No suspect, no motive in Pike County shooting

PIKE COUNTY, Ohio — No arrests have been made in the shooting investigation of eight execution-style killings of members of the Rhoden family in Pike County, Ohio.

• Large-scale marijuana grow operations discovered at three of four murder scenes
• Preliminary autopsy results released Tuesday
• Cockfighting cages found at crime scenes

Update@2 p.m.:

Sam Quinones is a California journalist and author who lived in Mexico for 10 years and has written extensively about the drug trade. He said although there’s been speculation that the eight Pike County victims may have been killed by Mexican drug cartels, there’s very little precedence of Mexican cartels killing people in the United States who are not part of other cartels. Those types of killings are common in Mexico, but not in the United states, he said, stressing that he doesn’t know who the killers are, and his opinions are based solely on his past reporting. He added that he’s not part of the investigation nor is he second-guessing investigators who are working on the case.

“When (cartels) do kill in the U.S. it’s typically not as public as the Pike County killings,” he said.

Besides, Quinones said, (Pike County) is predominantly white, and Mexican drug traffickers tend to go where there are people who look like them — similar to other immigrant organized crime groups — so they don’t stand out, and they tend not to target non-Mexicans.

“This may have something to do with Mexican drug trafficking,” he said. “However, the history of Mexican drug trafficking in America would seem to indicate something very different.”

Update@12:21 p.m.:

We will have a crew in South Shore, Ky., today for the funeral service for one of the victims, Gary Rhoden. We will give you updates on this story as soon as we get answers to our questions.

FULL REPORT

Cincinnati-area businessman Jeff Ruby said on Twitter this afternoon he has withdrawn his $25,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest of anyone involved in the murders. He cited “recent complex criminal developments” in the case.

Earlier, Ruby offered $25,000 for information that led to the arrest of anyone involved. He told reporters in Pike County on Monday that he planned to meet with the surviving family members to let them know that he cares.

“You have a 3-year-old, a 6-month-old and a 4-day-old now without any parents to grow up with, and who knows what their lives could be like?” Ruby said earlier this week. “Their lives will never be the same again. (The killings were a) bloodbath, it was brutal. It was out in the wilderness where these are poor people — I would imagine — who don’t have money, the wherewithal or the importance for it to be a priority because they are not rich and famous. … It’s a small town with little resources and they need somebody who cares to try to help find this animal that killed them.”

Sheriffs from 25 sheriff’s offices across the state have offered support to the Pike County Sheriff’s Office to provide resources to the county following the shootings in Pike County.

Pike County Sheriff Charles Reader said at times he’s had 10 times the amount of deputies on the road in his county, because of the help from other counties.

“We have more manpower now than we’ve had in this county,” Reader said. “It will be that way for a while.”

Shelby County Sheriff John Lenhart said he is sending 10 deputies to Pike County on Sunday, who will remain in southern Ohio through May 6. Their task will be to help guard and secure the crime scenes, he said.

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said Wednesday his office does not intend to release any information about the investigation that would hinder the chance for prosecution in the case. DeWine and Reader said they toured the various crime scenes Wednesday.

“I wanted to go inside and take a look,” DeWine said in a press conference Wednesday afternoon. “You get a better understanding of the case.”

Reader said, “It’s absolutely shocking some of these scenes.”

DeWine said that this shooting is not like other recent mass shootings across the country.

“This is not that type of situation,” DeWine said. “This is an old-fashioned, cold-blooded massacre of eight human beings.”

DeWine said it will take time to put the pieces of the investigation together.

“We’re going to follow the evidence wherever it leads,” DeWine said, indicating that the attorney general’s office would go anywhere in the country to find anyone involved in this investigation.

DeWine said he can’t say how much money has been spent so far on the investigation. However, he said investigators intend to do whatever it takes to provide justice for the victims.

“We’re going to do what we have to do,” DeWine said.

The FBI and DEA are both providing technical expertise to the attorney general’s office, DeWine said.

The children who survived the shootings are doing well, but Reader said that they will not devulge any details on where the children are staying.

Reader also said his department would provide whatever security measures are necessary at the upcoming funerals for the victims.

DeWine joined WHIO Radio’s Larry Hansgen Wednesday morning, and said the investigation is “going to take a while.” He said his office has received 300-plus tips.

“Whenever you have a case where you have a body is found and there are no witnesses there, it’s just very difficult,” DeWine said. “It’s looking like a big, huge jigsaw puzzle. You take one piece of evidence and that fills in part of it, and after a while it starts to become clearer. We’re still in the interviewing stage of this investigation. I don’t expect any breakthrough in the immediate future.”

DeWine again emphasized this morning that the killings were “orchestrated and well-planned out. Just a brutal crime.”

“The people of Pike County are very concerned about this, as they should be,” DeWine said. “My commitment to them is that we are not going to leave until we figure this thing out. We have a lot of resources.”

The few official details released Tuesday of last week’s massacre in Pike County reinforced the brutality with which eight members of the same family were slaughtered by killers still at large.

The victims suffered 32 gunshot wounds altogether — one was shot nine times, two were shot five times each — and some showed soft tissue bruising, suggesting they may have been beaten, according to preliminary autopsy information.

The bruising is consistent with initial reports from the 911 caller who first reported the crimes Friday.

“There’s blood all over the house,” the caller cried, gasping. “My brother-in-law is in the bedroom. It looks like someone has beat the hell out of him.”

Meanwhile, a fierce thunderstorm whipped up Tuesday night as scores of state, federal and local officials worked through the fifth day of the investigation without an arrest. The rural southern Ohio community went about its business knowing one or more killers are on the loose.

DeWine and Reader released an update, saying 61 additional items of evidence were taken to the state crime lab for analysis, in addition to 18 “high-priority” items already submitted.

Investigators continued to serve search warrants, but wouldn’t disclose how many or where.

Tips to state and local investigators now number more than 300, officials said, and anyone with additional information is urged to call 855-BCI-OHIO.

To date, more than 251 law enforcement officials have contributed to the investigation, including manpower from 23 sheriff’s offices from across Ohio. FBI and U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency agents provided limited technical expertise.

Investigators and prosecutors previously said three of the four murder scenes contained marijuana grow operations of a commercial scale, at least one of them indoors.

DeWine has characterized the killings as “execution-style.” The victims were Hannah Gilley, 20; Christopher Rhoden Sr., 40; Christopher Rhoden Jr., 16; Clarence “Frankie” Rhoden, 20; Dana Rhoden, 37; Gary Rhoden, 38; Hanna Rhoden, 19; Kenneth Rhoden, 44.

Three children under the age of 3 in the homes were spared.

Some Pike County residents told WHIO’s Mike Campbell Tuesday afternoon that a vigil is being planned for 8 p.m. Friday at the Piketon High School football team’s practice field. There’s also talk of a meal fundraiser that would start around 7 p.m., organizers said.

DeWine called our newsroom Monday afternoon to discuss the case, and said the possibility of a Mexican drug cartel connection has not been ruled out, and that investigators are looking at everything.

He said although he would not rule out the fact that members of a drug cartel may have killed the eight members of the Rhoden family, there’s no evidence at this time to indicate that that’s the case.

In August 2012, Ohio law enforcement officers found "a major marijuana grow site in Pike County with suspected ties to a Mexican drug cartel," according to a press release DeWine's office issued at that time. Investigators discovered about 1,200 marijuana plants — which were destroyed — and they also found evidence of two abandoned campsites they believe belonged to Mexican nationals.

DeWine also would not say if there was forced entry at any of the four homes where the eight victims were killed, if they were tortured or if there was more than one killer.

DeWine added that he can’t definitively say the Rhoden family was involved in cockfighting, but when he visited one of the crime scenes Friday, he noticed roosters in cages that are normally associated with cockfighting.

Additionally, the marijuana grow operations that authorities discovered appeared to be for commercial use, he said, declining to go into specifics. He also declined to say if there are indications that any of the victims were aware of the grow operations.

The marijuana grow operations found were not simply a few random plants in a field somewhere, the Columbus Dispatch reported from an interview with Pike County Prosecutor Rob Junk. He told Dispatch reporters at least one was indoors and there appeared to be several hundreds of plants.

“It wasn’t just somebody sitting pots in the window,” Junk told the Dispatch.

The identities of the eight people killed are: Hannah Gilley, 20; Christopher Rhoden Sr., 40; Christopher Rhoden Jr., 16; Clarence "Frankie" Rhoden, 20; Dana Rhoden, 37; Gary Rhoden, 38; Hanna Rhoden, 19; and Kenneth Rhoden, 44.

“This is a pre-planned execution of eight individuals. It was a sophisticated operation and those who carried it out were trying to do everything they could do to hinder the investigation and their prosecution,” DeWine said during a news conference Sunday. “We don’t know if it was one or two (shooters).

“We have received over 100 tips, we have conducted over 50 to 60 interviews … over 100 personnel were involved in this investigation. Five search warrants have been executed, four crime scenes have been worked,” DeWine added.

Also, 18 pieces of evidence are at the Bureau of Criminal Investigation’s state crime lab. Reader said the family did not have prior criminal contact with his office.

“This investigation is very large, probably the largest in Pike County we have ever been a part of,” Reader said.

On Friday, Reader advised residents “to lock their doors and stay alert.” At Sunday’s press conference, Reader said he warned other Rhoden family members to be on guard, but “for other citizens, I don’t believe there’s an issue.”

“If you are fearful, arm yourself,” he said, adding residents also could turn to law enforcement for protection.

Authorities said at least one suspect is believed to be at large, and should be considered armed and dangerous.

Seven of the deceased were found in three Union Hill Road homes in Piketon, while the eighth was found within a 10-minute drive from the other victims — most of whom were executed while in bed. All the killings occurred during the nighttime hours.

Three children — a 4-day-old, a 6-month-old and a 3-year-old — were found unharmed at the scenes.

The first 9-1-1 call that Piketon police received came from a woman at 7:49 a.m. Friday. The woman tells the dispatcher that she walked into a house in the 4000 block of Union Hill Road and “found them all dead.”

The home is where two males were found dead — one of four locations where bodies were found Friday.

“There’s blood all over the house,” the woman can be heard saying during the 9-1-1 call.

She found the two male victims lying on the floor. She reported that no one else was in the home and broke into tears, according to the 9-1-1 recording.

A man is heard in the second 9-1-1 call, recorded at 1:26 p.m. Friday.

The man was at a residence in the 700 block of West Fork Road. He told the dispatcher he walked in and called out for his cousin before finding him dead with a gunshot wound.

The news of the other deaths had already been reported by the time this death was discovered.

“All that stuff that’s on the news, I just found my cousin with a gunshot wound,” the caller tells the dispatcher.

Friday night in Piketon, DeWine — at a news conference with Reader — said he would not use the term “person of interest” stemming from the person or persons reportedly detained in Chillicothe.

The detention in Chillicothe by police and Ross County sheriff’s deputies was just a part of the several interviews occurring as part of the investigation, DeWine said. His statements, in answer to a reporter’s question, counters media reports Friday evening that a person of interest had been detained in Chillicothe.

“The investigation will go wherever the facts take us,” he said. “Investigations like this can take a while.”

Authorities are asking for help from the public to assist in the investigation. Anyone with information is asked to call (855) BCI-OHIO, or the Pike County Sheriff’s Office at (740) 947-2111.

Cox Media Group