Family: Child at center of Ohio mass killing is safe

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

A child at the center of a custody dispute that may have set off a gruesome Ohio massacre is safe in state custody, her great-grandfather said Wednesday, before one of the four suspects in the killings appeared in court.

Leonard Manley, whose daughter and grandchildren were among the eight people killed in 2016, told The Cincinnati Enquirer the 4-year-old girl is in state custody.

One of the suspects, Edward “Jake” Wagner, was the long-time former boyfriend of 19-year-old Hanna Rhoden, one of the victims, and shared custody of their daughter at the time of the massacre.

On Wednesday afternoon, Wagner’s father, another of the suspects, agreed to return to Ohio following his arrest in Kentucky.

George “Billy” Wagner III was arrested after being found in a horse trailer in Lexington Tuesday. The 47-year-old Wagner waived his rights to an extradition hearing in a brief appearance Wednesday in Lexington district court.

The announcement of Wagner’s arrest along with his wife and two adult sons marked the culmination of a massive investigation that began after seven adults and a teenage boy were found shot in the head at four separate rural Ohio homes in April 2016.

The killings terrified Ohio residents and spawned rumors that it was a drug hit, but prosecutors suggested Tuesday the attack had stemmed from a custody dispute.