Eight members of the same family were executed in a remote area of southern Ohio one night six years ago, and four members of another family were charged for the shocking slayings that stunned the country. After numerous delays, George Wagner IV, 30, is the first defendant in the case to go to trial, which began last week in Pike County Court with the seating of 12 jurors. After seven adults and one teenager were found shot to death at three trailers and a camper on April 22, 2016, authorities launched what became the largest criminal investigation in Ohio’s history. Rumors initially swirled that a Mexican cartel may have been responsible due to two family members’ alleged role in a marijuana-growing operation. But the probe ultimately led to the arrest of George Wagner IV, his brother, Edward “Jake” Wagner, their mother Angela Wagner, and their father George “Billy” Wagner III. Officials said the Wagners spent months planning the killings and were motivated by a custody fight between Jake Wagner and a child he had with victim Hanna Rhoden. The victims were Christopher Rhoden, Sr., 40, his ex-wife Dana Manley Rhoden, 37, and their three children: Hanna Rhoden, 19, Christopher Rhoden Jr., 16, and Clarence “Frankie” Rhoden, 20. Frankie Rhoden’s fiancée, Hannah “Hazel” Gilley, 20, was also killed, along with the elder Christopher Rhoden’s brother Kenneth Rhoden, 44, and cousin Gary Rhoden, 38. Most of the victims were repeatedly shot in the head as they slept. The killers spared two infants and a toddler who were later found splattered with their parent’s blood. Some of the victims were collateral damage, “killed because they happened to be there,” according to special prosecutor Angela Canepa. Prosecutors say Jake Wagner began dating Hanna Rhoden when she was 13 and conceived a child with her two years later when he was 20, according to prosecutors. The couple split and a vicious fight over custody of their daughter soon erupted. Rhoden refused to sign papers agreeing to share custody with George Wagner IV. “They will have to kill me first,” she wrote in a message on Facebook in December 2015. Unbeknownst to her, the Wagners had seen the message after Angela Wagner allegedly hacked into her Facebook account. Rhoden had also become pregnant with another man’s child, and Jake Wagner didn’t want their daughter exposed to her new boyfriend or his family, according to prosecutors. The Wagners allegedly began plotting Rhoden’s demise and anyone else in her family that they felt stood in the way of custody. Rhoden wasn’t the first ex allegedly targeted by the Wagners. Tabitha Claytor, George Wagner IV’s ex-wife with whom he shares a son, told investigators she signed court papers under pressure from the family giving up custody with a promise that the arrangement was temporary. But the Wagners allegedly wouldn’t let her see him. George “Billy” Wagner III has pleaded not guilty and is set to go to trial after his son. In a surprise move, Jake Wagner pleaded guilty last year to multiple counts of murder and other charges on the fifth anniversary of the executions. The 29-year-old confessed to killing five of the victims in a plea deal that will spare him the death penalty if he testifies against his brother and father. He said in court he was “deeply and very sorry” for what he’d done, and his lawyer added that Wagner understood that he would spend the rest of his life behind bars. After her son turned on the family, Angela Wagner soon followed, giving prosecutors new information and asking for a deal. She pleaded guilty to helping plan the murder — which she was not present for — and agreed to testify against her husband and son in exchange for a recommended prison term of 30 years. #WagnerFamily #PikeCounty #TrueCrime SUBSCRIBE HERE: www.youtube.com/c/deeptruecrime?sub_c... SUPPORT MY WORK Buy Me a Coffee ☕ https://www.buymeacoffee.com/deeptrue... ☕ FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA www.twitter.com/deeptr --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/deeptruecrime/support
