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Arrests in Ohio murders of Rhoden family don't ease minds of residents in area | wusa9.com
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At long last, murder charges bring relief, healing to Pike County
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Rhoden family massacre: Residents still uneasy even after arrests
Several Pike County residents still feel shaky despite the arrests made in the Rhoden homicides, and despite authorities saying all culprits are accounted for.
“It ain’t solved until someone is convicted,” said Denny Adkins, who owns a town watering hole in Waverly, Denny’s Doghouse.
He and Carol Estep, a bartender, said they never saw any of the Wagners in their establishment, which Adkins has owned since 2002.
Both Estep and Adkins initially expressed fear about their names appearing in a news article.
“I might get killed,” Adkins said.
But they both cited the firearms they keep in their homes as a cause for some sense of safety. Estep lives out in rural Pike County, toward the site of the killings, and was thoroughly “freaked out” when it was first reported.
The Wagners were regarded as a wealthy family by those familiar with them. Some were incredulous that they would risk forfeiting their land and money by committing such heinous crimes.
“We’re not really sure the Wagners did do it,” a Waverly resident named Jim, said. “I don’t see them giving up (their money and land).”
Estep used to shoe miniature horses owned by Billy Wagner’s father in the ‘70s. The elder Wagner showed the horses “all over the world,” Estep said.
Barry Rider, 53, used to work at Hadsell Chemical Processing where the Rhoden trailers were stored. Rider’s son went to high school with Christopher Rhoden Jr.
“I can’t believe it went on two-and-a-half years,” Rider said. Rumors swirled about a drug cartel being responsible. Rider said he always believed the culprits were “local people.”
Rider praised the sheriff but also expressed his wish that “they wouldn’t let them (the Wagners) walk around for … years.”
Rhoden family massacre: Residents still uneasy even after arrests
Casey McCutcheon, a mother who lives in Waverly, said she’s relieved the arrests were made. She lives on a dead-end road, surrounded by relatives, many with concealed carry permits.
Even so, “it was nerve-wracking, to say the least.”
She had hip surgery around the time of the killings, hindering her mobility. That scared her as she pondered who in her area could kill that many people.
But when she heard the Wagners were in a custody battle with the Rhodens, “it was kind of a light bulb (moment).”
“When I heard that last night, a sigh came over me like a ton of bricks lifted off of me,” said Robert Oberdier as he walked to his truck from the Briar Patch convenience store just outside Lucasville.
“When people are out like that, nobody knows where they are,” he said. “You can’t believe anybody, you can’t trust anybody. The community is in a lot better shape right now.”
Bill Harbert, a barber in Waverly, the Pike County seat, said the arrests amounted to “putting a band-aid on an open wound. It’s definitely trying to heal itself now.”
Harbert said his customers have speculated for years about who could have committed a crime so sophisticated it apparently left investigators with few leads. There was a spike in applications for conceal carry permits, he said.
“We feel a little safer now, thinking that they’re off the street, hoping the right people are off the street,” he said. “It’s been scary for the whole community.”
He said the Wagners were known for having a nice farm and real estate, and “nothing really bad was ever said around here about them.”
Morty Throckmorton, manager of the Smart Mart discount store in Piketon, said she didn’t know either family, but the whole community was affected by the crime.
“This put a hurtin’ on this little town,” she said. “You could see people who was scared”
“It’s going to be a scar, but with time it will heal."
At long last, murder charges bring relief, healing to Pike County
Saundra Ford, a co-worker of Dana Rhoden’s, said the community’s attention turned to the Wagners when they moved to Alaska last year.
“The minute they left town everybody started speculating,” she said.
But while the community is feeling relief, it may be a while before they get closure, said Matt Lucas, managing editor of the Pike County News Watchman.
“Everybody kind of wondered if the day would ever come when they would make any arrests,” he said, noting the toll years of legal proceedings could have on the victims’ family and friends.
“The process is just beginning and it’s not over by a long stretch,” he said. “Something has happened. There’s movement on the case. But it’s in the early stages as far as closure.”
Phil Fulton, pastor at Union Hill Church in Adams County, said he was “ecstatic” when he found out about the arrests.
“It was the greatest news we had in two and a half years,” he said.
“Jake was very good friends and was really close to this family until the custody battle came up,” Fulton said. “Why this set them off is the mystery to me.”
The charges, if proven, are shocking, the pastor said:”Why you’d murder eight people because you wanted full custody over a little girl. It just blows my mind.”
