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Six people have been arrested in Pike County family, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said Tuesday.
Eight members of the Rhoden family – seven adults and one teenage boy – were shot at home near Piketon, about 90 miles east of Cincinnati in rural Ohio, on the night of April 21-22, 2016.
Christopher Rhoden Sr., 40; Clarence "Frankie" Rhoden, 20; Dana Lynn Rhoden, 37; Gary Rhoden, 38; Hanna May Rhoden, 19; Hannah Gilley, 20; Kenneth Rhoden, 44; and Christopher Rhoden Jr., 16, were shot and killed.
"Thankfully, in their only show of mercy, the children at ages 3 years, 6 months and 5 days," DeWine said.
Those children were found alive inside the homes when investigators found the eight bodies.
Now, more than 2 1/2 years after the slayings, arrests have been made.
In total, six people were arrested. Four are accused in the mass killing, and two are accused of covering it up. It was a family that spanned three generations, DeWine said.
George "Billy" Wagner III, 47; Angela Wagner, 48; George Wagner IV, 27; and Edward "Jake" Wagner, 26, have been arrested in connection with the killings.
They each face eight counts of aggravated murder, and charges of conspiracy, tampering with evidence, aggravated burglary and other charges.
DeWine said the Wagner family studied the Rhoden family members and plotted their deaths over the course of several months.
"We believe that the Wagners conspired together to develop a plan to kill the victims under the cover of darkness, and then carefully cover their tracks," DeWine said.
The indictments allege that the suspects purchased ammunition, a clip magazine, brass catcher (s) and a bug detector in preparation for the crimes.
The indictments accuse the Wagners of tampering with phones, cameras, a silencer, shell casings and parts of a home security system.
DeWine said the Wagners shot and killed the eight Rhodens in the dead of night. He said most of the Rhodians were killed as they slept.
They studied the victims' routines and routines, they knew the layouts of their homes, they knew where they slept, "DeWine said.
The Wagners have been on the radar of the authorities of the summer of 2017. They were longtime friends with the Rhodens – who lived in nearby Peebles, Ohio, at the time of the killings – before they moved to Alaska.
Edward "Jake" Wagner was the ex-boyfriend of Hannah Rhoden – one of the eight dead – and the father of her 2-year-old child. The pair were in custody at the time of the killings.
DeWine said that custody is at the center of the case.
"Because this is an open prosecution, we will not be able to say much about motivation." But you'll see that in this case, "DeWine said.
Edward "Jake" Wagner is also with Hanna May Rhoden when she was 15 years old and he was 20 years old.
Shortly after the massacre, there was considerable talk of drugs for the reason for what happened.
DeWine conceded there was "an undercurrent of drugs," but it was no evidence of a drug-related motives to crimes.
DeWine added that the Wagner family is quickly and mercilessly, covering up its tracks by tampering with the victims' phones and video surveillance.
The victims were executed very carefully, DeWine said, stating that the cover-up made the Wagners hard to track.
But investigators said the suspects left traces. The final bit of physical evidence surfaced two weeks ago. Authorities did not disclose what that was.
DeWine said two other people were arrested on suspicion of attempting to cover up crimes.
Rita Newcomb, 65, the mother of Angela Wagner, and Frederick Wagner, 76, the mother of George Wagner, were arrested on suspicion of misleading authorities, DeWine said.
Both sides charges of obstruction justice and perjury for allegedly misleading investigators over the course of the investigation. Newcomb is also involved with forgery.
Federal agents said they were able to track George Wagner III to Lexington, Kentucky, where he was arrested Tuesday afternoon. He was driving a vehicle pulling a horse that was pulled over just off Georgetown Road.
George and Edward Wagner were arrested in Ross County, Ohio, and Angela Wagner was arrested at Scioto County.
Investigators said they do not anticipate more arrests.
"We believe we have the killers," said Ohio Attorney General and Governor-elect Mike DeWine. "We do not believe that anybody else has been involved." "We have absolutely no evidence that anybody else is involved and we want to make that clear to the people of Pike County."
The arrests are the culmination of a massive investigative effort on behalf of nearly two dozen law enforcement agencies from 10 different states and Canada.
DeWine called the investigation one of the largest in the state's history.
Investigators scrambling to determine who the Rhoden family, and why, conducted more than 130 pieces of evidence and 550 tips, while getting assistance from 20 law enforcement agencies.
The cases will be prosecuted by the Pike County Prosecutor 's Office and the Ohio Attorney General' s Special Prosecutions Section acting as special assistant prosecutors.
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