The trailer park massacre sparked by a bitter custody battle: Man goes on trial in ‘bizarre’ case of eight murders

Rumours initially linked the bloody murders to a Mexican drug cartel – but the killers were allegedly much closer to home, writes Graig Graziosi

(Ohio Attorney General/Getty/AP)

A custody battle that led to the murders of eight people, including a teenage boy, in an Ohio trailer park has gone to trial six years on.

George Wagner IV is going on trial for the killings. He was arrested with three other members of his family — his brother, Jake, his mother Angela, and his father, George "Billy" Wagner — who face 22 charges, including eight counts of aggravated murder.

He faces a potential death penalty if convicted. He has pleaded not guilty.

Custody battle

Prosecutors claim the trouble between the Wagner and the Rhoden families began over the custody of a child.

They claim the Wagners began conspiring to kill the Rhodens in December 2015 after Angela, George's mother, found a Facebook message between Hanna May Rhoden, 19, and Patricia Sexton. Hanna May shared a child with Jake Wagner. Patricia Sexton is the mother-in-law of George's ex-wife, Tabitha Claytor.

In the message, Hanna May and Ms Sexton reportedly were discussing the Wagners’ plans to pressure the 19-year-old into signing custody of her daughter over to Jake. She told Ms Sexton that "they'll have to kill me first," and, according to the prosecution's theory, the Wagners began planning to do just that.

Angela reportedly admitted to special prosecutor Angie Canepa that she had "hacked" into Hanna May's social media accounts, as well as the accounts of others, to monitor their communications with the intention of gathering damaging information.

Ms Sexton was reportedly concerned for Hanna May because her daughter, Tabitha Claytor, had allegedly experienced a similar pressure campaign by the Wagners to sign over custody of the child she shared with George. According to Ms Canepa, Ms Claytor ultimately signed the documents after she was forced to flee from her home after the Wagners threatened to shoot her.

Ms Claytor was allegedly told the arrangement would be temporary, but claimed she was denied visitation with her son.

The prosecution is using the messages to establish a timeline for the murders and to build a conspiracy case against members of the Wagner family. They claim the Wagners were "obsessed" with control, particularly of their children.

Murders

On the night of 21 April, 2016, prosecutors claim the Wagner father, George "Billy" Wagner, arranged a meeting with his "best friend" Chris Rhoden Sr — the father of Hanna May — under the guise of a drug deal. The meeting, prosecutors claim, was a ruse to allow the Wagners access to the Rhoden patriarch.

Prosecutors claim that Jake and George hid in a "murder truck" and shot Chris Rhoden Sr nine times, killing him. Chris's cousin, Gary Rhoden, was staying at the trailer the night of the killings and was shot twice in the head and once in the face from close range.

Jake Wagner would later tell investigators that, after his father allegedly fired the first shot at Chris Rhoden Sr, he cried out "I just shot my best friend."

Top row from left, George ‘Billy’ Wagner III and Angela Wagner, and bottom row from left, George Wagner IV and Edward ‘Jake’ Wagner (Ohio Attorney General's Office)

The men allegedly moved to a trailer next door and shot Chris Sr's son, Frankie Rhoden, 20, in the head three times as he slept. His fiancee, Hanna "Hazel" Gilley, was asleep next to him and was shot five times in the head. Their six-month-old son was sleeping between them and was found alive but covered in his parents’ blood the next morning. The couple also had a four-year-old son in the trailer who was found unharmed.

The killings continued. Down the road, Dana Manley Rhoden, Chris Sr's ex-wife, was shot five times in the head. Hanna May was also sleeping in that trailer and was shot twice in the head while she slept with her newborn sleeping next to her. The child was found unharmed.

Chris Rhoden Jr, Hanna's 16-year-old younger brother, was also shot in the head in the trailer.

The final killing of the night was Kenneth Rhoden, Chris Sr's older brother. He was staying in a camper more than seven miles away from the trailer park where the rest of his family was murdered. He was shot once in the head.

Discovery and investigation

The next morning, Dana Rhoden's sister, Bobby Jo Manley, arrived at the property to feed Chris Sr's animals and water his marijuana planets. She did this every day. When she entered she found Chris Sr and Gary dead and called 911.

Ms Manley's brother, George "James" Manley, was also at the property and found Dana, Hanna May, and Chris Jr dead in their trailer. Bobby Jo continued to search the trailer park and eventually found Frankie and Hazel Gilley dead.

Kenneth Rhoden's cousin, Donald Stone, eventually found him and reported his death to 911 after the news broke that other members of the family had been killed.

The surviving children were removed from the property by Bobby Jo, according to a 2016 Cincinnati Enquirer report.

The investigation by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation was the largest the state ever launched. As news reached the public, rumours began circulating throughout the county that the slayings were the work of a Mexican drug cartel, though that was quickly dispelled by federal agents.

Investigators eventually learned that the killers stole the Rhodens’ security system the night of the killings, but left behind shell casings that were matched to shell casings a little more than a year later found on a piece of property formerly belonging to George and Jake Wagner.

Vehicles at the site of the trailer park where Christopher Rhoden Sr and Gary Rhoden were killed in April 2016 (AP)

In the year between the killings and the shell casing discovery, Jake had petitioned for sole custody of the daughter he shared with Hanna May and was granted his request.

Ohio investigators continued to search properties belonging to the Wagner family and called on anyone with financial dealings with the family — particularly those who may have sold them guns — to come forward and share information with investigators.

A short time after the discovery of the shell casings and the ramping up of the investigation, the Wagners left Ohio and moved to Alaska. While there, Jake remarried and the family moved back to Ohio in 2018.

In November of that year, just a week after now Ohio Governor Mike DeWine was elected as the state's Attorney General, he announced the arrest of the Wagners. He called the case the most "bizarre" of his law enforcement career.

Charges and trial

All four of the Wagners charged in the killings — George, Jake, Angela and George "Billy" Wagner — pleaded not guilty. However, around the five-year anniversary of the murders in April 2021, Jake flipped and agreed to plead guilty to 23 charges he was facing, which included aggravated murder. He also agreed to testify against his family if prosecutors agreed not to pursue the death penalty for him or his family. While prosecutors agreed not to pursue the death penalty against Jake, presuming he adheres to the rules of the agreement, it is unclear if they extended that deal to the rest of the Wagners.

Jake will serve eight consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.

He eventually led prosecutors to the murder weapons, which had been hidden in a pond on a piece of property owned by George "Billy" Wagner.

His mother, Angela, also flipped, agreeing to testify against George and her husband. In return, her aggravated murder charge was dropped and she will be released after serving 30 years in prison.

George Wagner's defense attorney, Richard Nash, is arguing that George had nothing to do with the murders and is being thrown under the bus by the rest of his family.

“There are certain things in this life we can’t control. One of those is your family name,” Mr Nash said in court. “George cannot help he’s a Wagner. That does not make him a murderer.”

According to Mr Nash, Jake will testify that his brother had nothing to do with the murders. Court documents suggest Jake will testify that the entire plan was his parents' doing, and that he initially was against the murder plot, but eventually relented.

The prosecution will argue that the Wagners spent three months planning the murders, including the purchase of masks, ammunition, and a cellphone jamming device to prevent anyone from calling for help.

The first witnesses in the trial were set to take the stand on Tuesday. The state may call up to 250 witnesses, and the trial is expected to last between six and eight weeks.