Scenes of death roll slowly up rural highways
WAVERLY — In a macabre and surreal scene, three of the four residences where eight family members were killed last month crawled along rural highways Thursday afternoon as authorities hauled them to a warehouse where they will be stored as evidence.
Two trailers and one camper, every window and door boarded with plywood, took a two-hour journey of 22 miles, first eastward on Ohio Route 32, then northward on U.S. Route 23 to the Relevant Compounding property in Waverly. That's where the state’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation and Pike County sheriff’s investigators have set up their command center in an effort to catch the killer or killers.
Moving three crime scenes, even ones with wheels, is not a simple process. At one point, the convoy stopped on the shoulder of eastbound Route 32. A driver of one of the trucks was seen rolling a tire to the rear of the mobile home he was hauling.
Authorities seeking answers in the April 22 mass killing of seven Rhoden family members and one's fiancee said placing the residences in storage is important for the investigation and for surviving relatives.
"The whole idea is to preserve them for evidence in the case, and also we want to make sure we are preserving them for the family members," Attorney General Mike DeWine said. "There are pictures in there, there are other things that are very important to the family members."
The Pike County Sheriff's Office contracted out the movers, whose identity DeWine said he did not know. This was the latest step in what is on course to become one of the most time-consuming investigations in Ohio history.
"This is a little different. I've never seen it done before, but the nature of these homes is that we can do it. Because we can do, we are going to do it," DeWine said. "The whole idea is so that we all can know they are secure and don't have to worry about that and so the sheriff doesn't have to have people out there all the time. So we just felt it was better to have them inside."
Another mobile home is anticipated to join the others within "a few days," DeWine said.
Eight persons shot, three children spared
Based on a review of property records and of aerial photos taken last month by The Enquirer, here are the residences removed from the Rhoden properties on Thursday:
* the camper where Kenneth Rhoden, 44, lived on 799 East Fork Road;
* the trailer where Christopher Rhoden Sr., 40, lived with his cousin, Gary Rhoden on Union Road;
* and the Union Road trailer Clarence “Frankie” Rhoden, 20, shared with his fiancee Hannah Gilley, 19, his 3-year-old son Brentley and the couple's 6-month-old son, Ruger. Both Brentley and Ruger were spared by the killers. The infant was found lying next to his dead parents.
Still to be moved is the trailer where Dana Rhoden, 37, lived with her two children, Hanna Rhoden, 19, and Christopher Rhoden Jr., 16. Hanna Rhoden’s 5-day-old daughter, Kylie, was found alive lying next to her dead mother.
Ohio Attorney General's Office spokesman Dan Tierney said moving the last trailer is more complicated. The trailer where Dana Rhoden lived had two additions built onto it.
All eight victims were shot to death. DeWine and Pike County Sheriff Charles Reader met Thursday with surviving relatives.
"We wanted to tell them what was happening, that the homes were being moved," DeWine said. "We didn't want them just to see it in the news."
DeWine said Reader reiterated at the meeting that deputies are available for anything the relatives require. The attorney general declined to provide a timeline of when the crime scene properties would be released to family members.
Mobile homes and camper join several cars in storage
The investigation's command center is on Relevant Compounding LLC's property in Waverly, adjacent to a company warehouse. Behind a chain link fence are several vehicles, a semi-tractor trailer, dump trucks, a backhoe, several all-terrain vehicles and other equipment.
Leonard Manley, father of Dana Rhoden, the ex-wife of Christopher Rhoden Sr., estimated this week authorities have moved between 100 to 150 cars and other vehicles off the property owned by his son-in-law, Christopher Rhoden.
Ohio Attorney General's Office spokesman Tierney would not confirm any number or provide an inventory of those vehicles, but he did say vehicles continue to be moved.
"We are transporting vehicles to the command center and it is a secure facility," Tierney told The Enquirer.
The backhoe was used by Christopher Rhoden Sr. in landscaping work he did at Big Bear Lake Family Resort near Lucasville, Manley said. He also said Rhoden would repair cars and re-sell them. Manley's daughter, Bobby Jo Manley, said at least one of the semi-tractor trailers was used for “flea market stuff.”
Manley said authorities have towed some of the vehicles to impound lots. He said he is perplexed by the mass-hauling of vehicles from the crime scene properties.
DeWine has not disclosed why investigators are interested in all the vehicles.
Anyone with information that could help solve the case should call 1-855-BCI-OHIO or 740-947-2111.