The Piketon Massacre: 1 night. 4 crime scenes. 8 Murders.
Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan
CrimeOnline and iHeartPodcasts
4.8 • 1.8K Ratings
🗓️ 21 November 2023
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Hanna Rhoden,15, gives birth to a daughter. 2-years later, Rhoden and the baby's father, Jake Wagner, fight over custody. A custody battle begins and the Wagner family pressures Hanna to give up her daughter. The Wagners hack Hanna Rhoden's Facebook account and read a private message in which Hanna vows she will not give up the child, quote "they (the Wagners) will have to kill me first." That is exactly what happens.
The Wagner family decide to not only kill Hanna Rhoden, but the rest of her family, anyone who might stand in the way of the Wagner family gaining custody of the little girl. The Wagner family plan is to take out the Rhoden family in one night, four locations, eight murders.
Join Joseph Scott Morgan and Dave Mack as they dig deep into the Pike County Murders. Joseph Scott Morgan gives a firsthand account of the crime scenes and the forensic evidence left behind.
Time code highlights:
00:00:02 Joseph Scott Morgan asked to take part as a forensic expert in a complex case
00:02:12 Discussion about the investigation of the Pike County Murders
00:02:37 Description: One night. Four Scenes. Eight Murders
00:03:09 Description of two families that have been friends a long time
00:03:16 Discussion about Hanna Rhoden becomes pregnant with Jake Wagner's baby when she is 15-years-old. Hanna Rhoden breaks up with Jake Wagner
00:04:01 The Wagner's tried to force Hanna Roden to sign papers to turn custody of Sophia over to Jake.
00:04:22 Discussion of Wagner family plan to kill Hanna Rhoden to get custody
00:05:01 Discussion of the first person to be murdered and location of murder scene
00:06:50 Discussion of shots fired through wall first, Chris Rhoden was shot 9 times
00:07:36 Discussion of second victim, Gary Rhoden, visiting from Kentucky
00:10:06 Talk about the injuries to Chris Rhoden's arm
00:11:01 Description of head shots to both Chris Rhoden and Gary Rhoden
00:12:24 Talk of how Wagner Sr said "I just killed my best friend"
00:16:25 The Wagner's didn't know Gary Rhoden would be at the scene
00:17:30 Discussion of the Wagner's make silencers for their weapons
00:19:38 Joseph Scott Morgan talks about being at the site and what it looked like,
00:21:56 The Wagner's arrived at Chris Rhoden's house barefoot but put on shoes inside the house.
00:22:44 Investigator researched shoe print found in Rhoden trailer and found a match
00:24:45 The forensic shoe print match the best evidence used to convict
00:25:34 Description of second murder scene. Frankie Rhoden, Hannah Gilley, and two small children.
00:25:26 Older child came to door (the next morning) and said "daddy's playing zombie"
00:27:10 Discussion of Hannah Gilley was shot 5 times in the head
00:30:25 Discussion of distance from Frankie Rhoden's house to Dana Rhoden home
00:32:37 Dana Rhoden's home was unlocked, Dana Rhoden's face was illuminated by her phone, made eye contact with Jake Wagner and he shot and killed Dana Rhoden
00:33:40 Discussion of Hanna May Rhoden being the reason for the murders
00:34:00 Discussion of Hanna Rhoden had baby 4 days earlier
00:34:15 The child Hanna Rhoden had with Jake Wagner was with the Wagner family at the time of the murders
00:34:35 Discussion of Jake Wagner placing baby next to body of Hanna May Rhoden so the baby could feed off the dead mother
00:36:01 Discussion of Hanna Rhoden and Hannah Gilley both shot 5 times in the head
00:36:45 Chris Rhoden jr, 16, shot dead in bed
00:37:45 Discussion of Kenneth Rhoden living in travel trailer 7 miles from the other scenes, shot once in head.
00:41:22 Discussion of Jake Wagner and his brother going to great lengths to get rid of weapons
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Bodybags with Joseph Scott Morgan. A few years ago, I got a phone call from a friend of mine who runs a production company out in LA. |
| 0:27.6 | She asked me if I'd like to take on the task of being a forensic expert on a podcast that actually had already started but she really needed |
| 0:37.1 | the voice and maybe the lens of a forensics person on this |
| 0:45.0 | because arguably is you'll find out soon the deaths that we're talking about are some of the most complex |
| 0:49.0 | that you can |
| 0:51.0 | imagine when it comes to death investigation in my area of specialty |
| 0:57.4 | medical legal death investigation. |
| 1:00.4 | And without batting an eye, of course, I said, certainly I'll be glad to. |
| 1:05.0 | It's one of those moments in time where, be careful what you ask for, |
| 1:10.0 | because I really didn't know what I was getting involved with at the time because when |
| 1:16.3 | friends I asked you to do stuff for them you generally say sure I'll help you any |
| 1:20.8 | way I can and in this case I became so involved in the |
| 1:27.0 | investigation and coverage of these deaths that I found myself many evenings after doing a |
| 1:36.4 | taping session crying. I'm not ashamed to admit that because this goes to the heart of everything that I place value on in my life, namely family. |
| 1:52.0 | We're going to have a discussion today about what has infamously become known as the Pike |
| 1:59.7 | County murders or maybe better known to some of you as the Pyckton Massacre. |
| 2:05.0 | I'm Joseph Scott Morgan and this is body bags. |
| 2:14.0 | First off, Dave Mack, thank you so much for agreeing to discuss just how complex |
| 2:21.0 | telling this tale is from a forensic standpoint of the deaths of eight people who |
| 2:26.4 | eight people were murdered at night yeah at night and let me go ahead and throw the tagline in here |
| 2:33.6 | go something like one night, four scenes, eight murders. |
| 2:38.7 | And I think that any one of those points, one night, that's significant when you couple that with eight homicides that were |
... |
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