WAVERLY, Ohio — Jake Wagner testified on Tuesday about how he and his family carried out the mass murder of eight members of the Rhoden family in 2016.
In the trial of his brother, George Wagner IV, Jake said that their father, Billy, planned the killings and how they disposed of the evidence, including the murder weapons. Jake Wagner said he “cut” the murder weapons in half and that George helped him, describing his brother as “strong as a bull ox.” Jake Wagner went on to say that he, himself, melted the firing pins to the weapons using a torch to prevent tracing any fired shell casings back to him.
Initially, Jake Wagner said what pieces were left of the guns were put in a duffle bag and buried in a hole on the family’s land under a barn, but that he and his father dug the duffel back up later and put the gun pieces in 5-gallon buckets filled with concrete. The buckets with the gun pieces were filled with cement and put into the water as anchors for a goose house the family built for Frederick’s ailing husband, Bob. The anchors would later sink to the bottom of a family pond on the Flying W farm, where BCI agents used a dive team to recover them after Jake Wagner confessed.
In addition to getting rid of the murder weapons, Jake Wagner said he burned the clothes, shoes, gloves, the victim’s cell phones, and more that the family wore the night of the killings and that he disposed of the ashes in the family trash dumpster.
Jake Wagner also said that it was his mother, Angela Wagner who created a “GoFundMe” for him to raise money; in total, about $1,000 was raised, Wagner said. Angela is expected to testify against her son, George in the coming days. She received 30 years in prison for her involvement, while Jake received life without the death penalty for his cooperation.
The trial will resume on Wednesday with Jake Wagner likely to testify about how the family fled to Alaska after the homicides.
