Long time Lurker, I post very rarely. I've been watching this case since it happened, I live in Ohio myself. I've read most of the articles linked in this thread, read through the Topix threads, and watched every YouTube. Here are my thoughts:
I think this is much, much bigger than child custody, inheritance, revenge or "hillbilly justice". The killer(s) knew how to execute these murders in a way that made it nearly impossible for them to solve by evidence collected at the scenes alone. Someone in that family upset about inheritance or child custody would have highly unlikely ability to execute these murders "methodically" and unsolved for this amount of time.
I believe someone powerful and local to Pike County is involved. Most likely related to LE/Justice/Prosecution. I believe THIS is why there is so much secrecy around this case and why Reader seems to be completely out of the loop and not actively involved in this investigation. In the presser Reader even mentioned that if he thinks of something or has questions he jots them down and sends them to DeWine's office and usually hears back within a few days. DeWine said in the presser that this case has brought to his attention a history of crime spanning back a decade or more. People have made points about this person has to be well known to the family, but I don't necessarily think that's true. Pike county has ~13 deputy's working at the Sheriff's office, in the past few years there have been 4 instances where deputy's have been investigated for major crimes (Not to mention Rob Junk's shadiness), some of those being murder related (as has been mentioned here many times). That's a pretty significant number of issues for such a small department so it's pretty safe to conclude that there are certainly issues there, at least before Reader came on board and that's part of what leads me to my theory. I believe the past 10+ years there has been a growing amount of corruption in Pike county related to drug crimes (just look at the stats for that area).
I believe that a local person(s) of power or LE is involved in the trafficking. This person either got wind of the grow ops at the Rhoden's and either blackmailed them to grow FOR their drug business, OR warned them to stop selling their supply to the locals as it was cutting in on their business. This person(s) have visited the Rhoden's before, maybe not even more than a few times, but enough to know about their surveillance and the layout of the homes. It wouldn't take much to watch them to learn when they were asleep. I don't necessarily think the killers had an "inside" person providing them info, if they did, it was most likely ONE of the Rhoden's killed and they never thought this would/could happen. Someone with the ability to commit these murders the way they were done are going to have as FEW people involved as possible. The night the Rhoden's were murdered this killer(s) showed up at the properties, CR or his brother answered the door and the killer(s) told them to put the dogs away. The killer(s) entered and, well you know the rest. Think about it, if this local person of power showed up at your house, knew you were growing pot, wouldn't you put the dogs away and hope they leave without issue like they did the last time?
I believe this is the only explanation as to why there's been so much secrecy in this case and Reader has said in interviews on YouTube where local media was asking why the warehouse where the trailers are stored wasn't being locked up that this case "is bigger than that" referring to this not being about stolen cars and other things.
http://www.wcpo.com/longform/pike-c...lers-in-rhoden-family-homicides-may-be-locals
I'm leaning towards this being related to the old Sheriff Henderson and/or deputy's that worked for him. When reader got elected someone in the Rhoden family may have made threats along the lines of "We'll just destroy all our plants and tell the new Sheriff everything you've been doing!". This person(s) of power off'd the family to keep a lid on this decade+ long history of drug trafficking and corruption local to the area.
Mike DeWine said in the presser that the FBI and DEA have been assisting in this investigation since day 1, atleast to some level. Was the evidence left enough to give them the impression this wasn't just some small town hick murder and to keep a lid on things? Is it that DeWine and Reader are covering something up or being secretive or is it that they themselves were essentially booted off the case by the Fed early on and DeWine's office is essentially just assisting the Feds in the investigation. IMO It's either that or DeWine is concerned that if too much info gets leaked even to Reader, then Reader might slip up and tell his wife one night during an emotional breakdown and she might gossip it to others which would alert the murderers and they'd risk jeopardizing the case.
I genuinely believe that IF this ever gets solved that it's going to be huge. It's not going to be about some guy worried what would happen if people found out he was the father of Hannah's child. If that were the case, and forgive me for this, but he could have just killed her while she was pregnant OR just killed the child, why kill the whole family but LEAVE the child? Again, Hillbilly Justice? I'm sorry but I don't think a Hillbilly is capable of committing this crime in the way it was done. FWIW, I like Reader and think he is genuine, I hope he is able to clean that area up and build a solid force behind him.
My concern though is that it might NOT get solved because it would result in uncovering one of the largest cases of state/county corruption ever.
Just my thoughts, poorly organized maybe.