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Speaker 1: dot com. Welcome to the Piked and Massacre, a production
Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio and Katie Studios. It's been one year since
Speaker 1: eight members of the Roden family were found murdered in
Speaker 1: Pike County. Now, surviving members of the family have released
Speaker 1: of lead for information. A year after eight members of
Speaker 1: the Rodent family were ruthlessly gunned down in their homes,
Speaker 1: Ohio authorities are on a relentless search for the killers.
Speaker 1: Over eight hundred tips have been called into police of
Speaker 1: the people of Pike County that day. We're not leaving
Speaker 1: until we've solved it. Many different facets of law enforcement
Speaker 1: collaborated to crack the case. The people that carried it out,
Speaker 1: we're trying to do everything they could to make sure
Speaker 1: that they didn't get caught. Law enforcement officials began tracking
Speaker 1: down a series of leads that point them to another
Speaker 1: group of potential suspects, the Wagners. The wagon shops and
Speaker 1: local walmarts for ammunition, magazine, cliff and materials to build
Speaker 1: grass catchers. According to the case indictment, the Wagners began
Speaker 1: conducting what seems to be almost like reconnaissance on the Rodents.
Speaker 1: What do you mean a camera was there? Was it
Speaker 1: connected to something? I still do this day wonder why
Speaker 1: she mentioned that and why that conversation wasn't allowed to
Speaker 1: go any further. The revelations leave those closest to the family,
Speaker 1: questioning their innocence. I know he was upset. Was he
Speaker 1: upset because she had been murdered? Or was upset because
Speaker 1: he's done it? This is the Pikedon Massacre, Episode six.
Speaker 1: The investigation. In this episode, we're going to dive into
Speaker 1: law enforcements, investigation, into the road and murders, how the
Speaker 1: Wagner's allegedly pulled off this gruesome massacre and why. I'm
Speaker 1: Courtney Armstrong and I work at Katie Studios with Stephanie
Speaker 1: Ladecker and Jeff Shane. We produced a documentary about the
Speaker 1: case for NBC Universal's Oxygen Network in twenty nineteen and
Speaker 1: have been following the evolution of the investigation since then.
Speaker 1: To understand the crime and the possible motivation of the
Speaker 1: family that may have committed it, we want to look
Speaker 1: at the months leading up to the murders and authorities
Speaker 1: movements after. By any objective standard, it was a long,
Speaker 1: arduous investigation spanning two full years. During that time, many
Speaker 1: different facets of law enforcement, the FBI, the DA, the
Speaker 1: Pike County Sheriff's Office, and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal
Speaker 1: Investigation all collaborated to crack the case. Police received over
Speaker 1: eleven hundred tips, They conducted over five hundred interviews, tested
Speaker 1: about seven hundred pieces of evidence, served close to two
Speaker 1: hundred church warrants, subpoenas and other things. So this was
Speaker 1: something that was huge. That's Mike Gallen, a defense attorney,
Speaker 1: former Ohio County prosecutor, and legal analyst for Cincinnati news
Speaker 1: station Fox nineteen. The Attorney General Dwine at the time
Speaker 1: said it was a pretty sophisticated operation and the people
Speaker 1: that carried it out, we're trying to do everything that
Speaker 1: they could to make sure that they didn't get caught.
Speaker 1: Attorney General Dwine and Sheriff Reader, they both said that
Speaker 1: the investigation was going to be a long one and
Speaker 1: a lengthy process, and Boyd sure has played out that way.
Speaker 1: But how exactly did investigators circle in on the Wagners
Speaker 1: as suspects and eventually compile enough evidence to make arrests.
Speaker 1: In previous episodes, we discussed some of the conflicts between
Speaker 1: the Wagners and the Rodens. In twenty sixteen, there was
Speaker 1: a custody battle between Jake Wagner and Hannah Roden and
Speaker 1: a physical altercation between Billy Wagner and Chris Roden. Senior.
Speaker 1: It seemed like the relationship between the two families was
Speaker 1: reaching a fever pitch and the months leading up to
Speaker 1: the murders. But these two families didn't always have such
Speaker 1: ill will towards one another. Here's journalist Jeff Winkler. I
Speaker 1: think early on people wanted to paint the sort of
Speaker 1: few between the Rodens and Wagners and something like the
Speaker 1: Hatfields of McCoys, just because it was sort of heels
Speaker 1: of Appalachia blackwoods and kind of thing. But I it
Speaker 1: really wasn't lighted right like people like to say the
Speaker 1: Hatfields and McCoy's. But I think they were probably closer
Speaker 1: and friendlier than that version of it, right, Yeah, they
Speaker 1: I mean the fact that they were family most just
Speaker 1: sipilating their time between the two houses. The fact that,
Speaker 1: you know, the Wagner's had been in the area for
Speaker 1: a long time as well, just as the Rodents had.
Speaker 1: It's just you had two families who were intertwined by
Speaker 1: both blood and work. We got some more intimate observations
Speaker 1: from Deray. She's Billy Wagner's cousin and Frederica Wagner's niece.
Speaker 1: Deray spoke to Jeff about how she saw the relationship
Speaker 1: between her family and the Rodents. Do you know anything
Speaker 1: about Billy and Chris Roden Senior. My aunt said that
Speaker 1: they were very good friends, and of course he was
Speaker 1: the grandfather of Sophia, and so was Billy. Billy is
Speaker 1: Sophia's grandfather. I mean, it's like they're in lass. They're related.
Speaker 1: I mean they're two grandfathers and the same little girl.
Speaker 1: She's adorable. Did Angela and Dana got along in the
Speaker 1: same way? Do you know? It looked to me like
Speaker 1: they were clearly getting along. And she never said anything
Speaker 1: bad about the Rodents. She never spoke one negative thing
Speaker 1: about it, just about the children about you know, they
Speaker 1: went fishing and they were over at Frederiquez and you know,
Speaker 1: small talk, right, like normal talk you'd have with another
Speaker 1: mom about raising kids, right exactly, and it's just like
Speaker 1: that's all it is. It's just family talk. We of
Speaker 1: course know that Hannah and Jake Wagner had an intense relationship,
Speaker 1: but through the ups and downs, most would say they
Speaker 1: were in love and their relationship brought the two families together.
Speaker 1: Here's producers Stephanie. When we started doing our research, I
Speaker 1: personally became a bit obsessed with better understanding the intersection
Speaker 1: between these two families and really struggle with the motivation
Speaker 1: what could possibly cause one family, the Wagoners, to allegedly
Speaker 1: murder eight people that they knew so well they knew
Speaker 1: them Intimately, we came across a photograph taken in twenty
Speaker 1: twelve at George Wagner, the eldest son's wedding, and the
Speaker 1: Rodens and the Wagners are both in this photo seemingly
Speaker 1: so happy. The only person not there is Dana Rodin,
Speaker 1: and she said to maybe be taking the photo because
Speaker 1: she later posted it on her MySpace page. But it's
Speaker 1: mind blowing. The people in the photo do not look
Speaker 1: like killers posing with there would be victims, but sure enough,
Speaker 1: in four years, the majority of the people in this
Speaker 1: picture would be dead and the others would be standing
Speaker 1: trial for their deaths. Throughout this series, we've been talking
Speaker 1: to a relative of the Wagners who's chosen to remain anonymous.
Speaker 1: She spoke to Jeff about her family's reaction in the
Speaker 1: wake of the Roden murders. What was the feeling like
Speaker 1: in the family after that happened. Angela was upset because
Speaker 1: it was the mother of her granddaughter. She was just
Speaker 1: really sad, you know, that that had happened, I thought,
Speaker 1: And I was telling him like, I'm so sorry, you know,
Speaker 1: like if there's anything I can do, please tell me.
Speaker 1: And Angela she did ask me m at one point,
Speaker 1: probably about a month after the murders had happened, if
Speaker 1: I could come down and pick up Lafia and Jake
Speaker 1: and Kake Satia to a friend's house and stuff. So
Speaker 1: I did, and in that time, we you know, me
Speaker 1: and Jacob said. He and in the car and he
Speaker 1: was an absolute rick rank And of course I did
Speaker 1: not know. I didn't know how to react. I didn't
Speaker 1: know what to ask him. I didn't know what to say.
Speaker 1: I was kind of just letting him just have his moment.
Speaker 1: And he was absolutely devastated. I mean, he couldn't talk,
Speaker 1: he couldn't breathe he was having like a football page
Speaker 1: attack in my car. And I'm like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: you know, like I don't know what to say. So
Speaker 1: of course, when I find out that they were the
Speaker 1: ones to done this, um, I keep thinking back to
Speaker 1: that time and you know, in the car and I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, like I know, he was upset. But
Speaker 1: was he upset for you know, all right reasons? I
Speaker 1: guess was he upset because she had been murdered? Or
Speaker 1: was uet because you know, he's done it and he knew.
Speaker 1: I don't know. It was just an awful, eerie feeling.
Speaker 1: It really truly was Pike County massacre. It's the title
Speaker 1: of what has happened out here, the tragedy that we've
Speaker 1: been covering. The victims ranged in age from sixteen to
Speaker 1: forty four. Each were shot anywhere from once to nine times.
Speaker 1: It's just, you know, a grizzling scene in a bristling situation.
Speaker 1: Let's rewind to summer twenty fourteen. Hannah and Jake's daughter,
Speaker 1: Sophia is eight months old. Here's producer Stephanie. This is
Speaker 1: why this case is so complicated, because just when I
Speaker 1: think the Wagners could be innocent, I read something like this.
Speaker 1: Around this time. According to the case indictment, the Wagners
Speaker 1: began conducting which seems to almost be like reconnaissance on
Speaker 1: the Rodent family. For the course of the next two years.
Speaker 1: They allegedly began hacking into the rodents personal computers, their phones,
Speaker 1: even their social media accounts. They even reportedly use surveillance
Speaker 1: cameras to spy on the Rodents. But why would they
Speaker 1: do that, Especially, according to most accounts, Jake and Hannah
Speaker 1: were very much still dating and very much in love
Speaker 1: at this time, So why would they be spying. Was
Speaker 1: Angela Wagner the mom obsessed with her youngest son, Jake
Speaker 1: Wagner's relationship with Hannah Rodin. Were the dads Chris Rodin
Speaker 1: or Billy Wagner Senior embroiled in something big? Were the
Speaker 1: Wagner's simply trying to get familiar with the family patterns
Speaker 1: and better understand the Rodin property? Why would they possibly
Speaker 1: be spying. Here's investigative reporter Jodie Barr. He's talking about
Speaker 1: a conversation he had with Kendra Roden, the daughter of
Speaker 1: one of the victims, Kenneth Roden. Rod brought up with
Speaker 1: me in our discussions, she mentioned a few times that
Speaker 1: they were cameras set up around Chris Senior's home. Wow,
Speaker 1: so Kendra Rodin actually saw cameras on the property that
Speaker 1: now it seems as if allegedly the Wagners had put there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: she told me that at Christian Years Home that there
Speaker 1: was a camera home that property, and she said it
Speaker 1: was in sort of a not in the wooded area,
Speaker 1: but sort of the field, like it hadn't been mowed,
Speaker 1: but it was right near the garage of Christian Years Home.
Speaker 1: And of course naturally you start questioning her about the
Speaker 1: cameras and you know, what do you mean a camera
Speaker 1: was there? What was it connected to something? Did you
Speaker 1: did you look? Did you try to investigate? It was
Speaker 1: a very strange encounter, you know, when she mentioned that
Speaker 1: and then the conversation wouldn't no further. Well, she was
Speaker 1: probably scared, right, possibly, I mean, but she's talking to
Speaker 1: a reporter. That was always something that I've wondered about
Speaker 1: because she never got an answer to and it was
Speaker 1: so strange and I still to this day wonder why
Speaker 1: she mentioned that and why that conversation wasn't allowed to
Speaker 1: go any further. Yeah, what I find so like the
Speaker 1: most screwed up thing about it is at that time,
Speaker 1: summer in twenty fourteen, is when Jake Wagner and Hannah
Speaker 1: rode in were like hot and heavy and planning a wedding.
Speaker 1: And to know that he was then also sort of
Speaker 1: maybe planning her murder at the same time, or starting
Speaker 1: to at least spy on her in some way. It's
Speaker 1: like just very dark. I mean, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: interest obviously still in this case. And you know, with
Speaker 1: every criminal prosecution, you know, the state they have their
Speaker 1: version of facts and the defense will have its virgent
Speaker 1: of facts. But if this turns out to be true, man,
Speaker 1: what a story. I mean, what a terribly tragic ending
Speaker 1: to these lives, to everything that was going on. If
Speaker 1: we are to believe that the prosecution as alleged, you know,
Speaker 1: this paints a very dark picture. We're going to take
Speaker 1: a quick break here, we'll be back in a moment.
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Speaker 1: Go to curiosity stream dot com to satisfy your curiosity
Speaker 1: and sign up today. It seems that the Wagoners became
Speaker 1: obsessed with getting soul custody of Sophia after Jake and
Speaker 1: Hannah broke up, But how exactly did they think they
Speaker 1: would gain control? As laid out in the indictment, the
Speaker 1: Wagoners began methodically plotting a scheme that would take several
Speaker 1: months to actually carry out. Here again is Jodi Barr.
Speaker 1: So when you read these indictments, you know they were
Speaker 1: talking about the Wagoners movements even months before these murders happened,
Speaker 1: and that the investigators believe that they were planning this
Speaker 1: for quite some time before that. The indictment says that
Speaker 1: the Technos League that planning began January one of twenty sixteen,
Speaker 1: the murders happened April of twenty sixteen, so you've got
Speaker 1: four months of planning that's alleged to have happened here,
Speaker 1: four months to plan this out. I mean, if that's
Speaker 1: every day for four months, that's the full time job.
Speaker 1: So what exactly went into the planning? In previous episodes,
Speaker 1: we talked about how in April twenty sixteen, the Wagner's
Speaker 1: presented Hannah Roden with custody documents. But what Hannah didn't
Speaker 1: know then and what police later uncovered, is that the
Speaker 1: supposedly legal documents were fake and that Angela Wagner's mother,
Speaker 1: Rita Joe Nucam, was allegedly at the center of the deception.
Speaker 1: I spoke to my Gallan about it. So Rita Joe
Speaker 1: numb Angela's mom, she faces three counts of forgery, a
Speaker 1: kind of perjury, and she's a notary. Can you speak
Speaker 1: to like what power does a notary have or how
Speaker 1: does that come into play? In Ohio? Notaries don't have
Speaker 1: a lot of power. They are allowed, obviously to odorized signatures.
Speaker 1: You know, they have to make sure that the oath
Speaker 1: is administered properly. When they are notarizing something they're kind
Speaker 1: of hard to come by here in Ohio. But I'm
Speaker 1: certain that because of this, she'll probably lose that notary's license,
Speaker 1: if she hasn't already. Moving forward a bit in time,
Speaker 1: prosecutors ultimately claimed that Rita lied about the authenticity of
Speaker 1: these documents to a grand jury, but in an unexpected twist,
Speaker 1: Nwcombe agreed to a plea deal with the prosecution. She
Speaker 1: pled guilty to a misdemeanor charge of obstructing official business
Speaker 1: in exchange felony charges of forgery and perjury were dismissed.
Speaker 1: Here's Newcomb's speaking in court. I just feel that it's
Speaker 1: not a good thankful and it's difficult to hear her
Speaker 1: because of the recording, but she says, I just feel
Speaker 1: that it's not a good Christian thing to lie, and
Speaker 1: I couldn't live with it no more. Jodi Barr thinks
Speaker 1: there could be ulterior motives Newcomb's deal. The prosecutor said
Speaker 1: in court, though, that a hand writing expert concluded that
Speaker 1: Rita Newcombe did not sign the documents herself. Newcombe admitted
Speaker 1: to falsely telling a grand jury and investigators that she
Speaker 1: did so only because her daughter, Angela Wagner, who was
Speaker 1: among those charged with the killings, told her to do so.
Speaker 1: I mean there were some heavy charges dismissed, you know,
Speaker 1: where investigators trying to squeeze the grandmothers to get some
Speaker 1: information out of them. Mike Allen seems to think so.
Speaker 1: Now there's a lot of speculation, and in the normal case,
Speaker 1: the first thing you'd think of is Okay, you know,
Speaker 1: they gave her a reduced charge in return for cooperation,
Speaker 1: and I would not be surprised if that's not the case.
Speaker 1: But again, you know, we won't know until we get
Speaker 1: closer to trial. Can you be compelled to testify for
Speaker 1: the prosecution? Sure, I mean they received a subpoena unless
Speaker 1: there's some kind of legal reason why you know they couldn't. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean the prosecutor could issue the subpoena. If there's testimony,
Speaker 1: the prosecutor would probably ask the court designate that person
Speaker 1: as a hostile witness and then they can use leading questions.
Speaker 1: According to court records, the documents appointed a guardian Frigid
Speaker 1: and Hannah's daughter in the event of their deaths. When
Speaker 1: police later searched the Wagner home, this document was found
Speaker 1: in a box belonging to Angelo Wagner labeled important stuff.
Speaker 1: I asked Mike Allen about the legal ramifications of these
Speaker 1: forged documents. How does it appear that these documents were
Speaker 1: forged on April third? It was nineteen days before the murders.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what, I've been doing this for a
Speaker 1: long time and I've never seen anything like this. It's
Speaker 1: strong evidence for the prosecutor. The defense attorney has to
Speaker 1: find a way to explain that, a way which is
Speaker 1: probably next to impossible. But yeah, that's strong evidence from
Speaker 1: a prosecutor's perspective. As we've discussed before, it was around
Speaker 1: this time that Chris Roden Senior and Billy Wagner got
Speaker 1: into a fight as well. Here's Mike Allen recapping that confrontation.
Speaker 1: Back in mid April two thousand and sixteen, Supposedly there
Speaker 1: was a fight between Chris Senior and Billy Wagner. Nobody
Speaker 1: seems to know what the fight was about or what
Speaker 1: caused it. Things were obviously becoming strained between the two families,
Speaker 1: but the beginning of April also brought a lot of
Speaker 1: joy for the Roden family. That month, Hannah celebrated her
Speaker 1: nineteenth birthday. Here's Roden family friend Stephane. It was a
Speaker 1: happy occasion, you know, it was family get together and
Speaker 1: lots of fun, you know, because they were fun. They
Speaker 1: were always having you know, get together's, birthday parties, anything
Speaker 1: like that. They were a great family unit. But as
Speaker 1: the Roden family was celebrating, the Wagners allegedly were busy
Speaker 1: planning their murders. The Wagner has already had a cachet
Speaker 1: of firearms, but around this time they began making their
Speaker 1: own silencers. If the Wagners did do it, it seems
Speaker 1: likely that these would have been used on the night
Speaker 1: of the murders. The family also bought ammunition, a magazine clip,
Speaker 1: a bug detector, and materials to build brass catchers. Jodie
Speaker 1: Barr filled us in on what some of this equipment
Speaker 1: is used for. The brass catcher is a bag that
Speaker 1: hooks on the side of a firearm. It will catch
Speaker 1: spent cartridges, so every time you pull this trigger, cartridges
Speaker 1: is ejected. And if you were really interested in not
Speaker 1: leaving anything behind as far as ballistic evidence, this sounds
Speaker 1: like a great story. This bag will collect the shell casing,
Speaker 1: so there's no evidence left. Behind the bug detector, so
Speaker 1: purely that helps someone find listening devices and sometimes create
Speaker 1: white noise to muscle sounds or discussion. The indictment also
Speaker 1: includes a reference to a specific pair of shoes that
Speaker 1: the family purchased from Walmart. But why would they need
Speaker 1: a particular pair of shoes to pull off from murder?
Speaker 1: Here's Stephanie. One such theory is that the Wagoners were
Speaker 1: trying to frame Danta Roden's brother, James Manley. He's significant
Speaker 1: because if you recall, Dana Roden's sister, Bobby Joe, made
Speaker 1: the first discovery of bodies and called nine one one.
Speaker 1: She also called her brother, who rushed to Dana Roden's
Speaker 1: house and also found their bodies. His prints were allegedly
Speaker 1: at the crime scene. However, just one day before the murders,
Speaker 1: the Wagoners drove two and a half hours to a
Speaker 1: specific Walmart to buy a particular pair of boots. They're
Speaker 1: seen on surveillance buying these boots and then the same
Speaker 1: kind of boots known to be worn by James Manley.
Speaker 1: Why would they do that? Here's reporter Jodie Barr from
Speaker 1: the dyingment. I mean, there's a lot of assertion by
Speaker 1: the prosecution that they have evidence that, you know, these
Speaker 1: boots were purchased to James Manley, a family member for
Speaker 1: the murder, and that James lived the closest to Dana,
Speaker 1: and that James ended up being one of the first
Speaker 1: to discover Dana and you know in Hannah's bodies that morning, right.
Speaker 1: So the idea is that they went and bought these
Speaker 1: specific boots knowing that James Manley wore them, and then
Speaker 1: they would in theory wear them the night of the murder.
Speaker 1: So it looks to police like he was the one
Speaker 1: walking around, and it sounds like for a period of
Speaker 1: time investigators might have believed that to be the case,
Speaker 1: because James Manley was one of the first people brought
Speaker 1: in and interrogated given a polygraph. I mean, if you're
Speaker 1: to believe what's written in that indictment, it sounds like
Speaker 1: they may have been pretty close to pulling this all on.
Speaker 1: It was so detail oriented. Yeah, and you and you
Speaker 1: wondered this too. It's like it seemed like a lot
Speaker 1: of details planning to preplan that. I don't really know
Speaker 1: what to think of it. Again, I don't know anybody
Speaker 1: who's capable of doing that and we know it happened
Speaker 1: pulled off by somebody, But I mean, if they really
Speaker 1: bought boots to try to frame James manly Man again,
Speaker 1: this is a heck of a story. Who drinks this up?
Speaker 1: Who thinks this up? In April twenty sixteen, the same
Speaker 1: week as Hannah's birthday, her mother Dana, threw a baby
Speaker 1: shower to celebrate the upcoming birth of her new baby girl, Kylie.
Speaker 1: It would be the last time the Rodent family all
Speaker 1: gathered in one place. Becky Ryder was a close friend
Speaker 1: of Dana Roden's. She told Jeff about the excitement surrounding
Speaker 1: the baby's arrival. Dana felt overwhelmed with joy, happiness. I
Speaker 1: guess she's getting another grand baby that she can love
Speaker 1: and spoil. She always loves her grandkids, if yeah, deeply? Yeah,
Speaker 1: And like Hannah must have been happy too, because she was.
Speaker 1: She had a new boyfriend at that point who was
Speaker 1: not Jake Wagner, and she was about to have a
Speaker 1: new baby and kind of start a new chapter of
Speaker 1: her life. Right, Oh yeah, absolutely. In photos from this event,
Speaker 1: Hannah smiles with her daughter Sophia. We also see other
Speaker 1: family members in the photo, including Frankie and his fiance
Speaker 1: Hannah Gilly. In just a few days, eight members of
Speaker 1: the Rodent family would be dead. But Deray's recollection of
Speaker 1: the events leading up to the birth of Kylie is different.
Speaker 1: She says at that point that things were still going
Speaker 1: well between Jake and Hannah. I believe they may have disagreements,
Speaker 1: and I think there was disappointments, but I don't think
Speaker 1: there was any any hate. We've discussed in previous episodes
Speaker 1: how the people have pikedon were immediately affected by the
Speaker 1: murders and the shroud of fear that hovered over the
Speaker 1: small town. I just don't understand why happened here. He
Speaker 1: has a really wondering thing, like, is so like mafia
Speaker 1: or anything like that, because it's just crazy. If I
Speaker 1: lived down there, I wouldn't stay there. I would be
Speaker 1: so afraid. But in the wake of the murders, many
Speaker 1: news outlets were portraying Jake Wagner as almost a sympathetic figure.
Speaker 1: This is how the Cincinnati Inquirer describes him in a
Speaker 1: July twenty sixteen article, A full time single dad with
Speaker 1: mounting legal bills, with a new job that pays half
Speaker 1: of what he was making to ensure he is close
Speaker 1: to Sophia, but close still means the twenty three year
Speaker 1: old makes a daily commute to Cincinnati, a two and
Speaker 1: a half hour daily drive. Anybody was connected to this family,
Speaker 1: you know, there was a lot of emotion from the
Speaker 1: public involved your because of these children. So it's no
Speaker 1: surprise that Jake, you know, a lot of people felt
Speaker 1: for Jake. I mean, he's left there with that very
Speaker 1: young daughter and he's deciding to get her back. But
Speaker 1: it's what the family did in the wake of the
Speaker 1: murders that raised some suspicion. We know that just six
Speaker 1: days after the Rodents were killed, Jake Wagner filed for
Speaker 1: custody of two and a half year old Sophia, his
Speaker 1: daughter with Hannah Rodin. In a previous episode, we talked
Speaker 1: to Ohio criminal defense attorney Mike Allen about how this
Speaker 1: looks from a legal perspective. That's extremely strong evidence for
Speaker 1: the prosecution. I mean, six days, less than a week
Speaker 1: after the killings to go ahead and file. It can
Speaker 1: take months, you know, maybe a year, a little bit more,
Speaker 1: a little bit less. It's not something that goes quickly
Speaker 1: at all. And I think that that is going to
Speaker 1: be some evidence that's problematic for the defense doing it
Speaker 1: that quickly after the murders. It was around the same
Speaker 1: time that Angela Wigner suggested her son create a go
Speaker 1: fund Me campaign to help cover the custody expenses to
Speaker 1: the tune of twenty thousand dollars. Jake wrote a personal
Speaker 1: message on the page, saying these were not expenses I
Speaker 1: was supposed to have. I was just supposed to be
Speaker 1: able to spend time with her and give her a
Speaker 1: happy childhood. Sophia and I are just asking enough to
Speaker 1: settle the fees that we acquired due to the horrific
Speaker 1: tragedy to her mommy. He finished, I hate seeing my
Speaker 1: daughter cry. We want to get our lives back. But
Speaker 1: these legal actions seemed unusual to many in the community.
Speaker 1: He was an investigative reporter. Jodi Barr. I do remember
Speaker 1: seeing that in the Rodent massacre Facebook group, you know,
Speaker 1: people talking about that, you know, they were there was
Speaker 1: a lot of angry comments about it that you know,
Speaker 1: a lot of people in those groups have already convicted
Speaker 1: the Waggers. They already believed they did it and they're guilty,
Speaker 1: and you know, so to see that and how vocal
Speaker 1: the wagoners were on social media, it seemed to rubble
Speaker 1: people in that group the wrong way, that that was
Speaker 1: the wrong message um that they believe the Wagoners should
Speaker 1: have been sending at that point in time. But you
Speaker 1: know a lot of people saw it as the brazen um,
Speaker 1: the people wrapped up in this to make a move
Speaker 1: like that, to ask for help. Let's stop here for
Speaker 1: another quick break. We'll be back in a moment Only
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Speaker 1: May twenty seventeen, with the investigation in full swing, officials
Speaker 1: searched the farm of a piked In resident named Bernard Brown.
Speaker 1: Mike Allen filled us in on why police may have
Speaker 1: been interested in the property agents searched his farm. I
Speaker 1: guess he's a friend of the Wagoners, knew them for
Speaker 1: a long time. I guess they fixed cars together, A
Speaker 1: lot of cars on the lot. I guess Jake had
Speaker 1: stored some cars and some other things on the property.
Speaker 1: And I'll tell you what cars and vehicles and equipment
Speaker 1: are all over these farms that have been searched. So
Speaker 1: I mean maybe something could have been hidden somewhere, as
Speaker 1: somebody must have given law enforcement a tip that there
Speaker 1: could possibly be something there, or they wouldn't have searched it.
Speaker 1: Bernard Brown was not charged with anything. Authorities searched two
Speaker 1: large trailers and took one smaller utility trailer owned by
Speaker 1: the Wagners from his property. According to Brown, Jake Wagner
Speaker 1: sometimes worked for him fixing cars. Brown said that the
Speaker 1: Wagners had dropped items off at the property a week
Speaker 1: prior to the search. It was clear that investigators were
Speaker 1: becoming more interested in the Wagners. By the spring of
Speaker 1: twenty seventeen, the family had been interviewed several times by authorities.
Speaker 1: It should be noted that Jake and Angelo were interviewed
Speaker 1: five times, Billy three times, and George once. Deray spoke
Speaker 1: to Jeff about a conversation she had with Angela Wagner
Speaker 1: as police narrowed in on her family. One day, she goes,
Speaker 1: I can't believe it. They just won't leave us alone.
Speaker 1: They just will not leave us alone, because it's terrible.
Speaker 1: She was We're starting to get really worried that we're
Speaker 1: going to be arrested. So they felt that coming yeah,
Speaker 1: because they wouldn't leave everybody alone. Rumors of the Wagner's
Speaker 1: potential involvement in the road and massacre quickly spread, and
Speaker 1: soon they were being targeted not only by police, but
Speaker 1: by Pike County residents as well. Everybody had started basically
Speaker 1: attacking them the community, accusing them of murdering those people,
Speaker 1: like if they were in town and people identified their vehicle,
Speaker 1: they would throw pot bottles at them. Angela had actually
Speaker 1: went into a store one day and some woman had
Speaker 1: actually flewed up behind Angela as she was coming back
Speaker 1: out of the store and through a glass key bottle
Speaker 1: a her and it busted her in the back. In
Speaker 1: May twenty seventeen, as the community continued to turn against them,
Speaker 1: Angela Wagner took to social media to publicly to clare
Speaker 1: her family's innocence. Here's Jeff reading from her post. Okay,
Speaker 1: I have decided to tell you all a couple of
Speaker 1: things about me and my family. What has happened to
Speaker 1: us in the past few weeks has been devastating and
Speaker 1: it will follow us for the rest of our lives.
Speaker 1: Hannah was a daughter to me. I loved her dearly.
Speaker 1: Her laws still hurts to this day, especially when I
Speaker 1: see her every day and my granddaughter. We did not
Speaker 1: do anything to hurt Hannah's family. We want justice just
Speaker 1: like everyone else. It is real disturbing if you really
Speaker 1: want to know what you guys are doing. Your accusations
Speaker 1: now will hurt Sophia later in life when she really
Speaker 1: understands what happened. Let's try to find the real monsters
Speaker 1: who've done this. So let's really unpack this for a moment,
Speaker 1: because if Angela Wagner is in fact a martyr and
Speaker 1: had been targeted by the town, I mean having a
Speaker 1: bottle thrown at you, if you did not commit these
Speaker 1: crimes would be hideous, especially the town that you love
Speaker 1: so much. Angela and her husband lived there for generations.
Speaker 1: That had to be really difficult. However, if they did it,
Speaker 1: they just went about their lives, speaking to the press openly.
Speaker 1: You know, when I look at her photo, I know
Speaker 1: I've said this before, she looks like a mom, but
Speaker 1: then she's also grimacing in her mug shot, and even
Speaker 1: during her pre trial hearings, there's something sort of smug
Speaker 1: about the way she presents herself. It also makes me
Speaker 1: wonder could she possibly be at the center of this.
Speaker 1: Facing violent backlash from locals and increasing attention from authorities,
Speaker 1: the Wagners did something that left everyone and piked and stunned.
Speaker 1: Here's Steph Winkler again. Their lawyer had said that they
Speaker 1: would be primary suspects, and so it was around that
Speaker 1: time May twenty seventeen that the whole family emptied out
Speaker 1: a few cargo facilities that they had, some sheds and whatnot,
Speaker 1: loaded all up and then up and moved to Alaska.
Speaker 1: When they left for Alaska, I was like, oh wow,
Speaker 1: they're running. And then I thought they all get away
Speaker 1: with it. I'm the one that told them go to Alaska.
Speaker 1: The suitable Ohio can not afford to extradite you from
Speaker 1: Alaska back home. But the Wagner's relocation didn't hinder the investigation.
Speaker 1: Investigators rated three properties in Adams and Pike Counties the
Speaker 1: middle of May. We had previously reported those properties are
Speaker 1: connected to the Wagner family. Now investigators say they believe
Speaker 1: the family recently moved to Alaska. Investigators want any information
Speaker 1: the public has about the family they moved to Alaska.
Speaker 1: But then the very following month, law enforcement actually finally
Speaker 1: searches the properties where the Wagners lived. That started to
Speaker 1: tighten the noose in terms of the Wagners. More on
Speaker 1: that next time. Reach out to us on our social
Speaker 1: media outlets with questions where on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter
Speaker 1: at piked in Massacre. We look forward to answering your
Speaker 1: questions and upcoming bonus episodes. Piked Massacre as executive produced
Speaker 1: by Stephanie Leidecker and me Courtney Armstrong. Editing and sound
Speaker 1: designed by executive producer Jared Aston. Additional producing by Jeff
Speaker 1: Shane and Andrew Becker. The piked in Massacre is a
Speaker 1: production of iHeartRadio and Katie Studios. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
Speaker 1: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
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