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Pike County Sheriff Charles Reader released recordings of the 9-1-1 calls made to the Pike County, Ohio, Sheriff's dispatcher April 22, 2016 in the ongoing investigation into the killings of eight members of the Rhoden family. Pike County, OH, Sheriff's Office
Authorities set up road blocks at the intersection of Union Hill Road and Route 32 at the perimeter of a crime scene, on April 22, 2016, in Pike County, Ohio.(Photo: John Minchillo, AP)
PEEBLES, Ohio<span style="color: Red;">*</span>— The<span style="color: Red;">*</span>voice of the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>young<span style="color: Red;">*</span>woman<span style="color: Red;">*</span>who found<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the first of eight<span style="color: Red;">*</span>victims of<span style="color: Red;">*</span>execution-style killings in rural Ohio was breathless and distraught as she told<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the 911 dispatcher of her grim discovery:<span style="color: Red;">*</span>There was<span style="color: Red;">*</span>"blood all over the house" and the bodies of her<span style="color: Red;">*</span>brother-in-law and a cousin looked as if<span style="color: Red;">*</span>someone "beat the hell out of them."
The dramatic 911<span style="color: Red;">*</span>calls that came in to the Pike County Sheriff's Office on Friday offered a chilling backdrop to the shooting<span style="color: Red;">*</span>deaths of<span style="color: Red;">*</span>members of one family — the Rhodens<span style="color: Red;">*</span>—<span style="color: Red;">*</span>that have left this small community 70<span style="color: Red;">*</span>miles east of Cincinnati reeling.
The initial frantic<span style="color: Red;">*</span>call,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>from a woman<span style="color: Red;">*</span>who identified herself<span style="color: Red;">*</span>as Bobby, came in at<span style="color: Red;">*</span>7:49 a.m. Friday and the second came in at 1:26 p.m., with the discovery several miles away of the last of the eight bodies.
Bobby, gasping for breath, told the dispatcher that the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>house on Union Mill Road in rural Pike County was locked but she had a key and had let<span style="color: Red;">*</span>herself in.
Bobby, who apparently stopped by each morning<span style="color: Red;">*</span>to<span style="color: Red;">*</span>feed<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>dogs and chickens,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>said she found the bodies of her brother-in-law, Chris<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Rhoden, and a cousin, Gary Rhoden, in the back bedrooms.
"I think they are both dead," she said, sobbing.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>"It looks<span style="color: Red;">*</span>like some(one) beat the crap out of them,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>and I<span style="color: Red;">*</span>came in and they were laying on the floor."
Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine and<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Pike County Sheriff Charles<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Reader<span style="color: Red;">*</span>released the names of the Rhoden family<span style="color: Red;">*</span>victims on Saturday after the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>bodies were transferred<span style="color: Red;">*</span>to the local coroner's office for autopsies.
The victims<span style="color: Red;">*</span>were identified as<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Hannah Gilley, 20, Christopher Rhoden<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Sr., 40,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Christopher Rhoden<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Jr., 16,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Clarence "Frankie" Rhoden, 20,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Dana Rhoden, 37,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Gary Rhoden, 38,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Hanna Rhoden, 19, and<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Kenneth Rhoden, 44.
The autopsies are expected to continue throughout the weekend and will be performed by the same pathologist.
County officials say all<span style="color: Red;">*</span>of the victims, found at four separate homes,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>had been shot in the head, some while in their bed. Three children, including a 4-day-old, survived the ordeal.
"There's blood all over the house," Bobby<span style="color: Red;">*</span>said.
Police near Peebles, Ohio, investigated the reported death of seven family members at a home 75 east of Cincinnati.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: Jess Grimm/Chillicothe Gazette)
As<span style="color: Red;">*</span>word of the killings spread Friday morning, Donald Stone, like many other Pike County<span style="color: Red;">*</span>residents, decided to go check on<span style="color: Red;">*</span>his cousin<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Kenneth Rhoden, who lived on Left Fork Road, only a few miles away from Union Mill Road.
His call to 911, measured and calm, brought a equally grim finding.
Stone: "All this stuff that's on the news I just found my cousin with a gunshot wound."
Dispatcher: "Is he alive?"
Stone:<span style="color: Red;">*</span>"No,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>no."
"I just went in and was hollering for<span style="color: Red;">*</span>him, checked in to see if he was all right, and I looked up and he had a gunshot wound," Stone told the dispatcher.
As this<span style="color: Red;">*</span>rural Appalachian community sought to make sense of the killings, local and state law enforcement officers offered no immediate explanation for the motive, or any idea<span style="color: Red;">*</span>who committed them.
The carnage revealed itself slowly as sheriff’s deputies moved from home to home, drawn first by Bobby's<span style="color: Red;">*</span>911 call and then by the horrifying realization that the victims were killed at four locations in this otherwise serene farmland region.
Some might have been sleeping when the killer came for them before dawn Friday. Men and women. A teenager. A young mother in bed with her 4-day-old baby.
State and local authorities said in a statement Saturday that investigators "worked through the night, talking to individuals, gathering information, and executing search warrants," but had not made any arrests in the case.
Emotions ran high at the scene of an incident on Union Hill Road in Pike County Friday morning that left seven dead. Another body was found at a residence on Left Fork Road.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: Jess Grimm/Gazette)
Police detained a “person of interest” in Chillicothe late Friday for questioning, but Ohio Attorney General DeWine said the person was one of 30 people interviewed in connection with the case, some of whom were from Chillicothe, located about 40 miles northeast of the crime scenes.
In addition, a Cincinnati-area businessman, Jeff Ruby, on Saturday<span style="color: Red;">*</span>offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the killer or killers.
DeWine said evidence from the crime scenes suggest<span style="color: Red;">*</span>none of the dead committed suicide. If that finding holds up, he said, it would mean at least one suspect remains on the loose.
“So obviously we have one person … who is armed and dangerous,” the attorney general<span style="color: Red;">*</span>said. “And there may be more than one. There may be two. There may be three. We just don’t know at this point.”
He said every precaution would be taken to protect other members of the victims’ family.
“It’s heartbreaking,” said DeWine, whose office sent more than 30 investigators to the crime scenes. “This is a horrible tragedy.” Three small children, including the 4-day-old baby, survived. DeWine said the baby was asleep in bed with its mother when the mother was killed.
The Rhoden family issued a statement Saturday thanking the community for its "outpouring of prayers" as well as<span style="color: Red;">*</span>officials, first responders and law enforcement officers.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>The statement<span style="color: Red;">*</span>also "asks everyone to be respectful of the family of their loss at this time" but emphasized the family<span style="color: Red;">*</span>wants<span style="color: Red;">*</span>anyone with information in<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the case to contact authorities.
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8 people are dead in what police are calling 'execution-style' shootings in 4 separate rural Ohio homes. Three young children survived the shootings. VPC
Pike County Sheriff Charles Reader initially chalked up the uncertainty about possible suspects to the complexity of the investigation, spanning four crime scenes.
At a later press conference Friday night, Reader said there was “no specific threat to the community” and it appeared the family had been targeted. DeWine said it was “highly unlikely” that a murder-suicide had taken place.
Authorities urged anyone with information that could help to call them. “Every tip that comes in, we’re running down,” DeWine said.
Officials would not confirm possible motives or the identities of the victims, other than that they all are members of the Rhoden family, a large and<span style="color: Red;">*</span>well-known<span style="color: Red;">*</span>group in the community.
Pastor Phil Fulton, of Union Hill Church, said one of the dead is 37-year-old Dana Manley Rhoden, Christopher Rhoden’s ex-wife.
As word of the slayings<span style="color: Red;">*</span>spread quickly through the small community, family and friends began to gather at the Union Hill Church. Family members didn’t want to talk publicly about the shootings, but Fulton said he would preach about it Sunday.
“We’ll be offering prayer for the families,” he said. “Love your kids. Love your families.”
Others in the area had more immediate concerns about their own families. Some were alarmed that authorities seemed uncertain about whether the killer could still be roaming their community.
At the Dogwood Festival in nearby Piketon on Friday night, there was a smaller crowd and fewer children than Tina Miller would have expected. The conversations started with the usual greetings, she said, but inevitably turned to, “did you hear what happened?”
“It’s just sad,” Miller said. “You can look at everyone’s faces and know that something’s wrong.”
Two bodies were found at one location on Union Hill Road, then five more at two more houses up the same road. Later in the day, officials were alerted to a fourth crime scene on Left Fork Road, where a 16-year-old boy was found dead.
At an evening press conference, Sheriff Reader was asked whether residents should lock their doors and stay alert until the case is resolved.
“I would,” he said.
Nealeigh reports for the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Chillicothe Gazette; Stanglin reported from McLean, Va.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Contributing from the Gazette:<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Dan Horn, Chris Balusik, Jona Ison, Jessie Balmert, Hannah Sparling, Cameron Knight, Sam Greene, Jess Grimm, Kareem Elgazzar, Mike Throne
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