Authorities urged residents to be cautious in a part of rural southern Ohio heading into the weekend as a search continued for whoever fatally shot eight members of a family at four different properties.
Investigators interviewed more than 30 people as they searched for leads in the deaths of the seven adults and a 16-year-old teenager, whose bodies were found in homes southwest of Piketon on Friday.
All victims were shot in the head and it appeared some were killed as they slept, including a mother in bed with her four-day-old baby nearby, authorities said. The infant and two other small children were not hurt.
Photo: AP
Authorities did not release the victims’ names, but said they were members of the Rhoden family.
Investigators said none of the deaths appeared self-inflicted, so they believe at least one assailant is at large.
Law enforcement officials said whoever is responsible for the killings should be considered armed and dangerous.
Authorities said a motive for the slayings is not known, but they urged surviving members of the Rhoden family to take precautions.
Pike County Sheriff Charles Reader also recommended that area residents be extra wary.
“This really is a question of public safety, and particularly for any of the Rhoden family,” Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said.
Reader on Friday night said that authorities had met with more than 100 relatives and friends of the Rhoden family at a church.
DeWine dismissed a report that the people authorities questioned included a person of interest.
The Pike County Sheriff’s Office and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation are investigating the slayings. Pike County asked for the bureau’s help on Friday morning.
The first three homes where bodies were found are within a couple kilometers on a sparsely populated stretch of road, while the eighth body, that of a man, was found in a house further away.
Authorities did not release any information on what kind or how many weapons might have been used or whether anything was missing from the homes.
The FBI office in Cincinnati, Ohio, said that it was closely monitoring the situation and has offered assistance if needed.
Economically distressed Pike County, about 130km east of Cincinnati on the western edge of Appalachia, has about 28,000 people, more than a quarter of whom live in poverty. The area is home to a shuttered Cold War-era uranium plant that is still being cleaned up.
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