September 30, 2020 • 39 mins
The most infamous crime that occurred in South Eastern Ohio is the murder of eight members of the Rhoden family. While four members of the Wagner family have been arrested and charged with the murders, the community knows all too well that in this area, there are often more questions than answers.
In episode 10, we dive deeper into subjects we’ve only previously touched on such as the relationship between Angela and Billy Wagner and Sheriff Reader’s involvement in the case. Finally, we explore how a neighboring town harbors its own dark secrets.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
How Deep does a Mother's Love Run? Now streaming only
on Hulu. Experience a race against time by four mothers
who went undercover. My ex partner abducted our six year
old son and took him out of the country. This
was a mother's worst nightmare, and we'll stop at nothing.
I knew something bad at for the children they love.
I was so scared, and that's when all hell breaks loose.
(00:21):
Mother Undercover. I wanted him to know you mess with
the wrong mother. Now streaming only on Hulu Search Mother Undercover.
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Code Podcast fifty. I think everybody has an interesting skin
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the Piketon Massacre, a production of iHeartRadio and Katie Studios.
This is episode ten Wild Country. In this episode, We're
(02:13):
going to be answering a bunch of questions we've received
over social media. We are also going to be going
deeper into some subjects we've only touched on and talking
about some stories we haven't been able to tell. I'm
Courtney Armstrong. I work at Katie Studios with Stephanie Lydecker
and Jeff Sheene. Just as a legal reminder, Angela, Billy Jake,
and George Wagner were charged with aggravated murder. Angela Wagner's
(02:36):
mother Rita, Joe Nukam and Billy Wagner's mother Frederica were
both charged with obstruction of justice and perjury. Nucombe was
also charged with forgery. All six of them pled not guilty,
and our justice system presumes innocence until guilt has proven.
Ali from Ormond Beach, Florida asked us about the drugs
(02:59):
and how we relate to the case and if there's
anything else in the piked In area that pertains to
drugs that we should know. So one of the big
theories behind the murders we explored was drugs and the
fact that the Rodents did have a pretty large marijuana
grow operation on their property. But it's not just specific
to the rodent or even specific to piked in the
(03:21):
immediate area is kind of a hotbed that's been affected
by drugs in myriad ways. For starters, there's not a
ton of jobs, and that has really taken a toll
on the town, and just generally speaking, Ohio and the
southern part of the state has been devastated by drug abuse,
mostly prescription painkillers and heroin. In Pike County, the drug
(03:42):
overdose mortality rate from twenty fourteen to twenty eighteen was
more than seventy one deaths per one hundred thousand population.
The rate for the rest of the country was twenty
seven deaths per one hundred thousand. That's nearly three times
the mortality rate of the rest of the country. A
lot of these drugs come in from Portsmouth. Portsmouth, Ohio,
(04:04):
is the neighboring town to Piketon, so about a fifteen
minute drive. I spoke to investigative reporter James Pilcher, who
didn't incredibly deep dive into Portsmouth into the larger picture
of what's happening in southeastern Ohio. Portsmith, which is in
the next county over on the river south of Pike
County and Piketon is known as ground zero for the
pillmill epidemic. That's where pill mills and the opioid epidemic
(04:28):
is known to have had a major hotspot way early
on in the late nineteen nineties early two thousands, when
the oxycon first st to market, And tell me what
a pill mill is. A pillmill is where a doctor
who for whatever reason isn't there to see clients, somebody
just shows up and he just hands the prescription for money,
(04:51):
and then they get the prescription there and then right
next door as a pharmacy, and then they just put
it in and then those people get the pills because
it's legal in that state. They might drive them home
to Florida and then sell them for ten times the
price or trade them or whatever. But it was unregulated
in Ohio at the time, and Kentucky was bad too.
(05:14):
Kentucky had the same issues. So right there enforcements right
there on the Ohio River bordering Kentucky, so you had
both sides of the river. So there were cars lined
up from Florida and West Virginia and Georgia up and
down all over town for a decade. And it's just
ravaged the city which had already been decimated by the
(05:38):
pullout of industrialization, and so all of that kind of
flooded in. You have all of these, you know, an
economically depressed area. All of a sudden, addiction becomes a
major major issue. People are driving from all over the
country because it's easy to get the pills there. And
then of course there's also the people who get into
kind of the illicit activities to make money. Right, absolutely,
(06:00):
absolutely a cottage industry of crime and drug associated crime
kind of sprung up, and you know, started to do
my own reporting on it. So one of our editors
worked as the managing editor of the Portsmouth Daily Times,
which is the daily newspaper there in the early twenty tens,
(06:21):
and so he was very familiar with the rumors that
had been circulating a round about Michael Moran. Moran had
already been a city councilman, but he wasn't on city
council anymore, but he was still well known within the
legal circles and chamber of commerce, and he did some
work pro bono work about legal defense. But he always
(06:43):
seemed to have a pretty girl in his arm. In
December of twenty eighteen, a now former reporter with that
newspaper put out on Facebook segments of a federal HALFI
Davis from the Drug Enforcement Administration, which basically laid there
and put out for public viewing. That's the federal law
(07:05):
enforcement was investigating the very same rumors that have been
following Moran around for years, that he was running girls
and running drugs, and that this was who he was.
It's important to note that Michael Moran has not been
arrested or charged with any crimes. Also that Moran has
(07:26):
categorically denied all of this. My editor at the time,
and I was working as an investigative reporter at the
Cincinnati Enquirer, said would James be interested in taking a
look at this? And I'll be honest, I thought I
didn't think it was real. At first. I thought there
was no way that this is as bad as they
say it is and whatever. So I took a drive
out there. A partner partnered me with a woman photographer
(07:47):
whom we went out there a couple of times and
they'll never forget it. We were doing some b rolls
shot shots in front of a pseudo abandoned shoe factory
with graffiti about hookers and things like that, and a
guy comes running up. He says, what are you doing?
And I told him and I said, by the way,
I've ever heard of Michael Moraney says, oh yeah, yah,
that guy runs women. So this was not a secret enforcemouth.
(08:12):
Everybody knew the rumors and had known somebody that knew
somebody that had worked for him. It was going on
that he was running women all over the country. He
was promising women drugs for sex. He had relationships with
judges and with members of law enforcement, all of it.
So you know, all of this is in the federal
(08:35):
document we're talking abo. It's a human trafficking, right, yes,
So you know, some people this is an interesting distinction.
Some people will say, oh, well, these women knew what
they were doing, they were just trying to make money. Well,
if you talk to the experts, it went one step
beyond that. It went into trafficking because Moran was holding
over them, ay the fact that they were drug addicts
(08:58):
and he would withhold their money or with hold their
wherewithal to get drugs, which under federal statute and Ohio statute,
is a form of trafficking b. He was attensively promising
more lenient sentences because he had friends in the legal system.
I'd like to point out here that we reached out
(09:19):
to Michael Moran as well as the prosecutors involved. Neither
side got back to us with comment. So I talked
to some folks, but getting those first initial people to talk,
that was their big fear, is they these women just
weren't afraid to go to jail. They were afraid for
their lives. And the reason they were afraid for their
lives is the name of one woman, and that's Meghan Lancaster.
(09:40):
Meghan was a known prostitute in the late two thousands
in Sciota County. If you talk to her sister in law,
and you talk to other people who knew her, she
worked for Mike Moran. Meghan got hooked on drugs early
on in high school, shortly out after our high school.
If you talk to her sister in law, who has
led the charge, she started partying later in high school
(10:05):
and then out of high school, and that led her into,
according to our sources, into the circle of Moran. So
Moran would hire her out for bachelor parties. And you know,
Katie Lancaster, her sister in law even tells the story
about her running into Meghan wearing Christmas lingerie in a
(10:27):
Walmart picking something up on her way to a Christmas
party where she was the entertainment for a bunch of
Moran's friends, and she mysteriously disappeared, so we can't even
say she was murdered. Her car was found the blood
on it, the door was left wide open, half parked
in a local fast food joint there in downtown Portsmouth,
(10:52):
and they have not found hide nor hair of her.
And I can tell you there are a lot of
places in Siotta County where you can hide a body.
It's full of hollers and dips and forests, and it's
it's wild country. It really is wild country. The glaciers
came through cut a bunch of stuff and it's it's beautiful,
(11:15):
but it's also a wild country. And a slew of
women went missing or got killed that were addicted prostitutes
um sex workers up in Ross County, in Chilcafee, which
is two counties to the north. Since twenty ten, more
than a dozen women have either been killed or gone
(11:37):
missing in rosscount which is the county north of Pike County,
which is probably an hour forty five minutes north of
Pike Tent in Chiliicafee. So Megan, A lot of people
theorize that Meghan might have been wrapped up in something
that got those women killed. But there's a lot of
thought and there's a lot of theory or rumor that
(11:59):
now that that was separate from what happened to her,
and what happened to her points back to possibly Michael Moran,
that he would want to assilence her for some reason. Yeah,
these are powerful men taking advantage of addicted, unempowered women.
And so how would you like Michael Moran in tying
(12:19):
this back to the road in case Michael Moran and
the situation in Portsmouth, I think just speaks to this community,
which I think includes piked In as people. You know,
these men in power are kind of doing what they want.
And you know when you look at Sheriff Reeder, who
handled the investigation for the road and murder, he was
also doing what he wanted. You know. Now he's indicted
(12:39):
on all these charges of you know, theft from the county. Yeah,
and so you know you can the parallel if you're
wanting to make a parallel to the road in cases
absolutely either a you had ineffectual or corrupt or both
law enforcement, right, you had a community or a culture
(13:01):
of lawlessness that has descended upon many places in rural America.
I will also say there's a major issue in small
town America with the quality and quantity of law enforcement
that happens there and the lack of accountability. Because nobody's watching,
(13:25):
you might be wondering how the crimes and Portsmouth fit
into the Road and Family case. While we probably know
that Michael Moran and what's happening in Portsmouth is not
directly related to the Road and murders, it does speak
to the distrust and lack of accountability in law enforcement.
It's this idea that all these men in power, from
judges to attorneys are involved in these crimes and their
cover ups. It raises a pretty unnerving question, who do
(13:48):
you trust if you can't trust elected officials and law enforcement. Furthermore,
this influx of drugs and lack of accountability from law
enforcement and the haphazard way piped in authorities tried to
recover some seemingly very important evidence is basically exactly what
reporter James Pelcher outlined so well in his work. Yeah,
it seems really systemic in the area, and specifically two
piked in and that impacts everything from the top down.
(14:18):
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Mother's Love Run? Now streaming only on Hulu, Experience for Yourself,
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a mother's worst nightmare. I didn't know what to do,
and we'll stop at nothing. I knew something bad for
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the children they love. This is the mission to get
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Start your free trial at body dot com. That's Bodi
(17:59):
dot com. Michael Land from Hoboken, New Jersey, asked if
there were any other personal stories we'd heard from people
along the way that hadn't made it into the podcast.
And here are a few that stand out to us.
The relationship between Frederica Wagner and Angela Wagner, her daughter
(18:21):
in law, has been the basis of a lot of
conversation that it was a troubled relationship and that Angela
and her husband were vicious fighters. And we even have
heard from a very close source that Angela would actually
have to put a little sedative in Billy Wagner's shakes
every day because that would lower his temper and that's
how she would survive the day. It just paints a picture,
(18:44):
whether this is true or not. Here Angela enters the
Wagner family. She's feuding with her now mother in law,
the matriarch of the family, Frederica her husband. I don't
know how tall he actually is. But he's a tall
presence of a man, and you know, allegedly hot tempered.
So Angela is trying to survive this new dynamic homeschooling
(19:06):
her boys and sedating her husband and feuding with her
mother in law. It just paints a very complicated picture.
It does. And because I can be pedantic of allegedly drugging,
but other stuff we did here because I spoke to
the same person who was a family member, it was
(19:28):
someone who was a family there. This is apparently firsthand
account correct. And part of that which I thought also
painted such an interesting picture was, like you said, the
Wagoners were known fairly widely to have get into it
with the fights. And what this source said to us
was that she was at the family home, at the
(19:49):
Wagner family home, and she commented that Angela had very
many decorative baskets all over and she said those are
very beautiful. And Angela allegedly said, well, every time we
get into a fight and Billy needs to apologize, he
buys me another basket because I like him. And so
just picturing this house filled with decorative baskets, each one
(20:12):
emblematic of an argument, just an interesting picture. Here's a
rich question, and it comes Aaron from Malvern, New York,
and she asks how to Sheriff Reader play into the
investigations and how might he play into the upcoming court trials.
(20:36):
He complicates this. I mean he's been accused of many things,
and court documents filed just last month the alleged Reader
of misappropriating about fifteen thousand dollars and SEES funds and
borrowing six thousand dollars from employees, which can be seen
as coercion. The records also accuse him of circumventing rules
(20:56):
at auctions to improperly get impounded vals for his family
so to his benefit. Additionally, the court alleges that Reader
on June twenty seventeen, seized seven thousand dollars that prosecutors
call quote possible proceeds of drug trafficking. So these are
charges that have gone for several years, and there's even
(21:19):
new allegations that charge him and engaging in a pattern
of corrupt activity, which is a first degree felony, and
prosecutors have long used the charge as a way to
attack organized crime figures and major drug dealers by seeking
long prison senses. So the fact that they're using this
against a sheriff is interesting strategy. You know, the issue
(21:40):
is now that his character is being called into question,
and according to sources we've talked to, the criminal justice
experts agree that if Reader is found of any wrongdoing,
it could pose obstacles for the prosecution in the trials
against the Wagners. You know, Reader was the front man
of making everybody feel at ease that the investigation was
(22:01):
being handled, but frankly was kind of doing a messy
job from the gem. Yeah. I mean, in theory, you
could look at every single case sheriff Freeder took the
lead on and wonder what he was doing behind the
scenes in order to make an arrest, which would include
the Rodent investigation. On the other side of that, though,
(22:21):
you know, what experts are saying is that the prosecution
might argue to the judge on the case that Reader's
criminal history isn't relevant to the Wagner trials and thus
shouldn't be heard by a jury, and they'll do that
by downplaying his role in the investigation. And if that
becomes the case, then it won't necessarily be a death
blow to the state's case. Another expert was quoted as
(22:43):
saying in the press. Officers are human beings like everybody else,
and so sometimes juries can weigh in on that and
decide what kind of credence they want to give to
his behavior. Schriff Frieder also potentially jeopardized the investigation by
having the Rodents cars and mobile homes moved off site.
Wich attorney Mike Allen, an investigative reporter Jodie Barr talked
about in episode five. So Sheriff Reeder's involvement is far
(23:08):
reaching and it has the potential to effect in multiple ways,
not only during the investigation but moving forward with the trials. Yeah,
there was something else early on in the investigation that
happened that really did cause a stir and that's the
road In autopsy reports. And for some reason these were
held up in being released to the media outlets, which
is something that happens occasionally in criminal cases, but it
(23:31):
garnered a lot of attention, specifically with the road In case.
Probably the reason why is oftentimes autopsies are not released
to the public because there might be a tell or
something very significant in those autopsy reports. For example, this
is just top of head, not related to the Wagner
or road In case at all. If somebody had a
(23:51):
certain tattoo marking or had been cut in a certain
way that only the perpetrator slash killer would know, then
authorities don't want that information to be wildly known because
it's something that would be helpful to know if there
was a confession, for example, So if somebody confessed, they
would know that information. So that is not entirely uncommon,
(24:14):
although in this case it seems that was not the
reason why. Yeah, it's speculated that it's not the reason why.
And this is this one. Actually all the way up
to the Ohio Supreme Court, two outlets, the Columbus Dispatch
and the Cincinnati Enquirer, sued the state for the right
to the autopsies. The suit was filed against the Pike
County Coroner, David Kessler, and that came after the Dispatch
(24:36):
was denied three separate times officially asking for the final
autopsy reports. And what the Dispatch's claim was was that
the final autopsy reports are of great public interest and
quote significant value to the Dispatch and our news gathering activities.
The authorities really were apprehensive to release the autopsy information,
arguing that the release could hinder the investigation. I wonder,
(24:59):
just to harp on this a little longer, like what
was the city, Like what was Pike County really trying
to protect? You know? Four times, three times seems like
a lot of times to continue to fight the release
of this and now that we know what they say,
like what in there was so damning to the investigation?
You know, it's just like seems like a lot. Well.
(25:20):
I actually spoke with attorney Jack Grenier, and he was
one of the lawyers who filed the suit on behalf
of the dispatch, and he had some really compelling thoughts.
You have to kind of wonder in light of the
troubles that's the sheriff ultimately got into what was motivating
the desire to keep things kind of quiet. Because this
(25:40):
is a pretty good example of, in my view, law
enforcement overreacting. And I say that kind of cautiously because
you know, it's say it was multiple murders in a
gruesome situation. But I think the idea of you know,
(26:01):
you just have to withhold as much information as you
possibly can from the public, and even maybe more information
than you're allowed you with whole is to me an overreaction,
and I think we saw that in this case, you
know that somehow, you know, if any piece of information
get out there would somehow derail the whole investigation. I
(26:25):
just I just don't buy into that. The Inquirer really
argued that it was in the public's best interest to
know what the autopsy said and to review. I mean,
what we learned from the autopsies is pretty important in
terms of what happened to the road ents. We learned
how many times they were shot, where they were shot
rich really did speak to how personal the crimes were.
(26:47):
Some of these family members were shot multiple times in
the face with a shotgun, and so if this was
a drug cartel head, you know, it wasn't once and quick.
It was personal and it was an overkill, which is
what we learned from the autopsies. Once these autopsies would
be released, here we go again, more questions with few answers,
and sure enough, that's exactly what happened. Thankfully we have
(27:09):
this information and we could actually really look at these
autopsy reports in great detail, and I can speak for
myself saying it was really dark and twisted. When you
really do see just how much to your point, Chef
of an overkill, this really was. Yeah, it made me think,
like what releasing this autopsy would do to the town
of piked In and speaking to a fair amount of
(27:29):
the residence, and just the feeling of uncertainty. I don't
know how it would if it was a good thing
or a bad thing, because the people in piked In
were thinking it was a drug cartel who did this
prior to the autopsy release, and that created a sense
of fear. But then I think after the autopsies or released,
people started circling in on the Wagoners and really thinking
they did it, which created a whole other set of
(27:51):
problems in terms of this kind of small town justice
that the Wagoners faced, whether they deserve it or not,
creates a whole new problem for the sheriff's office. Let's
stop here for another quick break. We'll be back in
a moment. How Deep does a Mother's Love Run? Now
(28:16):
streaming only on Hulu. Experience for yourself a real life
race against time by four mothers who went undercover. My
ex partner abducted our six year old son and took
him out of the country. This was a mother's worst nightmare.
I didn't know what to do, and we'll stop at nothing.
I knew something bad for the children they love. This
(28:37):
is the mission to get the child back. I was
so scared I would have to disguise myself to get him.
You're not keeping my child for incredible heart racing stories.
I'm not a detective. I just wanted my family back together.
I had to live a double life to save my son.
This is the last chance to get my kids back,
and that's when all hell breaks loose. It has to
be away up, go, go go. Experience this done a
(29:00):
new true crime docuseries Mother Undercover. I wanted him to
know you mess with the wrong mother, now streaming only
on Whoever search Mother Undercover. You will fail. So what
everybody does, but your jim, your watch, your yoga pants,
(29:21):
they pretend you won't. So when you miss a day,
eat the pancakes, give up on a workout, you failed. Seriously,
What the hell we're body? We've been a part of
that too, but not anymore at body or rejecting perfection,
an embracing reality, not in a Pizza Monday kind of way,
(29:43):
in a loving your whole life kind of way, in
a this workout is fun and it's okay if I
take a week off kind of way. In an I'm
eating healthy and it's okay if I indulge kind of
way in a I like myself, no matter what kind
of way. Yeah, you will fail. We all will, but
we're not going to let that be the end. Now,
(30:04):
see that we're already making progress, So let's keep going.
We are Body. Start your free trial at body dot com.
That's bodi dot com. Interesting and relatable topics, knowledgeable guests,
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(31:52):
the informant, which we've covered in the past, but I
know there has been some other questions out there. Yeah,
so Woody from Comac New York Us on social media
about the likelihood that the informant is in fact one
of the Wagner four. I'm obsessed with understanding more about
the informant personally. So you definitely think it must be
a family member who turned must is a strong statement.
(32:14):
I think the likelihood. I think it seems likely only
because if this family allegedly did commit this careful careful,
planned out murders that they spent months planning. Why would
they then be so careless and have someone else involved
enough with the information that they could turn state's evidence.
(32:35):
So to me, it says that if they kept it
all within the family, then necessarily it would have to
be someone in the family. It's unknowable at this point,
but that's what makes sense to me. Is it possible
that it's Rita, Angela Wagner's mother because she would have
maybe been witnessed as some of these conversations. I mean,
it's possible that it's any of them, assuming it's one
(32:55):
of the four. Let's just play this out for a second.
If Courtney, if you're correct, and it's one of the
four or of the Wagoners that are the accused. To me,
if one of them was going to fold, George, the
eldest son, seems the most likely. And for that I
say simply because he had the least amount of skin
in the game. If he wasn't fighting for his niece solely,
(33:17):
you know, he wasn't, you know, maybe supercharged by love
the way Jake was. He wasn't super charged about protecting
his children the way Angela maybe was about her son Jake,
and her granddaughter. We know the dads potentially had some
sort of a confrontation leading up that could be charged
by emotion. But that said, he turns now he's the
(33:39):
one asking for solitary confinement and a bible. The fact
that they were trying to get George Wagner off on
bail very recently, that would speak to this as well,
that A, he's the informant. B just through the basic
ways that you would be released from prison on bail.
They made that attempt. It was unsuccess full on the
(34:00):
behalf of the defense, but that is interesting strategy. By
the way, how shocking would this be if George Wagner,
the eldest son, had to actually appear in court and
testify against his mother and his father and his younger
brother Jake. That would be shocking. So while it is
all speculation, it is all possible, and several reputable sources
(34:23):
have said it's not the most unlikely thing. Just as
a legal reminder, Angela, Billy, Jake, and George Wagner were
charged with aggravated murder. Angela Wagner's mother, Rita Joe Nukam
and Billy Wagner's mother Frederica were both charged with obstruction
of justice and perjury. Nucombe was also charged with forgery.
All six of them pled not guilty, and our justice
(34:43):
system presumes innocence until guilt is proven. Jodi Barr, who
we heard from throughout the course of this podcast, has
summed up pretty well how the three of us feel
about this case. So, I mean, this is a case
I think about it. I'm pretty sure every day, and
(35:04):
you know again, that's why I'm very eager to hear
from you know, I just want to see this trial.
I want to know more about what happened here and
if they really do have the right people. It sounds
like they do. I mean, these indictments are very lengthy,
very detailed, but that's only one side of this. I
want to hear from the Wagner's and see if they
(35:25):
have an explanation because at the end of the day,
when the last trial is held, in the last jury,
if it get to that point, you know, I would
hope that the Rodent family can walk out of that
courtroom and know for sure that the people who did
this are are the people who go to prison for it.
I can't think of a better way to hand down justice.
(35:52):
We've talked about this a lot, and people ask us,
you know why we work in crime investigations in general,
and I think their truth is victims have a voice
even after death, and for us, we really do want
to share our deepest sympathy with the Rodent family. I
(36:14):
think the point of this podcast is to really angle
towards shining light on the injustices that the Rodent family
faced and help bring a sense of closure and answers
to the surviving Rodent family. Well. I think also when
the Wagoners finally do have their day in court, our
hope is that the Rodents finally see justice piked in
(36:49):
Massacres Executive produced by Stephanie Laidecker and me Courtney Armstrong.
Editing and sound designed by executive producer Jared Aston. Additional
producing by Jeff Shane and Andrew Becker. The Piketon Massacre
is a production of iHeartRadio and Katie Studios. For more
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(37:09):
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Code Podcast fifty. I think everybody has an interesting skin
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dot com to find your perfect match today. Welcome to
the Piketon Massacre, a production of iHeartRadio and Katie Studios.
This is episode ten Wild Country. In this episode, We're
(02:13):
going to be answering a bunch of questions we've received
over social media. We are also going to be going
deeper into some subjects we've only touched on and talking
about some stories we haven't been able to tell. I'm
Courtney Armstrong. I work at Katie Studios with Stephanie Lydecker
and Jeff Sheene. Just as a legal reminder, Angela, Billy Jake,
and George Wagner were charged with aggravated murder. Angela Wagner's
(02:36):
mother Rita, Joe Nukam and Billy Wagner's mother Frederica were
both charged with obstruction of justice and perjury. Nucombe was
also charged with forgery. All six of them pled not guilty,
and our justice system presumes innocence until guilt has proven.
Ali from Ormond Beach, Florida asked us about the drugs
(02:59):
and how we relate to the case and if there's
anything else in the piked In area that pertains to
drugs that we should know. So one of the big
theories behind the murders we explored was drugs and the
fact that the Rodents did have a pretty large marijuana
grow operation on their property. But it's not just specific
to the rodent or even specific to piked in the
(03:21):
immediate area is kind of a hotbed that's been affected
by drugs in myriad ways. For starters, there's not a
ton of jobs, and that has really taken a toll
on the town, and just generally speaking, Ohio and the
southern part of the state has been devastated by drug abuse,
mostly prescription painkillers and heroin. In Pike County, the drug
(03:42):
overdose mortality rate from twenty fourteen to twenty eighteen was
more than seventy one deaths per one hundred thousand population.
The rate for the rest of the country was twenty
seven deaths per one hundred thousand. That's nearly three times
the mortality rate of the rest of the country. A
lot of these drugs come in from Portsmouth. Portsmouth, Ohio,
(04:04):
is the neighboring town to Piketon, so about a fifteen
minute drive. I spoke to investigative reporter James Pilcher, who
didn't incredibly deep dive into Portsmouth into the larger picture
of what's happening in southeastern Ohio. Portsmith, which is in
the next county over on the river south of Pike
County and Piketon is known as ground zero for the
pillmill epidemic. That's where pill mills and the opioid epidemic
(04:28):
is known to have had a major hotspot way early
on in the late nineteen nineties early two thousands, when
the oxycon first st to market, And tell me what
a pill mill is. A pillmill is where a doctor
who for whatever reason isn't there to see clients, somebody
just shows up and he just hands the prescription for money,
(04:51):
and then they get the prescription there and then right
next door as a pharmacy, and then they just put
it in and then those people get the pills because
it's legal in that state. They might drive them home
to Florida and then sell them for ten times the
price or trade them or whatever. But it was unregulated
in Ohio at the time, and Kentucky was bad too.
(05:14):
Kentucky had the same issues. So right there enforcements right
there on the Ohio River bordering Kentucky, so you had
both sides of the river. So there were cars lined
up from Florida and West Virginia and Georgia up and
down all over town for a decade. And it's just
ravaged the city which had already been decimated by the
(05:38):
pullout of industrialization, and so all of that kind of
flooded in. You have all of these, you know, an
economically depressed area. All of a sudden, addiction becomes a
major major issue. People are driving from all over the
country because it's easy to get the pills there. And
then of course there's also the people who get into
kind of the illicit activities to make money. Right, absolutely,
(06:00):
absolutely a cottage industry of crime and drug associated crime
kind of sprung up, and you know, started to do
my own reporting on it. So one of our editors
worked as the managing editor of the Portsmouth Daily Times,
which is the daily newspaper there in the early twenty tens,
(06:21):
and so he was very familiar with the rumors that
had been circulating a round about Michael Moran. Moran had
already been a city councilman, but he wasn't on city
council anymore, but he was still well known within the
legal circles and chamber of commerce, and he did some
work pro bono work about legal defense. But he always
(06:43):
seemed to have a pretty girl in his arm. In
December of twenty eighteen, a now former reporter with that
newspaper put out on Facebook segments of a federal HALFI
Davis from the Drug Enforcement Administration, which basically laid there
and put out for public viewing. That's the federal law
(07:05):
enforcement was investigating the very same rumors that have been
following Moran around for years, that he was running girls
and running drugs, and that this was who he was.
It's important to note that Michael Moran has not been
arrested or charged with any crimes. Also that Moran has
(07:26):
categorically denied all of this. My editor at the time,
and I was working as an investigative reporter at the
Cincinnati Enquirer, said would James be interested in taking a
look at this? And I'll be honest, I thought I
didn't think it was real. At first. I thought there
was no way that this is as bad as they
say it is and whatever. So I took a drive
out there. A partner partnered me with a woman photographer
(07:47):
whom we went out there a couple of times and
they'll never forget it. We were doing some b rolls
shot shots in front of a pseudo abandoned shoe factory
with graffiti about hookers and things like that, and a
guy comes running up. He says, what are you doing?
And I told him and I said, by the way,
I've ever heard of Michael Moraney says, oh yeah, yah,
that guy runs women. So this was not a secret enforcemouth.
(08:12):
Everybody knew the rumors and had known somebody that knew
somebody that had worked for him. It was going on
that he was running women all over the country. He
was promising women drugs for sex. He had relationships with
judges and with members of law enforcement, all of it.
So you know, all of this is in the federal
(08:35):
document we're talking abo. It's a human trafficking, right, yes,
So you know, some people this is an interesting distinction.
Some people will say, oh, well, these women knew what
they were doing, they were just trying to make money. Well,
if you talk to the experts, it went one step
beyond that. It went into trafficking because Moran was holding
over them, ay the fact that they were drug addicts
(08:58):
and he would withhold their money or with hold their
wherewithal to get drugs, which under federal statute and Ohio statute,
is a form of trafficking b. He was attensively promising
more lenient sentences because he had friends in the legal system.
I'd like to point out here that we reached out
(09:19):
to Michael Moran as well as the prosecutors involved. Neither
side got back to us with comment. So I talked
to some folks, but getting those first initial people to talk,
that was their big fear, is they these women just
weren't afraid to go to jail. They were afraid for
their lives. And the reason they were afraid for their
lives is the name of one woman, and that's Meghan Lancaster.
(09:40):
Meghan was a known prostitute in the late two thousands
in Sciota County. If you talk to her sister in law,
and you talk to other people who knew her, she
worked for Mike Moran. Meghan got hooked on drugs early
on in high school, shortly out after our high school.
If you talk to her sister in law, who has
led the charge, she started partying later in high school
(10:05):
and then out of high school, and that led her into,
according to our sources, into the circle of Moran. So
Moran would hire her out for bachelor parties. And you know,
Katie Lancaster, her sister in law even tells the story
about her running into Meghan wearing Christmas lingerie in a
(10:27):
Walmart picking something up on her way to a Christmas
party where she was the entertainment for a bunch of
Moran's friends, and she mysteriously disappeared, so we can't even
say she was murdered. Her car was found the blood
on it, the door was left wide open, half parked
in a local fast food joint there in downtown Portsmouth,
(10:52):
and they have not found hide nor hair of her.
And I can tell you there are a lot of
places in Siotta County where you can hide a body.
It's full of hollers and dips and forests, and it's
it's wild country. It really is wild country. The glaciers
came through cut a bunch of stuff and it's it's beautiful,
(11:15):
but it's also a wild country. And a slew of
women went missing or got killed that were addicted prostitutes
um sex workers up in Ross County, in Chilcafee, which
is two counties to the north. Since twenty ten, more
than a dozen women have either been killed or gone
(11:37):
missing in rosscount which is the county north of Pike County,
which is probably an hour forty five minutes north of
Pike Tent in Chiliicafee. So Megan, A lot of people
theorize that Meghan might have been wrapped up in something
that got those women killed. But there's a lot of
thought and there's a lot of theory or rumor that
(11:59):
now that that was separate from what happened to her,
and what happened to her points back to possibly Michael Moran,
that he would want to assilence her for some reason. Yeah,
these are powerful men taking advantage of addicted, unempowered women.
And so how would you like Michael Moran in tying
(12:19):
this back to the road in case Michael Moran and
the situation in Portsmouth, I think just speaks to this community,
which I think includes piked In as people. You know,
these men in power are kind of doing what they want.
And you know when you look at Sheriff Reeder, who
handled the investigation for the road and murder, he was
also doing what he wanted. You know. Now he's indicted
(12:39):
on all these charges of you know, theft from the county. Yeah,
and so you know you can the parallel if you're
wanting to make a parallel to the road in cases
absolutely either a you had ineffectual or corrupt or both
law enforcement, right, you had a community or a culture
(13:01):
of lawlessness that has descended upon many places in rural America.
I will also say there's a major issue in small
town America with the quality and quantity of law enforcement
that happens there and the lack of accountability. Because nobody's watching,
(13:25):
you might be wondering how the crimes and Portsmouth fit
into the Road and Family case. While we probably know
that Michael Moran and what's happening in Portsmouth is not
directly related to the Road and murders, it does speak
to the distrust and lack of accountability in law enforcement.
It's this idea that all these men in power, from
judges to attorneys are involved in these crimes and their
cover ups. It raises a pretty unnerving question, who do
(13:48):
you trust if you can't trust elected officials and law enforcement. Furthermore,
this influx of drugs and lack of accountability from law
enforcement and the haphazard way piped in authorities tried to
recover some seemingly very important evidence is basically exactly what
reporter James Pelcher outlined so well in his work. Yeah,
it seems really systemic in the area, and specifically two
piked in and that impacts everything from the top down.
(14:18):
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dot com. Michael Land from Hoboken, New Jersey, asked if
there were any other personal stories we'd heard from people
along the way that hadn't made it into the podcast.
And here are a few that stand out to us.
The relationship between Frederica Wagner and Angela Wagner, her daughter
(18:21):
in law, has been the basis of a lot of
conversation that it was a troubled relationship and that Angela
and her husband were vicious fighters. And we even have
heard from a very close source that Angela would actually
have to put a little sedative in Billy Wagner's shakes
every day because that would lower his temper and that's
how she would survive the day. It just paints a picture,
(18:44):
whether this is true or not. Here Angela enters the
Wagner family. She's feuding with her now mother in law,
the matriarch of the family, Frederica her husband. I don't
know how tall he actually is. But he's a tall
presence of a man, and you know, allegedly hot tempered.
So Angela is trying to survive this new dynamic homeschooling
(19:06):
her boys and sedating her husband and feuding with her
mother in law. It just paints a very complicated picture.
It does. And because I can be pedantic of allegedly drugging,
but other stuff we did here because I spoke to
the same person who was a family member, it was
(19:28):
someone who was a family there. This is apparently firsthand
account correct. And part of that which I thought also
painted such an interesting picture was, like you said, the
Wagoners were known fairly widely to have get into it
with the fights. And what this source said to us
was that she was at the family home, at the
(19:49):
Wagner family home, and she commented that Angela had very
many decorative baskets all over and she said those are
very beautiful. And Angela allegedly said, well, every time we
get into a fight and Billy needs to apologize, he
buys me another basket because I like him. And so
just picturing this house filled with decorative baskets, each one
(20:12):
emblematic of an argument, just an interesting picture. Here's a
rich question, and it comes Aaron from Malvern, New York,
and she asks how to Sheriff Reader play into the
investigations and how might he play into the upcoming court trials.
(20:36):
He complicates this. I mean he's been accused of many things,
and court documents filed just last month the alleged Reader
of misappropriating about fifteen thousand dollars and SEES funds and
borrowing six thousand dollars from employees, which can be seen
as coercion. The records also accuse him of circumventing rules
(20:56):
at auctions to improperly get impounded vals for his family
so to his benefit. Additionally, the court alleges that Reader
on June twenty seventeen, seized seven thousand dollars that prosecutors
call quote possible proceeds of drug trafficking. So these are
charges that have gone for several years, and there's even
(21:19):
new allegations that charge him and engaging in a pattern
of corrupt activity, which is a first degree felony, and
prosecutors have long used the charge as a way to
attack organized crime figures and major drug dealers by seeking
long prison senses. So the fact that they're using this
against a sheriff is interesting strategy. You know, the issue
(21:40):
is now that his character is being called into question,
and according to sources we've talked to, the criminal justice
experts agree that if Reader is found of any wrongdoing,
it could pose obstacles for the prosecution in the trials
against the Wagners. You know, Reader was the front man
of making everybody feel at ease that the investigation was
(22:01):
being handled, but frankly was kind of doing a messy
job from the gem. Yeah. I mean, in theory, you
could look at every single case sheriff Freeder took the
lead on and wonder what he was doing behind the
scenes in order to make an arrest, which would include
the Rodent investigation. On the other side of that, though,
(22:21):
you know, what experts are saying is that the prosecution
might argue to the judge on the case that Reader's
criminal history isn't relevant to the Wagner trials and thus
shouldn't be heard by a jury, and they'll do that
by downplaying his role in the investigation. And if that
becomes the case, then it won't necessarily be a death
blow to the state's case. Another expert was quoted as
(22:43):
saying in the press. Officers are human beings like everybody else,
and so sometimes juries can weigh in on that and
decide what kind of credence they want to give to
his behavior. Schriff Frieder also potentially jeopardized the investigation by
having the Rodents cars and mobile homes moved off site.
Wich attorney Mike Allen, an investigative reporter Jodie Barr talked
about in episode five. So Sheriff Reeder's involvement is far
(23:08):
reaching and it has the potential to effect in multiple ways,
not only during the investigation but moving forward with the trials. Yeah,
there was something else early on in the investigation that
happened that really did cause a stir and that's the
road In autopsy reports. And for some reason these were
held up in being released to the media outlets, which
is something that happens occasionally in criminal cases, but it
(23:31):
garnered a lot of attention, specifically with the road In case.
Probably the reason why is oftentimes autopsies are not released
to the public because there might be a tell or
something very significant in those autopsy reports. For example, this
is just top of head, not related to the Wagner
or road In case at all. If somebody had a
(23:51):
certain tattoo marking or had been cut in a certain
way that only the perpetrator slash killer would know, then
authorities don't want that information to be wildly known because
it's something that would be helpful to know if there
was a confession, for example, So if somebody confessed, they
would know that information. So that is not entirely uncommon,
(24:14):
although in this case it seems that was not the
reason why. Yeah, it's speculated that it's not the reason why.
And this is this one. Actually all the way up
to the Ohio Supreme Court, two outlets, the Columbus Dispatch
and the Cincinnati Enquirer, sued the state for the right
to the autopsies. The suit was filed against the Pike
County Coroner, David Kessler, and that came after the Dispatch
(24:36):
was denied three separate times officially asking for the final
autopsy reports. And what the Dispatch's claim was was that
the final autopsy reports are of great public interest and
quote significant value to the Dispatch and our news gathering activities.
The authorities really were apprehensive to release the autopsy information,
arguing that the release could hinder the investigation. I wonder,
(24:59):
just to harp on this a little longer, like what
was the city, Like what was Pike County really trying
to protect? You know? Four times, three times seems like
a lot of times to continue to fight the release
of this and now that we know what they say,
like what in there was so damning to the investigation?
You know, it's just like seems like a lot. Well.
(25:20):
I actually spoke with attorney Jack Grenier, and he was
one of the lawyers who filed the suit on behalf
of the dispatch, and he had some really compelling thoughts.
You have to kind of wonder in light of the
troubles that's the sheriff ultimately got into what was motivating
the desire to keep things kind of quiet. Because this
(25:40):
is a pretty good example of, in my view, law
enforcement overreacting. And I say that kind of cautiously because
you know, it's say it was multiple murders in a
gruesome situation. But I think the idea of you know,
(26:01):
you just have to withhold as much information as you
possibly can from the public, and even maybe more information
than you're allowed you with whole is to me an overreaction,
and I think we saw that in this case, you
know that somehow, you know, if any piece of information
get out there would somehow derail the whole investigation. I
(26:25):
just I just don't buy into that. The Inquirer really
argued that it was in the public's best interest to
know what the autopsy said and to review. I mean,
what we learned from the autopsies is pretty important in
terms of what happened to the road ents. We learned
how many times they were shot, where they were shot
rich really did speak to how personal the crimes were.
(26:47):
Some of these family members were shot multiple times in
the face with a shotgun, and so if this was
a drug cartel head, you know, it wasn't once and quick.
It was personal and it was an overkill, which is
what we learned from the autopsies. Once these autopsies would
be released, here we go again, more questions with few answers,
and sure enough, that's exactly what happened. Thankfully we have
(27:09):
this information and we could actually really look at these
autopsy reports in great detail, and I can speak for
myself saying it was really dark and twisted. When you
really do see just how much to your point, Chef
of an overkill, this really was. Yeah, it made me think,
like what releasing this autopsy would do to the town
of piked In and speaking to a fair amount of
(27:29):
the residence, and just the feeling of uncertainty. I don't
know how it would if it was a good thing
or a bad thing, because the people in piked In
were thinking it was a drug cartel who did this
prior to the autopsy release, and that created a sense
of fear. But then I think after the autopsies or released,
people started circling in on the Wagoners and really thinking
they did it, which created a whole other set of
(27:51):
problems in terms of this kind of small town justice
that the Wagoners faced, whether they deserve it or not,
creates a whole new problem for the sheriff's office. Let's
stop here for another quick break. We'll be back in
a moment. How Deep does a Mother's Love Run? Now
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(31:52):
the informant, which we've covered in the past, but I
know there has been some other questions out there. Yeah,
so Woody from Comac New York Us on social media
about the likelihood that the informant is in fact one
of the Wagner four. I'm obsessed with understanding more about
the informant personally. So you definitely think it must be
a family member who turned must is a strong statement.
(32:14):
I think the likelihood. I think it seems likely only
because if this family allegedly did commit this careful careful,
planned out murders that they spent months planning. Why would
they then be so careless and have someone else involved
enough with the information that they could turn state's evidence.
(32:35):
So to me, it says that if they kept it
all within the family, then necessarily it would have to
be someone in the family. It's unknowable at this point,
but that's what makes sense to me. Is it possible
that it's Rita, Angela Wagner's mother because she would have
maybe been witnessed as some of these conversations. I mean,
it's possible that it's any of them, assuming it's one
(32:55):
of the four. Let's just play this out for a second.
If Courtney, if you're correct, and it's one of the
four or of the Wagoners that are the accused. To me,
if one of them was going to fold, George, the
eldest son, seems the most likely. And for that I
say simply because he had the least amount of skin
in the game. If he wasn't fighting for his niece solely,
(33:17):
you know, he wasn't, you know, maybe supercharged by love
the way Jake was. He wasn't super charged about protecting
his children the way Angela maybe was about her son Jake,
and her granddaughter. We know the dads potentially had some
sort of a confrontation leading up that could be charged
by emotion. But that said, he turns now he's the
(33:39):
one asking for solitary confinement and a bible. The fact
that they were trying to get George Wagner off on
bail very recently, that would speak to this as well,
that A, he's the informant. B just through the basic
ways that you would be released from prison on bail.
They made that attempt. It was unsuccess full on the
(34:00):
behalf of the defense, but that is interesting strategy. By
the way, how shocking would this be if George Wagner,
the eldest son, had to actually appear in court and
testify against his mother and his father and his younger
brother Jake. That would be shocking. So while it is
all speculation, it is all possible, and several reputable sources
(34:23):
have said it's not the most unlikely thing. Just as
a legal reminder, Angela, Billy, Jake, and George Wagner were
charged with aggravated murder. Angela Wagner's mother, Rita Joe Nukam
and Billy Wagner's mother Frederica were both charged with obstruction
of justice and perjury. Nucombe was also charged with forgery.
All six of them pled not guilty, and our justice
(34:43):
system presumes innocence until guilt is proven. Jodi Barr, who
we heard from throughout the course of this podcast, has
summed up pretty well how the three of us feel
about this case. So, I mean, this is a case
I think about it. I'm pretty sure every day, and
(35:04):
you know again, that's why I'm very eager to hear
from you know, I just want to see this trial.
I want to know more about what happened here and
if they really do have the right people. It sounds
like they do. I mean, these indictments are very lengthy,
very detailed, but that's only one side of this. I
want to hear from the Wagner's and see if they
(35:25):
have an explanation because at the end of the day,
when the last trial is held, in the last jury,
if it get to that point, you know, I would
hope that the Rodent family can walk out of that
courtroom and know for sure that the people who did
this are are the people who go to prison for it.
I can't think of a better way to hand down justice.
(35:52):
We've talked about this a lot, and people ask us,
you know why we work in crime investigations in general,
and I think their truth is victims have a voice
even after death, and for us, we really do want
to share our deepest sympathy with the Rodent family. I
(36:14):
think the point of this podcast is to really angle
towards shining light on the injustices that the Rodent family
faced and help bring a sense of closure and answers
to the surviving Rodent family. Well. I think also when
the Wagoners finally do have their day in court, our
hope is that the Rodents finally see justice piked in
(36:49):
Massacres Executive produced by Stephanie Laidecker and me Courtney Armstrong.
Editing and sound designed by executive producer Jared Aston. Additional
producing by Jeff Shane and Andrew Becker. The Piketon Massacre
is a production of iHeartRadio and Katie Studios. For more
podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
(37:09):
wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Since her role
as White House correspondent, Caitlyn Collins has never been afraid
to dig deep. She's a reliable, deeply sourced reporter and
is always willing to hold the powerful accountable. On her
new CNN show, The Source with Caitlyn Collins, Caitlyn is
(37:32):
bringing that tenacious spirit to primetime. She's chasing the facts,
connecting with her rolodex of sources, and pulling the threads
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