8 Ohio family members’ killings in limbo

PIKETON, Ohio — Six months after someone shot eight members of an extended family to death in their homes, surviving relatives are still waiting — for an explanation, for an arrest, for a hint of closure.

“I just want to know why?” said Tajianna Mead, of Waverly, whose 44-year-old father, Kenneth Rhoden, was among the victims.

The slayings were discovered the morning of April 22 in rural Pike County in the Appalachian foothills of southern Ohio.

Pike County Sheriff Charles Reader told WCPO-TV this week that he now believes the killers were local.

Union Hill Road, where seven of the victims were found on three properties, is open again to traffic. In May, investigators moved the mobile homes where the killings occurred to a secure location as the investigation continued.

Leonard Manley, who lost his daughter, Dana Rhoden, and three grandchildren, lives on Union Hill Road near all the crime scenes. He spends his days tinkering after retiring two years ago from cutting timber. He doesn’t know who committed the crime and questions whether it will be solved in his lifetime.

Manley, 65, has long thought the killers knew the properties intimately, in part because Christopher Rhoden Sr. had a security system, as well as a pit bull and bulldog, that would have been hard for a stranger to get past.

The victims were Kenneth Rhoden, 44; Christopher Rhoden Sr., 40; his ex-wife, Dana Rhoden, 37; their three children, Clarence “Frankie” Rhoden, 20, Christopher Rhoden Jr., 16, and Hanna Rhoden, 19; a cousin, Gary Rhoden, 38; and Frankie Rhoden’s fianc?e, 20-year-old Hannah Gilley, whose 6-month-old son with Frankie Rhoden was unharmed.

Two other children, Hanna Rhoden’s 4-day-old daughter and Frankie Rhoden’s 3-year-old son, also were unharmed. Adding to the family’s pain is a legal fight involving three family members seeking custody of the two youngest children. A Pike County judge is shielding public access to those court hearings and records.

Most of the victims were shot multiple times in the head and, in the case of Christopher Rhoden Sr., in his upper body and torso, as well. Some bodies showed signs of bruising, as if they’d been beaten. Kenneth Rhoden’s body was found at his trailer a few miles away from the properties on Union Hill Road.

Kendra Rhoden, 19, Tajianna’s sister, says her father, Kenneth Rhoden, was a wise man who taught her lessons about dealing with life, heartbreak and all. Like others, she believes someone in the community knows what happened but is afraid to come forward.