The Franklin County Sheriff’s SWAT team and Pike County Sheriff’s Department reportedly carried out a search warrant miles from where eight family members were found shot to death last April.
WHIO wrote that the teams conducted a “large-scale, cross-jurisdictional search effort” in connection with the Rhoden family murders this weekend.
The Cincinnati Enquirer reported that authorities honed in on three locations: a property where Jake Wagner, the former boyfriend of victim Hanna Rhoden, supposedly left various possessions; a 71-acre farm once owned by Wagner; and a 300-acre farm owned by Wagner’s grandparents.
Bernie Brown told The Enquirer that Wagner, 24, and his older brother, George Washington Wagner IV, 25, left a large container and two trailers on his property a week before the search. The pair said they had recently sold their 71-acre farm and needed somewhere to temporarily store their stuff, Brown claimed.
Cincinnati News, FOX19-WXIX TV
These locations are mere miles away from the four Piketon, Ohio, homes where seven adults and a teenage boy were found shot to death on April 22, 2016. In addition to Hannah, 19, the slain includes her parents, Christopher, Sr., 40, and Dana, 37; her brothers, Christopher, Jr., 16, and Frankie, 20, Frankie’s fiancee Hannah Gilley, 20; her uncle Kenneth, 44; and a cousin, Gary Rhoden, 38, according to The Enquirer.
Hannah’s 5-day-old baby girl, Kylie, was found unharmed next to her mother’s body. The Norwalk Reflector reported that another baby and young child on the property at the time were also unharmed. Jake won custody of Sophia, the pair’s 4-year-old daughter, last summer. Kylie, who is not fathered by Jake, has been in state custody since her mother’s murder.
Details involving this weekend’s search are ever-changing. Though some reports claimed that a car lot was searched, owner Bernie Brown said a lot, garages, and barn on his property weren’t inspected.
Late Sunday, Franklin County Sheriff’s Office spokesman also corrected a previous statement which insinuated they were actively searching for a suspect or suspects. The spokesman told The Enquirer that they are looking for property, not suspects.
Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine claimed that Christopher Sr. supposedly ran a commercial marijuana growing operation on his property “with the purpose of distributing the marijuana.”
The Pike County Sheriff’s Department believe more than one person is behind the murders.
[Featured Image: WXIX]
