COLUMBUS – Eight autopsies, dozens of pieces of evidence, hundreds of interviews by hundreds of law enforcement personnel and authorities investigating the execution-style slayings of eight members of a southern Ohio family appear to have more questions than answers.
Authorities continue to request that those with information call 855-BCI-OHIO (224-6446) or 740-947-2111.
A coroner says seven of the eight victims were shot multiple times, and one had nine gunshot wounds. The Hamilton County coroner said Tuesday that autopsies showed some victims also had bruising. One victim was shot only once, but it’s not clear who that was.
According to Ohio attorney general Mike DeWine’s office, 61 more pieces of evidence from the scenes of a mass shooting in southern Ohio have been sent to the state Bureau of Criminal Investigation crime lab for DNA, ballistics, latent fingerprint, and trace analysis. That is in addition to 18 items already turned over to the lab.
DeWine’s office says more than 300 tips have been received, more than 215 law enforcement officials have contributed to the investigation, questioning more than 30 people, but have made no arrests and there is no word on a motive in the slayings of the members of the Rhoden family.
Investigators say some apparently were killed as they slept, including a young mother in bed with her days-old newborn nearby. The infant and two other small children weren’t harmed.
In addition to investigators from the Attorney General’s Office, Pike County Sheriff’s office and other county and local authorities from as far away as Cincinnati, the FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration are also providing assistance, DeWine said.
The brother of some of the family members says five victims will be buried side by side in a cemetery in nearby Rushtown.
Tony Rhoden tells The Columbus Dispatch his 73-year-old mother has been holding the grieving family together.
Rhoden lost two brothers, his former sister-in-law and a cousin in the slayings. He says the victims also included a teenage nephew who had just earned a driver’s license, a 19-year-old niece who worked at a nursing home and had a days-old newborn, and a 20-year-old nephew who loved to hunt and fish.