I've been transfixed with this case since 4/22/16 and like all of you, I'm elated with these arrests -- it's made my week. The wheels of justice have turned slowly for the Rhodens & HHG, but they're finally turning and headed straight for the Wags.
I'm mostly caught up on reading and wanted to share some thoughts.
In terms of motive -- I've always been skeptical that this was about illicit business competition or drugs - it just didn't make sense to me that anyone involved in the world of vice could benefit from the murder of an entire family, with all the inevitable LE attention that brought. Way more trouble than potential benefit. Robbery seemed like a possibility - maybe four places b/c they went from house to house to locate $$ - but there were a lot of pieces that didn't fit (the dogs not reacting, someone seeming to get the drop on Chris Sr. despite all his security precautions).
Now that we have some clarity it seems, as others have said, if money or drugs were taken it was likely a secondary benefit, not the primary objective. That said, remember the rumors that Chris Sr. had an empty safe in the back - it got me thinking, maybe each of the Wags had varying motives, with custody being the unifying one. I'm thinking here of George III and George IV, who were presumably were less invested in custody of SR or KR. The falling out b/w the Rhodens & the Wags was rumored to include a business break b/w Big George & Chris Sr. - so maybe for GWIII getting even & getting "his" was a primary motivator (i.e. George felt he got the short-end of the stick when the business arrangement fell through). For George IV -- some have questioned what could possibly have motivated him to commit murder for his brother -- I could see a potential payday being dangled in front of him to secure his cooperation.
But whatever else played a role, all signs point to custody being the primary motive. At Granny's hearing today, the prosecution said RH's forgery of the custody documents was “at the epicenter” of the case. As DeWine said following the arrests, "There certainly was obsession with custody, obsession with control of the children."
Given that reality, I'm inclined to agree w/ Molly - it sure seems like AW was pulling the strings:
I think it was all about getting total control of children, and JMO, the puppet master was AW.
AW was behind all the spin that JW gave to reporters. As another poster pointed out, AW was the one who became the primary caregiver for her grandchildren - given that JW was allegedly gone so much working. I could see AW being the one that provided the philosophical justification ("we have to save those babies from being raised by them") and being the one able to rally the two Georges to the cause.
AW was also the one who came up with the idea of JW asking for donations to cover legal costs of getting custody of SW:
Wagner won custody of his little girl last month in Pike County, he said. And while the ruling was not unexpected, the legal bills were. This week Wagner set up a account in an effort to defray the legal bills and other unexpected but associated costs. He didn't know about the website until his mother mentioned it to him. He said he didn't want to draw attention to himself or to his daughter, but also didn't see a way out of the debt he has incurred since the homicide.
"These were not expenses I was supposed to have. I was just supposed to be able to spend time with her and give her a happy childhood, she is only 2 1/2 years old,'' Wagner wrote on the page of the crowd-fundraising site. "Sophia and I are just asking for enough to settle the fees that we acquired due to the horrific tragedy to her mommy.
Rhoden case: 'Hate seeing my daughter cry'
