August 5, 2020 • 37 mins
In April 2016, after eight members of the Rhoden family were murdered in their homes, Ohio authorities launched the largest homicide investigation in the state’s history. For over two years, residents of the small town of Piketon lived in fear, as rumors circulated about who the killers could be.
Then, on November 13th, 2018, six members of a local family were arrested in connection with the brutal massacre. In episode two, we meet the family accused of being responsible for this unthinkable crime and talk to those who knew them the best. We’ll also examine the ties that bound the two families together and the driving motive authorities claim might lie at the heart of the tragedy.
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to the piked in Massacre, a production of iHeartRadio and
Katie Studios. On the morning of April twenty second, twenty sixteen,
(02:12):
the small town of Piked in Ohio, who awoke to
some horrifying news. Spread out across four homes, all within
a few miles of each other, Eight members of a
local family, the Rodents, were found murdered. They were shot
execution style in their beds, the victims of a methodical
killing spree. It was an unprecedented and confounding crime, one
(02:33):
that would launched the largest homicide investigation in Ohio's history. Restoration, anger, sadness,
emotions are still raw in Pike County. Most of the
people in this town say, whoever shot and killed eight
members of the Rodent family need to be found soon.
I hope that in this area apprehend eating everyone. These
aren't peoples, These are monstering. Episode two, Wagner's in Custody.
(03:04):
I'm Courtney Armstrong, a TV producer at Katie Studios. With
Stephanie Lydecker and Jeff Shane, we produced television series and documentaries.
Here's Stephanie for me. This case was incredibly disturbing and
personally really hard to stop thinking about eight people from
the exact same family, all killed in one night, but
at four different locations. That's extremely strategic. The three of
(03:30):
us have been following this case very closely for years.
Here's producer Jeff Shane talking to Jodi Barr, an investigative
journalists who have reported for TV station Fox nineteen and Cincinnati.
You're not, as a journalist, easily shocked, but like this
was shocking, probably right, Yeah, it was shocking. I would
say it was more confusion because on the typical murder,
(03:51):
or you know, a breaking news story, you can roll
the advance in your mind. But this is this isn't
the typical murder, you know, where there's one or two
victims of a single house and you know the bad
guy took off. You know, this was something way outside
the norm. You're just thinking, what is going on here?
This none of this makes sense, But you knew it
(04:11):
had to be something big because you've got eight members
of one family targeted, murdered in their sleep, in their homes,
and the killers seemingly vanished. We didn't know the pieces,
we didn't know how to put it together. There was
no information coming out about these murders, about motives, even
the family members who were in direct communication with law
(04:31):
enforcement even they weren't being told anything. I mean, call
it good investigative work, and you know, you hold your
cards plus to the chest as an investigator. Maybe that's
what it was, but you know, from the outside looking in,
it was almost like the law enforcement didn't have a
clue at that point in time. Overwhelming amount of tamps
have been pouring into police, but no arrestive and me
(04:53):
with or any general. Mike DeWine is saying that over
two hundred investigators and police officers have contributed and so
forward to this ongoing investigation, but the killer has disappeared.
As the investigation dragged on, rumors ran rampant in the
close knit community, and journalists like Jodie Barr started digging deeper.
(05:15):
This did seem to be a very tactical, a very
clean sort of you know, when you think of an
assassin doing a hit like you see in the movies.
You started to wonder if there wasn't something to that
because of just how seemingly clean these killings were. I mean,
how does one person or a group of people hit
four separate homes, kill eight different people, seemingly lead absolutely
(05:40):
no trace of any evidence. What does this mean, what
is going on here? But after I started having conversations
with the Rodent family and you started talking to some
people who were very close to the victims in this case,
at least very close acquaintances, you started to realize that,
you know, there were some people that even I had
(06:00):
conversations with in Pike County who I knew they knew
more than what they were telling me. I knew they
knew more about what happened that morning, and they knew
more about the circumstances surrounding the Rodents that could have
led to these murders. But they would not tell it.
And I don't know if it was because they were
afraid or they didn't want to believe what they believed happened.
(06:24):
But all we kept hearing from the Rodent family, from
the people around there, and they were phrasing this way
is that it was locals. What did that mean? We
didn't know. By the summer of twenty eighteen, the investigation
had entered its second year, and Piked in residence, like Barbara,
were becoming increasingly scared. It's an extremely sinister thing that occurred.
(06:50):
It's like a movie. When I was young, people got
along and you know it was we left our doors unlocked,
you know it was. It was that trusting and relaxed
in Pike County, so we couldn't believe something like that
(07:11):
what happened here, and it was. It was especially terrifying
because no one knew who did it or why. And
you don't know if your family's next. It's just grizzling
scene in a briskling situation. If you are fearful, arm yourself.
(07:34):
If you feel that you need to protect yourself or family,
do so. On November thirteenth, twenty eighteen, everything with it
to change. Here's Governor of Ohio, Might Dwine, then Attorney General, Well,
good afternoon. We promised that the day would come when
the rest would be made in the Pike County Master's
(07:57):
Today is that day. In a series of arrest that
sent shock waves through the insulated community, six members of
a local family, the Wagners, were taken into custody. Up,
keep your hands up, go up. Forty seven year old
Billy Wagner is the patriarch of the Wagner family and
(08:18):
was arrested near Lexington, Kentucky, and a horse trailer that
was pulled over. I'm waga I'm Wagaba. Angela Wagner is
Billy's wife and matriarch of the Wagner family. The forty
eight year old was arrested at their home near piked In, Ohio.
Go Ahead, Angelo Wagner in the car one Cope thirteen
(08:40):
thirty one. Angela and Billy's two sons, George Wagner and
Jake Wagner, were arrested together during a traffic stop. George
was twenty seven and Jake was twenty six. Seventy six
year old Fredrika Wagner, Billy Wagner's mother, was arrested at
the family's horse farm. The Flying w Angela Wagner's mother,
(09:01):
sixty five year old Rita Joe Nukam, was arrested at
her home, while six members of the Wagner family were
arrested in connection with the crime. Billy, Angela, George, and
Jake Wagner were charged with eight counts of aggravated murder.
It feels about the arrests of four people in the
murders of eight members of the road In family back
(09:23):
in April twenty sixteen. Mike Allen, a criminal defense attorney
and legal commentator for Fox nineteen and Cincinnati was covering
the story when the news broke. All the arrests happened
within minutes of each other, and that tells me that
the BCI, the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification, who was
in charge of this investigation, they know what they're doing
(09:45):
and they wanted to make sure that they affected these
arrests without any kind of problems or tipping anybody off,
So they had that thing down pretty tight. You've got
four people charged in the murders, and the well, it's
actuated murder, and that's capital murder in the state of
Ohio that does have the death penalty as a possible
(10:09):
penalty in a case like this, so it is death
penalty case. How rare is it to have multiple capital
murder cases going? I haven't seen multiple four people up
for capital murder in Ohio before, you know what, And
I've been in the system for over fifty years, and
I mean the most I've seen were two co defendants
(10:31):
being tried for capital murder from the same set of facts,
but never four. So that is extremely rare that you
got four people for defendants facing the death penalty. The
charges for the two other family members were less severe.
Grandmother Frederica Wagner, Billy Wagner's mother was charged with obstruction
(10:52):
of justice and perjury. Angela Wagner's mother, Rita Newcomb, was
charged with forgery, perjury, and obstruction of justice. But to
Mike Allen, one charge brought against the alleged trigger pullers
makes one thing clear. They're also charged with conspiracy engaging
in a pattern of corrupt activity, which means that they
(11:14):
all work together on this. I think it's obvious, at
least to the prosecutors and the investigators that this thing
there was nobody freelancing. They were possibly all operating together
tampering with evidence. That kind of speaks for itself. I mean,
you know, once they knew that they were the focus
of the investigation, perhaps they did something with the evidence.
(11:43):
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(12:50):
We're on now streaming only on Hulu. Experience for yourself,
a real life race against time by four mothers who
went undercover. My ex partner ducted 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 better for
(13:11):
the children they love. This 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.
(13:33):
Go Go, Go experience the stunning new true crime docuseries
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the wrong mother, now streaming only on Who over Search,
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dot org, slash share your Voice. We needed to know
(15:26):
more about the rodents and the accused, the Wagners. We
also wanted to be and piped in to learn about
the town. So Stephanie, Jeff and I flew to Ohio.
There was this extremely eerie vibe to the town. There
definitely was a sense that something very big was happening
(15:47):
real time. It almost felt it felt a little dangerous.
I think Erieinus, which said is the best word, like
just something was not right. Yeah, and it's not uncommon.
It was a perfect American small town, right, there's one diner,
there's not a movie theater. So again, small insulated. And
you know, we just when we just started trying to
(16:08):
go door to door to meet anyone who could tell
us about the Rodent family, I would say every single
person we spoke to legitimately invited us inside and could
not have been lovelier. There also was the experience of
knocking on doors knowing very well people are there. We
there was smoke coming out of the chimney, We physically
saw the curtains be closed, and certain people understandably didn't
(16:32):
want to speak to us, but those who did, they
were so welcoming. We reached out to journalist Jeff Winkler,
who was doing research on the Wagner family. For me personally.
When I first got an idea of how the Rodents
lived and you know, who was related to who and whatnot,
(16:56):
I think I originally had the sense that the Wagners
were the same sort of um position in terms of
property and and perhaps financial situation. Well not but the Wagners,
I was people rather surprised to learn that they had,
you know, a huge farm. They'd been running various um
(17:18):
farm businesses on this huge bit of land or landlords
and um there were there was something of a sort
of um sort of a family, if you will, in
the area. And you know, there were people that they
they we spoke with that had some very open thoughts
and loving thoughts about the family. In all this, we
(17:43):
couldn't help wonder how could this esteemed piked In family
allegedly be responsible for Ohio's most horrific murder. It seemed
like everyone had an opinion. Here's Angie Montgomery, a piked
In resident. When the Wagners were arrested, you had your
fifty fifty had people that said, yes, I knew that
they did that, and then you've got people that say,
(18:04):
there's no way those people did not happen. But we
wanted to get the story for ourselves, to talk to
those who actually knew the people accused of carrying out
these ruthless murders. Hello, Hi, Dore, It's Jeff Shane calling Hi. Hi,
How are you it is now a good time. Yeah,
this is Deray McLevy. She's Billy Wagner's cousin and she
(18:27):
grew up with the Wagner's. Were you close with um Billy?
Billy was quite a bit younger than me. I was
about eleven years old when Billy was born, but I
was raised with him and we had a whole lot
of fun. It was so much fun. We all bred horses,
and we lived in Ohio and it was beautiful, and
it snowed in the wintertime, and it was beautiful in
(18:47):
the Thumber, and we just had so much fun. It
was unbelievable. He was like a really good dad, right,
like a hard working just like Sturdy, like good person, right,
all for his family, all for his family. Deray's depiction
of her aunt, Frederica Wagner was justice glowing. I spent
my summers with my aunt Frederica. It was awesome because
(19:08):
we rode horses, we rode ponies, did all kinds of
awesome stuff. I've heard the nicest things about her that
she was like an angel in that town. She had
to have been an angel in that town because what
I seen for her, what she did for the community.
She built a church for the community. She financed the
(19:30):
church for the community. She loves people, she loves children.
But we were curious what did Deray think about the
charges against her family. Our family joke is that there's
no way that Betty Crocker and the Dobe boys could
ever go to an extreme of murder. It's not within
(19:55):
their capabilities. They love animals and they love people, and
they are really good at being resilient. And if you
look up the word hill Billy and you really research
that word, they were very resilient in taking care of
(20:18):
their family. Somebody did it, but it wasn't Now. To
get more information on twenty seven year old George and
twenty six year old Jake Wagner, Angela and Billy Wagner's sons,
we reached out to Christina Howard. Christina's sister, Tabitha, was
married to George Wagner. The pair later divorced. Christina spoke
(20:42):
with Stephanie Lydecker about the time she spent with the
Wagner family. My sister spent a lot of time over
at George's house before they got married. She was pretty
much living with them at the time. Before she got married.
And then after she got married, she moved in with them,
and I used to go over there to their house
(21:03):
every now and again. You know. Um, And did he
seem like a nice guy. What was his demeanor like? Um?
It was funny. He was always cracking jokes and stuff
all the time. So I don't know much about Jake
Wagner at all. What was he like as a kid? Um?
He was actually really sweet as a kid. We got
along pretty good because you know, we just hung out
(21:25):
all the time, played video games, went outside. Was he shy? Um,
he wasn't shy with me. He was a really nice
kid and well grown up. My sisters were kind of
bullies to me and Tabby she was dating George at
the time, and Tabby she would pick on me, and
(21:45):
Jake he would take up for me, but like, hey,
don't pick on your little sister like that. It's mean
and stuff. Here's a Wagner family relative. She asked us
not to use her name, but was happy to talk
to us about the family. She remembers Angela Wagner as
(22:05):
a caring mother with a big heart. Angela was just
so sweet, like she was the sweetest lady. I mean,
anybody could ask her for help. I know there was
multiple times where there was just she had heard, you
know of Um like, there was a woman and her
daughter that was getting out of an abusive relationship and
Angela had just heard about it. She didn't know this lady,
(22:27):
you know, she had no idea anything about her. She
just knew that this woman and her daughter, you know,
needed help. So Angela went in and helped her get
out of that. You know. She she gave a place
to stay, She made sure that the daughter had clothes
and food, and um, you know, she would always do
stuff like that for people. Everything we were hearing about
(22:48):
the Wagner seemed at odds with this image of the
cold blooded killers accused of murdering an entire family. But
the deeper we dug, the more secrets we began to find.
Jeff continues speaking with the same anonymous Wagner relative who
speaks so glowingly Evangela Wagner. As it turns out, not
(23:09):
everyone in the Wagner family has such a sterling reputation,
and when the conversation shifts to Billy Wagner, things take
a turn. Here is the Wagner relative's firsthand account. Do
you know when she met Billy and like when that
when they got married and how like that relationship started
and progressed. Uh yeah, that was. She has been with
(23:29):
him for um twenty something years, maybe longer, but forwards
he goes um. Now that's a difference. Like I and
my family, we always kind of thought some kinds was
like off with him. We never act, we never got
to like connect with him in that way. We always
everybody always trying to knew that there was something strange
(23:52):
or that he was kind of he just had this
persona about him, like he was just a very cold
and hateful person really is what I thought of. In anyways,
he was just a very rough around me as a guy.
And when it comes to him and Angela, I'm not
sure really how the beginning of their relationship was, but
(24:16):
I know towards the end, like before or you know,
right after all this happened, he was just very controlling,
very controlling. She was afraid of him, extremely afraid of him,
as were the boys now their oldest son George, him
and his dad. They were kind of like the same.
(24:39):
I I just I don't believe that they're good people
at all. So what can you tell me? About the
relationship between Angela and Billy Wagner. I do know that
Angela was She was extremely She was just afraid to leave.
You know, she was afraid to leave. She was terrified
that if she did try to leave, that he would
find her, because he made that very clear. You know
(25:02):
from what I've heard and what her father had said
on multiple trasitions, like you know you're not gonna leave.
Let's stop here for another quick break. We'll be back
in a moment. How deep does a Mother's Love run?
(25:22):
Now 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
(25:43):
they love. This 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 ask chance
to get my kids back, and that's when all hell
breaks loose. Go Go, Go experience the stunning new true
(26:07):
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, they pretend
(26:28):
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, in a
(26:50):
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, see that we're
(27:11):
already making progress. So let's keep going. We are Body.
Start your free trial at body dot com. That's Bodi
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(27:32):
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to inspire conservation of the ocean by visiting us at
Monterey Bay Aquarium dot org, slash share your voice. So
(27:52):
you booked your beach vacation, but do you have all
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(28:14):
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to find your perfect match today. This account of Angela
and Billy's relationship piqued our curiosity, so we started poking
around for more information about the Wagner's. Most of what
(28:35):
we uncovered had to do with grandmother Frederico Wagner, Billy
Wagner's mother, and what seemed to be some potentially questionable
business practices. I followed up with journalist Jeff Winkler to
find out more. Edrico Wagner was repeatedly referred to as
a god fearing woman, was running a nursing home and
doing a lot of community service and community care for
(28:58):
people like the Wagners, had a lot of different sides
to them exactly, and she had started a church as well,
and she took underprivileged kids. If people needed groceries, she
brought them groceries. So there is all of that, and
then on the flip side, many other people say they
were very secretive. There's also allegations of, for example, in
(29:19):
the nursing home, maybe some dishonest business and perhaps cheating
people who were at a disadvantage out of money. And
these are substantial court documents. Yeah, the longer we looked
into it, the longer it seemed like the Wagners, you know,
apart from having property and been there for a long time.
They were wheeling and dealing, and I think although they
(29:40):
were sort of pillars of the community and involved in
the community, certainly I think that sort of especially when
you have that sort of much to lose, you get protective.
Fredrika Wagner had very much built the family business. FREDRICKA.
Wagner was the one who kept the family business going,
and she get the family and businesses on track. And uh,
(30:03):
you know, when you are building an empire, the last
thing you want to do is to see it fall.
And they were working on their fourth generation of Wagner
dominance in the area. So I can definitely understand sort
of protectiveness of that. And in those cases, you you know,
maybe you close, maybe you close ranks a little bit.
(30:24):
You stick, you stick to kin. You know, blood is
stick in the water. As we talked to more people
in the community, we found that these rumblings about the
Wagner's business practices had been circulating for years and some
held a deep distrust of the family and they're once
sterling reputation. Jeff got Barber's thoughts about grandmother Frederico Wagner.
(30:49):
All I've ever heard about her is one. I've heard
how wonderful she is, how generous she was. I never
heard a bad word about that woman. But just you know,
she knew what she was doing, and she just did
what she could do to keep them from being guilty,
(31:13):
to keep them from being found guilty or from being arrested,
you know what I mean. Yeah, they seem like everyone
was on the surface, like everyone loved them, and then
when this happens, all the other dirt kind of starts
coming out. It's like I can see beneath that surface,
you know, I feel like I can see her heart.
(31:34):
When I look at her, I just see a I
just kind of see evil. But while Frederica Wagner may
have been involved in some questionable business dealings, and to
some accounts, Billy Wagner may not have been the best husband,
we still didn't know what all this had to do
(31:55):
with the Rodents. At their arrangement, all six members of
the Wagner family pled not guilty to all charges. It
is worth noting, however, that the charges against Frederica Wagner
were eventually dropped and Rita Joe Nukam ended up taking
a plea deal. There's more to tell on these grandmother's stories,
(32:16):
but we'll get to all that later. According to official
court documents, all four of the Wagner family are considered
trigger polars, meaning each one of them had a hand
in killing the Rodents that night, which means they drove
house to house one at a time, killing eight people.
It's also been speculated that Angela Wagner was really the
(32:38):
mastermind of this whole plan. When you look at her picture,
for example, her mug shot, she just looks like a
regular mom that you would see at the market. She
doesn't at all fit the profile that I have in
my head of what a serial killer or a mass
murderer should look like. And if she did do this,
why did she put this plan together? Because she wanted
to protect her own family? And if so, the irony
(33:01):
is if she's found guilty, because they're all being tried separately,
she may never cross paths with her husband or her
sons ever. Again. You know, we obviously wanted to go
back and see what was the lead up, what brought
us to this point, and what was the intersection between
the Roden family and the Wagner family. We got very
(33:23):
curious about the relationship between Jake Wagner and Hannah Roden.
Here's the anonymous Wagner relative again. Jake he had got
involved with Hannah Roden. Hannah Roden is the middle Roden
child and murder victim. She was found dead in bed
next to her five day old baby, Kylie. She shared
a child with Jake Wagner, a two and a half
(33:45):
year old daughter named Sophia. Eventually, you know, they had separated.
In everything that they had separated, I guess on that term,
it seemed that the demise of their relationship had sparked
an ugly custody battle surround Sophia. Hannah she was, you know,
refusing to allow him to see her, to get her
(34:06):
or any of the family to see her, and so
it kind of just it got out of hand at
that point. It just set him off to the point
where Jake he had made the comments, you know, that
he were going to kill her next time on the
(34:31):
Pikedon Massacre. Pikedon Massacre is executive produced by Stephanie Lydecker
and me Courtney Armstrong. Editing and sound designed by executive
producer Jared Aston. Additional producing by Jeff Shane and Andrew Becker.
The Pikedon Massacre is a production of iHeartRadio and Katie Studios.
For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
(34:53):
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Swaying Giant kelp with Sunlight streaking through, pulsing Jellies, Fuzzy
Sea Otters. Those are a few of the awe inspiring
exhibits visitors can experience at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. A
(35:13):
critical part of the Aquarium's mission is working with our
communities to protect the ocean. These creatures call home by
fighting to end plastic pollution and climate change. Showing our
community of ocean lovers and support our mission to inspire
conservation of the ocean at Monterey Bay Aquarium, dot org,
slash share your voice, interesting and relatable topics, knowledgeable guests,
(35:35):
highly entertaining, and informative. Words that describe CNN's podcast Chasing
Life with Doctor Sanjay Gupta. As I talked to doctor
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Chasing Life with Sanjay Gupta on the iHeartRadio app. How
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Find one for you at curiosity stream dot com. How
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Experience a race against time by four mothers who went undercover.
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(36:43):
took him out of the country. This was a mother's
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Now streaming only on Hulu, experience a race against time
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the country. This was a mother's worst nightmare, and we'll
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Podcast fifty. That's Credomobile dot Com Code Podcast fifty. Welcome
to the piked in Massacre, a production of iHeartRadio and
Katie Studios. On the morning of April twenty second, twenty sixteen,
(02:12):
the small town of Piked in Ohio, who awoke to
some horrifying news. Spread out across four homes, all within
a few miles of each other, Eight members of a
local family, the Rodents, were found murdered. They were shot
execution style in their beds, the victims of a methodical
killing spree. It was an unprecedented and confounding crime, one
(02:33):
that would launched the largest homicide investigation in Ohio's history. Restoration, anger, sadness,
emotions are still raw in Pike County. Most of the
people in this town say, whoever shot and killed eight
members of the Rodent family need to be found soon.
I hope that in this area apprehend eating everyone. These
aren't peoples, These are monstering. Episode two, Wagner's in Custody.
(03:04):
I'm Courtney Armstrong, a TV producer at Katie Studios. With
Stephanie Lydecker and Jeff Shane, we produced television series and documentaries.
Here's Stephanie for me. This case was incredibly disturbing and
personally really hard to stop thinking about eight people from
the exact same family, all killed in one night, but
at four different locations. That's extremely strategic. The three of
(03:30):
us have been following this case very closely for years.
Here's producer Jeff Shane talking to Jodi Barr, an investigative
journalists who have reported for TV station Fox nineteen and Cincinnati.
You're not, as a journalist, easily shocked, but like this
was shocking, probably right, Yeah, it was shocking. I would
say it was more confusion because on the typical murder,
(03:51):
or you know, a breaking news story, you can roll
the advance in your mind. But this is this isn't
the typical murder, you know, where there's one or two
victims of a single house and you know the bad
guy took off. You know, this was something way outside
the norm. You're just thinking, what is going on here?
This none of this makes sense, But you knew it
(04:11):
had to be something big because you've got eight members
of one family targeted, murdered in their sleep, in their homes,
and the killers seemingly vanished. We didn't know the pieces,
we didn't know how to put it together. There was
no information coming out about these murders, about motives, even
the family members who were in direct communication with law
(04:31):
enforcement even they weren't being told anything. I mean, call
it good investigative work, and you know, you hold your
cards plus to the chest as an investigator. Maybe that's
what it was, but you know, from the outside looking in,
it was almost like the law enforcement didn't have a
clue at that point in time. Overwhelming amount of tamps
have been pouring into police, but no arrestive and me
(04:53):
with or any general. Mike DeWine is saying that over
two hundred investigators and police officers have contributed and so
forward to this ongoing investigation, but the killer has disappeared.
As the investigation dragged on, rumors ran rampant in the
close knit community, and journalists like Jodie Barr started digging deeper.
(05:15):
This did seem to be a very tactical, a very
clean sort of you know, when you think of an
assassin doing a hit like you see in the movies.
You started to wonder if there wasn't something to that
because of just how seemingly clean these killings were. I mean,
how does one person or a group of people hit
four separate homes, kill eight different people, seemingly lead absolutely
(05:40):
no trace of any evidence. What does this mean, what
is going on here? But after I started having conversations
with the Rodent family and you started talking to some
people who were very close to the victims in this case,
at least very close acquaintances, you started to realize that,
you know, there were some people that even I had
(06:00):
conversations with in Pike County who I knew they knew
more than what they were telling me. I knew they
knew more about what happened that morning, and they knew
more about the circumstances surrounding the Rodents that could have
led to these murders. But they would not tell it.
And I don't know if it was because they were
afraid or they didn't want to believe what they believed happened.
(06:24):
But all we kept hearing from the Rodent family, from
the people around there, and they were phrasing this way
is that it was locals. What did that mean? We
didn't know. By the summer of twenty eighteen, the investigation
had entered its second year, and Piked in residence, like Barbara,
were becoming increasingly scared. It's an extremely sinister thing that occurred.
(06:50):
It's like a movie. When I was young, people got
along and you know it was we left our doors unlocked,
you know it was. It was that trusting and relaxed
in Pike County, so we couldn't believe something like that
(07:11):
what happened here, and it was. It was especially terrifying
because no one knew who did it or why. And
you don't know if your family's next. It's just grizzling
scene in a briskling situation. If you are fearful, arm yourself.
(07:34):
If you feel that you need to protect yourself or family,
do so. On November thirteenth, twenty eighteen, everything with it
to change. Here's Governor of Ohio, Might Dwine, then Attorney General, Well,
good afternoon. We promised that the day would come when
the rest would be made in the Pike County Master's
(07:57):
Today is that day. In a series of arrest that
sent shock waves through the insulated community, six members of
a local family, the Wagners, were taken into custody. Up,
keep your hands up, go up. Forty seven year old
Billy Wagner is the patriarch of the Wagner family and
(08:18):
was arrested near Lexington, Kentucky, and a horse trailer that
was pulled over. I'm waga I'm Wagaba. Angela Wagner is
Billy's wife and matriarch of the Wagner family. The forty
eight year old was arrested at their home near piked In, Ohio.
Go Ahead, Angelo Wagner in the car one Cope thirteen
(08:40):
thirty one. Angela and Billy's two sons, George Wagner and
Jake Wagner, were arrested together during a traffic stop. George
was twenty seven and Jake was twenty six. Seventy six
year old Fredrika Wagner, Billy Wagner's mother, was arrested at
the family's horse farm. The Flying w Angela Wagner's mother,
(09:01):
sixty five year old Rita Joe Nukam, was arrested at
her home, while six members of the Wagner family were
arrested in connection with the crime. Billy, Angela, George, and
Jake Wagner were charged with eight counts of aggravated murder.
It feels about the arrests of four people in the
murders of eight members of the road In family back
(09:23):
in April twenty sixteen. Mike Allen, a criminal defense attorney
and legal commentator for Fox nineteen and Cincinnati was covering
the story when the news broke. All the arrests happened
within minutes of each other, and that tells me that
the BCI, the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification, who was
in charge of this investigation, they know what they're doing
(09:45):
and they wanted to make sure that they affected these
arrests without any kind of problems or tipping anybody off,
So they had that thing down pretty tight. You've got
four people charged in the murders, and the well, it's
actuated murder, and that's capital murder in the state of
Ohio that does have the death penalty as a possible
(10:09):
penalty in a case like this, so it is death
penalty case. How rare is it to have multiple capital
murder cases going? I haven't seen multiple four people up
for capital murder in Ohio before, you know what, And
I've been in the system for over fifty years, and
I mean the most I've seen were two co defendants
(10:31):
being tried for capital murder from the same set of facts,
but never four. So that is extremely rare that you
got four people for defendants facing the death penalty. The
charges for the two other family members were less severe.
Grandmother Frederica Wagner, Billy Wagner's mother was charged with obstruction
(10:52):
of justice and perjury. Angela Wagner's mother, Rita Newcomb, was
charged with forgery, perjury, and obstruction of justice. But to
Mike Allen, one charge brought against the alleged trigger pullers
makes one thing clear. They're also charged with conspiracy engaging
in a pattern of corrupt activity, which means that they
(11:14):
all work together on this. I think it's obvious, at
least to the prosecutors and the investigators that this thing
there was nobody freelancing. They were possibly all operating together
tampering with evidence. That kind of speaks for itself. I mean,
you know, once they knew that they were the focus
of the investigation, perhaps they did something with the evidence.
(11:43):
We're going to stick a quick break here. We'll be
back in a moment. Like many of us, you might
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(12:50):
We're on now streaming only on Hulu. Experience for yourself,
a real life race against time by four mothers who
went undercover. My ex partner ducted 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 better for
(13:11):
the children they love. This 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.
(13:33):
Go Go, Go experience the stunning new true crime docuseries
Mother Undercover. I wanted him to know you mess with
the wrong mother, now streaming only on Who over Search,
Mother Undercover. You will fail. So what everybody does, but
(13:53):
your jim, your watch, your yoga pants, they pretend you won't.
So when you miss a day, eat the pancakes, give
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Not in a Pizza Monday kind of way, in a
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start your free trial at body dot com. That's Bodi
dot com. Swaying, giant kelp with sunlight streaking through whole,
sing Jellies, fuzzy sea otters. Those are a few of
the awe inspiring exhibits visitors can experience a the Monterey
(15:00):
Bay Aquarium. A critical part of the Aquarium's mission is
working with our communities to protect the ocean. These creatures
call home by fighting to end plastic pollution and climate change.
Showing our community of ocean lovers and support our mission
to inspire conservation of the ocean at Monterey Bay Aquarium
dot org, slash share your Voice. We needed to know
(15:26):
more about the rodents and the accused, the Wagners. We
also wanted to be and piped in to learn about
the town. So Stephanie, Jeff and I flew to Ohio.
There was this extremely eerie vibe to the town. There
definitely was a sense that something very big was happening
(15:47):
real time. It almost felt it felt a little dangerous.
I think Erieinus, which said is the best word, like
just something was not right. Yeah, and it's not uncommon.
It was a perfect American small town, right, there's one diner,
there's not a movie theater. So again, small insulated. And
you know, we just when we just started trying to
(16:08):
go door to door to meet anyone who could tell
us about the Rodent family, I would say every single
person we spoke to legitimately invited us inside and could
not have been lovelier. There also was the experience of
knocking on doors knowing very well people are there. We
there was smoke coming out of the chimney, We physically
saw the curtains be closed, and certain people understandably didn't
(16:32):
want to speak to us, but those who did, they
were so welcoming. We reached out to journalist Jeff Winkler,
who was doing research on the Wagner family. For me personally.
When I first got an idea of how the Rodents
lived and you know, who was related to who and whatnot,
(16:56):
I think I originally had the sense that the Wagners
were the same sort of um position in terms of
property and and perhaps financial situation. Well not but the Wagners,
I was people rather surprised to learn that they had,
you know, a huge farm. They'd been running various um
(17:18):
farm businesses on this huge bit of land or landlords
and um there were there was something of a sort
of um sort of a family, if you will, in
the area. And you know, there were people that they
they we spoke with that had some very open thoughts
and loving thoughts about the family. In all this, we
(17:43):
couldn't help wonder how could this esteemed piked In family
allegedly be responsible for Ohio's most horrific murder. It seemed
like everyone had an opinion. Here's Angie Montgomery, a piked
In resident. When the Wagners were arrested, you had your
fifty fifty had people that said, yes, I knew that
they did that, and then you've got people that say,
(18:04):
there's no way those people did not happen. But we
wanted to get the story for ourselves, to talk to
those who actually knew the people accused of carrying out
these ruthless murders. Hello, Hi, Dore, It's Jeff Shane calling Hi. Hi,
How are you it is now a good time. Yeah,
this is Deray McLevy. She's Billy Wagner's cousin and she
(18:27):
grew up with the Wagner's. Were you close with um Billy?
Billy was quite a bit younger than me. I was
about eleven years old when Billy was born, but I
was raised with him and we had a whole lot
of fun. It was so much fun. We all bred horses,
and we lived in Ohio and it was beautiful, and
it snowed in the wintertime, and it was beautiful in
(18:47):
the Thumber, and we just had so much fun. It
was unbelievable. He was like a really good dad, right,
like a hard working just like Sturdy, like good person, right,
all for his family, all for his family. Deray's depiction
of her aunt, Frederica Wagner was justice glowing. I spent
my summers with my aunt Frederica. It was awesome because
(19:08):
we rode horses, we rode ponies, did all kinds of
awesome stuff. I've heard the nicest things about her that
she was like an angel in that town. She had
to have been an angel in that town because what
I seen for her, what she did for the community.
She built a church for the community. She financed the
(19:30):
church for the community. She loves people, she loves children.
But we were curious what did Deray think about the
charges against her family. Our family joke is that there's
no way that Betty Crocker and the Dobe boys could
ever go to an extreme of murder. It's not within
(19:55):
their capabilities. They love animals and they love people, and
they are really good at being resilient. And if you
look up the word hill Billy and you really research
that word, they were very resilient in taking care of
(20:18):
their family. Somebody did it, but it wasn't Now. To
get more information on twenty seven year old George and
twenty six year old Jake Wagner, Angela and Billy Wagner's sons,
we reached out to Christina Howard. Christina's sister, Tabitha, was
married to George Wagner. The pair later divorced. Christina spoke
(20:42):
with Stephanie Lydecker about the time she spent with the
Wagner family. My sister spent a lot of time over
at George's house before they got married. She was pretty
much living with them at the time. Before she got married.
And then after she got married, she moved in with them,
and I used to go over there to their house
(21:03):
every now and again. You know. Um, And did he
seem like a nice guy. What was his demeanor like? Um?
It was funny. He was always cracking jokes and stuff
all the time. So I don't know much about Jake
Wagner at all. What was he like as a kid? Um?
He was actually really sweet as a kid. We got
along pretty good because you know, we just hung out
(21:25):
all the time, played video games, went outside. Was he shy? Um,
he wasn't shy with me. He was a really nice
kid and well grown up. My sisters were kind of
bullies to me and Tabby she was dating George at
the time, and Tabby she would pick on me, and
(21:45):
Jake he would take up for me, but like, hey,
don't pick on your little sister like that. It's mean
and stuff. Here's a Wagner family relative. She asked us
not to use her name, but was happy to talk
to us about the family. She remembers Angela Wagner as
(22:05):
a caring mother with a big heart. Angela was just
so sweet, like she was the sweetest lady. I mean,
anybody could ask her for help. I know there was
multiple times where there was just she had heard, you
know of Um like, there was a woman and her
daughter that was getting out of an abusive relationship and
Angela had just heard about it. She didn't know this lady,
(22:27):
you know, she had no idea anything about her. She
just knew that this woman and her daughter, you know,
needed help. So Angela went in and helped her get
out of that. You know. She she gave a place
to stay, She made sure that the daughter had clothes
and food, and um, you know, she would always do
stuff like that for people. Everything we were hearing about
(22:48):
the Wagner seemed at odds with this image of the
cold blooded killers accused of murdering an entire family. But
the deeper we dug, the more secrets we began to find.
Jeff continues speaking with the same anonymous Wagner relative who
speaks so glowingly Evangela Wagner. As it turns out, not
(23:09):
everyone in the Wagner family has such a sterling reputation,
and when the conversation shifts to Billy Wagner, things take
a turn. Here is the Wagner relative's firsthand account. Do
you know when she met Billy and like when that
when they got married and how like that relationship started
and progressed. Uh yeah, that was. She has been with
(23:29):
him for um twenty something years, maybe longer, but forwards
he goes um. Now that's a difference. Like I and
my family, we always kind of thought some kinds was
like off with him. We never act, we never got
to like connect with him in that way. We always
everybody always trying to knew that there was something strange
(23:52):
or that he was kind of he just had this
persona about him, like he was just a very cold
and hateful person really is what I thought of. In anyways,
he was just a very rough around me as a guy.
And when it comes to him and Angela, I'm not
sure really how the beginning of their relationship was, but
(24:16):
I know towards the end, like before or you know,
right after all this happened, he was just very controlling,
very controlling. She was afraid of him, extremely afraid of him,
as were the boys now their oldest son George, him
and his dad. They were kind of like the same.
(24:39):
I I just I don't believe that they're good people
at all. So what can you tell me? About the
relationship between Angela and Billy Wagner. I do know that
Angela was She was extremely She was just afraid to leave.
You know, she was afraid to leave. She was terrified
that if she did try to leave, that he would
find her, because he made that very clear. You know
(25:02):
from what I've heard and what her father had said
on multiple trasitions, like you know you're not gonna leave.
Let's stop here for another quick break. We'll be back
in a moment. How deep does a Mother's Love run?
(25:22):
Now 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
(25:43):
they love. This 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 ask chance
to get my kids back, and that's when all hell
breaks loose. Go Go, Go experience the stunning new true
(26:07):
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, they pretend
(26:28):
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, in a
(26:50):
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, see that we're
(27:11):
already making progress. So let's keep going. We are Body.
Start your free trial at body dot com. That's Bodi
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(27:32):
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to ensure these animals big too small, as well as
other crucial sea life like help anemones and jellies can flourish,
and a healthy ocean helps us all. Join our mission
to inspire conservation of the ocean by visiting us at
Monterey Bay Aquarium dot org, slash share your voice. So
(27:52):
you booked your beach vacation, but do you have all
you need to make it a good time. This week,
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(28:14):
latest trends and online deals. Visit CNN underscore dot com
to find your perfect match today. This account of Angela
and Billy's relationship piqued our curiosity, so we started poking
around for more information about the Wagner's. Most of what
(28:35):
we uncovered had to do with grandmother Frederico Wagner, Billy
Wagner's mother, and what seemed to be some potentially questionable
business practices. I followed up with journalist Jeff Winkler to
find out more. Edrico Wagner was repeatedly referred to as
a god fearing woman, was running a nursing home and
doing a lot of community service and community care for
(28:58):
people like the Wagners, had a lot of different sides
to them exactly, and she had started a church as well,
and she took underprivileged kids. If people needed groceries, she
brought them groceries. So there is all of that, and
then on the flip side, many other people say they
were very secretive. There's also allegations of, for example, in
(29:19):
the nursing home, maybe some dishonest business and perhaps cheating
people who were at a disadvantage out of money. And
these are substantial court documents. Yeah, the longer we looked
into it, the longer it seemed like the Wagners, you know,
apart from having property and been there for a long time.
They were wheeling and dealing, and I think although they
(29:40):
were sort of pillars of the community and involved in
the community, certainly I think that sort of especially when
you have that sort of much to lose, you get protective.
Fredrika Wagner had very much built the family business. FREDRICKA.
Wagner was the one who kept the family business going,
and she get the family and businesses on track. And uh,
(30:03):
you know, when you are building an empire, the last
thing you want to do is to see it fall.
And they were working on their fourth generation of Wagner
dominance in the area. So I can definitely understand sort
of protectiveness of that. And in those cases, you you know,
maybe you close, maybe you close ranks a little bit.
(30:24):
You stick, you stick to kin. You know, blood is
stick in the water. As we talked to more people
in the community, we found that these rumblings about the
Wagner's business practices had been circulating for years and some
held a deep distrust of the family and they're once
sterling reputation. Jeff got Barber's thoughts about grandmother Frederico Wagner.
(30:49):
All I've ever heard about her is one. I've heard
how wonderful she is, how generous she was. I never
heard a bad word about that woman. But just you know,
she knew what she was doing, and she just did
what she could do to keep them from being guilty,
(31:13):
to keep them from being found guilty or from being arrested,
you know what I mean. Yeah, they seem like everyone
was on the surface, like everyone loved them, and then
when this happens, all the other dirt kind of starts
coming out. It's like I can see beneath that surface,
you know, I feel like I can see her heart.
(31:34):
When I look at her, I just see a I
just kind of see evil. But while Frederica Wagner may
have been involved in some questionable business dealings, and to
some accounts, Billy Wagner may not have been the best husband,
we still didn't know what all this had to do
(31:55):
with the Rodents. At their arrangement, all six members of
the Wagner family pled not guilty to all charges. It
is worth noting, however, that the charges against Frederica Wagner
were eventually dropped and Rita Joe Nukam ended up taking
a plea deal. There's more to tell on these grandmother's stories,
(32:16):
but we'll get to all that later. According to official
court documents, all four of the Wagner family are considered
trigger polars, meaning each one of them had a hand
in killing the Rodents that night, which means they drove
house to house one at a time, killing eight people.
It's also been speculated that Angela Wagner was really the
(32:38):
mastermind of this whole plan. When you look at her picture,
for example, her mug shot, she just looks like a
regular mom that you would see at the market. She
doesn't at all fit the profile that I have in
my head of what a serial killer or a mass
murderer should look like. And if she did do this,
why did she put this plan together? Because she wanted
to protect her own family? And if so, the irony
(33:01):
is if she's found guilty, because they're all being tried separately,
she may never cross paths with her husband or her
sons ever. Again. You know, we obviously wanted to go
back and see what was the lead up, what brought
us to this point, and what was the intersection between
the Roden family and the Wagner family. We got very
(33:23):
curious about the relationship between Jake Wagner and Hannah Roden.
Here's the anonymous Wagner relative again. Jake he had got
involved with Hannah Roden. Hannah Roden is the middle Roden
child and murder victim. She was found dead in bed
next to her five day old baby, Kylie. She shared
a child with Jake Wagner, a two and a half
(33:45):
year old daughter named Sophia. Eventually, you know, they had separated.
In everything that they had separated, I guess on that term,
it seemed that the demise of their relationship had sparked
an ugly custody battle surround Sophia. Hannah she was, you know,
refusing to allow him to see her, to get her
(34:06):
or any of the family to see her, and so
it kind of just it got out of hand at
that point. It just set him off to the point
where Jake he had made the comments, you know, that
he were going to kill her next time on the
(34:31):
Pikedon Massacre. Pikedon Massacre is executive produced by Stephanie Lydecker
and me Courtney Armstrong. Editing and sound designed by executive
producer Jared Aston. Additional producing by Jeff Shane and Andrew Becker.
The Pikedon Massacre is a production of iHeartRadio and Katie Studios.
For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
(34:53):
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Swaying Giant kelp with Sunlight streaking through, pulsing Jellies, Fuzzy
Sea Otters. Those are a few of the awe inspiring
exhibits visitors can experience at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. A
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critical part of the Aquarium's mission is working with our
communities to protect the ocean. These creatures call home by
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community of ocean lovers and support our mission to inspire
conservation of the ocean at Monterey Bay Aquarium, dot org,
slash share your voice, interesting and relatable topics, knowledgeable guests,
(35:35):
highly entertaining, and informative. Words that describe CNN's podcast Chasing
Life with Doctor Sanjay Gupta. As I talked to doctor
rich what really stood out to me was his approach
to treating his patients. The therapeutic goal of treatment for
problematic interactive media use cannot be abstinates. This is an
essential tool and essential skill of our time. Listen to
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Chasing Life with Sanjay Gupta on the iHeartRadio app. How
long was Neil Armstrong actually on the Moon? When did
Europe start speaking English? Did Marco Polo really go to China?
Curiosity Stream is the streaming service for all things history,
plus science, wildlife and more. What's the real story behind
the Mona, Lisa, We've got that? What caused the collapse
of Rome? We know where? Did we find Mankind's earliest ancestor?
(36:21):
Come find out? From Egypt to Weinstein. Curiosity Stream is
the place for history with monthly, annual, and bundled plans.
Find one for you at curiosity stream dot com. 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
(36:43):
took him out of the country. This was a mother's
worst nightmare and we'll stop at nothing. I knew something
better for the children day love. I was so scared,
and that's when all hell breaks loose. Mother Undercover. I
wanted him to know you mess with the wrong mother
Now streaming only and Hululu search Mother Undercover
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