July 29, 2020 • 27 mins
On the night of April 21, 2016 eight members of the Rhoden family were murdered in their homes. Episode one explores the crime that decimated an entire family and left residents of the small town of Piketon, OH reeling. We examine what lead up to the crime, look into the details of Ohio’s largest murder investigation, and the potential motives that drove the alleged killers.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the piked In Massacre, a production of iHeartRadio
and Katie Studios.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Nine nine one.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
Okay harn Hongstead.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
It was an unimaginable crimes all over the house. It
was the second biggest mass murder in twenty sixteen, behind
the Pulse night Club shooting.
Speaker 4 (00:25):
Eight people dead, all from the same family.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
It would become the largest criminal investigation in Ohio's history.
Speaker 4 (00:32):
Pike County Sheriff's requested state help immediately after they got word.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
In the early morning of April twenty second, twenty sixteen,
eight members of the Rodent family were brutally murdered, shot
to death execution style in their homes. Eight victims, thirty
two gunshot wounds, three children left alive. At the scenes
in This Is the piked In Massacre.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Believed there was a shooter or shooters out there somewhereever
they are.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
They were trying to possibly white out something. Family episode
one Daddy's Playing Zombie. Piked In, Ohio is a rural
town located on the Seyota River just sixty miles south
of Columbus. It's home to twenty two hundred residents and
the people of piked And say that because the town
is so small, neighbors really look out for each other
(01:26):
and treat each other like family.
Speaker 5 (01:33):
It was just it was a good, wonderful area to
grow up in. It was we lived in the country,
and you know, we rode horses on the road, We
rode bikes to each other's houses, and we played. You know,
the kids in the neighborhood played together all the time.
Speaker 6 (01:51):
I slept the whole time I was a kid with
my window wide open. There's no way you could do
that now, there's no way. This place was one wonderful
everybody took care of everybody, and now it's like a
whole different place.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
The Roden family lived in piped In for generations. In fact,
this close knit family all lived within miles of each
other and were a beloved fixture in the community. It's
part of what makes this story so heartbreaking and disturbing.
Eight members of the Rodent family, ranging in age from
sixteen to forty four, were murdered, each killed execution style
over one night in four different locations. The only known
(02:36):
witnesses the three small children left alive at the scenes,
the Rodent family was literally being hunted. I'm Courtney Armstrong,
a television producer who helped make a documentary about the
case for NBC Universal's Oxygen Network in twenty nineteen. Since
it aired, the team and I at Kat's Studios haven't
(02:57):
stopped thinking about the case. With trials on the horizon,
there are new details and theories to explore. By all accounts,
April twenty second, twenty sixteen, was an ordinary spring day
in rural Pike County, but that would be far from
the truth. Here's Barbara longtime picked in resident.
Speaker 5 (03:16):
I'll never forget that day. I'll never forget that day.
I had gone into the office at the high school
to pick Brittany up for an appointment. And when I
walked in, they had a TV on and everyone in
there was sitting with their mouths hanging open, and I
was like, what's going on in here? And the secretaries said,
(03:40):
my god, there's been a shooting. They said six people
were killed, and she said, we are very worried because
little Chris Rodent didn't show up today and we think
he might be one of them. Everyone was just in shock.
Speaker 7 (03:58):
So little Chris law enforcement because I couldn't find him.
There was some speculation early on that he might have
been involved.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
For the residents of piked In there was little more
than confusion. At this point. People knew there was a
shooting and that Chris Roden Junior, the sixteen year old
freshman at Piketon High was missing. Where was the team.
It was at the home of Chris Roden Senior that
the nightmare began. Chris Rodin Senior was known to be
a strong, hard working family man.
Speaker 8 (04:30):
He was, you know, a great father. He was a
good man, just like the rest of the guys you
know in that family. He would do anything for anybody.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
He and Dana Roden were married for twenty two years,
and although they divorced, they remained close, so close that
Chris Senior had recently bought Dana a home on the
same road he lived on Union Hill Road. He did
it so they could stay close to their children. Chris
Senior's cousin, Gary Roden, was more like a brother to
him and often stated his place little. Chris's aunt Bobby Joe,
(05:04):
who also lived nearby, was the first to make the
gruesome discovery at seven forty nine am when she came
to feed the dogs at Chris Senior's house.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Yes, yes, over, we walked to the no, boll Okay,
my brother Hall's dead, Yes, fly all over the house. Okay,
my brother, look like I'll beat the hell out of them.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Patriarch of the family, Chris Rodin was dead. He looked
like he'd been beaten to death. His cousin Gary, who
was staying with Chris, was also dead.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Madam, Yeah, what's her name?
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Chris Rodan gry Rode and Roman first und and it
looks like a dad. Think you're both dead, I think,
the boy said. If I told her speak to stalk
out of them.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Okay, did there anybody else in the house? I don't
know us Okay.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
So dor when was on here? But I hope he
found went in and then Leney on the floor.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Bobby, I needed to get out of the house.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
And the way he done the house now.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Okay, just stay out of the house. So why anybody
going in there? Okay? Yeah, all right, we don't take
any on the way. Okay, I thank you here, mother, Yeah, suspatch.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
This forty year old Christopher Roden was the only one
of the eight family members who was shot somewhere other
than they had.
Speaker 9 (06:50):
He had multiple.
Speaker 4 (06:51):
Gunshot ones to the head, torso and extrumins.
Speaker 7 (06:54):
We found out. You know that the news broke over
night and saw the email. I saw the alerts, you know,
the initial news coverage, and I knew this was We
all knew this was a big deal.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
James Pilcher as an investigative reporter who was assigned to
cover this story.
Speaker 7 (07:11):
Chris Roden may have been awake when the intruders came in,
at least there's some indication of that. He was shot
nine times, but he was shot in the forearm, which
means which seems to mean that he may have raised
his arm in defense. His cousin Gary got shot twice
(07:33):
in the head and once in the face, and one
was execution style, and I had a muzzle stain. It
was that close to his temple.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Even for a multiple murder scene, this stood out as
being particularly violent. Wood fragments found on Chris's body indicate
he was dragged through the house. Blood was everywhere. Was
it a robbery, a serial killer, a random thrill kill?
And if it wasn't random, why were these two men targeted?
(08:02):
I spoke with Mike Allen, criminal defense attorney from Ohio.
Are you familiar? Are you able to talk about the
scenes themselves?
Speaker 9 (08:10):
You know, if you look at it, and it's all
from the autopsy reports. Chris Senior's autopsy report says that
they believe that he was awake when he was confronted
by at least one person with a gun. He got
nine gun shot wounds, and one of them apparently was
a defensive wound to his right forearm that shattered the bone.
(08:32):
He was also shot in the torso and cheek, according
to that report. Then Chris Senior's cousin Gary, and they're
all kind of related here. He was shot twice in
the head and once in the face. One of the shots.
The reports indicate that the gun was pressed to the
side of his head, leaving a gunpowder mark that's called
(08:55):
a muzzle stain. I mean, those kind of injuries leaves
no doubt that this was an intentional or these all
were intentional killings, kind of designed to send a message
to someone.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
The muzzle mark sticks in my mind. You have to
be obviously arms reach, I mean, you are locking eyes
with the victim, it would seem Does that paint any
kind of picture to or indicate to officers or attorneys anything?
Speaker 9 (09:23):
Sure it does, and maybe even closer than arm's length,
I mean, maybe just inches. That indicates that the shot
was fired right on top of the person, and it
indicates to me, at least, especially when you have the
number of shots like that here, that somebody was trying
to send a message. I don't think there can be
(09:43):
any doubt about that. It's personal. I mean, it was personal,
and I think that's what that demonstrates.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
We're going to take a quick break here. We'll be
back in a moment. At this point, Bobby Chose sees
two people are dead by twelve gunshot wounds. While waiting
desperately for police to arrive, she makes her way over
to her nephew, Frankie's house. She wanted to get some
(10:18):
help and to tell him what had happened to his
father and uncle whose body she had just found. Frankie
Rodin was Chris Senior and Dana's oldest son. The twenty
year old was a father to two boys, three year
old and six month old. Like his parents, Frankie was
a hard worker. He loved fishing, hunting, and demolition derby,
(10:41):
but nothing so much as his family and his fiance,
nineteen year old Hannah Gilly. Hannah Gilly was on the
homecoming court in high school, and at that time she
told friends she planned to go to college, get a
business degree, and open a daycare.
Speaker 8 (10:54):
Frankie and Hannah wanted a lot of kids. They had
a bright future.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
The young family lived together just up the street from
Chris Senior, also on Union Hill Road. They were looking
forward to getting married soon. Here's reporter Jeff Winkler recounting
the details of what happened that night based on his reporting.
Speaker 4 (11:13):
So, after Bobby Joe made the call to nine one one,
she went to Frankie's house near right nearby, and the
person who came to the door was Frankly's three year
old son and was as the police reports and newspaper
reports showed, he was, you know, covered in blood, and he,
(11:35):
like any three year old, he sort of didn't fully
understand what was going on. And he told his aunt that,
you know, his father was playing zombie in the bedroom,
and that's because the family were fans of The Walking Dead,
so you know, was in there with his father playing zombie,
(11:56):
which is, you know, absolutely heartbreaking.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Bobby picked up her nephew and made her way inside.
She finds two more victims. Frankie was shot three times
in the head. His fiancee, Hannah Gilly, was shot five
times in total, with one shot to her left eye.
They were both in bed with their six month old baby.
Thankfully the infant was spared. Meanwhile, and this is all happening.
(12:28):
Around eight am on April twenty second, Bobby Joe calls
their brother James. She's in hysterics. There's now two murder scenes,
four people dead, twenty gunshot wounds, two children left alive.
At the scenes, James immediately goes over to his sister
(12:50):
Dana's house to check on her and the remaining kids.
Dana Rudin was a nurse known for her gregarious nature
and loving smile. She'd met Chris Rhadin Senior when she
was just in high school and it was love at
first sight. Even though they divorced twenty two years later,
they remained very close together. The pair had three beautiful children,
(13:13):
twenty year old Frankie, Hannah May and little Chris.
Speaker 8 (13:18):
Good hearted, a lot of fun, you know, always laughing,
cracking up.
Speaker 9 (13:23):
She was a very very good person.
Speaker 8 (13:25):
She sent me a text she said, my grandbabies here
and I said, well, congratulations, I said, she's beautiful. What
did hanname name her? She said, Caylie May, and I said,
that's so pretty. And that was the last, you know,
the last thing I ever heard from Dana.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
This particular April seemed extra special because Hannah Ma had
just given birth to her second daughter five days prior.
Just weeks before that, Dana threw Hannah May a big
baby shower at their new house. The pictures from the
shower show what a happy celebration it was. Sadly, James,
Dana's brother, was about to enter yet one more unimaginable scene.
(14:06):
Dana and her nineteen year old daughter, Hannah May were
both dead. Like the rest of the family. They were
shot execution style, Dana three times in the right side
of her head and once under her chin. Hannah was
shot twice in the head, lying in bed with her
new born daughter, just five days old. The infant was
(14:27):
spared alive, and thankfully, Hannah's older daughter, Sophia, just two
years old at the time, was not at the house
at the time of the murderers. This brings us back
to when Dana's son, the high school freshman Chris Junior,
was nowhere to be found. It took detectives several hours
to locate him, but Finally, little Chris was found in
(14:48):
the home with his mother, Dana and his sister Hannah May.
He'd been shot four times in the head. There's now
seven people dead, thirty one gunshot wounds, and three children
left alive. At the scenes, the once small and sleepy
town became the epicenter for grizzly crime and the subsequent
(15:10):
complex murder investigation. When it was all said and done,
two families would be destroyed and the town would never
be the same. Here's Jeff Winkler. It was a long
form article he'd written on the case that originally piqued
our interest.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
I'm a writer and journalist based in Flyover, so I
cover a lot of stuff that happens away from the coasts.
The Rodent case. I remember seeing coverage of it in
twenty sixteen as it was happening on live TV, and
there was a helicopter flying over the property, and it
(15:47):
was just one of those things that seemed like it
was straight out of southern noir. The crime is as
complex as it is gruesome, because all the victims except
for one, were found on the same sort of back
road and piked him, and they were all found gunned
down on the same night and all had gunshots to
the head. This was an incredibly well executed execution of
(16:13):
several people.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Here again is criminal defense attorney, former prosecutor and judge
Mike Allen.
Speaker 9 (16:20):
Did this area like a ton of bricks. I mean,
with the local media down here, we're all over this thing.
I mean, like white on Rice. So yeah, it's a
big deal.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Do you have any theories, because I've spoken to people
and they're all, I guess, just theories. But why do
you spare the children? Is that some line a killer
won't cross or what does that tell you?
Speaker 9 (16:39):
Yeah, and it's a really good question. I guess it
shows that I don't know, the killers wanted to demonstrate
that they have some humanity left in and just would
not kill infants. I guess that's small consolation, but I
don't know. It probably is some kind of code thing.
(17:01):
But they did find it within their hearts to spare
the the infants and the children. You know, as brazen
and as violent as these killings were, I guess they
just couldn't bring themselves to do it to small children
and an infant.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Yeah, a five day old, I mean that's yeah, that's crazy.
For the quiet town. The scene was unreal. Nearly seven
hours after the first bodies were found, at one twenty
six pm on April twenty second, a final fatal discovery.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
Yeah, I need they as come out to blast of
seven ninety nine Black Force.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Okay, it's all this stuff.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
It's on the news. I just found just found my
cousins with against yet one. Okay, I'll be saying out
by the very white Donaldson, Donald Stone, Dolph Stone. Yeah,
(18:11):
I'm gonna what's his name, Kenneth.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Roden, Kenneth Roden dear. Okay, sir, are you out of
the house.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
I'm out of the house right now. I just went
in horr nighty and chick right up, and I was
saying he had a gun shot win.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Okay, Sure we're gonna get repubing down thirteen. Okay, all right,
sick mare.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
A few miles down Union Hill Road was Chris Roden
Senior's brother Kenneth. The forty four year old was shot
once through his right eye. Kenneth's cousin, Donald Stone, went
to check on Kenneth after hearing about the murderers of
their six other family members. He'd failed to hear from
Kenneth that day here's Jeff Winkler.
Speaker 4 (19:05):
There were a lot of breaking news moments during the
first day, and the details just kept piling up and
piling up, and more police, more law enforcement would show up,
and the body count got larger and larger. And then
I think the real sort of twist and the real
(19:26):
sort of what the heck has happened in a moment
was when, you know, nearly seven.
Speaker 10 (19:31):
Hours after the first bodies are found, at around one
point thirty pm, there is finally another body of Kenneth
and he was found as well as the others, as
you know, shot execution style, and in this case, he was.
Speaker 4 (19:47):
Covered with dollar bills that were strewn about his body.
Speaker 10 (19:50):
And it's just sort of he just got it.
Speaker 4 (19:53):
I mean, you can't, you can't make this up.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Let's stop here for another quick break. We'll be back
in a moment. By the time officials released the names
of the eight victims piked in residence were reeling.
Speaker 5 (20:19):
You know, they had snuck in in the night and
committed this these murders, and nobody had a clue.
Speaker 8 (20:27):
About you know.
Speaker 5 (20:30):
Who or why, and that's really scary.
Speaker 4 (20:35):
There were rumors about who had done the crime everywhere
online in the coffee shops. You know, amongst the police,
I mean everyone was talking about who could have done
it and why they would have done it.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
Within two days of the murder, officials make another shocking announcement.
Speaker 11 (20:56):
I'm all, let sure, thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
This is Mike DeWine, then Attorney General of Ohio, at
a news conference on April twenty fourth, twenty sixteen.
Speaker 12 (21:07):
Let me go ahead, and I think it's okay for
us to confirm that we did find marijuana in three
three locations.
Speaker 9 (21:16):
Well, there's a grow operations.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Here's Jeff Shane. We worked together on the case, and
he reached out to Jody Barr, an investigative reporter who
was working in Cincinnati at the time of the murders.
Speaker 12 (21:30):
Let's like run through some of the theories, like what
people were saying might have happened.
Speaker 5 (21:35):
So there were a.
Speaker 11 (21:36):
Lot of theories.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Jody has followed the crime and investigation for years.
Speaker 11 (21:41):
We got all of these tips in and we're trying
to make sense of these tips, vet them see if
there's anything that could indicate who did it, why they
did it, what caused someone to kill eight people of
the same family. So, you know, the one theory that
sort of became the prevailing idea of what might have happened.
Here was the drug cartail theory, and that came about because,
(22:03):
you know, hours after the murders, Attorney General Mike DeWine
and Pike County Sheriff Charlie Readers standing at a press
conference and the Wine tells the public that they found
commercial grow operations at three of the four crime scenes.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
Another theory was that the murders could have been the
result of a dispute with another family in the area.
Here's Jodi Barr again.
Speaker 11 (22:23):
We had gotten word that apparently Chris Junior had some
sort of road rage or some sort of incident with
another family in the area some days before this, and
there were some messages, social media messages exchanged that could
have indicated a possible motive. So that was one theory.
(22:44):
As I got on the ground over there and you
started talking to some of these family members, and you
talk to some of the neighbors, some of the people
who knew the Rodents, it became clear that either people
knew or had a very good idea about what happened,
but they absolutely would never say it because I think
they were they were afraid because at that point in time,
(23:07):
whoever did this had not been arrested. There have been
no persons of interest named. So you know, if you
lived in that area, man, it was hush hush, you
were just kind of walking around looking over your shoulder.
It's seeing with some of these people not knowing, you know,
who could be next? Who did it?
Speaker 1 (23:27):
This is again Jeff Winkler.
Speaker 4 (23:29):
The majority of those theories rested on, you know, as
a cartel. It was a cartel hit because the family
was growing marijuana on their property. You know, was it
a rifle marijuana farm?
Speaker 7 (23:40):
The area?
Speaker 4 (23:41):
Was it where the killings related to the family disputes
that were going on with various members of adjacent families
and no one, no one quite knew, but they all
had a bunch of theories.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
With the town living in fear, investigators worked around the
clock to bring the killers to justice.
Speaker 9 (24:03):
Mike Dwine is and again I know him, but he's
not a friend or anything, but he really is a
professional and he was a professional prosecutor. I mean that's
how he started his political life. And he ran this
thing like a prosecutor or a law enforcement officer would.
And I'll tell you what there is just no way
(24:27):
that the sheriff's office or the prosecutor's office up there
could have handled this thing by themselves. And that's no
knock on them, It's just that they don't have the
resources for something like this.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
There were in some of the news conferences sheriff reader
without telling people to arm themselves as a precaution.
Speaker 9 (24:51):
In a small county like that, and just the horrific
nature of these things, I don't know that that would
have not been good advice. I mean obviously, and they'd
have to do it legally with a concealed carry license
and the legal right to carry a firearm. But people
just didn't know what the heck was going on up there.
(25:13):
I mean, you know, you had all the different theories
bouncing around, and it's a rural county up there. So
if I were living out there and I was legally
able to carry a firearm, I think I would.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
For two years, not a single arrest was made. How
could the largest massacre in Ohio's history, with so much blood,
so many bullets, and so many victims still be unsolved.
The questions abound, Who's doing this? Is it many people?
Is it won? How did they get away with it
If the scene was so messy, how did they clean up?
(25:55):
The four crime scenes all had dead bodies, but the
ms were different. Chris and Gary is the most violent
and bloody. Two of the other ones had children left alive.
And in the fourth, Kenneth was found with dollar bills
all over him, with the victims all being shot at
close range. We know that the killers and victims were
eye to eye. How did nobody hear anything? Could it
(26:16):
be a cover up? And would another family be next?
And then on November thirteenth, twenty eighteen, well, good afternoon,
we finally got an update on the case.
Speaker 12 (26:28):
We promised that the day would come when the rest
would be made in the Pike County massacred.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
This is Mike DeWine, the state's then attorney general. He's
at a press conference yesterday.
Speaker 12 (26:40):
A Pike County grand jury and died four individuals for
aggravated murder with death penalty specifications for leglarly committing this heartless, ruthless,
cold blood and.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
Murder for the town of piked In with the alleged
killers behind bars, the nightmare may have been over, but
the mystery has just begun. Who is this family of
alleged killers next time on the Piked In Massacre. Piked
(27:24):
In Massacre is executive produced by Stephanie Leidecker and me
Courtney Armstrong. Editing and sound designed by executive producer Jared Aston.
Additional producing by Jeff Shane and Andrew Becker. The Piked
In Massacre is a production of iHeartRadio and Kati Studios.
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to the piked In Massacre, a production of iHeartRadio
and Katie Studios.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Nine nine one.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
Okay harn Hongstead.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
It was an unimaginable crimes all over the house. It
was the second biggest mass murder in twenty sixteen, behind
the Pulse night Club shooting.
Speaker 4 (00:25):
Eight people dead, all from the same family.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
It would become the largest criminal investigation in Ohio's history.
Speaker 4 (00:32):
Pike County Sheriff's requested state help immediately after they got word.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
In the early morning of April twenty second, twenty sixteen,
eight members of the Rodent family were brutally murdered, shot
to death execution style in their homes. Eight victims, thirty
two gunshot wounds, three children left alive. At the scenes
in This Is the piked In Massacre.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Believed there was a shooter or shooters out there somewhereever
they are.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
They were trying to possibly white out something. Family episode
one Daddy's Playing Zombie. Piked In, Ohio is a rural
town located on the Seyota River just sixty miles south
of Columbus. It's home to twenty two hundred residents and
the people of piked And say that because the town
is so small, neighbors really look out for each other
(01:26):
and treat each other like family.
Speaker 5 (01:33):
It was just it was a good, wonderful area to
grow up in. It was we lived in the country,
and you know, we rode horses on the road, We
rode bikes to each other's houses, and we played. You know,
the kids in the neighborhood played together all the time.
Speaker 6 (01:51):
I slept the whole time I was a kid with
my window wide open. There's no way you could do
that now, there's no way. This place was one wonderful
everybody took care of everybody, and now it's like a
whole different place.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
The Roden family lived in piped In for generations. In fact,
this close knit family all lived within miles of each
other and were a beloved fixture in the community. It's
part of what makes this story so heartbreaking and disturbing.
Eight members of the Rodent family, ranging in age from
sixteen to forty four, were murdered, each killed execution style
over one night in four different locations. The only known
(02:36):
witnesses the three small children left alive at the scenes,
the Rodent family was literally being hunted. I'm Courtney Armstrong,
a television producer who helped make a documentary about the
case for NBC Universal's Oxygen Network in twenty nineteen. Since
it aired, the team and I at Kat's Studios haven't
(02:57):
stopped thinking about the case. With trials on the horizon,
there are new details and theories to explore. By all accounts,
April twenty second, twenty sixteen, was an ordinary spring day
in rural Pike County, but that would be far from
the truth. Here's Barbara longtime picked in resident.
Speaker 5 (03:16):
I'll never forget that day. I'll never forget that day.
I had gone into the office at the high school
to pick Brittany up for an appointment. And when I
walked in, they had a TV on and everyone in
there was sitting with their mouths hanging open, and I
was like, what's going on in here? And the secretaries said,
(03:40):
my god, there's been a shooting. They said six people
were killed, and she said, we are very worried because
little Chris Rodent didn't show up today and we think
he might be one of them. Everyone was just in shock.
Speaker 7 (03:58):
So little Chris law enforcement because I couldn't find him.
There was some speculation early on that he might have
been involved.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
For the residents of piked In there was little more
than confusion. At this point. People knew there was a
shooting and that Chris Roden Junior, the sixteen year old
freshman at Piketon High was missing. Where was the team.
It was at the home of Chris Roden Senior that
the nightmare began. Chris Rodin Senior was known to be
a strong, hard working family man.
Speaker 8 (04:30):
He was, you know, a great father. He was a
good man, just like the rest of the guys you
know in that family. He would do anything for anybody.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
He and Dana Roden were married for twenty two years,
and although they divorced, they remained close, so close that
Chris Senior had recently bought Dana a home on the
same road he lived on Union Hill Road. He did
it so they could stay close to their children. Chris
Senior's cousin, Gary Roden, was more like a brother to
him and often stated his place little. Chris's aunt Bobby Joe,
(05:04):
who also lived nearby, was the first to make the
gruesome discovery at seven forty nine am when she came
to feed the dogs at Chris Senior's house.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Yes, yes, over, we walked to the no, boll Okay,
my brother Hall's dead, Yes, fly all over the house. Okay,
my brother, look like I'll beat the hell out of them.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Patriarch of the family, Chris Rodin was dead. He looked
like he'd been beaten to death. His cousin Gary, who
was staying with Chris, was also dead.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Madam, Yeah, what's her name?
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Chris Rodan gry Rode and Roman first und and it
looks like a dad. Think you're both dead, I think,
the boy said. If I told her speak to stalk
out of them.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Okay, did there anybody else in the house? I don't
know us Okay.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
So dor when was on here? But I hope he
found went in and then Leney on the floor.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Bobby, I needed to get out of the house.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
And the way he done the house now.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Okay, just stay out of the house. So why anybody
going in there? Okay? Yeah, all right, we don't take
any on the way. Okay, I thank you here, mother, Yeah, suspatch.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
This forty year old Christopher Roden was the only one
of the eight family members who was shot somewhere other
than they had.
Speaker 9 (06:50):
He had multiple.
Speaker 4 (06:51):
Gunshot ones to the head, torso and extrumins.
Speaker 7 (06:54):
We found out. You know that the news broke over
night and saw the email. I saw the alerts, you know,
the initial news coverage, and I knew this was We
all knew this was a big deal.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
James Pilcher as an investigative reporter who was assigned to
cover this story.
Speaker 7 (07:11):
Chris Roden may have been awake when the intruders came in,
at least there's some indication of that. He was shot
nine times, but he was shot in the forearm, which
means which seems to mean that he may have raised
his arm in defense. His cousin Gary got shot twice
(07:33):
in the head and once in the face, and one
was execution style, and I had a muzzle stain. It
was that close to his temple.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Even for a multiple murder scene, this stood out as
being particularly violent. Wood fragments found on Chris's body indicate
he was dragged through the house. Blood was everywhere. Was
it a robbery, a serial killer, a random thrill kill?
And if it wasn't random, why were these two men targeted?
(08:02):
I spoke with Mike Allen, criminal defense attorney from Ohio.
Are you familiar? Are you able to talk about the
scenes themselves?
Speaker 9 (08:10):
You know, if you look at it, and it's all
from the autopsy reports. Chris Senior's autopsy report says that
they believe that he was awake when he was confronted
by at least one person with a gun. He got
nine gun shot wounds, and one of them apparently was
a defensive wound to his right forearm that shattered the bone.
(08:32):
He was also shot in the torso and cheek, according
to that report. Then Chris Senior's cousin Gary, and they're
all kind of related here. He was shot twice in
the head and once in the face. One of the shots.
The reports indicate that the gun was pressed to the
side of his head, leaving a gunpowder mark that's called
(08:55):
a muzzle stain. I mean, those kind of injuries leaves
no doubt that this was an intentional or these all
were intentional killings, kind of designed to send a message
to someone.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
The muzzle mark sticks in my mind. You have to
be obviously arms reach, I mean, you are locking eyes
with the victim, it would seem Does that paint any
kind of picture to or indicate to officers or attorneys anything?
Speaker 9 (09:23):
Sure it does, and maybe even closer than arm's length,
I mean, maybe just inches. That indicates that the shot
was fired right on top of the person, and it
indicates to me, at least, especially when you have the
number of shots like that here, that somebody was trying
to send a message. I don't think there can be
(09:43):
any doubt about that. It's personal. I mean, it was personal,
and I think that's what that demonstrates.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
We're going to take a quick break here. We'll be
back in a moment. At this point, Bobby Chose sees
two people are dead by twelve gunshot wounds. While waiting
desperately for police to arrive, she makes her way over
to her nephew, Frankie's house. She wanted to get some
(10:18):
help and to tell him what had happened to his
father and uncle whose body she had just found. Frankie
Rodin was Chris Senior and Dana's oldest son. The twenty
year old was a father to two boys, three year
old and six month old. Like his parents, Frankie was
a hard worker. He loved fishing, hunting, and demolition derby,
(10:41):
but nothing so much as his family and his fiance,
nineteen year old Hannah Gilly. Hannah Gilly was on the
homecoming court in high school, and at that time she
told friends she planned to go to college, get a
business degree, and open a daycare.
Speaker 8 (10:54):
Frankie and Hannah wanted a lot of kids. They had
a bright future.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
The young family lived together just up the street from
Chris Senior, also on Union Hill Road. They were looking
forward to getting married soon. Here's reporter Jeff Winkler recounting
the details of what happened that night based on his reporting.
Speaker 4 (11:13):
So, after Bobby Joe made the call to nine one one,
she went to Frankie's house near right nearby, and the
person who came to the door was Frankly's three year
old son and was as the police reports and newspaper
reports showed, he was, you know, covered in blood, and he,
(11:35):
like any three year old, he sort of didn't fully
understand what was going on. And he told his aunt that,
you know, his father was playing zombie in the bedroom,
and that's because the family were fans of The Walking Dead,
so you know, was in there with his father playing zombie,
(11:56):
which is, you know, absolutely heartbreaking.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Bobby picked up her nephew and made her way inside.
She finds two more victims. Frankie was shot three times
in the head. His fiancee, Hannah Gilly, was shot five
times in total, with one shot to her left eye.
They were both in bed with their six month old baby.
Thankfully the infant was spared. Meanwhile, and this is all happening.
(12:28):
Around eight am on April twenty second, Bobby Joe calls
their brother James. She's in hysterics. There's now two murder scenes,
four people dead, twenty gunshot wounds, two children left alive.
At the scenes, James immediately goes over to his sister
(12:50):
Dana's house to check on her and the remaining kids.
Dana Rudin was a nurse known for her gregarious nature
and loving smile. She'd met Chris Rhadin Senior when she
was just in high school and it was love at
first sight. Even though they divorced twenty two years later,
they remained very close together. The pair had three beautiful children,
(13:13):
twenty year old Frankie, Hannah May and little Chris.
Speaker 8 (13:18):
Good hearted, a lot of fun, you know, always laughing,
cracking up.
Speaker 9 (13:23):
She was a very very good person.
Speaker 8 (13:25):
She sent me a text she said, my grandbabies here
and I said, well, congratulations, I said, she's beautiful. What
did hanname name her? She said, Caylie May, and I said,
that's so pretty. And that was the last, you know,
the last thing I ever heard from Dana.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
This particular April seemed extra special because Hannah Ma had
just given birth to her second daughter five days prior.
Just weeks before that, Dana threw Hannah May a big
baby shower at their new house. The pictures from the
shower show what a happy celebration it was. Sadly, James,
Dana's brother, was about to enter yet one more unimaginable scene.
(14:06):
Dana and her nineteen year old daughter, Hannah May were
both dead. Like the rest of the family. They were
shot execution style, Dana three times in the right side
of her head and once under her chin. Hannah was
shot twice in the head, lying in bed with her
new born daughter, just five days old. The infant was
(14:27):
spared alive, and thankfully, Hannah's older daughter, Sophia, just two
years old at the time, was not at the house
at the time of the murderers. This brings us back
to when Dana's son, the high school freshman Chris Junior,
was nowhere to be found. It took detectives several hours
to locate him, but Finally, little Chris was found in
(14:48):
the home with his mother, Dana and his sister Hannah May.
He'd been shot four times in the head. There's now
seven people dead, thirty one gunshot wounds, and three children
left alive. At the scenes, the once small and sleepy
town became the epicenter for grizzly crime and the subsequent
(15:10):
complex murder investigation. When it was all said and done,
two families would be destroyed and the town would never
be the same. Here's Jeff Winkler. It was a long
form article he'd written on the case that originally piqued
our interest.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
I'm a writer and journalist based in Flyover, so I
cover a lot of stuff that happens away from the coasts.
The Rodent case. I remember seeing coverage of it in
twenty sixteen as it was happening on live TV, and
there was a helicopter flying over the property, and it
(15:47):
was just one of those things that seemed like it
was straight out of southern noir. The crime is as
complex as it is gruesome, because all the victims except
for one, were found on the same sort of back
road and piked him, and they were all found gunned
down on the same night and all had gunshots to
the head. This was an incredibly well executed execution of
(16:13):
several people.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Here again is criminal defense attorney, former prosecutor and judge
Mike Allen.
Speaker 9 (16:20):
Did this area like a ton of bricks. I mean,
with the local media down here, we're all over this thing.
I mean, like white on Rice. So yeah, it's a
big deal.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Do you have any theories, because I've spoken to people
and they're all, I guess, just theories. But why do
you spare the children? Is that some line a killer
won't cross or what does that tell you?
Speaker 9 (16:39):
Yeah, and it's a really good question. I guess it
shows that I don't know, the killers wanted to demonstrate
that they have some humanity left in and just would
not kill infants. I guess that's small consolation, but I
don't know. It probably is some kind of code thing.
(17:01):
But they did find it within their hearts to spare
the the infants and the children. You know, as brazen
and as violent as these killings were, I guess they
just couldn't bring themselves to do it to small children
and an infant.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Yeah, a five day old, I mean that's yeah, that's crazy.
For the quiet town. The scene was unreal. Nearly seven
hours after the first bodies were found, at one twenty
six pm on April twenty second, a final fatal discovery.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
Yeah, I need they as come out to blast of
seven ninety nine Black Force.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Okay, it's all this stuff.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
It's on the news. I just found just found my
cousins with against yet one. Okay, I'll be saying out
by the very white Donaldson, Donald Stone, Dolph Stone. Yeah,
(18:11):
I'm gonna what's his name, Kenneth.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Roden, Kenneth Roden dear. Okay, sir, are you out of
the house.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
I'm out of the house right now. I just went
in horr nighty and chick right up, and I was
saying he had a gun shot win.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Okay, Sure we're gonna get repubing down thirteen. Okay, all right,
sick mare.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
A few miles down Union Hill Road was Chris Roden
Senior's brother Kenneth. The forty four year old was shot
once through his right eye. Kenneth's cousin, Donald Stone, went
to check on Kenneth after hearing about the murderers of
their six other family members. He'd failed to hear from
Kenneth that day here's Jeff Winkler.
Speaker 4 (19:05):
There were a lot of breaking news moments during the
first day, and the details just kept piling up and
piling up, and more police, more law enforcement would show up,
and the body count got larger and larger. And then
I think the real sort of twist and the real
(19:26):
sort of what the heck has happened in a moment
was when, you know, nearly seven.
Speaker 10 (19:31):
Hours after the first bodies are found, at around one
point thirty pm, there is finally another body of Kenneth
and he was found as well as the others, as
you know, shot execution style, and in this case, he was.
Speaker 4 (19:47):
Covered with dollar bills that were strewn about his body.
Speaker 10 (19:50):
And it's just sort of he just got it.
Speaker 4 (19:53):
I mean, you can't, you can't make this up.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Let's stop here for another quick break. We'll be back
in a moment. By the time officials released the names
of the eight victims piked in residence were reeling.
Speaker 5 (20:19):
You know, they had snuck in in the night and
committed this these murders, and nobody had a clue.
Speaker 8 (20:27):
About you know.
Speaker 5 (20:30):
Who or why, and that's really scary.
Speaker 4 (20:35):
There were rumors about who had done the crime everywhere
online in the coffee shops. You know, amongst the police,
I mean everyone was talking about who could have done
it and why they would have done it.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
Within two days of the murder, officials make another shocking announcement.
Speaker 11 (20:56):
I'm all, let sure, thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
This is Mike DeWine, then Attorney General of Ohio, at
a news conference on April twenty fourth, twenty sixteen.
Speaker 12 (21:07):
Let me go ahead, and I think it's okay for
us to confirm that we did find marijuana in three
three locations.
Speaker 9 (21:16):
Well, there's a grow operations.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Here's Jeff Shane. We worked together on the case, and
he reached out to Jody Barr, an investigative reporter who
was working in Cincinnati at the time of the murders.
Speaker 12 (21:30):
Let's like run through some of the theories, like what
people were saying might have happened.
Speaker 5 (21:35):
So there were a.
Speaker 11 (21:36):
Lot of theories.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Jody has followed the crime and investigation for years.
Speaker 11 (21:41):
We got all of these tips in and we're trying
to make sense of these tips, vet them see if
there's anything that could indicate who did it, why they
did it, what caused someone to kill eight people of
the same family. So, you know, the one theory that
sort of became the prevailing idea of what might have happened.
Here was the drug cartail theory, and that came about because,
(22:03):
you know, hours after the murders, Attorney General Mike DeWine
and Pike County Sheriff Charlie Readers standing at a press
conference and the Wine tells the public that they found
commercial grow operations at three of the four crime scenes.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
Another theory was that the murders could have been the
result of a dispute with another family in the area.
Here's Jodi Barr again.
Speaker 11 (22:23):
We had gotten word that apparently Chris Junior had some
sort of road rage or some sort of incident with
another family in the area some days before this, and
there were some messages, social media messages exchanged that could
have indicated a possible motive. So that was one theory.
(22:44):
As I got on the ground over there and you
started talking to some of these family members, and you
talk to some of the neighbors, some of the people
who knew the Rodents, it became clear that either people
knew or had a very good idea about what happened,
but they absolutely would never say it because I think
they were they were afraid because at that point in time,
(23:07):
whoever did this had not been arrested. There have been
no persons of interest named. So you know, if you
lived in that area, man, it was hush hush, you
were just kind of walking around looking over your shoulder.
It's seeing with some of these people not knowing, you know,
who could be next? Who did it?
Speaker 1 (23:27):
This is again Jeff Winkler.
Speaker 4 (23:29):
The majority of those theories rested on, you know, as
a cartel. It was a cartel hit because the family
was growing marijuana on their property. You know, was it
a rifle marijuana farm?
Speaker 7 (23:40):
The area?
Speaker 4 (23:41):
Was it where the killings related to the family disputes
that were going on with various members of adjacent families
and no one, no one quite knew, but they all
had a bunch of theories.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
With the town living in fear, investigators worked around the
clock to bring the killers to justice.
Speaker 9 (24:03):
Mike Dwine is and again I know him, but he's
not a friend or anything, but he really is a
professional and he was a professional prosecutor. I mean that's
how he started his political life. And he ran this
thing like a prosecutor or a law enforcement officer would.
And I'll tell you what there is just no way
(24:27):
that the sheriff's office or the prosecutor's office up there
could have handled this thing by themselves. And that's no
knock on them, It's just that they don't have the
resources for something like this.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
There were in some of the news conferences sheriff reader
without telling people to arm themselves as a precaution.
Speaker 9 (24:51):
In a small county like that, and just the horrific
nature of these things, I don't know that that would
have not been good advice. I mean obviously, and they'd
have to do it legally with a concealed carry license
and the legal right to carry a firearm. But people
just didn't know what the heck was going on up there.
(25:13):
I mean, you know, you had all the different theories
bouncing around, and it's a rural county up there. So
if I were living out there and I was legally
able to carry a firearm, I think I would.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
For two years, not a single arrest was made. How
could the largest massacre in Ohio's history, with so much blood,
so many bullets, and so many victims still be unsolved.
The questions abound, Who's doing this? Is it many people?
Is it won? How did they get away with it
If the scene was so messy, how did they clean up?
(25:55):
The four crime scenes all had dead bodies, but the
ms were different. Chris and Gary is the most violent
and bloody. Two of the other ones had children left alive.
And in the fourth, Kenneth was found with dollar bills
all over him, with the victims all being shot at
close range. We know that the killers and victims were
eye to eye. How did nobody hear anything? Could it
(26:16):
be a cover up? And would another family be next?
And then on November thirteenth, twenty eighteen, well, good afternoon,
we finally got an update on the case.
Speaker 12 (26:28):
We promised that the day would come when the rest
would be made in the Pike County massacred.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
This is Mike DeWine, the state's then attorney general. He's
at a press conference yesterday.
Speaker 12 (26:40):
A Pike County grand jury and died four individuals for
aggravated murder with death penalty specifications for leglarly committing this heartless, ruthless,
cold blood and.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
Murder for the town of piked In with the alleged
killers behind bars, the nightmare may have been over, but
the mystery has just begun. Who is this family of
alleged killers next time on the Piked In Massacre. Piked
(27:24):
In Massacre is executive produced by Stephanie Leidecker and me
Courtney Armstrong. Editing and sound designed by executive producer Jared Aston.
Additional producing by Jeff Shane and Andrew Becker. The Piked
In Massacre is a production of iHeartRadio and Kati Studios.
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hosts And Creators
Stephanie Lydecker
Courtney Armstrong
Jeff Shane
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