The Investigation

Welcome to the piked In Massacre, a production of iHeartRadio and Katie Studios.

It's been one year since eight members of the Rodent family were found murdered in Pike County.

Now, surviving members of the family have released a lead for information.

A year after eight members of the Rodent family were ruthlessly gunned down in their homes, Ohio authorities are on a relentless search for the killers.

Over eight hundred tips have been called into police.

We may commit much of the people of Bike County.

That day, I said, we're not leaving until we solved this.

Many different facets of law enforcement collaborated to crack the case.

The people that carried it out were trying to do everything they could to make sure that they didn't get caught.

Law enforcement officials begin tracking down a series of leads that point them to another group of potential suspects, the Wagoners.

The Wagoner shop and local walmarts for ammunition, magazine, cliffs, and materials to build brass catchers.

According to the case indictment, the Wagoners begin conducting what seems to be almost like reconnaissance on the Rodents.

What do you mean a camera was? There was it connected to something I still do this day wonder why she mentioned that and why that conversation wasn't allowed to go any further.

The revelations leave those closest to the family questioning their innocence.

I know he was upset, but was he upset because she has been murdered?

Or when he upset.

Because he's done it?

This is the piked in Massacre Episode six, the investigation. In this episode, we're going to dive into law enforcement's investigation into the Rodent murders, how the Wagners allegedly pulled off this gruesome massacre, and why. I'm Courtney Armstrong and I work at Kat's Studios with Stephanie Leidecker and Jeff Shane. We produced a documentary about the case for NBC Universal's Oxygen Network in twenty nineteen and have been following the

Police received over eleven hundred tips, They conducted over five hundred interviews, tested about seven hundred pieces of evidence, served close to two hundred search warrants, subpoenas and other things. So this was something that was huge.

That's Mike Allen, a defense attorney, former Ohio County prosecutor, and legal analyst for Cincinnati news station Fox nineteen.

The Attorney General the Wine at the time said it was a pretty sophisticated operation in the people that carried it out. We're trying to do everything they could to make sure that they didn't get caught. Attorney General Wine and Sheriff Reader, they both said that the investigation was going to be a long one and a lengthy process, and boy, sure has played out that way.

But how exactly did investigators circle in on the Wagners as suspects and eventually compile enough evidence to make arrests. In previous episodes, we discussed some of the conflicts between the Wagners and the Rodents In twenty sixteen, there was a custody battle between Jake Wagner and Hannah Rodin and a physical altercation between Billy Wagner and Chris Roden Senior.

I think early on people wanted to paint the sort of few between the Rodents and Wagners as something like the Hatfields of McCoy's, just because it was sort of Hills of Appalachia backwoods kind of thing.

But I mean, it really wasn't.

Like it, right, Like people like to say that Hatfield and McCoy's. But I think they were probably closer and friendlier than that version of it, right, yeah.

They I mean the fact that they were family, mars just split in their time between the two houses, the fact that you know, the Wagners had been in the area for a long time as well, just as the Rodents had.

It's just you had two families who were intertwined by both blood and work.

We got some more intimate observations from Deray. She's Billy Wagner's cousin and Frederica Wagner's niece. Deray spoke to Jeff about how she saw the relationship between her family and the Rodents.

Do you know anything about Billy and Chris Roden Senior?

My aunt said that they were very good friends, and of course he was the grandfather of Sophia, and so was Billy. Billy is Sophia's grandfather.

I mean, it's like they're in loss.

They're related.

I mean, their two grandfathers of the same little girl. She's adorable.

Did Angela and Dani and I get along in the same way?

Do you know?

It looked to me like they were clearly getting along. And she never said anything bad about the Rodents. She never spoke one negative thing about it, just about the children about you know, they went fishing and they were over at fredericaz and you know, small talk.

Right, like normal talk you'd have with another mom about raising kids.

Right exactly, and it's just like that's all it is. It's just family talk.

We of course know that Hannah and Jake Wagner had an intense relationship, but through the ups and downs. Most would say they were in love and their relationship brought the two families together. Here's producer Stephanie. When we started doing our research, I personally became a bit obsessed with better understanding the intersection between these two families and really

What was the feeling like in the family after that happened.

Angela was upset because it was the mother of her granddaughter. She was just really sad, you know, that that had happened.

When I talked to Jake and I was telling it.

I'm so sorry, you know, like, if there's anything I can do, please tell me. And Angela she did ask me at one point, probably about a month after the murders had happened, if I could come down and pick up Sothia and Jake and take Sophia to a friend's house and stuff. So I did, and in that time, you know, me and.

Jake and Sabilla in the car, and he was an absolute wrecked rank And of course I did not know. I didn't know how to react. I didn't know what to ask him. I didn't know what to say.

I was kind of just letting him just have his moment.

And he was absolutely devastated. I mean, he couldn't talk, he couldn't breathe, he.

Was out of the page attack in my car, and I'm like, oh my gosh, you know, I don't know what to say. So of course when I find out that they were the ones that's done this, I keep thinking back to that time and you know, in the car, and I'm like, oh my gosh, Like, I.

Know he was upset, but was he upset for you know, the right reason? Like, yeah, was he upset because.

She had been murdered? Or on the upset because you know he's done it and he knew. I don't know. It was just an awful, eerie feeling.

It really truly.

Was Pike County Massacre.

It's the title of what has happened out here, the tragedy that we've been covering.

The victims ranged in age from sixteen to forty four.

Each were shot anywhere from once to nine times. It's just, you know, a grisly scene in a gristly situation.

Let's rewind to summer twenty fourteen. Hannah and Jake's daughter, Sophia is eight months old. Here's producer Stephanie.

This is why this case is so complicated, because just when I think the Wagners could be innocent, I read something like this. Around this time, according to the case indictment, the Wagners began conducting what seems to almost be like reconnaissance on the Rodent family. Over the course of the next two years, they allegedly began hacking into the Rodent's personal computers, their phones, even their social media accounts. They even reportedly use surveillance cameras to spy on the Rodents.

Here's investigative reporter Jodi Barr. He's talking about a conversation he had with Kendra Rodin, the daughter of one of the victims, Kenneth Roden.

Kendra Roadin brought up with me in our discussions, she mentioned a few times that there were cameras set up around Chris Senior's home.

Wow, so Kendra Rodin actually saw cameras on the property that now it seems as if allegedly the Wagoners had put there.

Yeah, she told me that at Christian Year's home, that there was a camera on that property. And she said it was in sort of a not in the wooded area, but sort of the field like it hadn't been mode, but it was right near the garage at Christi Year's home. And of course, naturally you start questioning her about the cameras and you know, what do you mean a camera was there? Was it connected to something?

Did you?

Did?

You looked at you to try to investigate. It was a very strange encounter, you know, when she mentioned that and then the conversation wouldn't no further.

Well, she was probably scared, right, possibly, I.

Mean, but she's talking to a reporter. That was always something that I've wondered about because she never got an answer to and it was so strange, and I still to this day wonder why she mentioned that and why that conversation wasn't allowed to go any further.

Yeah, but I find so like the most screwed up thing about it is at that time, the summer twenty fourteen has when Jay Wagner and Hannah Rodin were like hot and heavy and planning a wedding, and to know that he was then also sort of maybe planning her murder at the same time, or starting to at least spy on her in some way, it's like just very dark.

I mean, there's a lot of interest obviously still in this case. And you know, with every criminal prosecution, you know, the state they have their version of facts, and the defense will have its version of facts. But if this turns out to be true, man, what a story. I mean, what a terribly tragic ending to these lives, to everything that was going on. If we are to believe that the prosecution as alleged, you know, this paints a very dark picture.

We're going to take a quick break here. We'll be back in a moment. It seems that the Wagners became obsessed with getting soul cussed did of Sophia after Jake and Hannah broke up, But how exactly did they think they would gain control? As laid out in the indictment, the Wagners began methodically plotting a scheme that would take several months to actually carry out. Here again, is Jodi Barr.

So when you read these indictments, you know they were talking about the Wagner's movements even months before these murders happened, and that the investigators believed that they were planning this for quite some time before that. The Adamo says that detectives believe that planning began January one of twenty sixteen. The murders happened April of twenty sixteen. So you've got four months of planning that's alleged to have happened here. Four months to plan the South.

I mean, if that's every.

Day for four months, that's the full time job.

So what exactly went into the planning? In previous episodes, we talked about how in April twenty sixteen, the Wagners presented Hannah Rodin with custody documents. But what Hannah didn't know then and what police later uncovered, is that the supposedly legal documents were fake, and that Angela Wagner's mother, Rita Joe Nucam, was allegedly at the center of the deception. I spoke to my Gallon about it. So Rita Nucom Angela's mom. She faces three counts of forgery. A kound

In Ohio, notaries don't have a lot of power. They are allowed, obviously to notarize signatures. You know, they have to make sure that the oath is administered properly when they are notarizing something. They're kind of hard to come by here in Ohio. But I'm certain that because of this she'll probably lose that notary's license, if she hasn't already.

Moving forward a bit in time, prosecutors ultimately claimed that read a lie about the authenticity of these documents to a grand jury, But in an unexpected twist, Nucom agreed to a plea deal with the prosecution. She pled guilty to a misdemeanor charge of obstructing official business in exchange felony charges of forgery and perjury were dismissed. Here's Nucomb speaking in court.

I feel that.

It's not a good crazy thing long and I'm going to live with the more.

It's difficult to hear her because of the recording, but she says, I just feel that it's not a good Christian thing to lie and I couldn't live with it no more. Jodi Barr thinks there could be ulterior motives to Newcomb's deal.

The prosecutor said in court, though, that a hand running expert concluded that Rita Nucomb did not sign the documents herself. Nukemb admitted to fosterly, telling a grand jury and investigators that she did so only because her daughter, Angela Wagner, who was among those charged with the killings, told her to do so. I mean there were some heavy charges dismissed. You know, we're investigators trying to squeeze the grandmothers to get some information out of them.

Mike Allen seems to think so.

Now there's a lot of speculation, and in the normal case, the first thing you'd think of is Okay, you know, they gave her a reduced charge in return for cooperation, and I would not be surprised if that's not the case. But again, you know, we won't know until we get closer to trial.

Can you be compelled to testify for the prosecution?

Sure, I mean, they receive a subpoena unless there's some kind of legal reason why you know they couldn't. Yeah, I mean the prosecutor could issue the subpoena. If there's testimony, the prosecutor would probably ask the court to designate that person as a hostile witness, and then they can use leading questions.

According to court records, the documents appointed a guardian for Jake and Hannah's daughter in the event of their deaths. When police later searched the Wagner home, this document was found in a box belonging to Angelo labeled important Stuff. I asked Mike Gallan about the legal ramifications of these forged documents. How does it appear that these documents were forged on April third? It was nineteen days before the murders.

I'll tell you what, I've been doing this for a long time and I've never seen anything like this. It's strong evidence for the prosecutor. The defense attorney has to find a way to explain that away, which is probably next to impossible. But yeah, it's that strong evidence from a prosecutor's perspective.

As we've discussed before, it was around this time that Chris Ruden Senior and Billy Wagner got into a fight as well. Here's Mike Allen recapping that confrontation back.

In mid April twenty and sixteen, supposedly there was a fight between Chris Senior and Billy Wagner. Nobody seems to know what the fight was about or what caused it.

Things were obviously becoming strained between the two families, but the beginning of April also brought a lot of joy for the Rodent film. That month, Hannah celebrated her nineteenth birthday. Here's rodin family friend Stephann.

It was a happy occasion, you know.

It was family get together and lots of fun, you know, because they were fun. They were always having you know, get together's, birthday parties, anything like that.

They were a great family unit.

But as the Rodent family was celebrating, the Wagners allegedly were busy planning their murders. The Wagners already had a cachet of firearms, but around this time they began making their own silencers. If the Wagners did do it, it seems likely that these would have been used on the night of the murders. The family also bought ammunition, a magazine clip, a bug detector, and materials to build brass catchers. Jodi Barr filled us in on what some of this equipment is used.

For The brass catcher is a bag that hooks on the side of a fire arm. It will catch spent cartridges, so every time you pull the trigger, cartridges is ejected. And if you were really interested in not leaving anything behind as far as ballistic evidence to sound like a great story, this bag will collect the shell casing, so there's no evidence left behind. The bug detector, so purely that helps someone find listening devices and sometimes create blat noise to muffle sounds or discussion.

The indictment also includes a reference to a specific pair of shoes that the family purchased from Walmart. But why would they need a particular pair of shoes to pull off a murder? Here's Stephanie.

One such theory is that the Wagners were trying to frame data Rodin's brother, James Manly. He's significant because if you recall, Dana Rowden's sister, Bobby Joe, made the first discovery of bodies and called nine to one one. She also called her brother, who rushed to Dana Roden's house and also found their bodies. His prints were allegedly at the crime scene. However, just one day before the murders. The Wagners drove two and a half hours to a

Here's reporter Jody.

Barr from the Dyingment. I mean, there's a lot of assertion by the prosecution that they have evidence that, you know, these boots were purchased to frame James Manley a family member for the murder, and that James lived the closest to Dana, and that James ended up being one of the first to discover Dana and you know in Hannah's bodies that morning.

Right, So the idea is that they went and bought these specific boots knowing that James Manley wore them, and then they would in theory, wear them the night of the murder. So it looked to police like he was the one walking around.

And it sounds like for a period of time investigators might have believed that to be the case, because James Manley was one of the first people rough in and interrogated. Given a polygraph, I mean, if you're to believe what's written in that indictment. It sounds like that you may have been pretty close to pulling this all off.

It was so detail oriented.

Yeah, and you wonder this too. It's like it seemed like a lot of detailed planning to pre plan that. I don't really know what to think of it. Again, I don't know anybody who's capable of doing that, and we know it happened. It was pulled off by somebody. But I mean, if they really bought boots to try to frame James manly Man again, this is a heck of a story. Who drinks us up? Who thinks this up?

In April twenty sixteen, the same week as Hannah's birthday, her mother Dana threw a baby shower to celebrate the upcoming birth of her new baby girl, Kylie. It would be the last time the Rodent family all gathered in one place. Becky Ryder was a close friend of Dana Rhaden's. She told Jeff about the excitement surrounding the baby's.

The Dana felt overwhelmed with joy and happiness because she's getting another grand baby that she can love and spoil as she always loved her grandkids, you know, deeply.

Yeah, And like Hannah must have been happy too, because she was she had a new boyfriend at that point who was not Jake Wagner, and she was about to have a new baby and kind of start a new chapter of her life.

Right, Oh yeah, absolutely.

In photos from this event, Hannah smiles with her daughter Sophia. We also see other family members in the photo, including Frankie and his fiance Hannah Gilly. In just a few days, eight members of the Rodent family would be dead. But Deray's recollection of the events leading up to the birth of Kylie is different. She says at that point that things were still going well between Jake and Hannah.

I believe they may have disagreements, and I think there was disappointments, but I don't think there was any any hate.

We've discussed in previous episodes how the people have piked in were immediately affected by the murderers and the shroud of fear that hovered with the small town.

I just don't understand why it happened here.

You have a really wondering thing, like, is it like mafia or anything like that, because it is crazy. If I lived down there, I wouldn't stay there.

I would be so afraid.

But in the wake of the murders, many news outlets were portraying Jake Wagner as almost a sympathetic figure. This is how the Cincinnati Inquirer described him in a July twenty sixteen article, a full time single dad with mounting legal bills, with a new job that pays half of what he was making to ensure he is close to Sophia, but close still means the twenty three year old makes a daily commute to Cincinnati, a two and a half hour daily drive.

Anybody who was connected to this family, you know, there was a lot of emotion from the public involved your because of these children. So it's no surprise that Jake, you know, a lot of people felt for Jake. Means he's lived there with with that very young daughter, and he's fighting to get her back.

But it's what the family did in the wake of the murders raised some suspicion. We know that just six days after the Rodents were killed, Jake Wagner filed for custody of two and a half year old Sophia, his daughter with Hannah Rodin. In a previous episode, we talked to Ohio criminal defense attorney Mike Allen about how this looks from a legal perspective.

That's extremely strong evidence for the prosecution. I mean six days, less than a week after the killings. To go ahead and file. It can take months, you know, maybe a year, a little bit more, a little bit less. It's not something that goes quickly at all, and I think that that is going to be some evidence that's problematic for the defense doing it that quickly after the murders.

It was around the same time that Angelo Wagner suggested her son create a GoFundMe campaign to help cover the custody expenses to the tune of twenty thousand dollars. Jack wrote a personal message on the page saying these were not expenses. I was supposed to have supposed to be able to spend time with her and give her a happy childhood. Sophia and I are just asking enough to settle the fees that we acquired due to the horrific tragedy to her mommy. He finished, I hate seeing my

But these legal actions seemed unusual to many in the community. He was an investigative reporter Jodi Byr.

I do remember seeing that in the Rodent massacre Facebook group, you know, people talking about that and just you know, there were there was a lot of angry comments about it that you know a lot of people in those

Let's stop here for another quick break. We'll be back in a moment. In May twenty seventeen, with the investigation in full swing, officials searched the farm of a piked In resident named Bernard Brown. Mike Allen filled us in on why police may have been interested in the property.

Agents searched his farm. I guess he's a friend of the Wagoners and knew them for a long time. I guess they fixed cars together, A lot of cars on the lot. I guess Jake had stored some cars and some other things on the property. And I'll tell you what cars and vehicles and equipment are all over these

Bernard Brown was not charged with anything. Authorities searched two large trailers and took one smaller utility trailer owned by the Wagners from his property. According to Brown, Jake Wagner sometimes worked for him fixing cars. Brown said that the Wagners had dropped items off at the property a week prior to the search. It was clear that investigators were becoming more interested in the Wagners. By the spring of twenty seventeen, the family had been interviewed several times by authorities.

She goes, I can't believe that they just won't leave us alone.

They just will not leave us alone.

She goes, it's terrible.

She goes, We're starting to get really worried that we're going to be arrested.

So they felt that coming because.

They wouldn't leave everybody alone.

Rumors of the Wagner's potential involvement in the Roadent massacre quickly spread, and soon they were being targeted not only by police, but by Pike County residents as well.

Everybody had started basically attacking then the community, accusing them of murdering those people, like if they were in town and people identified their vehicle, they would throw pot bottles at them. Angela had actually went into a store one day and some woman had actually flewed up behind Angela. She was coming back out of the store and through a glass key bottle affor and it busted her in the back.

In May twenty seventeen, as the community continued to turn against them, Angela Wagner took to social media to publicly declare her family's innocence. Here's Jeff reading from her post.

Okay, decided to tell you all a couple of things about me and my family. What has happened to us in the past few weeks has been devastating and it will follow us for the rest of our lives. Hannah was a daughter to me. I loved her dearly. Her loss still hurts to this day, especially when I see her every day and my granddaughter. We did not do anything to hurt Hannah's family. We want justice just like everyone else. It is real disturbing if you really want

So let's really unpack this for a moment. Because if Angela Wagner is in fact a martyr and had been targeted by the town, I mean having a bottle thrown at you, if you did not commit these crimes would be hideous, especially the town that you love so much. Angela and her husband lived there for generations, that had to be really difficult. However, if they did it and they just went about their lives speaking to the press openly, you know, when I look at her photo, I've said

Their lawyer had said that they were the primary suspects, and so it was around that time to May twenty seventeen that the whole family emptied out a few cargo facilities that they had, some sheds and whatnot, loaded all up and then up and moved to Alaska.

When they left for Alaska, I was like, oh, wow, they're running, And then I thought they.

All get away with it.

I'm the one that told them go to Alaska. Ohio can not afford to extradite you from Alaska back home.

But the Wagner's relocation didn't hinder the investigation.

Investigators rated three properties in Adams and Pike Counties the middle of May. We had previously reported those properties are connected to the Wagner family. Now, investigators say they believe the family recently moved to Alaska. Investigators want any information the public has about the family.

They moved to Alaska. But then the very following month, law enforcement actually finally searches the properties where the Wagners lived. That started to tighten the noose in terms of the Wagner's.

More on that next time. Reach out to us on our social media outlets with questions. We're on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter at piked in Massacre. We look forward to answering your questions and upcoming bonus episodes. Piked In Massacre as executive produced by Stephanie Leidecker and me Courtney Armstrong. Editing and sound designed by executive producer Jared Aston. Additional producing by Jeff Shane and Andrew Becker. The Piked In