really wonder, Nancy,
if Gary might not have been the target for this.
(16:50):
It's very difficult. It's very difficult to it's I'm not
gonna say that's rare, but it's it's difficult to have
someone were the pressed. And I don't know if this
is pressed, but it's kind of implying that it might
be a press gunshot one to the side of the head.
If they shot this guy in as he was awake, Uh,
(17:11):
that is the cousin where they had attempting to extract
information from him. They've killed the older fellow in the trailer,
and then they come after this guy. Uh. And considering
that we do not know what exact position they were in, UM,
I'd like to know more information. Just got Morgen. We
know that the homes were actually moved, much of the homes,
(17:34):
the rooms were moved to gather evidence. How much evidence
was lost by doing that? Uh, you know, I think
that things can rattle around a bit. You know, we've
done this in the past, where we have cases inside
of vehicles, where we have people shot in cars will
essentially flatbed car into the crime lab. However, I think
(17:56):
there's much more to be gained, much more to be
gained by removing these uh, these trailers to a secured
location where you can methodically take your tom. The big
tie back here, Nancy, the big tie back for me
is hopefully keeping as many people away from these things
and looking for trace elements such as touch DNA in
(18:18):
all of these cases. I want to go back to
Nicole parton crimal Line investigative reporter, Nicole, tell me what
else you've learned about the crime saints. It's just hard
for me to believe an entire family and three separate
properties can be broken in on, all of them murdered,
except the tiny children and the people the killers walk
aways scot free. Well, we know that the crime scene
(18:41):
was gruesome. We know that there were multiple gun shot
wounds to each victim. Christopher Roden Senior nine gun shot wounds.
We know that these surviving children five days though, six
months old and four years old, two of them sleeping
between their parents covered in blood. Parents deceased, but the
(19:01):
children survived, with a four year old sleeping on the sofa,
yet he was not wounded or injured. We know that
it was calculated, it was vicious, and it was just
downright evil. We were talking about an entire family, the
road in family wiped out in a rural area in
Pike County, and then interestingly, their next door neighbors pick
(19:25):
up and move to Alaska right after being questioned. But
take a listen to this. You came in like thieves
in the night and took eight lives, some being children,
the most horrific way I've ever seen in my twenty
plus years. We are getting closer. We will find you
(19:57):
but the family and the victims well have justice. One day.
We are coming. The countdown is on big announcement on Monday,
and we're all very excited about it. I can't say
much yet, but I will say if you're a parent,
you will not want to miss this. We are taking
(20:19):
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If you want to be one of the first to
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(20:43):
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Grace dot com. Please go there now. I'll be looking
(21:03):
forward to speaking to you. This was a pre plan
execution of eight individuals. It was a sophisticated operation and
those who carried it out were trying to do everything
that they could do to hinder the investigation and their prosecution.
(21:32):
And I just state that because, as the sheriff is indicated,
we would anticipate that this could be a lengthy investigation.
This is not your case where someone's got mad at
somebody else they shot him. There's a witness to witnesses.
(21:53):
It is very, very, very different type case you're hearing
from Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine describing a horrific mass murder,
entire family wiped out. But there is a fly in
the ointment, Nicole Parton. This family had quite the business
(22:13):
going on, didn't they. They did, that's correct. Um. They
were busy in the lumber business, busy building, doing things
like that. And it's been told to us that they
had ties to the Wagner family that have now moved off.
What do you mean by ties? We're being told that
Billy Wagner, the father, husband of the fourth four family
members that moved away to Alaska, was somewhat a business
(22:37):
partner to Mr Roden Senr. And that just before this
crime took place, they had had a huge falling out.
To what extent we don't know, but there had been
some sort of disagreement within their business plans together. Bottom line,
Jesse Scott Morgan, author of Blood Beneath My Feet death Investigator.
They ran a plot farm, a big pot farm. There's really,
(22:57):
you know, no nice way to say it. Joe Scott
oh uh, and Hell followed with them, the scope of
this thing is mind blowing. Nancy to be able to
recreate this thing is going to be um, it's it's
going to be very difficult. Uh. And here here's what
I believe. I I truly believe that this is highly coordinated.
I would not even be surprised if people were not
(23:20):
brought in from the outside in order to facilitate something
like this. Karen and talked just a moment ago about
how personal these cases are. Also, there is an intimacy
involved here. You had alluded to the fact that all
that all of the surveillance equipment has been removed. And
what's curious about this is that this would require an
intimate knowledge of the property itself, the going on, how everything,
(23:44):
the day to day operations. And so I think there
will be tie backs to two local people obviously, and
h yeah, if they're in the drug trade, lord only
knows how far the tentacles of the same extent. Nancy,
this is actually this is like a hit right, all
of the criteria, all the elements, all of the pieces.
It's so methodical and all of those specific steps. It's
(24:04):
like someone there was aware of the surveillance in the
house and the property, but all the other items are
classic for a hit on this family. I think there's
absolutely a hit. And what I don't understand is why
now two years have passed and nobody seems to have
a clue. I want to talk for a moment about
the Wagner family. These are the neighbors. The next real
(24:26):
neighbors is very rural area that took off and moved
to Alaska, to the point where local law enforcement in
Ohio there in Pike County sent out a notice, if
anybody knows where the wagoners are, please tell us we
want to talk to them. A neighbor up in Alaska
had stopped in on his brand new neighbors to say hello.
(24:48):
He realized they were the wagoners, and he called the
police when he found out about it. So I'm concerned
as to why they are being questioned. To Karen Start,
New York psychologist, it could be any mixture of things
when neighbors don't get along, but the fact that they
just got up and left and moved and left everything behind.
And I mean, come on, you moved from the Lower
(25:09):
forty eight to Alaska. I mean that clearly says I
don't want to be found. For whatever reason it might be.
Maybe they were afraid that whoever killed the road and
family would come after them too, or they were a
part of what happened. And it's just so hard to
believe that they would move all the way to Alaska
(25:30):
and not think that that would look extremely suspicious. And
from what I'm hearing, they feel like they're being hounded
as a result of this. They were in a business together,
and it was a business where you could attract a
lot of nefarious characters, and because of the nature of
the crime stancing, because it's so close up and personal
(25:53):
and revengeful, you really wonder how much they were involved
in this and what should be done to get them
to be investigated when they live in Alaska. You know.
Another issue is that we believe some of the gunshot
wounds were inflicted post mortem. Dr Michelle Dupre, what does
that mean? Fancy? Again, that just points back to how
(26:13):
personal this was. They were making a statement they didn't
just want to kill these the families, they wanted to
make a statement to anyone who found the bodies as well.
That sends a message. You know, another issue too, Ashley Wilcott.
You know they had a pitbull and another dog or
two that didn't raise a paw during all of this.
(26:34):
What does that mean? I don't know what does that mean?
Did she know something? Was there some reason that that
she didn't say anything, didn't didn't raise the ball. It's
it's I don't know. It doesn't necessarily make sense. But again,
I think in terms of the aspect of this crime
that makes it sound like a hit. They had a
very clear plan as to who they were going to kill.
The patriarch was killed first by all accounts, and they
(26:56):
were going to do it in a specific order. And
I think they'd already predetermined who they were going to
kill them who they weren't unless someone resisted or caused
an issue or could identify. Well, it's horrific is these
murders were of the Rodent family. Professional assassins usually don't
draw the line at children. If they think there's a
way they're going to be identified, they'll go ahead and
(27:17):
kill the children too. These three children were allowed to live. UM.
At first, the the general speculation wise the cartel was
somehow involved the Mexican drug cartel and these murders because
who would have thought it, But apparently El Chapo out
of Mexico had strong connections to the Ohio drug trade.
(27:40):
M M. I'm not I'm not convinced this is a
cartel move. What I do know, Joseph Scott Morgan, is
that as someone intimately familiar with not one, not two,
but three separate properties, rural properties, you gotta know how
to get there, how to find the locations, how to
get into the homes, how to remove the surveillance cameras,
(28:04):
how to kill these family members without waking the others up,
to know their habits, to know who lived where. I
find that very telling, Joe Scott. But what Yeah, it
has a real intimacy to it, doesn't it, Nancy, that
you would have this much familiarity, uh, to know these
little details. This is another curious thing. Uh. You know,
(28:26):
this county is located just north of the southernmost border
of Ohio. It's in rural Appalachia. You know, weed pot
up in that area has become the new Moonshine there
are a t F agents that go through these areas
and state law enforcement agents that go through these areas,
such as like down in the Daniel Boone National Forest
that's just below this, where they have to look out
(28:49):
for booby traps, all kinds of things that are planted
on these pot fields that are down there. This is
high dollar business. These people are highly they are very violent.
There's a ton of money tied up into this, and
you know, a lot of it has to do with
this is a way. You know, we're talking about how
rural it is. This is a way that some of
these people may make money up there. This is their
livelihood and people take it very seriously. And boy, they
(29:11):
really brought the wrath of God with them. They make
money and a lot of it. But it seems to
me whoever did this absolutely knows the family. And those
were words also declared by Leonard Manley, who lost his
daughter Dana and two grandchildren, Hannah nineteen, Christopher sixteen. The
victims for ages sixteen to forty four. Eight people dead
(29:35):
on an old dirt road and Pike and that's Pike County, Ohio.
Two dogs were there that would chew you up, but
they didn't raise a paw. Also, mercy was shown to
the babies and the dogs, that indicates this was not
a professional Yet, how can an entire family be wiped
(29:56):
out and still no arrests. Inside the same trailer, Gary
Roden was shot three times in the head and face,
including one shot that left a muzzle stamp on his temple,
indicating a point blank shot. Next do her, a couple
shot while in their bed with their week old baby
between them another child on the floor. Frankie Roden was
(30:17):
shot three times in the head and face. His girlfriend,
Hannah Gilly, was shot five times in the head and face.
One of the shots was through her eye. Both baby
and the young child left unharmed. Just down the road,
three more killed Dana Roden, Chris Sr's ex wife. She
was shot five times across the forehead and in the temple,
(30:38):
then up through the chin. Chris Roden Jr. He Was
sixteen shot four times, including two through the top of
his head, and his sister Hannah was shot twice in
the head and in a trailer a few miles away.
Kenneth Roden he was shot once through the right eye.
Since the entire road and family was asleep, at the
time of their execution. It seems to suggest hatred varying
(31:04):
amounts of hatred for each family member, as opposed to
trying to subdue members of the family that were most
likely to fight back, which is what you would expect
at a mass killing. This takes a lot of thinking.
To Joe Scott Morgan, death investigator and author, you would
have expected for some of the family members to be
(31:27):
fighting back and to be shot during the struggle. That
did not happen. They were all in their beds, and
these properties was a huge, sprawling hundreds of acres of farmland.
These three properties were a couple of miles apart each,
so someone had to know to go. You couldn't just
look across the field and see the other home. They
(31:49):
were miles apart, so someone had to have been surveilling
or know the area intimately to know how to get
to each of the three homes. Joe Scott More, Yeah,
you're absolutely right, and Nancy, you and I both grew
up in kind of rural areas, and the old saying
you can't see your hand in front of your face
is so dark outside. You would have to have very specific,
(32:10):
very specific knowledge of the area, or sophisticated equipment like
night vision goggles, that sort of thing, in order to
move around into pitch black darkness. Remember what we said
when we talked about how this apparently took place. This
apparently took place between two am and six am. If
I'm if I'm getting my time's right there, So we
got a four hour window. You've got the cover of
(32:31):
darkness that this is all occurring. This took planning, they're
thinking about doing it and then moving about. And then
this brings us to the big issue. And i gotta
tell you, I'm not a big I'm not a big
person when it comes to things like muzzle suppressors and
all this sort of thing. However, I'm scratching my head.
How did nobody react to this? They were all many
(32:52):
of them, not all, but many of them were found
in their bed as if they had been sleeping. And
I'm just I'm baffled by this. We can't ignore the
marijuana trade, Okay. People think it's innocent, it's harmless. It's not.
It is not. There in that area of Ohio is
extremely economically distressed. This is where the road and murders
(33:13):
took place. Many people in that region have relied on
growing marijuana for years to support themselves. Um, it is
illegal there, but maybe that's why marijuana is such a huge,
huge cash crop. Drugs are so prevalent there. At the highway,
(33:34):
signs give numbers to report impaired impaired drivers, not drunk drivers.
And the day of this massacre, all along Main Street
in Piketon, that's the county seat of Pike County. There
were trucks and vendors. It was the annual Dogwood Festival,
(33:56):
t shirts, candy, popcorn, corn dogs, elephant ears, selling things
out of boxes, socks with marijuana leaf printed on them.
So that's the the atmosphere in which the murders took place. Now,
(34:16):
when I talk about a dogwood festival and the vendors
in the streets, there's something behind that. El Chapo, El Chapo,
the drug lord and his Cinelo, a cartel had infiltrated
the area. It wasn't just your rural pop grower anymore,
but the cartel was there. Nicole Parton joining me Crime
(34:41):
Online investigative reporter Nicole. Many people, including myself, I believe
this may have been a mass murderer. May to look
as if the cartel had done it. That's true, Nancy.
And it's also interesting to point out, going back to
the Wagner family that the son Jake w There had
been a long time boyfriend to Hannah Road who one
(35:03):
of those who were murdered in the home there. They
actually shared a daughter together and had just finalized in
agreement for a custody battle that had been ensuing over
their child. So there was a custody battle going on
for the baby. That is part Road, part Wagner just
finalized the custody battle. The Road and family saying that
it was tumultuous, the Wagner family saying that, oh no,
(35:25):
it was an agreement that was settled peacefully. So we
don't know all of the details, but we do know
that the son, Jake Wagner, one of those who fled
to Alaska, was actually a longtime boyfriend to Hannah Roden's
who was murdered. Interesting, now you gotta wonder why two
years have passed and nobody has been able to crack
this case. Think about it. This is about eighty miles
south of Columbus. People are afraid. You see eight people
(35:49):
asleep in their beds, mass murdered. It looks like it
may have been professionally done. There are no fingerprints, there's
no security camera footage because killers had the wherewithal to
remove all the surveillance video. No witnesses have come forward
if there is one. Uh, the neighbors took off to Alaska.
(36:11):
So what do you expect to happen to? Dr Michelle Dupre,
South Carolina medical examiner and author of a field guide
to homicide investigation. So how often the murders remain unsolved
because people are afraid to come forward? And Nancy being
afraid to come forward is is very common, but typically
there are things that we do find. We find physical evidence.
(36:34):
This case is so interesting because there isn't any. And
another interesting part about this is when we look at
this crime scene, it was well organized. That means that
the perpetrator themselves was well organized. It was planned out,
they were comfortable in their surroundings. You discussed how they
knew what the security cameras were. This leaves a lot
of thought in my mind anyway, but there was somebody
(36:56):
very close to this family. They knew the ins and
outs of this. It's it's not a wonder that it's
not foved yet. Take a listen to our friend at
w LWT needs five Brian hamering. Eight people murdered inside
four Pike County homes. The case was so shocking it
made national headlines tonight. The mystery of who's responsible grows
even deeper with new details about the brutal nature of
(37:19):
the murderers. The Corners preliminary report shows Christopher Roden Senior
was shot nine times, including five times in the phase,
three in the torso, and once in the arm. He
appears to be the only one of eight with defensive wounds,
indicating he may have been a week when the attack
happened and was most likely the first one killed. If
you have information related to these brutal murders leaving three
(37:42):
children orphaned, please called Southern Ohio Crime Stoppers seven four
zero seven seven three tips seven four zero seven seven
three eight four seven seven Anonymous tips are being taken
at the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation eight five five
two two four six four four six eight five five
(38:05):
two two four six four four six. There's a nearly
twelve thousand dollar Crimes Stoppers reward. Nancy Grace crime story
signing off goodbye friends,
Host
Nancy Grace
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