WAVERLY, Ohio — On the day investigators issued a plea to Pike County residents for video pertaining to the April 22 mass killing of seven family members and a fiancee, surviving relatives said video cameras might have been in operation at two scenes of the crimes.
Authorities have acquired video in what is on course to become the most time-consuming investigation in Ohio history but need more of it, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said Tuesday.
"We reached out to people initially that we thought might have video," DeWine said during a media session in his Cincinnati office. "We were able to obtain some video."
Shot to death on April 22 were these victims:
- Christopher Rhoden Sr., 40.
- His ex-wife, Dana, 37.
- Their three children, Clarence "Frankie,'' 20; Hanna, 19; and Christopher Jr., 16
- Christopher Rhoden Sr.'s brother, Kenneth, 44, and their cousin, Gary Rhoden, 38.
- And Frankie Rhoden's fiancee, Hannah Gilley, 20.
Just before meeting with reporters, DeWine's office sent a news release requesting more footage from residents and businesses near the Rhoden family property.
"This is just an attempt to get anything that has been missed," he said.
Leonard Manley, the father of Dana Rhoden, said his former son-in-law had at least two video cameras mounted to a building near the entrance of his trailer. When motorists arrived at this driveway, a sensor would turn lights on.
“You could clearly see the cars and even the people inside," said Manley, sitting outside his home Tuesday about 85 miles east of Cincinnati.
He said he believed Christopher Rhoden Sr. kept the cameras on at all times but Manley did not know if authorities had video from those cameras. DeWine and investigators have chosen not to release details of their investigation, now nearly three weeks old.
Manley’s youngest daughter, Bobby Jo Manley, told The Enquirer that Kenneth Rhoden also had a video security system at his trailer about eight miles away. She said she knew they were there because she had cleaned his trailer on occasion.
She said she did not know if authorities had obtained any video footage from those cameras.
During Tuesday's media session, DeWine declined to comment on potential video footage from the Rhoden properties. He also declined to provide a radius limiting the request for video footage but did say investigators were seeking video from overnight and the mornings of April 21 and April 22.
"It can be anything that has any relevancy," he said. "Obviously this would include, but not exclusively be, any movement of any vehicles."
Since the investigation started, Leonard Manley said authorities have taken 100 to 150 vehicles from the properties around Christopher Rhoden Sr.’s home as well as a backhoe and another piece of farming equipment.
On Monday, he and Bobby Jo Manley said authorities towed a semi tractor-trailer from the property.
It had “flea market stuff” in it, Bobby Jo Manley said. Four of the cars that authorities have taken are her cars, she said.
Others were in various stages of repair waiting to be sold or were scavenged for parts, Leonard Manley said.
DeWine would not discuss those details Tuesday, but he previously has confirmed that authorities had taken vehicles off the property.
Christopher Rhoden Sr., owned about 30 acres of property in and around the crime scenes, according to property records.
Throughout the investigation, DeWine has declined to step into the whirling rumor mill except to confirm marijuana-grow operations on Rhoden property and the potential of cock-fighting activity there.
Instead, the flow of information has centered on the numbers. The numbers of interviews conducted, number of tips received and amount of staff dedicated to unfurling the mystery. Those have jumped to more than 120, 500 and 90, respectively.
"We have on the scene, not only very competent but also very experienced investigators from BCI (the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation) who are working very closely with the sheriff," DeWine said.
Typically, around 20 bureau staffers at the crime scenes and two or three special prosecutors also working the case, he said. The single-day number of investigators on the ground in Pike County has peaked at 40.
The 90 agents working the case accounts for roughly 25%t of the bureau's staff, DeWine said.
“This is very unusual — four crime scenes linked to the same crime, all of them open and all at the same time," he said. "My guess is by the time this is done, it will be the biggest investigation BCI has ever done in terms of hours logged on one case."
Pike County commissioners are paying for a pair of billboards, located along U.S. 23 at the north and south ends of Waverly, to list the two tip lines used for the investigation: 1-855-BCI-OHIO and 740-947-2111.
DeWine declined to say when surviving family members would be allowed back on their properties.
"Our goal is not just an arrest. Our goal is a conviction," he said.
Contributing: Jeremy Fugleberg, The Cincinnati Enquirer, from Cincinnati. Follow Bob Strickley and Chris Graves on Twitter: @rjstrickleyjr and @chrisgraves
