PEEBLES, Ohio — The voice of the young woman who found the first of eight victims of execution-style killings in rural Ohio was breathless and distraught as she told the 911 dispatcher of her grim discovery: There was "blood all over the house" and the bodies of her brother-in-law and a cousin looked as if someone "beat the hell out of them."
The dramatic 911 calls that came in to the Pike County Sheriff's Office on Friday offered a chilling backdrop to the shooting deaths of members of one family — the Rhodens — that have left this small community 70 miles east of Cincinnati reeling.
The initial frantic call, from a woman who identified herself as Bobby, came in at 7:49 a.m. Friday and the second came in at 1:26 p.m., with the discovery several miles away of the last of the eight bodies.
Bobby, gasping for breath, told the dispatcher that the house on Union Mill Road in rural Pike County was locked but she had a key and had let herself in.
Bobby, who apparently stopped by each morning to feed the dogs and chickens, said she found the bodies of her brother-in-law, Chris Rhoden, and a cousin, Gary Rhoden, in the back bedrooms.
"I think they are both dead," she said, sobbing. "It looks like some(one) beat the crap out of them, and I came in and they were laying on the floor."
County officials say all of the victims, found at four separate homes, had been shot in the head, some while in their bed. Three children, including a 4-day-old, survived the ordeal.
"There's blood all over the house," Bobby said.
As word of the killings spread Friday morning, Donald Stone, like many other Pike County residents, decided to go check on his cousin Kenneth Rhoden, who lived on Left Fork Road, only a few miles away from Union Mill Road.
His call to 911, measured and calm, brought a equally grim finding.
Stone: "All this stuff that's on the news I just found my cousin with a gunshot wound."
Dispatcher: "Is he alive?"
Stone: "No, no."
"I just went in and was hollering for him, checked in to see if he was all right, and I looked up and he had a gunshot wound," Stone told the dispatcher.
As this rural Appalachian community sought to make sense of the killings, local and state law enforcement officers offered no immediate explanation for the motive, or any idea who committed them.
The carnage revealed itself slowly as sheriff’s deputies moved from home to home, drawn first by Bobby's 911 call and then by the horrifying realization that the victims were killed at four locations in this otherwise serene farmland region.
Some might have been sleeping when the killer came for them before dawn Friday. Men and women. A teenager. A young mother in bed with her 4-day-old baby.
State and local authorities said in a statement Saturday that investigators "worked through the night, talking to individuals, gathering information, and executing search warrants," but had not made any arrests in the case.
Police detained a “person of interest” in Chillicothe late Friday for questioning, but Ohio Attorney General DeWine said the person was one of 30 people interviewed in connection with the case, some of whom were from Chillicothe, located about 40 miles northeast of the crime scenes.
In addition, a Cincinnati-area businessman, Jeff Ruby, on Saturday offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the killer or killers.
DeWine said evidence from the crime scenes suggest none of the dead committed suicide. If that finding holds up, he said, it would mean at least one suspect remains on the loose.
“So obviously we have one person … who is armed and dangerous,” the attorney general said. “And there may be more than one. There may be two. There may be three. We just don’t know at this point.”
He said every precaution would be taken to protect other members of the victims’ family.
“It’s heartbreaking,” said DeWine, whose office sent more than 30 investigators to the crime scenes. “This is a horrible tragedy.” Three small children, including the 4-day-old baby, survived. DeWine said the baby was asleep in bed with its mother when the mother was killed.
The Rhoden family issued a statement Saturday thanking the community for its "outpouring of prayers" as well as officials, first responders and law enforcement officers. The statement also "asks everyone to be respectful of the family of their loss at this time" but emphasized the family wants anyone with information in the case to contact authorities.
Pike County Sheriff Charles Reader initially chalked up the uncertainty about possible suspects to the complexity of the investigation, spanning four crime scenes.
At a later press conference Friday night, Reader said there was “no specific threat to the community” and it appeared the family had been targeted. DeWine said it was “highly unlikely” that a murder-suicide had taken place.
Authorities urged anyone with information that could help to call them. “Every tip that comes in, we’re running down,” DeWine said.
Officials would not confirm possible motives or the identities of the victims, other than that they all are members of the Rhoden family, a large and well-known group in the community.
Pastor Phil Fulton, of Union Hill Church, said one of the dead is 37-year-old Dana Manley Rhoden, Christopher Rhoden’s ex-wife.
As word of the slayings spread quickly through the small community, family and friends began to gather at the Union Hill Church. Family members didn’t want to talk publicly about the shootings, but Fulton said he would preach about it Sunday.
“We’ll be offering prayer for the families,” he said. “Love your kids. Love your families.”
Others in the area had more immediate concerns about their own families. Some were alarmed that authorities seemed uncertain about whether the killer could still be roaming their community.
At the Dogwood Festival in nearby Piketon on Friday night, there was a smaller crowd and fewer children than Tina Miller would have expected. The conversations started with the usual greetings, she said, but inevitably turned to, “did you hear what happened?”
“It’s just sad,” Miller said. “You can look at everyone’s faces and know that something’s wrong.”
Two bodies were found at one location on Union Hill Road, then five more at two more houses up the same road. Later in the day, officials were alerted to a fourth crime scene on Left Fork Road, where a 16-year-old boy was found dead.
At an evening press conference, Sheriff Reader was asked whether residents should lock their doors and stay alert until the case is resolved.
“I would,” he said.
Nealeigh reports for the Chillicothe Gazette; Stanglin reported from McLean, Va. Contributing from the Gazette: Dan Horn, Chris Balusik, Jona Ison, Jessie Balmert, Hannah Sparling, Cameron Knight, Sam Greene, Jess Grimm, Kareem Elgazzar, Mike Throne
