Bobby Jo Manley, 36, started weeping as she recalled to The Cincinnati Enquirer (http://cin.ci/1X44hjP) that she took a 3-year-old and an infant out of a trailer where she found the boys’ parents — her nephew and his fiancée — dead the morning of April 22.
“I was not leaving those babies in there. All I wanted was to get those babies out of there,” Manley said. “Thank God they didn’t take those babies, too.”
Seven adults and a 16-year-old boy were found slain at four homes near Piketon in what state Attorney General Mike DeWine has called a “calculated, cold-blooded, preplanned execution” of the Rhoden family. No arrests have been made in the case.
DeWine said Thursday officials would move the four homes to preserve the crime scenes.
Investigators found three marijuana grow sites and evidence of cockfighting at the crime scenes but DeWine hasn’t said whether those are part of a possible motive. He has declined to discuss specifics of the case.
Manley said she and others were questioned by investigators on the morning of the slayings. One investigator asked her how much someone paid her to kill her family, she said. She said she told investigators she didn’t kill her family and wouldn’t “wish this on anybody.”
Manley said she is making decorations for her family’s gravesites and plans to visit those soon.
“Not having my family with me is the hardest,” Manley said. “Sure, we had our little arguments here and there, but they still love you, you still love them.”
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