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Pike County murder trial: Testimony moves to scene where Hannah Hazel Gilley, Frankie Rhoden found dead

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.
Wagner Trial 03
Posted at 9:02 AM, Sep 21, 2022
and last updated 2022-09-21 17:11:16-04

WAVERLY, Ohio — Testimony in the trial of a man accused of murdering eight people in Pike County on April 22, 2016 continued Wednesday, with the agent who lead the investigation at one of four different crime scenes discovered that day.

George Wagner IV — 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.

Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation agent Todd Fortner began testifying Tuesday about the second crime scene, where Frankie Rhoden and Hannah Hazel Gilley were found dead, their months-old baby lying unharmed between them.

On Wednesday, he continued testifying about the scene, noting several evidence items he collected on April 22, 2016 that, ultimately, bore no relevance the the case. A sweatshirt found in the driveway and several cigarette butts with indeterminate DNA on them were collected.

On a wooden table out front of the trailer, Fortner said he found a blood stain. On Tuesday, he testified that family members who discovered Frankie and Hannah Hazel dead discovered their baby, Ruger, alive and covered in blood between them in their bed. They carried the baby out of the house to the wooden table, where they changed his blood-soaked diaper, Fortner said.

Fortner testified the blood on the wooden table was consistent with a bloody diaper being changed; swabs of that blood were not sent to a lab for DNA testing.

A front and back door on the trailer were examined and determined to have no damage or signs of forced entry, Fortner said. Blind swabs of those doors — including the doorknobs — showed mixed DNA that was not sufficient for including or excluding anyone, said Prosecutor Andrew Wilson.

Inside the home, a television was on, turned to children's programming and a light over the oven was left on, along with a plugged-in night light, Fortner said. He testified to taking several shoe print impressions from the kitchen floor after fingerprint dust revealed them, but none were not relevant to the murders, nor was there any blood present in the kitchen.

In a spare bedroom in the home, Fortner said he found a heat lamp attached to a tub intended for incubating baby chicks. Next to that tub was a metal trash can full of feed, sitting near an open window. On Tuesday, Fortner said moss growing on the outside siding of the trailer appeared to have been disturbed beneath the open window and grass was found on top of an air conditioning unit below the outside of the window.

Jammed into the window frame was a knife, Fortner said.

At the time, Fortner said he didn't believe anyone could have come into the home through that open window without disturbing the feed can and other clutter around the inside of the window.

Heading back toward the back bedroom in which Frankie and Hannah Hazel were found dead, Fortner said he found a piece of paper with an apparent blood stain on it in the hallway outside the room. The stain tested positive for blood and DNA testing identified it as a mix of Frankie and Hannah Hazel's blood.

Just inside the bedroom, Fortner said he found a single drip stain on the floor that also tested positive for the presence of blood; he testified that the two blood drops were likely from baby Ruger as family carried him through the home and outside.

Inside the bedroom was a bloody scene, Fortner said. Hannah Hazel and Frankie were in bed and Fortner noted two cell phones in a baby's crib near the bed that he collected and documented.

The couple appeared to have been shot in their heads and had no other apparent injuries to any other parts of their bodies, Fortner said. Between them was a "great deal of blood" where family had told him Ruger was lying, "which would account for the blood-soaked diaper," said Fortner.

Blood on Hannah Hazel's body showed swipe marks on her side near her breast area that Fortner said was consistent with an infant lying next to her, moving and touching her body after she'd been killed.

She was wearing a nursing bra that was unclipped on one side, he said. During opening statements on Sept. 12, Special Prosecutor Angie Canepa said the young mother was possibly nursing her months-old son when she was shot to death.

Lividity on Frankie and Hannah Hazel's bodies indicated they hadn't been moved after they were killed, Fortner said.

From there, the bodies were collected by the coroner's office some time in the evening on April 22, 2016. When they were removed, Fortner said empty bullet cartridges were found.

In or near the bed, Fortner found five different cartridge casings from a rimstrike bullet stamped on the end with the letters "REM," indicating they were Remington brand bullets, he said.

Across the room, near the bedroom door, Fortner found another rimfire cartridge on the ground — this one still a live, unfired round. It bore markings of a different brand.

DNA testing on this round and the other cartridges was inconclusive, Wilson said.

Nowhere in this scene — like the first scene where Chris Sr. and Gary were found killed — did investigators find DNA profiles for either Jake, Angela, George or Billy Wagner.

During defense attorney's cross examine of Fortner, he was questioned about whether they tested the carpeting beneath the open window in the spare bedroom. He said he did not. Attorney Richard Nash asked whether any evidence was collected around the outside of the open window, and Fortner said he didn't, but that the window sill was eventually swabbed for DNA later.

Fortner reiterated that, at the time he processed the scene, he felt the window was an unlikely point of entry.

"It would take someone smaller, more agile," he said.

In regards to the grass found on the air conditioning unit, Nash asked whether any grass or dirt was found inside the open window and Nash said he didn't, but that the room was cluttered and messy.

After Fortner stepped down, prosecutors re-called Dr. Karen Looman to the witness stand to testify about the autopsies of Hannah Hazel and Frankie. Looman, chief deputy coroner and forensic pathologist with the Hamilton County Coroner's Office, performed all eight autopsies for each victim. On Tuesday, she testified about the autopsies of Chris Sr. and Gary.

When Looman received the bodies of Hannah Hazel and Frankie, they were put in a cooler in the Hamilton County Coroner's Office to slow their decomposition; Hannah Hazel was autopsied not long after, Looman said.

While examining Hannah Hazel, Looman said she was wearing a maternity bra with the front hooks partially unclasped and a pair of shorts, both saturated in blood. Lividity indicated she was lying on her stomach, partially on her side when she was shot to death.

Inside her head were five bullets and on her cheek was gunpowder stippling, Looman said. She didn't have any other injuries anywhere else on her body.

"I had questions about the caliber," said Looman when asked about the kind of bullet used in the homicide.

Looman explained the bullets were a .22 caliber, but that bullets of that caliber do not typically cause the kind of damage and bone fracturing she saw in Hannah Hazel's skull.

"When I saw these fractures and what they did to the head, I had a question about whether these were just plain regular .22 power ammunition," said Looman.

She explained there is a type of .22 caliber bullet, called a "long rifle" version that contains more gun powder than normal .22 caliber bullets; Looman said she wondered whether those were the bullets used to kill Hannah Hazel and Frankie.

Frankie was shot four times, all in the head. Lividity indicated he'd been lying on his back when he was killed, with one arm over his head. He did not have any indication of stippling, soot or burn marks on him, Looman said. She said each shot he sustained came from an indeterminate distance, meaning greater than 3 feet away; by contrast, the stippling on Hannah Hazel indicated one shot to her head was made between 3 inches and 3 feet away.

Toxicology tests for both indicated a very low presence of alcohol in their systems, but Looman said it was such a low level that it was more likely a result of the decomposition rather than either of them actually having imbibed alcohol before their deaths.

You can watch the day's testimony in full below:

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

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