PIKETON, Ohio — Eight members of a family, including a mother sleeping in a bed with her 4-day-old baby next to her, were fatally shot in the head on Friday, leaving their rural town terrified and reeling while a manhunt was launched for whoever’s responsible.
Three children, including the newborn, survived the grisly killings that left seven adults and a 16-year-old boy dead in four homes in Pike County, said Attorney General Mike DeWine and Pike County Sheriff Charles Reader at an afternoon news conference. The economically distressed county in the Appalachian Mountain region has some 28,000 residents and is roughly 80 miles east of Cincinnati.
DeWine said there were no indications that any of the dead killed themselves, and Reader said if the shooter or shooters are at large, they should be considered armed and “extremely dangerous.”
DeWine said, “There may be more than one, there may be three. We just don’t know at this point.”
Some of the victims were in bed, indicating they were shot while they were sleeping, authorities said. The victims were identified as members of the Rhoden family. Authorities said some, not all, were killed in bed.
“It’s heartbreaking,” DeWine said. “The one mom was killed in her bed with the 4-day-old right there.”
A motive isn’t clear, authorities said, but they urged other members of the Rhoden family to take precautions, and Reader advised all residents to stay inside and lock their doors Friday night.
“This really is a question of public safety, and particularly for any of the Rhoden family,” DeWine said.
The first three homes where bodies were found are within a couple miles of one another on a sparsely populated stretch of road, while the eighth body – a man – was found in a house within 30 miles, the sheriff said.
The other surviving children were 6 months old and 3 years old, authorities said. Reader wouldn’t say where they were taken Friday.
Authorities didn’t release any information on whether there were multiple weapons used or whether anything was missing from the homes.
Neighbors and relatives also said the Rhoden family lived in the large area closed off by investigators and its various members of the family lived scattered among three different trailers, including the mother Dana Rhoden, her ex-husband, several children and grandchildren.
“It was a mother, her former husband, their grown children and some grandchildren, too. They all used to attend our church,” said Phil Fulton, pastor of the nearby Union Hill Community Church. Dana Rhoden worked at a nursing home for the elderly, he said. She had just bought a new mobile home near the two existing trailers occupied by her ex-husband and her son, Fulton said. All three trailers are less than a mile apart.
Neighbors and relatives said the ex-husband was one of those killed.
“They were very good people,” said a relative of Dana Rhoden, who did not want to be identified.”She was so good with her kids and her grandbaby. We’re just brokenhearted.”
Many among the Rhoden’s relatives were still awaiting word on exactly which members of the large family were killed, the relative said.
Video from local TV news outlets showed law enforcement vehicles clustered around the trailers on a stretch of Union Hill Road, where authorities say the incident occurred. Neighbors there describe it as a rural area of mostly mobile homes.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who was in Pennsylvania for his presidential campaign, said his office was monitoring the situation. “Reports we are receiving from Peebles are tragic beyond comprehension,” wrote Kasich on Twitter, referring to the town bordering Piketon.
The FBI in Cincinnati also said it was closely monitoring the situation and has offered assistance to the Pike County sheriff’s office if needed.
Peebles High School imposed a precautionary lockout Friday morning after authorities notified the superintendent of shootings that had occurred a few miles away, according to Regina Bennington, secretary to the superintendent for the Adams County Ohio Valley Schools district.
High school officials said the school was back to normal operations later Friday morning.
Piketon is the site of a Cold War-era uranium plant that was closed in 2001 and is still being cleaned up.
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