OH - Pike County: 8 people from one family dead as police hunt for killer(s) #2

[winterrose]

http://www.chillicothegazette.com/s...22/reader-tapped-pike-sheriffs-post/27817145/

May 22, 2015
WAVERLY – Pike County has plucked its new sheriff from the ranks of the prosecutor’s office.

The Pike County commissioners on Friday morning approved Charles Reader as interim sheriff to fill the post vacated by Sheriff Richard Henderson, who decided to leave the position for a job as a security specialist for ongoing cleanup work at the former atomic plant in Piketon.

Henderson, who was first elected to the post in 2008, gave commissioners his two week’s notice May 8, and his final day was Friday.

This will be Reader’s fourth stint with the sheriff’s office. He worked there for a time starting in 1998 under former Sheriff Larry Travis and then returned for a stint in 2006.
Reader also has served as a detective with the Waverly Police Department during his career.

Pike County Prosecutor Rob Junk has had reason to work with Reader several times over the new sheriff’s career, including the past six years in the prosecutor’s office. “One of the things that’s really going to help us in the prosecutor’s office is Charlie was involved with actively preparing cases for grand jury, that was one of his main jobs for the last couple of years,” Junk said.

 

[Lalalacasbah]

For those who suspect or believe this may not be cartel related, what are some alternate theories? I'm feeling myself really attached to the cartel theory, and I want to make sure I'm not missing any other alternatives because of it.

I guess the reasons that this doesn't scream cartel to me personally is:

1. Seemingly intimate knowledge of the geography (homes, distance, which family members were where and where to go in a short period of time)

2. Undetected entrance into homes (assuming) - didn't alert the dogs, sounds like no forced entry. Of course, not confirmed by LE but it *sounds* like no one was maybe alerted

3. Children left unharmed (code, conscience or personal connection?)

4. I had thought Mexican cartels might employ their own trusted growers and bury their grow-ops deeper off the radar and stay away from such big families to have knowledge of their business doings (although other posters posted links to show that cartels might have their hands in the pie somehow)

5. I thought cartels might not get their hands this dirty so loudly

6. If it's true there was a supposed threatening letter sent weeks earlier - I highly doubt cartel would do this a scare tactic.

7. IIRC, so far no mention of FBI/DEA involvement

Totally JMO. The planner of this crime obviously has some intelligence because meticulous planning.

 

[Dmacky]

The link is dead.

:gaah: I just read it this morning. I'll go look for it again :blush:


OK. It was in the actual video... Right around the 1:26 mark.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/facebook-threat-targeted-executed-ohio-family/

 

[birpu]

During the press conference yesterday it was stated that most of the family members appeared to have been sleeping, EXCEPT for some of the younger ones. I can't imagine the fear they went thru :frown:

That's interesting. Maybe they somehow drugged the family beforehand? Food or alcohol that the kids didn't partake in? Just thought I'd throw that out there. You made me think of it.

 

[KKearns]

I'm looking that up now. I'm wondering if he was just voted back in as Sheriff in May 2015.

Seems likely and a deputy would have more direct contact. It isn't such a huge deal but it just seems like a minor thing to put a press spin on. A spin so easily spotted can call many things into question. When dealing with the press, "no comment" is much better than a lie.

 

[Elley Mae]

I have just checked all the arrest records for the Rhoden family. This is public record. The sheriff did NOT arrest any of them. Please do not be disrespectful and call him a "liar".

Exactly.

 

[Elley Mae]

The first call came from a woman at 7:49 a.m. Friday. The woman tells the dispatcher that she walked into a house in the 4000 block of Union Hill Road and “found them all dead.”

The home is where two males were found dead — one of four locations where bodies were found Friday.

“There’s blood all over the house,” the woman can be heard saying during the 9-1-1 call.

A man is heard in the second 9-1-1 call, recorded at 1:26 p.m. Friday.

The man was at a residence in the 700 block of West Fork Road. He told the dispatcher he walked in and called out for his cousin before finding him dead with a gunshot wound.

http://www.whio.com/news/news/crime-law/7-dead-near-peebles-ohio/nq9Qw/


Community members said news that investigators found marijuana growing operations at three of the four crime scenes is not entirely surprising.

 

[Dmacky]

That's interesting. Maybe they somehow drugged the family beforehand? Food or alcohol that the kids didn't partake in? Just thought I'd throw that out there. You made me think of it.

Naw, I'm pretty sure this all happened during the middle of the night/early morning hours. Dana had worked until 11pm that night. I assumed she was already sleeping.

 

[winterrose]

Seems likely and a deputy would have more direct contact. It isn't such a huge deal but it just seems like a minor thing to put a press spin on. A spin so easily spotted can call many things into question. When dealing with the press, "no comment" is much better than a lie.

I don't think he was telling a lie, what he did in the prosecutors office before last May was prepare for grand jury, and none of the 8 killed would've had a case to go to the grand jury. The Feb case, as I said earlier, wouldn't make sense to be the Rhodens as they grow their own pot, and wouldn't need to buy tons from California.

 

[bighairdontcare]

Does anyone suppose that they were possible "growing" for someone else?
Is it possible that someone was short changed or money was skimmed?

 

[KKearns]

Exactly.

Usually the sheriff isn't the one doing the arresting. He said he wasn't familiar with these people as far as law enforcement is concerned. That isn't true.

There could be a good reason he said that or he isn't good with the press. It wasn't true and a lie is always picked up on. Was it a necessary lie or a stupid lie that make you wonder what else is a lie?

Time will tell.

 

[Betty P]

As someone that works in politics, he did a media spin for some reason. That was a spin and I know a spin. He knew the criminal records soon after this happened.

Why the spin? Seems to be an unnecessary spin which throws up red flags.

Politics always plays a part in these kinds of high profile cases. I'm sure DeWine and Kasich and others would like to see media coverage of this atrocity move off the front page.

It's probably also true that the sheriff isn't able to discuss much of the family's criminal background due to ongoing investigations with other law enforcement agencies. The problems with drug dealing, cartels, addiction, etc. have been an ongoing problem for a decade or more.

Here's an article from 2008 about drug cartels/Mexican gangs in Ohio.

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2008/08/18/drug_cartel.ART_ART_08-18-08_B6_46B2B8J.html#

 

[K.L.Puyallup]

Just gonna put this out there- saying that someone is not being completely truthful is not the same as calling them a liar. "Liar" is a derogatory label insinuating a fault in character. Being less than truthful suggests a solitary instance of questionable behavior, which could be happening based on a respectable motive. That motive has been discussed, and I haven't seen a single person suggest that the motive was nefarious.

 

[Madeleine74]

Looking at the amount of pot the Sheriff was showing in the drug bust back in Feb, why would anyone having 3 pot farms growing their own have pot sent to them from Calif? At the location of the Feb drug bust they were making the oil prob to sell the pot and oil. JMO

Likely a different strain. There are hundreds of different varieties of marijuana and cross-breeding or growing more than 1 kind is common.

 

[KKearns]

Politics always plays a part in these kinds of high profile cases. I'm sure DeWine and Kasich and others would like to see media coverage of this atrocity move off the front page.

It's probably also true that the sheriff isn't able to discuss much of the family's criminal background due to ongoing investigations with other law enforcement agencies. The problems with drug dealing, cartels, addiction, etc. have been an ongoing problem for a decade or more.

Here's an article from 2008 about drug cartels/Mexican gangs in Ohio.

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2008/08/18/drug_cartel.ART_ART_08-18-08_B6_46B2B8J.html#

Yes I can see all that. There is also the chance he doesn't have much experience with press. Saying they had minor legal issues would have just been "Oh ok" just how that question was handled makes me question and wonder and I wouldn't wonder otherwise.

 

[winterrose]

The Sheriff didn't say there were never charges against the family, he wasn't involved with any previous charges of the family. He didn't lie, and if they were the family from Feb's bust he would've just said no comment, as he said with other questions asked. It's not fair to accuse him of telling a lie when there's only assumption and theory of what has happened.

 

[jpo74]

if it was a cartel hit, wouldn't some of the family (the major ones who po'd the cartel) been kidnapped and then murdered instead of their house? to me, this screams personal since CR sr and his brother were beaten first. :thinking:

 

[KKearns]

The last comment on this, their records aren't speculation.

 

[SB23]

Likely a different strain. There are hundreds of different varieties of marijuana and cross-breeding or growing more than 1 kind is common.

I would still say that a pro grower would be requesting seeds and not mature product. Growers take pride in their green thumb and, although they might want to sample a master growers strain, they wouldn't need 38 pounds of it. Jmo

 

[K.L.Puyallup]

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