STAYING WITH THE STORY
This newspaper will continue to bring you updates on the Pike County massacre and has been following this story for the past week since the news first broke.
COMPLETE COVERAGE
This newspaper has covered the Pike County shootings story since it began to unfold on April 22. We will continue to cover this story and provide relevant updates.
A somber day with overcast skies greeted mourners Monday at the visitation for six members of the Rhoden family, all killed in the April 22 slaying of eight members of the large family.
Friends and family arrived throughout the afternoon and evening at the Roger Davis Funeral Home for the visitation memorializing Christopher Don Rhoden, Sr., 40; Dana Lynn Manley Rhoden, 37; Clarence “Frankie” Rhoden, 20; Hanna May Rhoden, 19; Christopher Don Rhoden Jr., 16; and Kenneth Wayne Rhoden, 44.
Mourners declined to speak with reporters and appeared to be emotional, upset and disturbed by the tragedy.
Scioto County Sheriff’s cars lined the roads near the funeral home. Deputies also patrolled the funeral home’s parking lots.
Volunteers in orange T-shirts policed the area around the funeral home and helped direct traffic and escort family members. The number of mourners outnumbered residents in the neighborhood and traffic at times was bumper-to-bumper.
At Piketon High School, where the youngest of the Rhodens went to school, dress-up days leading up to the prom have been cancelled.
“It’s been hard, but everyone is working through it at their own pace, easing through it,” freshman Nathan Topping said.
Funeral services for the six Rhoden family members will be held at noon today at Dry Run Church of Christ in West Portsmouth. Burial will be at Scioto Burial Park southwest of Lucasville.
The brutality of the homicides has left this rural region in southern Ohio deeply shaken. The victims suffered 32 gunshot wounds altogether — one was shot nine times, two were shot five times each — and some showed soft tissue bruising, suggesting they may have been beaten. All had gunshot wounds to the head.
Christopher Rhoden worked at Big Bear Lake Campground in Lucasville and died along with his sons Christopher and Frankie, former wife Dana, brother Kenneth and daughter Hannah in the April 22 morning attack. Some of the victims appeared to be sleeping when killed “execution style,” according to the Attorney General’s Office.
On Thursday and on Saturday, separate funerals were held for two others — Gary Dwayne Rhoden, 38, of Greenup, Kentucky; and Hannah Hazel Gilley, 20, of Union Hill Road, Piketon. She was the fiancee of Frankie Rhoden, and mother to a 6-month-old son who was spared by the killer or killers.
Two other small children, the four-day-old daughter of Hannah Rhoden and the 3-year-old son of Frankie Rhoden, also were spared.
Authorities have released no suspect information or offered any possible motives for the slayings aside from saying they were planned and targeted. As the community remains on edge and the investigation enters a second week, speculation on social media and other websites about what could have prompted the murders is rampant.
As the visitation began, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine and Pike County Sheriff Charles Reader released an update on the investigation into the execution-style killings.
It said that Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation agents and Pike County sheriff deputies worked through the weekend. At last count, investigators had relayed more than 100 total items of evidence to the BCI crime laboratory for DNA, ballistics, latent print, and trace analysis.
Since April 22, the update added, more than 450 tips have been received by BCI and the Pike County Sheriff’s Office and are under investigation. A total of 128 people have been interviewed.
Authorities continue to request that those with information call 855-BCI-OHIO (224-6446) or 740-947-2111.
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