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Pike County murder trial: Coroner describes two of eight victims autopsied

"(Chris Sr.) had a large number of wounds to his face."
On April 22, 2016, eight members of the Rhoden family were found shot to death in multiple homes throughout Pike County. They were all killed in a coordinated attack over one night while they slept. From there, a two-year investigation led to the arrests of six members of the Wagner family.
Pike County massacre trial continues
Posted at 9:18 AM, Sep 20, 2022
and last updated 2022-09-20 22:14:59-04

WAVERLY, Ohio — A forensic pathologist from the Hamilton County Coroner's Office took the stand as the trial of a man accused of murdering eight people in Pike County in 2016 continued Tuesday.

Dr. Karen Looman, chief deputy coroner and forensic pathologist with the Hamilton County Coroner's Office, has previously testified in the trial of former University of Cincinnati police officer Ray Tensing and the resentencing hearing of convicted serial killer Anthony Kirkland.

Looman also did the autopsies for all eight members of the Rhoden family when they were killed in 2016.

George — along with his mother Angela, father George "Billy" Wagner and brother Edward "Jake" Wagner — is accused of shooting and killing the Rhoden family members "execution-style." The family's bodies were found on April 22, 2016. He faces eight charges of aggravated murder, along with other charges associated with tampering with evidence, conspiracy and forgery.

Found dead that day were 40-year-old Christopher Rhoden Sr., 37-year-old Dana Rhoden, 20-year-old Hannah "Hazel" Gilley, 16-year-old Christopher Rhoden Jr., 20-year-old Clarence "Frankie" Rhoden, 37-year-old Gary Rhoden, 19-year-old Hanna May Rhoden, and 44-year-old Kenneth Rhoden.

The trial is the first time a person has faced a jury for the deaths of the Rhoden family six years ago.

During Tuesday's proceedings, Looman began by explaining autopsies, states of decomposition and the way burning can occur on a person when shot with a gun, all to bring the jury up to speed on what would be discussed.

Looman's testimony specifically centered on victims found in the first crime scene — Chris Sr. and Gary. Before the lunch break, Looman detailed the various injuries that were apparent on Chris Sr.'s body when he was examined in the Hamilton County Coroner's Office.

Chris Sr. was in a state of decomposition and rigor mortis had already disappeared, she said, which indicated he'd been dead for more than 24 hours at the time he was brought to the coroner. The bodies arrived around 5:50 a.m. on April 23, 2016. They'd been discovered the morning and afternoon of April 22, 2016.

Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations agent Shane Hanshaw testified on Monday that Chris Sr. and Gary were not removed from the crime scene until agents had collected and secured all evidence in the home.

The bodies were sent to Hamilton County for autopsies because the Pike County coroner does not conduct them and, at the time of the murders, Hamilton County routinely helped with cases in Pike County.

Despite being the first found, Chris Sr. was the final victim to be autopsied, because of the extent of the injuries he'd received, Looman said.

When Looman opened the body bag containing the Rhoden patriarch, he was in the same position Hanshaw described finding him in: His arms were above his head, his brown sweatshirt rolled up over his head, indicating he'd been dragged. As Looman worked to remove his clothes for the autopsy, she said three intact bullets fell out of his rolled-up sweatshirt.

"He had a large number of wounds to his face that turned out to be gunshot wounds, and he had two in his abdomen, and based on the evidence I knew there were several bullets that I needed to recover," she said.

In addition to that, Chris Sr. had another wound to his right forearm, where he'd been shot with a high-powered weapon, Looman said.

"His forearm was so destroyed and so lacerated that the skin was peeled back," she said. "You could see the muscles, you could see the fractured pieces of bones in there. There was so much trauma you couldn't see the entrance and exit wound. His arm was barely hanging on to the end of his elbow."

If he'd lived, Looman said the arm may not have been reparable. When she X-rayed his arm, bullet fragments still present in the arm lit up, showing a pattern she said coroners called a "snowstorm effect."

Looman described the process of determining the path the bullets took as they traveled through Chris Sr.'s body; one of those bullets severed his spine, detaching his neck from his head in a process called "internal decapitation," she said.

Tiny pieces of wood were also embedded across Chris Sr.'s face.

In all, Chris Sr. was shot a total of nine times — six times in the head and face, once in the chest, once in the abdomen and once in the forearm.

Looman was given evidence bags, sealed in 2016 after she completed the autopsies, to open, pulling out the evidence inside to show to the jury. Among those items were the bullets and bullet fragments pulled from Chris Sr.'s body and the clothing he was wearing at the time of his murder.

Toxicology testing was done on all of the victims, to determine whether they'd been drugged prior to the shootings, Looman said. Chris Sr.'s toxicology report showed the only substance in his system was caffeine.

From there, Looman spoke about Gary, who was also found dead in that same home.

He was shot three times in the head. One of those shots was into the back of his head and it exited through his forehead, Looman said. Special Prosecutor Angie Canepa asked, if Gary had been wearing a ballcap when shot, could that bullet have created a hole in the back of the cap that then exited through the hat, damaging the bill. Looman replied it was possible.

Canepa then reintroduced the Jets baseball cap that was shown to the jury during Monday's testimony from Hanshaw and asked Looman whether the damage on the cap was consistent with Gary's gunshot wound — Looman said yes, the holes and damage were in the right places to have been caused by the same bullet.

Gary also had contact burns on his skin from one of the shots, indicating the muzzle of the gun was flush against his skin when the trigger was pulled, Looman said.

His skull was fractured in several places from the force of the bullets; Looman said any one of the three shots he sustained would have been fatal because of the brain damage they caused.

Gary's toxicology report showed he had caffeine and cocaine in his system; family members testified during the first week that Gary had been known to recreationally use cocaine.

During cross examination from the defense, attorney John Parker asked Looman whether she could tell which gunshot wound happened first; she said she could not. She also testified that she could not determine which man may have been killed first. Parker then, on a large notepad, had Looman outline which gunshot wounds in Chris Sr. and Gary were shot from what distance.

Looman said when she refers to a "contact" wound, she means the muzzle of the gun was zero distance from the flesh, which usually causes a muzzle-shaped burn. "Loose contact" means the gun was between 1 millimeter to an inch away from the skin and could be identified by the presence of smoke or burns on the victim's skin.

"Intermediate" distance means the gun was roughly 3 inches to 3 feet away from the victim when fired, depending on the weapon. This kind of distance usually still creates stippling on skin, from gunpowder exploding out of the barrel and colliding with flesh. "Indeterminate" meant the gun was further than 3 feet away and did not create any burns, smoke marks or stippling.

Parker then asked Looman which wounds on each victim fell under which category: She said Chris Sr. did not have any contact wounds, but six of the shots created "loose contact" wounds. One was "intermediate" and two more were "indeterminate," including the shot that shredded his forearm.

Gary sustained one contact wound, one "intermediate" and one "indeterminate."

After the court took a 15-minute break, the prosecution re-called BCI agent Todd Fortner to the witness stand to discuss his role as lead investigator on the second crime scene, where Frankie and Hannah Hazel were found shot to death in bed, their months-old baby lying unharmed between them.

Fortner said when he arrived, he met with the local law enforcement members who'd secured the scene, as well as family members who found Frankie and Hannah Hazel.

"The infant was in bed between them, covered in blood," said Fortner.

He added the family members told him they removed the baby from the home and changed its blood-soaked diaper on a wooden table outside. They'd placed the diaper in a bag and gave it to him to document as evidence.

From there, Prosecutor Andrew Wilson showed photos Fortner took in 2016 of the exterior of the home — including shots of the back of the trailer, where moss was growing on the siding and a fenced-in area containing dogs could be seen.

A window on the back of the trailer was open and Fortner said there was a "void" of the moss beneath that window. Prosecutors showed a zoomed-in photo of that, and pointed to an air conditioning unit beneath the window. When asked if there was grass on the top of the corner of that unit, Fortner said yes.

Fortner said he took the photos of the exterior before he even entered the home, so he wasn't sure what may have been significant and what was not; he documented and collected a knife found near the corner of the trailer and a sledgehammer discarded feet from the trailer's back steps. He also documented and collected a pair of pliers he found on the back steps.

Forensic evidence has been the focus of the trial for days; on Friday and Monday the jury heard from agents from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations. Agents Hanshaw and Fortner testified about the first crime scene, the home of Chris Sr. and Gary, revisiting evidence they collected in April 2016 during the course of their investigation.

You can watch Tuesday's testimony in full below:

You can read recaps of each day of the trial in our coverage below:

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