8 Family members murdered execution style in Ohio

[hoops5]

Sad irony. Little girl will be an orphan now.

[Jumper_Dad]

Just watched the press conference, they said they got a significant piece of evidence on October 30th and test results back on it about a week later.

Both of the husband and wife subjects mom's were arrested for covering up the crime.

[True blue (and gold)]

It’s interesting to read the past posts on everyone’s old theories about this case. A lot of people were really wrong on this one.

[Jumper_Dad]

I was way wrong, I figured it was drug-related after it was reported the family was known to be in the drug trade.

[Wireman]

What was the motive?

[Voice of Reason]

What was the motive?

 

All that has been shared so far is the custody issue.

[halfback20]

All that has been shared so far is the custody issue.

 

Think one article said there was possibly a fight not long before the murders.

[Wireman]

People are crazy. I've had some heated moments with people here and there and I've never once considered killing them and their entire family execution style. It seems that there has to be more to this story, but maybe not. Maybe the people are just crazy.

[sportsfan41]

People are crazy. I've had some heated moments with people here and there and I've never once considered killing them and their entire family execution style. It seems that there has to be more to this story, but maybe not. Maybe the people are just crazy.

 

The news was saying investigators found supplies believed to have been used for making homemade suppressors. It doesn't get much more premeditated than that. Scary to think about being an unsuspecting neighbor to a family like that.

[Randy Parker]

I was way wrong, I figured it was drug-related after it was reported the family was known to be in the drug trade.

 

Same

[oldgrappler]

It seems @lawildcat was all over it. See posts 152, 154, 158.

[Beechwoodfan]

Seems like what information is available, most of the evidence is circumstantial. I am sure there is a lot we don’t know. Will be interesting to watch this unfold.

[Jumper_Dad]

News last night said that a homemade silencer was recently found and that it was a key piece of evidence.

[Wireman]

I was pretty suspicious back in post 156. I knew that seemed odd.

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

On 11/13/2018 at 9:32 PM, Voice of Reason said:

All that has been shared so far is the custody issue.

So it sounds like this murder all came down to a major custody battle over a 2 year old girl, the daughter of Edward "Jake" Wagner and Hannah Rhoden. Hannah Rhoden was one of the eight murder victims and was 19 at the time of the massacre. Jake Wagner, who was eventually convicted as one of the murderers, was 23 at the time of the massacre.

Authorities arrested George "Billy" Wagner III, Angela Wagner, George Wagner IV, and Jake Wagner in 2017 on charges connected to the murder spree. They would also eventually arrest Rita Newcomb and Fredericka Wagner on related charges.

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Billy Wagner, 45 at the time if the murders. He is husband to Angela, and father to George IV and Jake, and is charged with a counts of murder. He is maintaining his innocence and awaiting trial. He is accused of being one of three trigger men in the massacre. 

Angela Wagner, 45 at the time or the murders. She is wife to Billy and mother to George IV and Jake, and she struck a plea deal to have her eight aggrevated murder charges knocked down to eight charges of conspiracy to commit murder. Angela also plead guilty to several related charges including aggrevated burglary. She was convicted in September 2021 and sentenced to 30 years in prison.

George Wagner IV, 24 at the time of the murders. He is son to Billy and Angela, and brother to Jake and was convicted November 30, 2022 of eight counts of murder after maintaining his innocence, even after brother Jake confessed to the murders and struck a plea deal to testify in George's and other family members' trials. Jake Wagner's plea deal removed the death penalty from consideration for all members of his family, and George IV is currently awaiting sentencing.

Jake Wagner, 23 at the time of the murders. He is son to Billy and Angela, and brother to George IV. Former boyfriend of murder victim Hannah Rhoden and father of the two year old girl whose custody was the dispute that brought about the Wagner's plot to murder the Rhodens. On April 21, 2021 (the 5th anniversary of the murders) Jake struck a plea deal to confess to the murders and remove death penalty consideration from the table for himself, his parents and his brother. He confessed to 23 charges in total, including charges of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor because he and Hannah Rhoden had started their sexual relationship when she was 13 and he was 17. Jake was convicted to eight consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.

Rita Newcomb, mother to Angela Wagner, was charged with obstruction of justice, perjury, and forgery of custody documents in an attempt to try to convince the Rhodens to hand over Jake Wagner and Hannah Rhoden's daughter to the Wagner family. She struck a deal in 2019 to plead guilty to the lesser charge of obstructing official police business, to cooperate fully with the investigation, and to testify in any subsequent trials in exchange for the original charges against her to be dropped.

Frederika Wagner, mother to Billy Wagner, was charged with obstruction of justice and perjury. The charges were eventually dropped in June 2019.

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Jake Wagner's confession included his claim that the Billy Wagner had started suspicion among the Wagner fanily that Jake's 2 year old daughter had been sexually assaulted in her home with mother Hanna Rhoden & the Rhoden family. The Rhodens denied the claim to the Wagners, and that stemmed the Wagners in devising their plan for the massacre on the basis that it was necessary in order to remove Jake's daughter from danger.

Jake's confession and trial testimony included the information that he, his parents, and his brother had all planned the massacre, and that he, his father Billy, and his brother George IV had been intended the ones who carried out the murder, with all three of them actively killing members of the Rhoden family. Billy and Jake had shot first, but George froze up, so Jake shot the victims intended to be shot by George. Jake's confession also led the investigation team to the murder weapons. The guns, which Billy, George and Jake had removed and discarded the firing pins from and destroyed the serial numbers off of, had been cut into pieces and encased into concrete-filled buckets that they eventually used as anchors for a floating goose house the gave as a Father's Day gift to Billy Wagner's father for him to float in his lake.