Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
Hi, it's Andrea Gunning, the host of Betrayal. I'm excited to announce that the Betrayal podcast is expanding. We are going to be releasing episodes weekly, every Thursday. Each week, you'll hear brand new stories, firsthand accounts of shocking deception, broken trust, and the trail of destruction left behind. Listen to Betrayal Weekly on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
I'm John Walczak, host of the new podcast Missing in Arizona. And I'm Robert Fisher, one of the most wanted men in the world. We cloned his voice using AI.
In 2001, police say I killed my family and rigged my house to explode before escaping into the wilderness. Police believe he is alive and hiding somewhere. Join me. I'm going down in the cave. As I track down clues. I'm going to call the police and have you removed. Hunting. One of the most dangerous fugitives in the world. Robert Fisher. Do you recognize my voice? Listen to Missing in Arizona every Wednesday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your favorite shows.
Hi, I'm Molly Conger, host of Weird Little Guys, a new podcast from Cool Zone Media on iHeartRadio. I've spent almost a decade researching right-wing extremism, digging into the lives of people you wouldn't be wrong to call monsters. But if Scooby-Doo taught us one thing, it's that there's a guy under that monster mask. The monsters in our political closets aren't some unfathomable evil. They're just some weird guy. So join me every Thursday for a look under the mask at the weird little guys trying to destroy America.
Listen to Weird Little Guys on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the Pikedon Massacre, a production of iHeartRadio and KT Studios. This is 911. Can I help you? 911. 911. Um, I think my present wall's dead. It was an unimaginable crime. There's my little guy!
It was the second biggest mass murder in 2016 behind the Pulse nightclub shooting. Eight people dead, all from the same family. It would become the largest criminal investigation in Ohio's history. Pike County sheriffs requested state help immediately after they got word. In the early morning of April 22nd, 2016, eight members of the Roden family were brutally murdered, shot to death execution style in their homes.
Eight victims, 32 gunshot wounds, three children left alive at the scenes. This is the Pyton Massacre. Episode 1, Daddy's Playing Zombie.
Piketon, Ohio is a rural town located on the Scioto River, just 60 miles south of Columbus. It's home to 2,200 residents, and the people of Piketon say that because the town is so small, neighbors really look out for each other and treat each other like family. ♪
It was just, it was a good, wonderful area to grow up in. It was, we lived in the country and, you know, we rode horses on the road. We rode bikes to each other's houses and we played, you know, the kids in the neighborhood played together all the time. I slept the whole time I was a kid with my window wide open. There's no way you could do that now. There's no way. This place was wonderful. Everybody loved it.
took care of everybody. And now it's like a whole different place. The Roden family lived in Piketon for generations. In fact, this close-knit family all lived within miles of each other and were a beloved fixture in the community. It's part of what makes this story so heartbreaking and disturbing. Eight members of the Roden family, ranging in age from 16 to 44, were murdered. Each killed execution-style over one night in four different locations.
The only known witnesses? The three small children left alive at the scenes. The Roden family was literally being hunted. I'm Courtney Armstrong, a television producer who helped make a documentary about the case for NBCUniversal's Oxygen Network in 2019. Since it aired, the team and I at KT Studios haven't stopped thinking about the case. With trials on the horizon, there are new details and theories to explore. By all accounts, April 22nd, 2016 was an ordinary spring day in rural Pike County.
But that would be far from the truth. Here's Barbara, longtime Piketon resident. I'll never forget that day. I'll never forget that day. I had gone into the office at the high school to pick Brittany up for an appointment. And when I walked in, they had a TV on and everyone in there was sitting with their mouths hanging open. And I was like, what's going on in here?
And the secretaries said, my God, there's been a shooting. They said six people were killed. And she said, we are very worried because little Chris Roden didn't show up today. And we think he might be one of them. Everyone was just in shock. So little Chris, law enforcement, because they couldn't find him, there was some speculation early on that he might have been involved.
For the residents of Piketon, there was little more than confusion at this point. People knew there was a shooting and that Chris Roden Jr., the 16-year-old freshman at Piketon High, was missing. Where was the teen? It was at the home of Chris Roden Sr. that the nightmare began. Chris Roden Sr. was known to be a strong, hardworking family man. He was, you know, a great father. He was a good man, just like the rest of the guys, you know, in that family. He would do anything for anybody. ♪
He and Dana Roden were married for 22 years, and although they divorced, they remained close. So close that Chris Sr. had recently bought Dana a home on the same road he lived on, Union Hill Road. He did it so they could stay close to their children. Chris Sr.'s cousin Gary Roden was more like a brother to him and often stayed at his place.
Little Chris's aunt, Bobbie Jo, who also lived nearby, was the first to make the gruesome discovery at 7:49 a.m. when she came to feed the dogs at Chris Sr.'s house. 911. Yes, I need to get this. 40.
Patriarch of the family Chris Roden was dead. He looked like he'd been beaten to death.
His cousin Gary, who was staying with Chris, was also dead. Okay. Is there anybody else in the house?
Not that I know of. Okay. The door was locked when we got here, but I know where the key was at. And I went in and there was nothing on the floor. Okay. Bobby, I need you to get out of the house and wait. I'm done. I'm staying outside right now. Okay. Just stay out of the house. Don't let anybody go in there, okay? Yeah. All right. We got deputies on the way, okay? All right. Thank you. You're welcome. I don't want to be a victim of this.
We found out, you know, the news broke overnight and saw the emails, saw the alerts, you know, the initial news coverage. And I knew this was we all knew this was a big deal.
James Pilcher is an investigative reporter who was assigned to cover this story. Chris Roden Sr. may have been awake when the intruders came in. At least there's some indication of that. He was shot nine times, but he was shot in the forearm, which seems to mean that he may have raised his arm in defense. His cousin Gary got shot twice in the head and once in the face. And
Even for a multiple murder scene, this stood out as being particularly violent. Wood fragments found on Chris's body indicate he was dragged through the house. Blood was everywhere. Was it a robbery? A serial killer? A random thrill kill? And if it wasn't random, why were these two men targeted?
I spoke with Mike Allen, criminal defense attorney from Ohio. Are you familiar, are you able to talk about the scenes themselves? You know, if you look at it, and it's all from the autopsy reports, Chris Senior's autopsy report says that they believe that he was awake when he was confronted by at least one person with a gun. He got nine gunshot wounds. And one of them apparently was a defensive wound to his right forearm that shattered the bone.
He was also shot in the torso and cheek, according to that report. Then Chris Sr.'s cousin, Gary, and they're all kind of related here, he was shot twice in the head and once in the face. One of the shots, reports indicate that the gun was pressed to the side of his head, leaving a gunpowder mark that's called a muzzle stain. I mean, those kind of injuries...
leaves no doubt that this was an intentional or these all were intentional killings kind of designed to send a message to someone. The muzzle mark sticks in my mind. You have to be obviously arm's reach. I mean, you are locking eyes with the victim, it would seem. Does that paint any kind of picture or indicate to officers or attorneys anything?
Sure it does. And maybe even closer than arm's length, I mean, maybe just inches, that indicates that the shot was fired right on top of the person. And it indicates, to me at least, especially when you have the number of shots like that here, that somebody was trying to send a message. I don't think there can be any doubt about that. It's personal. I mean, it was personal. And I think that's what that demonstrates.
We're going to take a quick break here. We'll be back in a moment. Hi, it's Andrea Gunning, host of Betrayal. I'm excited to announce that the Betrayal podcast is expanding. We are going to be releasing episodes weekly, every Thursday. Each week, you'll hear brand new stories, firsthand accounts of shocking deception, broken trust, and the trail of destruction left behind.
Stories about regaining a sense of safety, a handle on reality after your entire world is flipped upside down from unbelievable romantic betrayals. The love that was so real for me was always just a game for him. To betrayals in your own family. When I think about my dad, oh, well, he is a sociopath. Financial betrayal.
This is not even the part where he steals millions of dollars. And life or death deceptions. She's practicing how she's going to cry when the police calls her after they kill me. Listen to Betrayal Weekly on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm John Walzak, host of the new podcast Missing in Arizona. And I'm Robert Fisher, one of the most wanted men in the world. We cloned his voice using AI. Come on.
In 2001, police say I killed my family. First mom, then the kids. And rigged my house to explode. In a quiet suburb. This is the Beverly Hills of the Valley. Before escaping into the wilderness. There was sleet and hail and snow coming down. They found my wife's SUV. Right on the reservation boundary. And my dog flew. All I could think of is him and the sniper me out of some tree.
But not me. Police believe he is alive and hiding somewhere. For two years. They won't tell you anything. I've traveled the nation. I'm going down in the cave. Tracking down clues. They were thinking that I picked him up and took him somewhere. If you keep asking me this, I'm going to call the police and have you removed. Searching for Robert Fisher. One of the most dangerous fugitives in the world.
Do you recognize my voice? Join an exploding house, the hunt, family annihilation today and a disappearing act. Listen to Missing in Arizona every Wednesday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your favorite shows. Hi, I'm Molly Conger, host of Weird Little Guys, a new podcast from Cool Zone Media on iHeartRadio. I spent almost a decade researching right wing extremism, digging into the lives of people you wouldn't be wrong to call monsters.
But if Scooby-Doo taught us one thing, it's that there's a guy under that monster mask. I've collected the stories of hundreds of aspiring little Hitlers of the suburbs, from the Nazi cop who tried to join ISIS, to the National Guardsman plotting to assassinate the Supreme Court, to the Satanist soldier who tried to get his own unit blown up in Turkey. The monsters in our political closets aren't some unfathomable evil. They're just some weird guy. And you can laugh. Honestly, I think you have to.
Seeing these guys for what they are doesn't mean they're not a threat. It's a survival strategy. So join me every Thursday for a look under the mask at the weird little guys trying to destroy America. Listen to Weird Little Guys on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. At this point, Bobby Cho sees two people are dead by 12 gunshot wounds. While waiting desperately for police to arrive, she makes her way over to her nephew Frankie's house.
She wanted to get some help and to tell him what had happened to his father and uncle, whose body she had just found. Frankie Roden was Chris Sr. and Dana's oldest son. The 20-year-old was a father to two boys, 3-year-old and 6-month-old. Like his parents, Frankie was a hard worker. He loved fishing, hunting, and demolition derby, but nothing so much as his family and his fiancée, 19-year-old Hannah Gilley.
Hannah Gilley was on the homecoming court in high school, and at that time she told friends she planned to go to college, get a business degree, and open a daycare. Frankie and Hannah wanted a lot of kids. They had a bright future. The young family lived together just up the street from Chris Sr., also on Union Hill Road. They were looking forward to getting married soon. Here's reporter Jeff Winkler recounting the details of what happened that night based on his reporting. So after Bobby Joe died,
Made the call to 911. She went to Frankie's house near right nearby. And the person who came to the door was Frankie's three year old son. And was as the police reports and newspaper reports showed, he was, you know, covered in blood. And he like any three year old, he
Bobby picked up her nephew and made her way inside. She finds two more victims.
Frankie was shot three times in the head. His fiancée, Hannah Gilley, was shot five times in total, with one shot to her left eye. They were both in bed with their six-month-old baby. Thankfully, the infant was spared. Meanwhile, and this is all happening around 8 a.m. on April 22nd, Bobby Joe calls their brother James. She's in hysterics. There's now two murder scenes, four people dead, 20 gunshot wounds, two children left alive at the scenes.
James immediately goes over to his sister Dana's house to check on her and the remaining kids. Dana Roden was a nurse known for her gregarious nature and loving smile. She'd met Chris Roden Sr. when she was just in high school, and it was love at first sight. Even though they divorced 22 years later, they remained very close.
Together, the pair had three beautiful children, 20-year-old Frankie, Hannah Mae, and little Chris. She's good-hearted, a lot of fun, you know, always laughing, cracking up. She was a very, very good person. She sent me a text. She said, my grandbaby's here. And I said, well, congratulations. I said, she's beautiful. What did Hannah Mae name her? She said, Kylie Mae.
And I said, that's so pretty. And that was the last, you know, the last thing I ever heard from Dana. This particular April seemed extra special because Hannah Mae had just given birth to her second daughter five days prior. Just weeks before that, Dana threw Hannah Mae a big baby shower at their new house. The pictures from the shower show what a happy celebration it was. Sadly, James, Dana's brother, was about to enter yet one more unimaginable scene.
Dana and her 19-year-old daughter, Hannah Mae, were both dead. Like the rest of the family, they were shot execution style. Dana, three times in the right side of her head and once under her chin. Hannah was shot twice in the head, lying in bed with her newborn daughter, just five days old. The infant was spared alive, and thankfully, Hannah's older daughter, Sophia, just two years old at the time, was not at the house at the time of the murders.
This brings us back to when Dana's son, the high school freshman Chris Jr., was nowhere to be found. It took detectives several hours to locate him, but finally little Chris was found in the home with his mother Dana and his sister Hannah Mae. He'd been shot four times in the head. There's now seven people dead, 31 gunshot wounds, and three children left alive at the scenes. The once small and sleepy town became the epicenter for a grisly crime and the subsequent complex murder investigation.
When it was all said and done, two families would be destroyed and the town would never be the same. Here's Jeff Winkler. It was a long-form article he'd written on the case that originally piqued our interest. I'm a writer and journalist based in Flyover, so I cover a lot of stuff that happens away from the coast. The Roden case, I remember seeing coverage of it in 2016 as it was happening on live TV, and there was a helicopter flying
flying over the property. And it was just one of those things that seemed like it was straight out of Southern Noir.
The crime is as complex as it is gruesome because all the victims except for one were found on the same sort of back road in Piketon. And they were all found gunned down on the same night and all had gunshots to the head. This was an incredibly well-executed execution of several people.
Here again is criminal defense attorney, former prosecutor and judge Mike Allen. And this area, like a ton of bricks. I mean, boy, the local media down here were all over this thing. I mean, like white on rice. So, yeah, it's a big deal. Do you have any theories? Because I've spoken to people and they're all, I guess, just theories. But why do you spare the children? Is that some line a killer won't cross or what does that tell you? Yeah. And it's a really good question. I guess it shows that
I don't know. The killers wanted to demonstrate that they have some humanity left in them and just would not kill infants. I guess that's small consolation, but I don't know. It probably is some kind of code thing, but...
They did find it within their hearts to spare the infants and the children. You know, as brazen and as violent as these killings were, I guess they just couldn't bring themselves to do it to small children and an infant. Yeah, a five-day-old. I mean, that's... Yeah, that's crazy. For the quiet town, the scene was unreal.
Nearly seven hours after the first bodies were found, at 1.26 p.m. on April 22nd, a final, fatal discovery. This is 9-1-1. Can I help you? Yeah, I need a deputy to come out to close to 799, Gladford. Okay. All this stuff that's on the news, I just found my cousin with a gunshot wound.
Okay, sir, is this your life? No, no. Okay. I'll be standing out by the red wagon. What's your name, sir? Donald Stone. Donald Stone? Donald Stone. Stone? Yeah, I'm his cousin. What's his name? Kenneth Roden. Kenneth Roden? Yeah. Okay, sir, are you out of the house?
A few miles down Union Hill Road was Chris Roden Sr.'s brother, Kenneth. The 44-year-old was shot once through his right eye.
Kenneth's cousin Donald Stone went to check on Kenneth after hearing about the murders of their six other family members. He'd failed to hear from Kenneth that day. Here's Jeff Winkler. There were a lot of breaking news moments during the first day, and the details just kept piling up and piling up. More police, more law enforcement would show up, and the body count got higher.
larger and larger. And then I think the real sort of twist and the real sort of what the heck is happening moment was when, you know, nearly seven hours after the first bodies were found at around 1:30 p.m., there is finally another body of Kenneth. And he was found as well as the others, you know, shot execution style. And in this case, he was covered with dollar bills that were strewn about his body.
And it's just sort of, you just, I mean, you can't, you can't make this up. Let's stop here for another quick break. We'll be back in a moment.
After your entire world is flipped upside down,
From unbelievable romantic betrayals. The love that was so real for me was always just a game for him. To betrayals in your own family. When I think about my dad, oh, well, he is a sociopath. Financial betrayal. This is not even the part where he steals millions of dollars. And life or death deceptions. She's practicing how she's going to cry when the police calls her after they kill me.
Listen to Betrayal Weekly on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm John Walzak, host of the new podcast Missing in Arizona. And I'm Robert Fisher, one of the most wanted men in the world. We cloned his voice using AI. Come on.
In 2001, police say I killed my family. First mom, then the kids. And rigged my house to explode. In a quiet suburb. This is the Beverly Hills of the Valley. Before escaping into the wilderness. There was sleet and hail and snow coming down. They found my wife's SUV. Right on the reservation boundary. And my dog flew. All I could think of is him and the sniper me out of some tree.
But not me. Police believe he is alive and hiding somewhere. For two years. They won't tell you anything. I've traveled the nation. I'm going down in the cave. Tracking down clues. They were thinking that I picked him up and took him somewhere. If you keep asking me this, I'm going to call the police and have you removed. Searching for Robert Fisher. One of the most dangerous fugitives in the world.
Do you recognize my voice? Join an exploding house, the hunt, family annihilation today, and a disappearing act. Listen to Missing in Arizona every Wednesday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your favorite shows. Hi, I'm Molly Conger, host of Weird Little Guys, a new podcast from Cool Zone Media on iHeartRadio. I've spent almost a decade researching right-wing extremism, digging into the lives of people you wouldn't be wrong to call monsters.
But if Scooby-Doo taught us one thing, it's that there's a guy under that monster mask. I've collected the stories of hundreds of aspiring little Hitlers of the suburbs, from the Nazi cop who tried to join ISIS, to the National Guardsman plotting to assassinate the Supreme Court, to the Satanist soldier who tried to get his own unit blown up in Turkey. The monsters in our political closets aren't some unfathomable evil. They're just some weird guy. And you can laugh. Honestly, I think you have to. Seeing these guys for what they are doesn't mean they're not a threat.
It's a survival strategy. So join me every Thursday for a look under the mask at the weird little guys trying to destroy America. Listen to Weird Little Guys on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. By the time officials released the names of the eight victims, Pikedon residents were reeling. You know, they had snuck in in the night and committed these murders and nobody had a clue about, you know, who or why they were.
And that's really scary. There were rumors about who had done the crime everywhere, online, in the coffee shops, you know, amongst the police. I mean, everyone was talking about who could have done it and why they would have done it.
Within two days of the murder, officials make another shocking announcement. I'm Ouellette, Attorney General DeWine speaking. Sheriff, thank you very much. This is Mike DeWine, then Attorney General of Ohio at a news conference on April 24th, 2016. Let me go ahead and I think it's okay for us to confirm that we did find marijuana in three locations. Is it Grow Operations?
Here's Jeff Shane. We worked together on the case and he reached out to Jody Barr, an investigative reporter who was working in Cincinnati at the time of the murders. Let's like run through some of the theories, like what people were saying might have happened. So...
There were a lot of theories. Jodi has followed the crime and investigation for years. We got all of these tips in, and we're trying to make sense of these tips, vet them, see if there's anything that could indicate who did it, why they did it, what caused someone to kill eight people of the same family. So, you know, the one theory that sort of became the prevailing idea of what might have happened here was the drug cartel theory. And, you know, that came about because, you know, hours after the murders,
Attorney General Mike DeWine and Pike County Sheriff Charlie Reeder are standing at a press conference and DeWine tells the public that they found commercial grow operations at three of the four crime scenes. Another theory was that the murders could have been the result of a dispute with another family in the area.
Here's Jody Barr again. We had gotten word that apparently Chris Jr. had some sort of road rage or some sort of incident with another family in the area some days before this. And there were some messages, social media messages exchanged that could have indicated a possible motive. So that was one theory.
As I got on the ground over there and you started talking to some of these family members and you talked to some of the neighbors, some of the people who knew the rodents, it became clear that either people knew or had a very good idea about what happened, but they absolutely would never say it because I think they were afraid because at that point in time, whoever did this had not been arrested. There have been no persons of interest named.
So, you know, if you lived in that area, man, it was hush hush. You were just kind of walking around looking over your shoulder and seeing with some of these people not knowing, you know, who could be next, who did it.
This is, again, Jeff Winkler. The majority of those theories rested on, you know, it was a cartel. It was a cartel hit because the family was growing marijuana on their property. You know, was it a rival marijuana farm in the area? Was it, were the killings related to the family disputes that were going on with various members of adjacent families? And no one, no one quite knew, but they all had a bunch of theories.
With the town living in fear, investigators worked around the clock to bring the killers to justice. Mike DeWine is, and again, I know him, but he's not a friend or anything, but he really is a professional, and he was a professional prosecutor. I mean, that's how he started his political life, and he ran this thing like a prosecutor or a law enforcement officer would. And I'll tell you what, there is just no way that the...
the sheriff's office or the prosecutor's office up there could have handled this thing by themselves. And that's no knock on them. It's just that they don't have the resources for something like this. There were in some of the news conferences, Sheriff Reeder was out telling people to arm themselves as a precaution. In a small county like that, and just the
the horrific nature of these things, I don't know that that would have not been
For two years, not a single arrest was made.
How could the largest massacre in Ohio's history, with so much blood, so many bullets, and so many victims, still be unsolved? The questions abound. Who's doing this? Is it many people? Is it one? How did they get away with it? If the scene was so messy, how did they clean up?
The four crime scenes all had dead bodies, but the MOs were different. Chris and Gary's was the most violent and bloody. Two of the other ones had children left alive. And in the fourth, Kenneth was found with dollar bills all over him. With the victims all being shot at close range, we know that the killers and victims were eye to eye. How did nobody hear anything? Could it be a cover-up? And would another family be next? And then, on November 13th, 2018...
Well, good afternoon. We finally got an update on the case. We promised that the day would come when arrests would be made in the Pike County massacres. This is Mike DeWine, the state's then Attorney General. He's at a press conference. Yesterday, a Pike County grand jury indicted four individuals for aggravated murder with death penalty specifications for allegedly committing this heartless, ruthless, cold-blooded murder.
For the town of Pikedon, with the alleged killers behind bars, the nightmare may have been over. But the mystery has just begun. Who is this family of alleged killers? Next time on the Pikedon Massacre.
Pikedon Massacre is executive produced by Stephanie Lidecker and me, Courtney Armstrong. Editing and sound design by executive producer Jared Astin. Additional producing by Jeff Shane and Andrew Becker. The Pikedon Massacre is a production of iHeartRadio and KT Studios. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hi, it's Andrea Gunning, the host of Betrayal. I'm excited to announce that the Betrayal podcast is expanding. We are going to be releasing episodes weekly, every Thursday. Each week, you'll hear brand new stories, firsthand accounts of shocking deception, broken trust, and the trail of destruction left behind. Listen to Betrayal Weekly on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
I'm John Walzak, host of the new podcast Missing in Arizona. And I'm Robert Fisher, one of the most wanted men in the world. We cloned his voice using AI. Why not?
In 2001, police say I killed my family and rigged my house to explode before escaping into the wilderness. Police believe he is alive and hiding somewhere. Join me. I'm going down in the cave. As I track down clues. I'm going to call the police and have you removed. Hunting. One of the most dangerous fugitives in the world. Robert Fisher. Do you recognize my voice? Listen to Missing in Arizona every Wednesday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your favorite shows.
Hi, I'm Molly Conger, host of Weird Little Guys, a new podcast from Cool Zone Media on iHeartRadio. I've spent almost a decade researching right-wing extremism, digging into the lives of people you wouldn't be wrong to call monsters. But if Scooby-Doo taught us one thing, it's that there's a guy under that monster mask. The monsters in our political closets aren't some unfathomable evil. They're just some weird guy. So join me every Thursday for a look under the mask at the weird little guys trying to destroy America.
Listen to Weird Little Guys on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.