WAVERLY, Ohio — The seventh day of trial in George Wagner IV’s trial in Pike County was spent with the coroner going over the autopsies.
Dr. Karen Looman, the chief deputy coroner for Hamilton County, where the autopsies for all eight Rhoden victims were conducted took the stand. Looman testified how she autopsied the women on Saturday, the men on Sunday, and Chris Rhoden Sr. on Monday, after the homicides. The reason for this was, she said Chris Sr. appeared to look the worst injured and she wanted to focus on him in detail.
CHRIS RHODEN SR.
Chris Rhoden Sr. was shot nine times and arrived at the coroner in a body bag. Dr. Looman said Chris Sr. appeared to be the most decomposed body of the eight and had the “most serious injuries.” According to the unredacted autopsy report, Chris Sr. was shot in his right cheek four times, his right jaw once, head and neck once, his torso twice, and his right arm once. One major bombshell from Tuesday that the jury learned was that Chris Sr. was decapitated.
Dr. Looman testified that when she unclothed Chris Sr. bullets fell out of his clothing. During her testimony, Prosecutor Angela Canepa showed photos of the autopsy and then, opened evidence bags of the clothes that Chris Sr. was wearing. The jury was shown the hoodie, jeans, shirt, and shoes that he was wearing when he was killed. The clothes had been stored in a sealed evidence bag for the last 6.5 years and contained blood stains.
Looman said Chris Sr. was shot a total of six times to the face, and the first shot was one inch-to-three foot away from his face, and then the remaining four shots to his face happened after he was “down” and “not moving.” She testified those four succeeding shots were “very close, but [the gun was] not touching” his face.
Two more bullets were recovered from the back of Chris Sr.’s skull, and one went through the front of his face and “cut his spine,” according to Dr. Looman. She said that the severance of the spine was called “internal decapitation,” which means Chris Sr.’s head was completely cut from his body but was hanging attached by his skin and muscle.
One bullet also went through Chris Sr.’s heart, Dr. Looman tested. In total, he was shot by two guns: eight bullets from one firearm and then a ninth from a “high-powered” rife, the doctor said. The state has alleged that the Wagner family used silencers to carry out the homicides. The doctor said she is not sure if Chris Sr. was shot with a silencer and said that she could not tell because the use of a silencer would not impact the wound, which is what she studied; not the gun.
In his toxicology report, Chris Sr. only tested positive for caffeine, the doctor said. Initially, he tested positive for benzodiazepines, but that was later ruled out as a “false positive” caused by decomposition, the doctor said,
“It is my opinion, based on the autopsy findings and the information available to me at the time of the autopsy that the cause of death is multiple wounds to the head, torso, and upper extremity,” Dr. Looman said.
