I am just going to jump in here with some thoughts I have.
I am curious if anyone was selling marijuana for an extended period of time, how would this be known as FACT if they were never arrested and caught red handed. That just doesn't make a lick of sense to me. AND its really not very polite considering the person is now deceased and not able to confirm or deny such a claim.
Pike County is big land wise, the country is poor in comparison to some I suppose.
It appears the R's were a big extended family and there certainly has not been any shortage of "possible" reasons someone would want to do away with one or two family members.
I must clarify, I am not OK with anyone killing anyone, it's just not right.
The way LE has treated some of the remaining family leaves me scratching my head!
I believe LM don't come out and talk anymore, as well as the rest of the family, is he 1) fears for his and other family members lives and 2) deep down I think he feels justice will not be served.
Random question: would the cartel (if guilty) come back and take more lives?
8 people, 4 homes dead. I would bet a dollar against a doughnut some of the deceased had no clue WHY they were being killed. I am of the belief someone had a reason say to kill a couple folks, the rest were killed because they would be able to identify the killers. My thinking, that alone says no cartel. This whole thing has got more twists and turns and players that even those of us who have been here since day one can't remember them all!
I think to give this a swift kick in the pants for justice, we need someone from out of the area, not afraid, with the ability and the knowledge and muscle to take on whomever to get it done. Investigation Discovery maybe, something like that!
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I am with you in that we have never seen the first leaf, or photo of a leaf, grow room, tray, etc... as proof that there was a grow op going on at CR1's place. From the very beginning the size, location, and number, of grows, have changed as this case has unfolded. Also, what might be a small scale operation, to me, likely would be a large scale operation, to someone like Dewine.
It would only take 8 or 10 healthy, well-kept, indoor plants, with good grow lights, to land you in the felony zone. According to Ohio state law, cultivating between seven ounces, and 2.2 pounds, is enough to get you a felony.
Having 1.3+ pounds will get you a felony, and a mandatory minimum sentence. Also, it's not so much the number o plants, in OH, it seem's it's the weight. They weigh the entire plant, if I understand correctly, to determine what you will be charged with, in Ohio, unless that changed, prior to the Rhoden murders. A full plant, un-dried, would be similar to housing tobacco on the stick, and taking it down after it was cured out. Cured tobacco is much, much, lighter than newly hung tobacco, but, like weed, you get you get your income based on the dry weight. (1)
We do know, pretty much, that KR was doing some type of cultivating, and it's alluded to, by family, that he wasn't the only grower. I think his was likely outdoors, and he was waiting to transplant them to the outdoors. Per KR2;
[FONT=&]KR also worked alongside his brothers and tinkered with cars and building demolition derby cars.[/FONT]
[FONT=&]Getting by for him sometimes meant growing marijuana on that family land on Left Fork Road where he lived in a camper, said his daughter and namesake KR2.[/FONT]
[FONT=&]Like his dad, K was gifted at gardening and turned to growing and cultivating marijuana to supplement his income and to help her mom, also a nurse’s aide, in lean times.[/FONT]
[FONT=&]The 19-year-old never knew him to be involved in large-scale distribution, she said.[/FONT]
[FONT=&]KR2 is now the executor to his estate. She said there really isn’t much to it: His camper, a truck and his beloved motorcycle. There are no secret bank accounts, no piles of cash, she said. (2)
[/FONT]
(I have to say, I'm with KR2 on the cartel. I just don't buy it. They may have tried to make it look that way though.)
[FONT=&]
10/27/2016 [/FONT]
THE BIRTH OF THE MEXICAN DRUG CARTEL THEORY[FONT=&]
They were preparing to make a statement the Rhoden family said changed everything for them. A statement they said ended the donations for the surviving children and caused a Cincinnati man to withdraw a $25,000 cash reward for information on the case.[/FONT]
[FONT=&]As the sheriff backed away from the podium and DeWine gave reporters a “Thank you,”
a woman in a red top walked up and handed the sheriff a piece of paper. Sheriff Reader looked it over, then showed it to Mike DeWine.[/FONT]
[FONT=&]It took DeWine 12 seconds to read the document. “Okay, okay. Let’s, let’s…you want to do it,” DeWine asked Sheriff Reader as he finished reading the paper.[/FONT]
[FONT=&]“Go ahead,” Reader said and DeWine stepped back to the podium.[/FONT]
[FONT=&]“Let me go ahead, and I think it’s okay for us to confirm. Uh, that we did find marijuana in three locations,” DeWine said.
“Near the crime scenes or at the crime scenes,” a reporter asked DeWine. “At the crime scenes,” DeWine answered.
[/FONT]
[FONT=&]“Like bags of marijuana,” a male reporter asked as DeWine shook his head. “A grow operation,” a female reporter asked as DeWine stepped back to the podium—littered with news microphones from outlets all over the state.
[/FONT]
[FONT=&]“These are grow operations. Thank you all very much,” DeWine said as he and the sheriff ended the questioning and walked away.
[/FONT]
[FONT=&]
Just six minutes before that statement, a reporter had asked DeWine and Reader, “In your search of the crime scenes, have you found evidence of marijuana grow operations?”
[/FONT]
[FONT=&]“I’m not going to comment on that,” Sheriff Reader said as DeWine kept quiet and both men took the next question.
[/FONT]
[FONT=&]“
It kind of made me angry because once he said that, everything changed. Right then and there,” Kendra told FOX19NOW.
[/FONT]
[FONT=&]
“As far as I know, there was marijuana there. As much as they’re saying, I don’t believe so,” Kendra said.
[/FONT]
[FONT=&]The attorney general has never given a quantity of drugs he said his agents found at three of the four crime scenes. It wasn’t until later that DeWine’s office classified the “grow operation” as “commercial.” [/FONT][FONT=&]
Investigators have not provided photographs of the marijuana or any of the evidence to show some of the victims had commercial grow operations on their property. [/FONT][FONT=&]KR2, and many others in her family,
don’t believe the amount of marijuana investigators said they found at the properties was anything near a commercial grow operation. (3)[/FONT]
Ohio Weed Laws Broken Down
(1)
http://norml.org/pdf_files/state_penalties/NORML_OH_State_Penalties.pdf
(2) Death In The Foothills 10/15/2016 (KR2 re; KR growing weed)
https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2016/10/15/pike-county-death-foothills/91496698/
(3) Cartel Speculation Rebutted by Family
http://www.fox19.com/story/33446144/pike-county-drug-cartel-speculation-were-wearing-that-label-now