Report: ‘They really don’t bother me,’ Fredericka Wagner says of BCI agents in new interview
Fredericka Wagner, 77, was accused of Perjury and obstruction of justice in the massacre, but her charges were dropped and she’s maintained her innocence. (Source: WXIX)
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Sarah Hager | November 8, 2019 at 1:56 PM EST - Updated November 8 at 6:04 PM
PIKE COUNTY, Ohio (FOX19) - The Wagner family matriarch gave an interview to a local news paper about the new search warrant executed on her property at Flying W Farms in Pike County.
The Ohio Attorney General’s Office Bureau of Criminal Investigation and other law enforcement agencies spent five days in Pike County after serving a search warrant on the farm Monday.
According to the BCI, the search warrant involves the Rhoden family murder case.
Fredericka Wagner, 77, was accused of perjury and obstruction of justice in the massacre, but her charges were dropped and she’s maintained her innocence.
“It was dismissed because I was innocent. They have no evidence against me. I was innocent,” Wagner said outside of court in June.
Prosecutors accused Wagner of covering up the murders by lying about bulletproof vests she bought online, but her attorneys said a receipt she provided shows she purchased them after the murders, not the night of.
Rita Newcomb, the mother of Angela Wagner, is charged with obstructing justice, perjury and three counts of forgery.
Wagner spoke with the Scioto Valley Guardian Thursday about the latest search of her property.
She told the Guardian’s Derek Myers she barely notices a team of agents on her 2,000 acre property.
“They’re just outside, looking around, but they don’t really bother me,” Wagner told Myers. It was noted the agents had metal detectors and dive teams.
She told the Guardian BCI did not tell her what they were searching for when they knocked on her door Monday and told her they would be conducting a five-day search on the farm
“They’re not under my feet. I hardly see them,” Wagner told the Guardian.
The newspaper says Wagner is worth millions of dollars, according to public records.
They say she owns the most land in Pike County, saying they were told that information by locals, and say property records with the county show the land she owns is valued at $4 million.
The Guardian also says Wagner owns businesses including the breeding of rare horses and exotic animals, some of which have won the Kentucky Derby.
Myers said in the article photos posted on social media showed agents searching a small lake on the property.
“It’s not that very deep,” she told Myers. “They didn’t really say [what they were looking for].” He noted she laughed when he asked her about it.
He also says she told him she was a ‘woman of God’ and maintained the innocence of her children.
“It will all turn out in the end, I have a lot of faith in that,” she told the Guardian. “I’m innocent. They didn’t have any evidence against me, and also, my children are innocent.”
Gov. Mike DeWine said last year the custody of the couple’s daughter, Sophia, who is now 5, was a major factor in the massacre.