0:00

Welcome to the Pikedon Massacre, a production

0:02

of iHeartRadio and KATI Studios.

0:07

In April twenty sixteen, when eight members

0:09

of the Rodent family were murdered in their homes,

0:12

the media descended on the sleepy town of

0:14

piked In, Ohio. Community clearly

0:16

shaken after this morning's multiple homicide.

0:19

People in this small community being told

0:21

to be on alert tonight. As

0:24

news of the unthinkable and gruesome killing spread,

0:27

The small rural community is left

0:29

feeling and rumors begins swirling. Discoveries

0:32

the murder scenes are now advancing the theory

0:34

the killings could be related to a drug

0:36

cartel. Authorities aren't commenting on whether

0:38

they had any potential suspects. Goodbody,

0:41

thanks. All the bad stuff happens in the big

0:43

cities, but the devil works in it everywhere.

0:46

But in the aftermath of the arrests of six

0:48

members of the Wagner family, attention

0:51

turns to the very people responsible for the

0:53

investigation. There was this belief among

0:55

almost everybody I talked to about incompetence

0:58

when it came to law enforce smith in

1:00

that county. There's nobody

1:03

watching the watchers in these small

1:05

communities, and in many cases that

1:07

can lead to major corruption

1:10

and the dark secrets of a once quiet town

1:12

are slowly brought to light. There's been a

1:14

lot of murders here that have not

1:17

been solved. But

1:19

if I say what I think, I could probably end up

1:21

in the river. This

1:24

is the piked and Massacre Episode

1:26

five, air and Opportunity.

1:33

In the days after the killings, the Rodent murders

1:35

became an international headline and

1:37

it was a sensational story, a

1:40

series of murders, multiple potential

1:42

motives, all taking place in a small

1:44

town in Ohio. I'm

1:47

Courtney Armstrong, a TV producer at Katie

1:49

Studios, where I work with Stephanie Leidecker

1:51

and Jeff Shane. We've been following

1:53

the case for a long time and through the course of

1:55

our investigation learned that the town of

1:57

piked In, Ohio has its own story to

1:59

tell. Journalist Jeff

2:02

Winkler wrote about the story for the website

2:04

The Outline. He told me about his impressions

2:06

of the initial reporting coming out of piked In.

2:09

It was a big media story for

2:11

about two weeks, and you know, everybody

2:14

from all over came to cover it, all

2:16

over the world, and a lot of people

2:18

had been similarly executed

2:20

in the middle of Appalachia and

2:23

no one knew what was going on. I mean, I

2:25

grew up in the Ozarks in Arkansas,

2:28

and these are people I feel familiar

2:30

with. You know, when I go up to New York, California,

2:33

that's like a Disneyland, and

2:35

it's a strange people they're in place,

2:38

these these areas, and folks

2:40

like this are not wildering

2:42

to me in the same way that they weren't

2:45

the people who came down

2:47

and covered the story originally

2:49

to get a lot of talk of a

2:51

book at these people smoking and you know,

2:53

wearing camo and you know, a lot of gowking.

2:56

You know, it was just these sort of quotes from

2:58

sad, sort of back woods people is

3:00

how they're perceived, and

3:03

that's that's just not where I come from. But

3:05

I think this thing that stood up for me was

3:08

just how human everyone was. Piked

3:12

In. Resident Angie Montgomery shared her view

3:14

of the media coverage with producer Jeff

3:16

Sheen. How do you think like piked

3:19

In and like Pike County in general, I guess has

3:21

been portrayed in the media. I

3:23

don't think they've been very kind to us.

3:25

I've seen a lot of reports where they call

3:28

this uneducated kill

3:31

billy, just domb. They

3:34

think we're dumb, they think we're

3:36

a bunch of inbread. I've

3:40

actually seen that in some reports,

3:44

and it's sad. Well,

3:48

it's easy for some to view the town of piped In through

3:51

this kind of provincial, almost stereotypical

3:54

lens. It's not what we found when

3:56

we visited the area. It's pretty

3:58

far removed from the big cities of OO.

4:00

It's about an hour and a half south from Columbus,

4:03

an hour and a half east of Cincinnati,

4:05

and just under thirty minutes from the Ohio River,

4:08

which basically separates southern Ohio

4:10

from northeastern Kentucky. There's

4:13

a Walmart, there's a restaurant. There used

4:15

to be this great dive bar that has since closed,

4:17

I believe, and look for the twenty two hundred

4:19

residents piked In his home Native

4:22

Barbara and Jeff actually spoke a bit about

4:24

that when we were there. Piked In is

4:26

considered a village and it

4:30

is a small just a small little town

4:33

that has a grocery store and

4:35

a pizza shop, and gas stations

4:38

and there's a tire shop. People

4:41

sit and talk to the gas station, wherever, wherever

4:43

they go. They people know each

4:45

other and they just sit and talk. You

4:47

know, at the tire shop you're waiting for a or

4:50

an oil change or whatever. You just sit

4:52

there and chat with your neighbor or whoever

4:54

happens to come in. You probably

4:56

know who it is. You know somebody

5:00

everywhere, or you know somebody

5:03

that knows somebody everywhere anywhere

5:05

you go. I imagine that is

5:07

probably like sometimes kind of enjoyable,

5:09

and then other times it's probably pretty maddening. Yeah,

5:12

sometimes people know when when

5:14

I spend the day in my pool

5:17

or when I skip a day. If

5:19

if there's a day goes by, I don't get in my

5:21

pool. Next time I see someone

5:23

else, I'll say, how come you weren't in your pool the other

5:26

day. So it's crazy.

5:34

The majority of people we spoke with depicted

5:36

piked in this way. Small town

5:39

USA, everyone knows everyone,

5:41

nobody ever locked their doors growing up. But

5:44

when we started to pull back the curtain, it was

5:46

clear that piked In harbored some dark secrets,

5:49

secrets that didn't start with the rodents.

5:52

It seems like there's like two sides of piked In, which

5:54

is one is like the blue collar hard workers

5:57

who you know, want to raise their families

5:59

the right way, and yet somehow something

6:01

horrible still did happen to this town.

6:04

I think it's like every town, you're gonna find

6:06

that wherever you go, there's going to

6:08

be the ugly part, and

6:10

piked In has it. Jeff

6:15

spoke to Stephanne, a former piked In resident

6:17

who had recently left town. She shared

6:19

barber sentiments about the community. I

6:22

want to ask you, so you now you're in Florida and you're

6:24

away from piked In and all this, but it still

6:26

seems like it's very much a part of your DNA, right.

6:29

I haven't been home since July

6:32

a year before last, since

6:34

twenty eighteen, and I

6:38

just I don't know if I'll ever really like

6:40

go back and live there. Ever. You

6:43

know, if you look back through the history of

6:45

piked In, you know there's quite a bit of

6:48

things that just happened that, you

6:51

know, there's no explanation for get

6:53

swept under the rug. I don't

6:55

know. I think there's just more evil there than

6:58

just what happened to those eight.

7:04

Stephan's remarks left us unsettled,

7:07

but when we followed up with investigative reporter

7:09

Jodi Barr. He seemed to corroborate

7:11

her thoughts with some troubling stories he had

7:13

heard during his time covering the road in case.

7:16

This was national news the

7:19

day after a few days after it happened.

7:21

But you know, as it typically happens

7:24

with the news cycles, you know, the

7:26

national folks move on to the next big story.

7:28

We were left with that, and

7:31

we would get emails and constant questions

7:33

or phone calls about new information. Is there

7:35

anything to know? And there was nothing to know.

7:37

So my boss came to me and said, hey, can you go over

7:39

and start digging into this and see

7:42

if there's anything at all that we could find out. I

7:44

was in Pike County a lot, and

7:47

I kept getting stories about other

7:49

homicides in Pike County, and

7:51

I thought, Man, if there were that many homicides

7:54

in a county, this small man, there

7:56

could be something here that we don't yet know,

7:58

and it's worth taking a look. Through

8:02

his research, Jodi discovered that there have been

8:04

at least three recent cases in By

8:06

County involving multiple homicides.

8:09

Cases like the January twenty sixteen murders

8:11

of Candace Newsom and her teenage daughter,

8:13

Christina. They were both shot execution

8:16

style in their home. Police

8:19

finally did arrest the Newsom's neighbor for their

8:21

murders in twenty nineteen. Neighbor

8:24

Christian R. Davis, was indicted by a

8:26

grand jury, but did not plead, nor has

8:28

he been convicted, but there was plenty

8:30

of chatter on social media, none of which can

8:32

be confirmed, mentioning the possibility

8:34

of an accomplice to the murders still

8:37

at large. Candace

8:40

Newsom's sister, Darla has even spoken publicly

8:43

she thinks that her sister and niece's murder

8:45

may be related to the Rodents, stating

8:47

that they ran in the same circles.

8:51

What struck me about Candace and

8:53

Christina and was just the fact the

8:56

similarities between, Like just the idea that

8:58

in the middle of the night these people were gunned down in the in

9:00

their homes while they slept. Just

9:03

it is striking, you know, before even reading

9:05

any other details, just hearing that when

9:07

you're researching the road in case, you're like, well, that's weird.

9:10

You know, that's fifteen minutes away. It's the same exact

9:12

style of murder. Yes, And it

9:14

was just so odd that you had

9:16

that type of crime in happening in a

9:18

place like that. Then

9:21

in April twenty sixteen, just weeks before

9:23

the Rodents were killed, Douglas Eatman

9:25

and Carolyn and Tomlinson were

9:27

shot execution style in their home. According

9:34

to Jodi Barr, one detail of the crime

9:36

struck a familiar chord, a double

9:38

homicide, four children left alive.

9:41

This is very similar to the Rodent case. I

9:43

mean again, it's a striking coincidence that in

9:46

the same area this is happening. In the same

9:48

month, you know, the same month and year that the Rodents

9:50

were murdered, this has also happened. That's what led

9:52

us down the path of even looking at these cases,

9:54

because we had heard that there were other people who

9:56

were shot nol of the night, execution

9:59

style in their home. When

10:03

you're looking at the Rodent case and then

10:05

you see these other cases in a county that

10:07

small, you start asking yourself

10:09

what the hell is going on, because

10:12

it doesn't make sense that this is happening there

10:15

unless there is some sort of common denominator.

10:17

And it's still hard to believe today

10:20

that there were these types of murders that took

10:22

place in a county so

10:24

small. With so few people living

10:26

in it. I mean, you don't hear about

10:28

that in big cities, and you sit

10:30

back and you wonder to yourself,

10:33

what is going on? I mean, why is this happening.

10:38

Fortunately, police arrested Douglas Eatman's

10:40

uncle Charles and his cousin James Allen,

10:43

on suspicion of Douglas and Carolyn's

10:45

murder. Each face is twenty

10:47

to fifty years or life in prison, with

10:49

enhanced sentencing for capital offenses also

10:52

a possibility. The pair were

10:54

indicted but have not pled or been

10:56

convicted. The case is ongoing.

11:00

According to investigators, it was a drug

11:02

related killing. The motive for Candas

11:04

and Christina Newsom's murders, however, remains

11:07

unclear. But beyond the methods

11:09

of these killings, there's another thing that Jody

11:11

told us about that ties them all together. Then

11:13

in some cases people get away with

11:15

it for extended periods of time. Candice

11:18

Newsom and her teenage daughter

11:21

Christina, it took four years

11:23

before investigators charged a neighbor

11:26

and family friend with murder

11:29

in that And that's four years

11:31

and the alleged perpetrator

11:33

in that case is what a next door neighbor

11:36

and it took four years a

11:38

piece that together is just you

11:40

wonder if Pike County if people were

11:43

getting good at committing

11:45

crimes and potentially getting away

11:47

with it. One

11:50

case that remains unsolved is a two thousand

11:53

and six murder of thirty four year old Curtis

11:55

Francis and thirty year old Jennifer

11:57

Brigett. Kurt Francis and Jennifer

11:59

berg At You know, they were both

12:02

shot and killed in their beds, in their

12:04

homes in the middle of the night. And you know, when I'm

12:06

looking through these incident reports of these

12:08

murders, I go, WHOA, this sounds

12:11

very similar to the road case. You

12:14

know, two people shot in their bed in their

12:16

homes in the middle of the night, and I

12:18

thought, this is one we need to pursue.

12:23

But no one would talk. We

12:26

couldn't find out any information. All

12:28

the search warrants were sealed at the courthouse

12:31

and there's absolutely no arrest. Ten

12:33

years later, there's nothing here. We are

12:35

today still nothing. We're

12:38

in a dead end and it may never be solved.

12:42

And unfortunately there are other cases

12:44

like that there that just didn't get the attention.

12:53

We're going to take a quick break here we'll be

12:55

back in a moment. Let's

13:05

take one quick step back for a minute and really

13:07

look at the Curtis Francis and Jennifer Burgette

13:10

case. That's the couple who was also shot

13:12

in their home while they slept in two thousand

13:14

and six. They only lived

13:16

about fifteen minutes down the road from the road

13:18

in property. Fifteen minutes and

13:20

to this day, that case remains unsolved.

13:26

For Angie Montgomery, Curtis Francis's

13:28

cousin, it remains a devastating memory

13:30

without closure. She spoke to Jeff

13:32

about it. I was shocked

13:34

that I had never even heard of Curtis and Jennifer's case,

13:37

because it's a pretty it's egregious that this happened

13:39

and it's unsolved, and it just

13:42

seems crazy that another in such a small

13:44

community that something like this could happen again.

13:46

And so what I would would love to do, and maybe it would

13:49

kind of be to like walk through kurt

13:51

and Jenny's case and kind of like explain

13:53

who they were and any of the facts that you know about

13:56

the case. Well, Curtis

13:58

was a very hard working, good guy, loved

14:01

his family, loved hunting and animals,

14:03

and fishing and all that stuff, and he would

14:06

help anybody. And he was very

14:08

protective. That's one word

14:10

I like to use to describe him. Very

14:12

protective of the people. He loved. Jenny

14:15

was a good girl. He's always taking

14:17

care of others. I think they

14:19

just got messed up

14:21

with the wrong people. The

14:24

wrong people and he's referring to are local

14:27

drug dealers. The

14:29

most of the crime that happens around here,

14:32

like carthevs and

14:34

breaking and enterings and things like that, is

14:36

from drugs. There's

14:39

a huge problem with opioids

14:41

and methodmphetamine here, huge

14:44

and that probably does play a part in

14:47

every almost every murder that's

14:49

happened, probably in the past ten years.

14:52

I think the people that killed my cousin lived

14:54

I think four or five minutes

14:57

up the road from Curtain Jenny. They

14:59

were big druggillers, and

15:02

Curtis owed in some money, supposedly

15:05

for marijuana. So you feel like you know

15:07

who did it. Oh, yes,

15:13

I don't want to be that person, but

15:16

I'm pretty blunt and upfront in the

15:18

law enforcement here. They have mishandled

15:21

Curtain Jenny's case from the rip. When

15:25

Angie says law enforcement, she's talking about

15:27

the Pike County Sheriff's Office, the same

15:29

agency heavily involved in conducting

15:31

the Rodent murder investigation. In

15:35

twenty sixteen, a plumber discovered a well

15:37

that had seemed to have been mysteriously hidden

15:40

with rocks and dirt. It was on a

15:42

property that, according to eyewitness statements,

15:44

was the last place Curtis Francis was seen

15:46

on the night of his murder. The Pike

15:49

County Sheriff's Office was called in to investigate.

15:52

Officers lowered a plumber's drain camera

15:54

into the well and discovered what appeared to

15:56

be burned clothes and a gun. It

15:58

was a thirty out six was

16:00

at the bottom of the well and Curtis's

16:03

pistol that was taken to nine

16:05

of the murders, and that's what they were shot with,

16:08

a thirty out six. Both of them curtain

16:10

Jimmy with a potential murder

16:12

weapon line just thirty feet down a well.

16:14

The Pike County Sheriff's Office decided to use

16:17

a curious tactic to recover the gun. They

16:19

called in a fire truck to pump water into

16:21

the well to try and push the firearm back

16:24

up out of the well shaft. So investigators

16:26

could get their hands on it. It did

16:28

not go as planned. They blew the water

16:30

down the well, which in turn made

16:33

the ground break because

16:35

of the force of you know, a fire hose can blow

16:37

the skin off of So

16:40

they did that. This is what they told us

16:42

that happened. When they did that, it

16:45

busted the ground loose, the guns

16:47

went down into the ground,

16:50

and that they don't have the money

16:53

or the equipment to get them out,

16:55

so they hired a guy to

16:57

seal the well shut.

17:00

He's a welder. He welded the

17:02

well shut and that was it. I

17:05

think after this fiasco with the

17:08

guns in the well, when the guns were

17:10

found, and how they handled

17:13

that situation and handled

17:16

the possible murder weapons,

17:19

I think they're ashamed, and they should be. They

17:23

took probably the only hope we have

17:25

of any type of physical evidence

17:28

and blew it to smotherings basically, and

17:31

nothing's been done with it since. With

17:35

Curtis and Jennifer's case going cold, and

17:38

you decided to pursue the killers herself.

17:43

I've spent years and years. I've

17:45

got file after file after file

17:47

of things I've done.

17:50

I've actually went and got names.

17:53

I've went and talked to people. Well,

17:55

I'm just going to be honest with you. I've done with the police.

17:58

I've tried to do the police

18:00

haven't done, which is talk to people,

18:03

get information, you know, get dates, get

18:05

time, get people talking. You

18:07

know. All you've seen Kurt that day,

18:10

Okay, who was with him? What was his demeanor? Things

18:13

like that. There's eyewitness statements,

18:15

and I've tried

18:18

my best to get somebody

18:20

or anybody just to listen. It's

18:23

pretty cut and dry,

18:26

you know. It's I've had

18:28

a few people out of state

18:30

that are like retired homicide

18:32

investigators and stuff look at the case

18:35

and tell me that they can't,

18:37

for the life of them, figure out why there

18:39

hasn't been an arrest made

18:42

for the town that we you know, the size of

18:44

our town, there's been a lot of murders

18:46

here that have not been solved. It's

18:49

ridiculous. But if I

18:51

say what I think, I could probably end up in the river.

18:58

According to Jody barr Angie's thoughts

19:00

about the Pike County Sheriff's Office are shared

19:02

by many in the community. The impression

19:05

I got from the people in Pike County when I was working

19:07

there covering the road and murders.

19:09

There was this belief among almost

19:12

everybody I talked to about incompetence

19:14

when it came to law enforcement in

19:16

that county and the lack

19:19

of that sheriff's office ability

19:21

to do a large scale

19:24

murder investigation and carry that through to

19:26

a prosecution. And the man at

19:28

the head of the Pike County Sheriff's office is

19:30

none other than Sheriff Charles Reader. You've

19:34

heard about Sheriff Reader before. He's

19:37

the officer who stated he would stop at nothing

19:39

to solve the Rodents case. I've

19:41

got a message for the killers. We

19:44

will find you, the family

19:46

and the victims will

19:48

have justice one day. To

19:50

a lot of people watching these news conferences,

19:52

Reader's passionate campaign for justice was

19:55

admirable. But to journalists

19:57

like Jeff Winkler, Reader's determination,

20:00

his mishandling of the road and investigation

20:02

from the very start. It was the largest

20:04

mass murder in Ohio's

20:07

history, and the law enforcement at

20:09

the beginning, the local law enforcement was

20:12

almost comically inept to handle such

20:14

a large and bloody incident.

20:16

They were just they weren't equipped to handle

20:19

it. From the very beginning of the investigation, and

20:21

they bungled a lot of stuff

20:23

right from the get go. It was one

20:26

problem after another. Nearly

20:30

a month after the bodies were found, Sheriff Reeder

20:32

had key pieces of evidence, including

20:34

the roadents, mobile homes, and automobiles,

20:37

moved to a warehouse in the nearby town of

20:39

Waverley. Dodie

20:43

Barr was on the scene and told Jeff what he saw.

20:46

So, I'm out of the warehouse where they moved these vehicles,

20:49

the equipment from all the roadent properties

20:51

where they moved the four mobile homes where

20:53

these murders happened. There's a large

20:56

fence around this huge outdoor

20:58

lot and it is full of cars

21:01

and ATVs, farm equipment,

21:04

back hos, huge tractor

21:06

trailers. So, as a reporter

21:09

with you know, at least a small

21:12

knowledge of the chain of custody of evidence. I

21:14

know that with all this evidence just

21:17

you know, fifty yards away from me, that you've

21:19

got to have it secured

21:21

somehow. There's got to be a

21:23

peace officer someone there with a gun

21:25

and a bat swore who swear

21:28

an oath to uphold the

21:30

laws in the constitutions of the state of Ohio.

21:32

They're guarding that that was not the

21:34

case. Yeah, So this it's the largest

21:36

in criminal investigation in the state's history,

21:38

right, and the main evidence is not getting watched.

21:41

There was no one in that parking lot

21:43

watching that evidence. So when

21:45

you drive up to a warehouse and you

21:48

look and there's nothing between you

21:50

and hundreds of pieces of evidence except

21:53

air and opportunity, if

21:55

that doesn't raise a red flag, I don't think you're

21:57

doing your job. I knew at that point

22:00

time that there was something to explore

22:02

here because potentially

22:04

this evidence, if it's unguarded,

22:07

they can't establish a chain of custody. This

22:10

entire investigation could be jeopardized. So

22:12

that's why we took them. We took Mike Allen, the

22:14

former Hamilton County District Attorney. We

22:17

took him to Pike County. I called him and I said,

22:19

hey, I want to take you to Pike County. Here's

22:21

what I found. I don't want to show you what I

22:23

found yet. I just want to take you to this

22:26

warehouse and you give me your

22:28

impressions of what we see there

22:30

through the eyes of a prosecutor. Here's

22:33

Mike Allen. Jody was on

22:36

this thing like white on rice and I

22:38

went up there living and that's when I noticed

22:40

it too, and you know you've got

22:43

it. Seems to me it was close to thirty

22:45

forty, maybe even fifty vehicles

22:48

that had a fence around them. Well

22:50

that's fine, but it would have

22:52

taken an old man like me about

22:55

ten seconds to climb over that fence

22:58

and take something out of one of those vs hicles,

23:00

plant something, put something

23:02

in one of the vehicles. It just

23:05

was not done right. I mean, anybody

23:07

involved in law enforcement, from the first

23:09

week that you're at the police academy, you

23:12

learned that you must preserve

23:15

the evidence, and you must preserve that chain

23:17

of custody of the evidence. And I

23:19

don't know what, if anything, they pulled

23:22

out of any of those cars, but if

23:25

I were defending this case and they tried to

23:27

introduce any of that evidence, I

23:29

would be all over it and I would move to have

23:31

the evidence excluded because it

23:34

just was not properly secured. So

23:40

Jody began preparing a report about the evidence

23:42

fiasco for newstation Fox nineteen

23:45

and Cincinnati. Soon after, Jody

23:47

and his crew were approached by Sheriff Charles

23:50

Reader, who presented them with a curious offer.

23:52

The Sheriff's office declined to comment, but

23:54

Here is Jody's side of the story. He tried

23:56

to make a deal with us to not hear that

23:59

warehouse. Yeah, and the deal was that

24:01

he was going to give us this unfettered access where

24:03

we could do this first hundred

24:05

hours with Charlie Reider after he learned

24:08

the murders. If we wouldn't do this, that

24:10

always That still sits for me today.

24:13

It pissed me off then because

24:15

I'm like, you know, what, what do you think we are? We don't

24:17

make deals, my photographer.

24:19

Now we're you know, we got back in the car after

24:21

that, We're going, what the hell just happened here? Never

24:24

have we ever experienced that. Let's

24:30

stop here for another quick break. We'll

24:32

be back in a moment. In

24:43

June twenty nineteen, Reader was indicted on eight

24:45

felonies and eight misdemeanors. These

24:48

felony charges are not directly related

24:50

to the road and investigation. He was

24:52

accused of conflict of interest, theft

24:54

in office, and tampering with evidence, among

24:56

other nefarious activities. According

24:59

to reports, that are also allegedly stole

25:02

cash sees from drug arrest to fund

25:04

a gambling problem.

25:06

Here's investigative journalist James Pilcher.

25:09

Yeah, he had a gambling addiction and he decided,

25:11

oh, I'll just use my own forces

25:14

money to feed it. Yeah,

25:18

uh huh Man. In

25:21

places like this, and I'm not going to say it's necessarily

25:23

a lack of journalistic outlets keeping

25:26

cabs or whatever, but

25:28

there's no accountability. There's nobody watching

25:31

the watchers in these

25:33

small communities, and in

25:35

many cases that can lead to major

25:39

corruption. It's

25:42

definitely worth noting that Sheriff Reader has

25:45

pled not guilty to all of these charges.

25:47

However, to Jody Barr, it's just another

25:50

surreal event to what seems

25:52

like a never ending bizarre story. Reader

25:54

was, you know, shoulder to shoulder with

25:56

Mike DeWine, the now governor who was then

25:59

the attorney general when these

26:01

murders happened, that they together were

26:03

updating the nation about

26:05

what happened here in those days after the

26:07

murders and where

26:09

you going? Is this real? Then

26:12

you read what the indictment's alleged, and you

26:14

read what the grand jury handed up,

26:16

and then you know, you just have to assume if

26:19

a grand jury is handing up an indictment, that

26:21

there's been an investigation conducted, there

26:23

have been facts gathered, a prosecutor

26:26

has reviewed that, I mean evidence

26:28

tampering and tampering

26:30

with records. You're talking

26:32

about a guy who led the sheriff's office

26:35

and who for a time, a moment in time

26:37

when this first happened, these murders first

26:39

happened, who was also leading that investigation

26:42

until the state came in and took it over.

26:44

You just sit back and go, man, let's see where this ends.

26:46

I mean, Pike County has been a crazy ride

26:49

so ever since the end of April twenty sixteen,

26:52

and it's still right now. You've

26:54

got people awaiting trial facing

26:57

the death penalty on eight murders. The

27:00

sheriff and dited removed from office.

27:03

It has been an absolutely crazy half a

27:05

decade. There still

27:09

the people of pikes And are torn about Sheriff Reader.

27:12

He put this town before him. He cared

27:14

about Pike County. Here's Rhaden family

27:16

friend Brittany talking to Stephanie Leidecker.

27:19

If it wasn't for him, he for Charlie

27:22

Reader, they wouldn't have came

27:24

close to even finding out about

27:27

the Wagners. Honestly, that's my

27:29

opinion. How come because

27:31

he worked his ass off to find

27:35

like that's all he did was investigate all

27:38

of that. He didn't like,

27:40

he didn't like he had done

27:42

his job, Like he went and you

27:45

know, like he was doing

27:47

really well in Pike County, like keeping this, like

27:50

getting the drugs off the streets and whatnot.

27:52

But he still made effort

27:55

a lot of effort into the

27:57

road In case. Charlie had dedicated

28:00

himself to getting justice for the road and family,

28:02

and then he was booted, not that

28:04

that long ago. Apparently he

28:07

was taking the money from

28:09

the Rodent case for gambling. But

28:11

honestly, I don't believe it because I

28:14

don't know. I just don't believe that they

28:17

just were finding reasons to get him out of

28:19

office. Andrew

28:25

Montgomery holds a much different view of Sheriff

28:28

Reader. You know, now he's blaming his

28:30

gambling habits on because what

28:33

he's seen is the Rodent crime

28:35

scenes have haunted in so much he couldn't

28:38

sleep, so he would go gamble. Well, I'm

28:40

known Charlie for thirty years and he's

28:42

been gambling way before this

28:44

happened. And that's

28:46

just that, just to me shows

28:49

you his character. You know, I'm

28:51

going to use the death of eight people to

28:53

try to smooth over that I'm still in money

28:55

off my county and gambling, and

28:58

that is discuss things to

29:00

me. I just

29:02

think there's a lot of dirty deeds that going around

29:05

here, and I think that they will

29:07

do anything they can to keep them covered

29:09

up. Do

29:14

we have a lot of crime here? Yeah, because

29:18

of drugs. Do we have a lot of drug

29:21

activity here? Yes, way

29:23

more than there was fifteen years

29:25

ago. Is it safe here? I'm

29:28

more scared of law enforcement than

29:31

I am of the people that killed my

29:33

cousin. You're

29:35

afraid to say anything when

29:37

in all reality, yeah, some things

29:39

are out there that you

29:41

think because you go down a ton of rabbit holes

29:44

when you talk to two and three hundred people like I have

29:46

over the course of two

29:49

years, you find out a lot of crap and

29:51

it does take you down those rabbit holes. Is

29:53

it true? You don't know, but my god,

29:55

it looks like something isn't right. Hike

30:04

County is It's beautiful

30:07

as far as landscapes, it's a beautiful

30:09

place. You know. We're full of farmers

30:11

and just down to earth people. But

30:14

there's a lot of dirty people here too,

30:16

and most of them are in

30:19

power. So

30:24

with sheriff readers ethics being brought

30:26

into question. Does this impact the charges

30:28

brought against the Wagoners? Here's

30:32

Jeff wein Glair again. I would assume,

30:34

you know, the charges against Reader, the

30:36

felonies and the misdemeanors about being

30:39

you know, through and through corrupt, and when

30:41

it came to both law enforcement

30:43

and financial dealings. Yeah, I would

30:45

assume this is going to affect a lot of things.

30:48

In fact, the prosecutor

30:50

for the piped in area also

30:52

just resigned. This

30:56

just sort of makes you start thinking about everything that happened

30:58

in the beginning. Now

31:00

you're seeing these charges and these

31:03

resignations, and you know, it

31:06

doesn't speak well about finding

31:08

any answers to this thing. Every

31:12

answer we get about what happened to the road and

31:14

seems to leave more questions. So

31:17

how through all of these other crimes did official

31:19

zero went on? The Wagner's Police received

31:22

over eleven hundred tips, They conducted

31:24

over five hundred interviews, tested

31:27

about seven hundred pieces of evidence,

31:29

served close to two hundred search warrants,

31:32

subpoenas and other things. So this

31:34

was something that was huge. So

31:36

when you read these indictments, you know they

31:38

were talking about the Wagner's movements even

31:40

months before these murders happened, four

31:43

months to plan this south. I mean,

31:45

if that's every day for four months, that's the full

31:47

time job. You know, they're hacking

31:49

computers and there were surveillance cameras

31:52

on those properties. If we are to believe

31:54

that the prosecution as a lege,

31:57

you know, this paints a very

31:59

dark pick. Everybody

32:02

had started basically attacking them the

32:05

community, accusing them of

32:08

murdering those people. One

32:12

day, she was, I can't believe that they just won't leave us

32:14

alone. They just will

32:16

not leave us alone. We're starting

32:18

to get really worried that we're going to be arrested.

32:26

More to come next week. Pikeed

32:31

In Massacre is executive produced by Stephanie

32:33

Leidecker and me Courtney Armstrong. Editing

32:36

and sound design by executive producer Jared

32:38

Aston. Additional producing by

32:40

Jeff Shane and Andrew Becker. The

32:43

piked In Massacre is a production of iHeartRadio

32:45

and Kati Studios. For more podcasts

32:48

from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio

32:50

app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen

32:52

to your favorite shows.

32:59

Please welcome Markite County Doglin Festival

33:01

Queen Lord,

33:04

I just thank you for bringing us all together

33:06

as a community.

33:10

Okay, I'm all dead, the

33:13

blood all over the house. Who

33:15

could have killed eight family members in

33:18

one night. I lost my best

33:20

friends and I will never be the

33:22

same because of that day. Four

33:25

crime scenes, no DNA, no

33:28

witnesses. The killer left

33:30

those children laying in

33:32

their mother's blood. The

33:34

word that comes to mind is overkill.

33:36

Who was the master mind. I'm

33:39

telling you it's a framer.

33:42

I'm not sitting in prison. One

33:44

thing I learned, the

33:46

smaller the town, the bigger

33:49

the sacreds. Be

33:51

sure to watch our upcoming documentary,

33:54

The Pike County Murders, a family Massacre,

33:56

premiering on NBC Universal's

33:58

Oxygen Network and also streaming

34:01

on Peacock this Thanksgiving Day

34:03

weekend November twenty fourth and

34:05

November twenty fifth. Please check your local

34:07

listings and our hearts are with the Rodents

34:10

and the Gilly families.