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Pike County Shooting Update: $25,000 Reward Offered In Hunt For Suspect Who Killed Eight Family Members In Ohio

By Nathan Francis
Published on: 12:24 PST, Apr 23, 2016

The Pike County, Ohio, shooting that left eight members of a family dead remains unsolved, and now a local businessman is offering $25,000 for anyone who can identify the suspect who committed the massacre.

Police on Friday discovered the execution-style killing of eight members of the Rhoden family, with the killings spread across four different homes. The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations and local police have reportedly interviewed more than 30 people including potential witnesses, while also executing a score of search warrants. But still the suspect or suspects in the Pike County killings remain unidentified.

“The investigation is still in its early stages, and no arrests have been made,” said a joint statement from the Ohio attorney general and the Pike County sheriff.

Now, the owner of a series of restaurants in the Cincinnati area is chipping in to help find the Pike County shooting suspect. Jeff Ruby has offered $25,000 for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person or people responsible for the slayings, Reuters reported.

Police on Saturday identified those killed in the series of shootings — Hannah Gilley, 20; Christopher Rhoden Sr, 40; Christopher Rhoden Jr, 16; Clarence “Frankie” Rhoden, 20; Dana Rhoden, 37; Gary Rhoden, 38; Hanna Rhoden, 19; and Kenneth Rhoden, 44.

Given the scope of the crime and the wide-ranging crime scene, officials said the investigation will be difficult and will likely take a long time. Local officials said it would take to the end of the week just to complete autopsies for the eight people killed. All victims were reportedly killed with gunshots to the head, including the mother of a four-day-old infant.

“I can’t believe how anyone could kill a mother with her four-day-old baby in her arms,” Phil Fulton, pastor of the nearby Union Hill Church told CNN.

Police said they believe that the mother, Hanna Rhoden, was killed in her sleep. Her infant, along with other children in the home, was not harmed.

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine noted that it was not considered an “active shooter situation” any longer, but authorities said they believe the suspect is armed and dangerous.

Police have also released new details on the Pike County murders, including the frightened 911 phone call that first alerted authorities to the killings. In audio released by the state attorney general’s office, a woman could be heard telling a dispatcher that there was “blood all over the house.”

“I think my brother-in-law’s dead,” she said (via ABC News), adding that it looked like someone had “beat the c**p out of them.”

“I think they’re both dead,” the woman said before breaking down into sobs.

Authorities said a second call came in a few hours later from a house within walking distance of the first crime scene. The caller told dispatchers that his cousin had been shot.

“I just went in hollering at him… And I looked up at him and he had a gunshot wound,” he said.

Police said the other two crime scenes were within a 10-minute drive in the rural and economically depressed county.

Authorities are still putting together the timeline of the Pike County murders, saying that the first 911 call came in just before 8 a.m. It also took investigators some time to determine that none of the victims had committed suicide, meaning that a suspect was still on the loose.

Police have not yet said if they have a suspect in mind for the Pike County murders.

[Photo by John Minchillo/AP Images]

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