OH - Pike County: 8 people from one family dead as police hunt for killer(s) - #30

[Dudly]

Ohio unsolved murders....The Piketon murder victims are not listed....
http://www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov/Law-Enforcement/Local-Law-Enforcement/Cold-Case/All-Cold-Cases

 

[rsd1200]

Ohio unsolved murders....The Piketon murder victims are not listed....
http://www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov/Law-Enforcement/Local-Law-Enforcement/Cold-Case/All-Cold-Cases

So, based on their description of a cold case, they must have a viable lead(s).

"BCI defines an unsolved homicide as a homicide or questionable death that remains unsolved after being reported to law enforcement and for which there are no apparent viable leads."

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[ts51]

I don't post on this thread much because I have nothing to add, but I always read the new post when I log on to WS. I appreciate all of your updates and insights! I hope when this case is solved (and I'm seriously thinking it won't be), I hope someone involved with the case writes a book about all the "behind the scenes" activity and explains what happened, by whom, and why. I would drop whatever I was doing and rush out to buy it! And I hope it happens in my lifetime..I'm getting older by the minute.

 

[amauet1]

I totally agree with what you all are saying! First that someone or someone's have been keeping a very tight lid on this case from the get-go. Media these days are on any news, especially the "biggest mass murder in Ohio's history" like fleas on a dog!!! And as we all know, in this case, they haven't. Whose "big enough" in Ohio to keep these murders under lockdown? It makes no sense to me, unless their using this case as a vehicle for their own use, or...... some of their own are involved.
IMO, the " homes" were taken, to keep the contents protected, not the crime scenes. As Dudley mentioned, video's, pictures of the scene have been taken for evidence, before and after the bodies were removed. Who were they concerned about taking everything out of them? And do they see them as possible suspects?
They are, keeping the autopsies away from the public. I have not seen any evidence from any of the families that indicate "they" don't want them released. I also believe that some of the reporter's know more than what has been published, especially Miss Graves who has been on this case since the beginning. We have seen where a couple of things that were published have been retracted (by whose orders?) from some of the articles. Example: News Watchman, "CRsr being shot through a door or wall", something about the Task Force from Butler Co, when they were having there "raids" at the Wagner homes. What LE special investigators were or were not there.
I mean this case would be considered " a comedy of errors" if it were not the very serious end of eight lives. It can not even be called a "cold case", because of the unusual amount of unreleased information.
To the "Powers that Be" in this case, this is not a game, this was the "lives" of eight people, some still children. The very least our public officials can do is "update" us on how this case is progressing.

 

[RAISINISBACK]

Once again I will probably get slammed for this post, but part of the blame for this case being so silent is the families of these victims. It is the family of victims that keep it front page news. Natalie Holloway, for example. Laci Peterson, another example. It is the families out there calling news stations giving interviews that keep it front and center and force LE to give constant updates.

This case is big news, eight people in one family murdered in four different homes in one night. What news station, even now, almost two years later would turn down an interview with a close family member? Look at how many reporters were in the video of LM in front of the courthouse at JM's court appearance.

To LM's credit he tried. He talked to any reporters that asked him. But then he allowed LE to shut him up by arresting JM on some BS charge.

But what about the R's? GR released one video pleading for the public's help a year after the murders. As the mother and grandmother of most of the victims why wasn't she out there front and center talking to any reporter who would answer her phone call? I realize she is old and probably in bad health but in a case this big the reporters would have came to her home and interviewed her lying in her bed if she had asked.

And the G's. The mother and the brother each did one interview at the very beginning, then total silence. Not one peep out of them since.

I know those of you from the area is going to say this is Appalachia. The people here are close mouthed. They don't talk to outsiders. They are very private people. Well so am I. I would be shaking in my shoes at the thought of placing myself on the front line. Airing my families dirty laundry for the world to salivate over. But if some monster killed my family? My children and my grandchildren? I would not give a ragged rat's rear what the rest of the world thought, I would be out there in front of every camera with every reporter that would give me a second. I would be talking until I was hoarse, screaming to my very last breath for LE to arrest whoever killed my family. I would be asking friends and other family members to give interviews.

I know a lot of you are going to say this family is afraid that if they talk they will be next. That may very well be so. But what kind of person are you that you will not put your life on the line for your family? GR is old and sick. How much life does she have left? I don't know. But what I do know is, if it were my family, I would spend whatever time I had left, be it one hour, one day or one year, in front of news cameras screaming for justice for my children and grandchildren.

Ok let the slamming begin.

 

[Dudly]

Once again I will probably get slammed for this post, but part of the blame for this case being so silent is the families of these victims. It is the family of victims that keep it front page news. Natalie Holloway, for example. Laci Peterson, another example. It is the families out there calling news stations giving interviews that keep it front and center and force LE to give constant updates.

This case is big news, eight people in one family murdered in four different homes in one night. What news station, even now, almost two years later would turn down an interview with a close family member? Look at how many reporters were in the video of LM in front of the courthouse at JM's court appearance.

To LM's credit he tried. He talked to any reporters that asked him. But then he allowed LE to shut him up by arresting JM on some BS charge.

But what about the R's? GR released one video pleading for the public's help a year after the murders. As the mother and grandmother of most of the victims why wasn't she out there front and center talking to any reporter who would answer her phone call? I realize she is old and probably in bad health but in a case this big the reporters would have came to her home and interviewed her lying in her bed if she had asked.

And the G's. The mother and the brother each did one interview at the very beginning, then total silence. Not one peep out of them since.

I know those of you from the area is going to say this is Appalachia. The people here are close mouthed. They don't talk to outsiders. They are very private people. Well so am I. I would be shaking in my shoes at the thought of placing myself on the front line. Airing my families dirty laundry for the world to salivate over. But if some monster killed my family? My children and my grandchildren? I would not give a ragged rat's rear what the rest of the world thought, I would be out there in front of every camera with every reporter that would give me a second. I would be talking until I was hoarse, screaming to my very last breath for LE to arrest whoever killed my family. I would be asking friends and other family members to give interviews.

I know a lot of you are going to say this family is afraid that if they talk they will be next. That may very well be so. But what kind of person are you that you will not put your life on the line for your family? GR is old and sick. How much life does she have left? I don't know. But what I do know is, if it were my family, I would spend whatever time I had left, be it one hour, one day or one year, in front of news cameras screaming for justice for my children and grandchildren.

Ok let the slamming begin.

Everyone is way too quiet about this case, family, friends, news media, LE, everyone. I contacted 20/20, Dateline, and 3-4 others a while back and never got one reply. No one seems interested in it. I wonder why....

 

[Flatbush]

Spike T.V. Has been raising eyebrows investigating the missing women in Ross County. Wonder if we can get them involved here? This case needs help.

 

[samanthalawson69]

Spike T.V. Has been raising eyebrows investigating the missing women in Ross County. Wonder if we can get them involved here? This case needs help.

It's horrible to behold when a family can be wiped out during the night and nothing is done about it.

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[samanthalawson69]

I have read through everything this thread has to offer then I went a bit further with it. I started looking at the chatter between people who love around and know these people best. It seems they are are of the same thought....Appalachia. I ,myself, am a girl from the Appalachian mountains where people can still judge our IQs by geographical location. We are thought of as less than because of a prejudice against one whole people. We are a joke at best and at worst too stupid to fight off "hillbilly heroin" while having sex with our cousins and/or brothers and sisters. A whole family of eight people are slaughtered and nothing. Execution style in four different locations and nothing? When mountain families marry...you marry into a whole family. So, even if you non-appalachian people don't understand it the rest of us will. There are a while bunch of people who loved them and are living in fear even if their last names aren't Rhoden. This needs to be solved. Is there anyone in this forum with the ability to take another look at this?

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[kbpirate]

Something needs to be done. I have found this crime odd from the very beginning. Nothing about it makes any sense.

 

[samanthalawson69]

I'm wondering if you've considered why they have been quiet? 1 family member being shot execution style might get the result you want but 8 people killed like that? Please take into consideration how easy it was for someone to kill 8 people and it wouldn't be hard for them to kill someone who doesn't know how to keep their mouth shut.


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[Nickandnora]

A news conference where their homes once stood before 8 lives were taken,every month on the 22nd another month has passed.

 

[samanthalawson69]

Thanks for letting us know

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[rsd1200]

Once again I will probably get slammed for this post, but part of the blame for this case being so silent is the families of these victims. It is the family of victims that keep it front page news. Natalie Holloway, for example. Laci Peterson, another example. It is the families out there calling news stations giving interviews that keep it front and center and force LE to give constant updates.

This case is big news, eight people in one family murdered in four different homes in one night. What news station, even now, almost two years later would turn down an interview with a close family member? Look at how many reporters were in the video of LM in front of the courthouse at JM's court appearance.

To LM's credit he tried. He talked to any reporters that asked him. But then he allowed LE to shut him up by arresting JM on some BS charge.

But what about the R's? GR released one video pleading for the public's help a year after the murders. As the mother and grandmother of most of the victims why wasn't she out there front and center talking to any reporter who would answer her phone call? I realize she is old and probably in bad health but in a case this big the reporters would have came to her home and interviewed her lying in her bed if she had asked.

And the G's. The mother and the brother each did one interview at the very beginning, then total silence. Not one peep out of them since.

I know those of you from the area is going to say this is Appalachia. The people here are close mouthed. They don't talk to outsiders. They are very private people. Well so am I. I would be shaking in my shoes at the thought of placing myself on the front line. Airing my families dirty laundry for the world to salivate over. But if some monster killed my family? My children and my grandchildren? I would not give a ragged rat's rear what the rest of the world thought, I would be out there in front of every camera with every reporter that would give me a second. I would be talking until I was hoarse, screaming to my very last breath for LE to arrest whoever killed my family. I would be asking friends and other family members to give interviews.

I know a lot of you are going to say this family is afraid that if they talk they will be next. That may very well be so. But what kind of person are you that you will not put your life on the line for your family? GR is old and sick. How much life does she have left? I don't know. But what I do know is, if it were my family, I would spend whatever time I had left, be it one hour, one day or one year, in front of news cameras screaming for justice for my children and grandchildren.

Ok let the slamming begin.

Not slamming, but, they murdered eight people. The family in this article had been pretty vocal. There's been foul play in LE too. For some strange reason the missing woman's father ended up shot dead on his farm. There's also been a string of murders around there.

http://www.kentucky.com/news/state/article116156688.html

It could be plain old fear because I've not heard as much about this case after the father was murdered.

 

[rsd1200]

I'm wondering if you've considered why they have been quiet? 1 family member being shot execution style might get the result you want but 8 people killed like that? Please take into consideration how easy it was for someone to kill 8 people and it wouldn't be hard for them to kill someone who doesn't know how to keep their mouth shut.


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I agree, they're scared. I've noticed that LM has quieted down now too. He was very vocal in the beginning. Why? His family's lawyer, LE, a threat? We don't know.

 

[RAISINISBACK]

Not slamming, but, they murdered eight people. The family in this article had been pretty vocal. There's been foul play in LE too. For some strange reason the missing woman's father ended up shot dead on his farm. There's also been a string of murders around there.

http://www.kentucky.com/news/state/article116156688.html

It could be plain old fear because I've not heard as much about this case after the father was murdered.

BBM

I get that. But would you personally stay silent if it were your family? Because I don't think I could.

 

[RAISINISBACK]

A news conference where their homes once stood before 8 lives were taken,every month on the 22nd another month has passed.

BBM

Great Idea.

 

[rsd1200]

It's hard work to live in poverty. It's been made out, since the mid 70s that there's "Welfare Queens" and Kings, just livin' it up. If one has never been poor, and never had to struggle to keep the lights on, chop wood for the winter, staple plastic to your windows before winter, and make sure that there's food on the table then it's hard to fathom that there may just not be time to camp out at LE's doorstep. You're worried about the living. I'd say they are in daily contact with LE but if another family member or members are murdered, whose going to take care of those children who are left? My thoughts would not so much be fear for myself but fear for who'd be left to raise my children, and fear they may murder children next time. They murdered a hardly 16 year old kid. Also, where is it written that they should trust LE to protect them? Appalachian Americans are the only people, and culture, left in America, that it's okay to poke fun at and openly mock and treat with disdain. I think that might be why there's no news media lined up to pick up this story...


The woman, in this article, was working 30 hours each week to get $100 per month in benefits. That breaks down to around $0.77¢ an hour if my cipherin' is correct. She still drove 10 minutes to a local creek, one way, to fill up water jugs b/c her water had been shut off. People who are poor, can't leave a $0.77 per hour job, and not do whatever else it takes to get by each month, to go out and planning marches, be it partly from fear, or just having to keep on living their lives, for their children, while hoping that a formerly corrupt LE system will bring justice. I can see where they'd lose hope, personally, as someone whose lived, and worked in the region my entire life. Life is very different when you are poor and the L's and the Ms are poor. There may be folks who are poorer but I don't think anyone can argue that they aren't poor.

I'm not trying to get on anyone's case, but life is just very different when you live in a rural region, stricken by generational poverty. The family is probably not really wanting to shed more light on what the deceased were doing for a living either. Especially if they're not sure where else it will lead. jmo


Rural Poor Face Unique Challenges

http://www.toledoblade.com/Economy/2012/05/20/Rural-poor-face-unique-challenges.html

Death Comes Sooner To Appalachia
http://www.kentucky.com/news/state/article169037857.html

 

[rsd1200]

BBM

I get that. But would you personally stay silent if it were your family? Because I don't think I could.

If I feared for my children's safety, yes, I would. If I had no children and grandchildren left, because they'd murdered them all, then bring it on. I've seen what all of this can do to a family. It can ultimately pit family against family and destroy it from within and bring more death, pain, and heartache. Honestly, why would they want more public spotlight into their families. Remember the headlines?

Right after the AG made his big statement about the highly sophisticated pot operation, (loosely quoted), everything changed in the span of 24 hours.

Jeff Ruby withdrew his $25k reward almost immediately after he offered it. Pot wasn't found at DR's home, nor FR's & HHG's home, so he, a man who came from nothing, who knows poverty, obviously felt that the Rhoden/Gilley families lives, and murders, were of little to no value because two had pot on their property. Did he not notice that two were young mothers, and one was barely old enough to have his driver's license? One of the wealthiest men in Ohio made a pretty darn big statement. The AG and people like Jeff Ruby, set the tone, early on. Poor folks can't fight that kind of prejudice. A $25,000 reward was publicly withdrawn within hours of it being proffered. My land, how harsh was that?! :maddening:

The Rev. Phil Fulton of Union Hill Church on Tuesday said community members and organizations have given the Manley family food and other donations beginning as soon as news spread. However, donations have come to a near halt since Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine on Sunday announced that investigators discovered three marijuana “grow sites” at three of the crime scenes. “Why not give to give someone a decent burial?’ he asked after shaking his head. “Don’t they deserve that?

(Would you want to continually have a remembrance every month, where their homes once stood, in an empty lot, nineteen miles from Piketon? It's been obvious from the moment that the AG spouted off about the grows, of which we've never seen the first leaf, that the AG placed a black mark upon these eight people and their families.).

The families and the region have been painted pretty poorly by the media, whether the media meant to do so or not, so why would the families seek them out only to put themselves through more? It's obvious the media has zero sympathy. Between the AG, people like Ruby, the media, and fear for my family, no, I'd not be knocking on Dateline's door. It's obvious that we here at WS are about the only ones who seem to care. How often is it that two major newspapers get into a battle to release autopsies? Yet we see nothing. I've seen nothing about this case on my news channel and I could be in Piketon in less than four hours.

"Two men approached as she spoke, all rednecks and jailhouse tattoos and teeth stained by tobacco like a lot of other young men around here, and asked to borrow money for the cigarettes that sit in virtually every Pike County hand.

The older of the two, who didn’t want to give his name, didn’t know much about Hannah, but said if you were the type of person to smoke weed or pop pills you had probably heard of the Rhodens, at least some of the younger ones."

Seriously? That's the way they wrote about, and described, the folks they interviewed? The folks who'd just had eight members of their community slaughtered? And no clues as to who it could be? Let's focus on their appearance though. Real nice. /s

No, I don't blame them if they are afraid, and I don't blame them for not wanting the media there with a judgmental microphone stuck in their face.





Ruby Withdraws Reward
http://local12.com/news/local/jeff-ruby-withdraws-25000-reward-for-pike-county-murders

A Decent Burial
https://www.chillicothegazette.com/...y-1-pike-county-victim-shot-9-times/83555384/

All that small-town goodwill for the Rhodens sure didn’t last very long, but for the family of Hannah Gilley, who was engaged to Frankie Rhoden and was also murdered, Piketon’s goodwill never started.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/many-in-piketon-ohio-town-turn-on-massacred-rhoden-family

 

[RAISINISBACK]

It's hard work to live in poverty. It's been made out, since the mid 70s that there's "Welfare Queens" and Kings, just livin' it up. If one has never been poor, and never had to struggle to keep the lights on, chop wood for the winter, staple plastic to your windows before winter, and make sure that there's food on the table then it's hard to fathom that there may just not be time to camp out at LE's doorstep. You're worried about the living. I'd say they are in daily contact with LE but if another family member or members are murdered, whose going to take care of those children who are left? My thoughts would not so much be fear for myself but fear for who'd be left to raise my children, and fear they may murder children next time. They murdered a hardly 16 year old kid. Also, where is it written that they should trust LE to protect them? Appalachian Americans are the only people, and culture, left in America, that it's okay to poke fun at and openly mock and treat with disdain. I think that might be why there's no news media lined up to pick up this story...


The woman, in this article, was working 30 hours each week to get $100 per month in benefits. That breaks down to around $0.77¢ an hour if my cipherin' is correct. She still drove 10 minutes to a local creek, one way, to fill up water jugs b/c her water had been shut off. People who are poor, can't leave a $0.77 per hour job, and not do whatever else it takes to get by each month, to go out and planning marches, be it partly from fear, or just having to keep on living their lives, for their children, while hoping that a formerly corrupt LE system will bring justice. I can see where they'd lose hope, personally, as someone whose lived, and worked in the region my entire life. Life is very different when you are poor and the L's and the Ms are poor. There may be folks who are poorer but I don't think anyone can argue that they aren't poor.

I'm not trying to get on anyone's case, but life is just very different when you live in a rural region, stricken by generational poverty. The family is probably not really wanting to shed more light on what the deceased were doing for a living either. Especially if they're not sure where else it will lead. jmo


Rural Poor Face Unique Challenges

http://www.toledoblade.com/Economy/2012/05/20/Rural-poor-face-unique-challenges.html

Death Comes Sooner To Appalachia
http://www.kentucky.com/news/state/article169037857.html

BBM

RaeJean and Danny Cantrell moved to southern Ohio, into the hilly swath of the state just inside Appalachia, looking for a place to regroup and restart their lives.

"Our water has been turned off," Ms. Cantrell said one afternoon while putting in her required 30 hours of weekly work at the Hocking-Athens-Perry Community Action center so she can get her $100 monthly cash assistance check.Mr. Cantrell interjected: "We were desperate and we needed to get on food stamps. We didn't want to, but we had no choice."

I feel sorry for people living in these circumstances but there is a way out for people living in poverty.

It is called education.

How much better would it have been for these people to relocate near a university , community college or even a vocational school? A town where there is public housing that in some cases pay the renters money each month to live in the apartments.

Mr. Cantrell is physically disabled but that does not preclude his attending a college and getting a degree in a profession that does not require him to do manual labor. Mrs. Cantrell works for 77 cents an hour? Her time would be better spent sitting in a classroom. It would pay better too. For people below the poverty line there are grants and loans totaling 5750.00 per college year. More if you go to summer classes. That's almost 900.00 per month. Both Mr. and Mrs would be eligible so double that. Almost 1800.00 per month to show up and pay attention. That is almost 1800.00 per month that does not count toward income so does not affect any social benefits you are receiving such as food stamps. And the greatest part is at the end you get a degree that will get you a higher paying job you can actually depend on.

Sorry if this offends anyone but it is just a fact.