WAVERLY, Ohio — Three members of the Wagner family stand convicted in the 2016 slayings of eight members of the Rhoden family, the deadliest homicide case in Ohio history. But only one Wagner remains on Ohio soil: the family patriarch, George “Billy” Wagner III, the last defendant awaiting trial.
The rest of the family is gone — quietly transferred to prisons in other states where, officials reasoned, their crimes are less known.
Billy Wagner, who has pleaded not guilty to all 22 charges against him, including eight counts of aggravated murder, is being held without bail at the Pickaway County Jail. His trial is slated for this fall if additional appeals do not hold up the timeline.
The killings stunned rural Pike County in April 2016, when seven members of the Rhoden family and Hannah Gilley were found shot to death, most execution-style as they slept, at four properties along Union Hill Road. Prosecutors said the massacre was motivated by a custody dispute over the daughter of Jake Wagner and victim Hanna May Rhoden. The investigation and prosecution have cost taxpayers more than $4 million, making it the state’s largest and most expensive homicide case.
After the convictions began piling up, state corrections officials made an unusual decision: once sentenced, the Wagners would be moved out of Ohio to states where their notoriety would not follow them behind prison walls.
The plan did not stay secret for long.
George Wagner IV, convicted by a Pike County jury in 2022 and sentenced to eight consecutive life terms without parole plus 121 years, was the first to disappear from Ohio’s online prison rosters. Internet sleuths who track the case noticed his absence and traced him to Rhode Island, where the state’s maximum-security prison — apparently unfamiliar with his high-profile status — confirmed to media outlets that Wagner was housed there.
The confirmation angered Ohio officials, who moved quickly to relocate him again. The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction has declined to say where he is now.
“All that is for security reasons and I cannot disclose that information,” a department spokesperson said.
The state took no chances with his mother and brother. Angela Wagner and Edward “Jake” Wagner, who both pleaded guilty in 2021, were removed from Ohio after their January 2025 sentencings, and this time officials notified the receiving states of the pair’s high-profile status. Online sleuths have been unable to locate either of them anywhere in the United States. Not even family members know where they are, and when asked, the state of Ohio said it could not comment, citing safety reasons.
Their absence may be short-lived. Both are expected to return to Ohio after the state’s 4th District Court of Appeals ruled June 26 that their sentences must be thrown out, finding the trial court “abused its discretion” by sentencing the pair before they had finished cooperating with prosecutors. Their plea agreements require them to testify against Billy Wagner.
The ruling was the latest rebuke of visiting Judge Jonathan Hein, the retired Darke County judge assigned to the case in 2023, whose decisions have repeatedly put him at odds with prosecutors and horrified the victims’ relatives.
Jake Wagner’s 2021 plea deal called for eight consecutive life sentences without parole in exchange for the state dropping the death penalty. Instead, Hein imposed the minimum sentence on each murder count and ran them concurrently, leaving Wagner eligible for parole after 32 years. Angela Wagner received 30 years.
“If everybody wants the last judge’s sentencing deal, they should have sentenced him under the last judge,” Hein said from the bench.
Special Prosecutor Angela Canepa appealed, alleging “judicial malfeasance.” The appeals court found “no sound reasoning process” supported the judge’s decisions.
“This decision restores all parties back to their respective previously agreed upon positions and comes as a great relief to the families of these eight victims,” Canepa said in a statement.
Hein had also stripped the death penalty as a possible punishment for Billy Wagner, a decision the appeals court reversed in January, putting capital punishment back on the table for the only Wagner yet to face a jury. Wagner’s defense team has appealed that ruling to the Ohio Supreme Court, which has not said whether it will take the case.
If the high court declines, both sides have told the trial court that Billy Wagner’s trial could begin in October. Hein has already ruled the trial will not be held in Pike County because of publicity from his son’s 2022 trial; a venue has not been announced.
The victims were Christopher Rhoden Sr., 40; his brother Kenneth Rhoden, 44; his cousin Gary Rhoden, 38; his former wife, Dana Rhoden, 37; their children Clarence “Frankie” Rhoden, 20, Hanna May Rhoden, 19, and Christopher Rhoden Jr., 16; and Frankie Rhoden’s fiancee, Hannah “Hazel” Gilley, 20. Three young children were left unharmed at the scenes.
Ten years after the killings, the Rhoden family is still waiting for the final verdict.
