Dive team searching pond on Wagner property

UPDATE: 4:10 PM: The Guardian has learned that a dive team is searching a pond on the Wagner property. In addition, agents are combing the area with a metal detector. They tell us they are expected to be at the property until Friday afternoon, which is a total of five days.

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UPDATE 8:58 PM: BCI confirms the search warrant is centered around the homicide investigation of the Rhoden murders.

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ORIGINAL STORY:

The Guardian has learned that a search warrant is being conducted right now, November 6, 2019, at Fredericka Wagner’s property, The Flying W farm, by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations and the Pike County Sheriff’s office. The warrant has been on-going since Monday.

Wagner was arrested in November last year and held on house arrest until spring, when she was released on $100,000 bond. She was accused of lying to a grand jury in the Rhoden Homicide Investigation. Wagner’s attorneys filed a motion that she be allowed to leave home to go to church, which she had done for more than 40 years, she said.

In June, the charges were dropped against Wagner.

Wagner’s son, daughter-in-law and two grandsons are accused of killing eight members of the Rhoden family. All four have pleaded not guilty.

George “Billy” Wagner III (47), his wife Angela Wagner (48) and their sons Jake Wagner (26) and George Wagner IV (27) were arrested in November and charged with planning and carrying out the eight murders at three homes in Pike County, authorities said. Each is facing eight charges of aggravated murder with death penalty specifications and other crimes.

Jake Wagner had a child with one of the victims, 19-year-old Hanna Rhoden, and their custody fight “played a role” in the murders, then Attorney General Mike DeWine said.

Keep refreshing this page as this story develops.