It crossed my mind in regards to m/s. There would be no evidence of a suicide if two of the family members fought and shot each other. Technically, one of them could have been the shooter at the other locations, then when arriving at the last location, meeting up with resistance from the last victim. Could be confusing for LE to sort through the evidence if both had their hands on a gun during the altercation. Could look like self defense against an unknown assailant and a beating, when it could technically be two of the known deceased who had a physical fight against each other perhaps? I keep thinking this could be family annihilator situation after all depending on order of victims, etc. I haven't seen TOD for any of the victims yet, or who sustained which injuries, if there were any guns found on the scenes, or even the order of the crime scenes on a timeline, so it's hard to say. For that scenario to make sense, the first house would have had to been the one several miles away, then DR's house, then FR and HG's trailer, and CR Sr's trailer last (I think if I've got all my facts straight). It would have had to have been CR Sr. and GR in the altercation I'm pretty sure based on what we know so far about the location of the victims. MOO
It truly is impossible to really know what happened and in what sequence. All we can do is guess without really knowing much of anything at all. Most have assumed, including myself, that it started at the two men's house but that may not even be correct. Others too may have evidence of confrontations leaving self defense bruises.
I am not sure how LE would know for sure where it first started either. If their deaths were within minutes of each other the TOD isn't going to help except knowing approximately when it happened. I imagine it was in the middle of the night but just guessing. Even if they find stomach contents in the victims' stomach usually the most a ME can do is give a range estimate within 1-2 hours etc. That is the problem when there are no witnesses nor did anyone hear the gunfire that we are aware of at this time. Rarely do men or women wear watches anymore due to having cell phones handy. In the past broken watches have helped set the TOD because it showed when it stopped working if the victim was in a confrontation with the suspect. I highly doubt any of these victims wore watches though. I am thinking the police thinks all of this went down very fast in a short amount of time.
I am inclined to think it is not a close Rhoden family member but of course many family members have wiped out their entire families. The motive for those kind of murders are usually to do with financial gain/greed or the family member felt left out about something. But in those cases small children are often killed right along with the adults.
I would think this family carried firearms and it shows none of them were able to get to their firearm in order to protect themselves. Which is why I still feel this started with the suspect/s being invited into the first home (whichever one that truly is) and something said or done ignited this firestorm. I think first came the fight/confrontation and then they pulled out their weapons and opened fire. Once they had murdered everyone in that house I believe they felt they had to murder all of the immediate Rhoden family. I think whoever this is knew that if any of the ones murdered, had lived, they would know immediately who did this and why. Imo, they murdered them all to silence them. That is why the small children were left alive because they felt the children wouldn't be able to tell LE who they are. However; as I mentioned previously in two murder cases a two year old in each case were able to assist the police with the investigation. One of the children in this case is supposed to be three years old and he/she may have been close to turning four so there is a possibility that they can help in someway. I certainly hope so.
As far as the other extended Rhoden family they may have not known about any of the trouble brewing and could actually be completely in the dark about who it could be. Maybe these Rhoden family members were very secretive and only talked among themselves if they had trouble with someone else.
We have a large family ourselves but our extended family we don't see that often and they don't know the ends and outs of our daily life like our children or their wife/husbands or our grandchildren, and friends do. That is simply because we don't get to see them nearly as often and we don't know the daily details of their life either.
I keeping thinking about what Leonard said about the nursing home where his daughter worked. Had word gotten around the Rhodens were selling pot and kept a lot of money on hand? I just wonder what he meant. He acted like LE should go there to find the answer. Has Leonard made any more statements in the past day or so? He seemed to be bursting at the seams to tell things he knows. I cant see him being quiet for very long.
The victim with the one shot doesn't really tell us anything either. This victim could have been the first victim killed inside their home and the perp was able to sneak in somehow and was able to shoot them without them being aware of their impending doom. Imo, it doesn't mean the killer/s had less anger and hate for this person.