Summer Series 2025: Pike County Massacre: Part 8

Welcome to Summer Series twenty twenty five The Roden Family Murders, also known as the Pike County Massacre. We're going to be discussing the murders of Dana Roden, Christopher Roden Senior, Kenneth Roden, Gary Roden, Frankie Rodin, Hannah Hazel Gilly, Hannah Rodin, and Christopher Roden Junior. Let's go ahead and dive right into Summer Series twenty twenty five. Okay, guys, we are jumping in to part eight of the Pike County Massacre Roden Family Murders. I have to tell you the morning that I'm recording this, last night, I dreamt about nothing other than the Roden family, which means that I am really, really, really invested in this case because literally that's what I dreamt about last night. So with all of that being said, I woke up this morning and kept up my research getting the Summer series put together for you guys, and we are getting right back into it. So we are still in the midst of all the trial happenings, and we're going through all of the witnesses in George Wagner the forced trial. He is on trial for eight murders of the Road and family, along with Hannah Hazel Gilly. We just finished up the testimony from George's mom, Angela Wagner, and our next witness is a woman named Katie Wagner who is the niece of Billy Wagner. Now, she wasn't too far off from Jake and George Wagner in age, so they all kind of grew up together. But she is the one that received the truck from Billy Wagner after the homicides. Now, she did say that she really was only around the Wagner family on holidays, and although they were family, she had never been to the Peterson Road home. But she said she received the truck shortly after the murders. So this is kind of what happened. Billy brought the truck over, and she didn't really think much of it because she had previously had a conversation with Billy about wanting to get a truck, and then he showed up with one and said that he was going to give it to her. Now, this particular day was kind of shortly after the murders, and he said that he couldn't stay for long because he had to go on a trip with Chris Senior, who he had killed shortly before this whole interaction. This was about thirty hours after the murders occurred. She then later that day went to go get tags for the truck and noticed that there were no floor mats in the truck, which she thought was weird but really didn't think anything of it. Again hindsight is twenty twenty, and she said the truck was pretty cleaned out and it looked to be in pretty good shape now. Later, when she learned that Billy Wagner and his family were targets of the BCI investigation, BCI ended up coming over to her house and asked her about the truck and asked her for the keys of it, which very much gave her an uneasy feeling, thinking that maybe Billy and his family were involved in the road and family murders. Once everything transpired and Jake Wagner ended up confessing, she said it felt like she had been punched in the stomach. And I think that this is very interesting that basically he gifted this truck after they committed this eight person homicide in the truck to a family member, Like, what were they thinking about? Were they trying to conceal evidence, get rid of evidence, put it on somebody else. I don't really know the mind frame and the mindset of Billy Wagner what it was, but gifting this truck to Katie is just wild behavior in my opinion. Our next witness up is a man named Andrew Carson, who was a friend of Jake Wagner's, and he actually talked to him the morning following the murders. Andrew said that his wife had contacted him and said there was murders on Union Hill Road and there potentially might be an active shooter still out there, so he had called Jake to see if Jake had heard anything, and Jake proceed to tell him essentially the same story his wife had told him. However, when Andrew told Jake that all of the individuals that were supposed victims were all dead, Andrew said that Jake freaked out. And I don't know if this was a genuine, like, oh my god, what did we do type of moment, or if Jake was just kind of playing into it and acting because he knew that all of Hannah's family pretty much lived on Union Hill Road. I mean, these trailers were in very close proximity to each other. Some of them you could literally throw a stone and hit the other trailer. The distance between Frankie's trailer and Chris Senior's trailer extremely extremely close. So I don't know if Jake was just playing it up to try to play the part, or if maybe he really officially realized, oh my god, what did we do and it just hit in that moment. I don't really know. The next witness was a man who was Jake and George's boss when they lived in Alaska. He worked at Buddy's garage, and he said that Jake was a little less focused and was a more reliable employee overall. He did, however, say that at one point in time he saw Jake looking up the road and family murders on his phone. On Facebook, he was asked to rate George and Jake on a scale of one to five as far as how good of employees they were, and he rated Jake a one point five and he rated George a three, which again is interesting. Next witness is a man named Kelly, who was the pastor of the church that the Wagners attended in Ohio and Alaska. Now, this is somebody that knew the Wagner family for a long time. They first started going to his church in two thousand and two as a family. So Kelly actually flew in from Alaska to officiate George Wagner the Fourth's wedding to Tabitha, which is interesting. It kind of establishes that he had a pretty close relationship with the Wagner family. And he even says that Billy had confided in him that he had a really rough upbringing and he was very much trying to raise his kids differently than he was raised and wanted to get them on a good path. However, this was simultaneously as he was teaching them to steal and set fire for insurance money. So that's a little contradictory if you ask me, But to each his own. Now, interesting little tidbit. This pastor was also an electrician and he is the one that helped wire the house that the Wagner family owned before the Peterson Rode Home, and that was the home that they essentially had burned down for insurance money. But at the time, the pastor was told that the house burned down due to a wiring issue. So again, these people stop at nothing to throw people that trust and love them under the bus. They always want to blame other people for their horrific actions. They set this house on fire for the insurance payout, and then they brought it back around and said, oh, it was a wiring issue and you wired our house, so it was all your fault. What is wrong with you? They are just so selfish and they just don't act normal. I don't understand it. So this pastor liked the Wagner family even so much that he let his son go to the Wagner family home and spend the night. And he goes on to testify that if he had been aware of any type of unsavory activities that the Wagners were up to, the theft, the arson, all of their wrongdoings, he never would have let a son go there. So I think this really illustrates that even though they were relatively close, he really had no idea what was going on behind the closed doors of the Wagner family home. And I think this is just a testament to how the Wagner family operated and how they were able to fly under the radar for so long, because this is somebody that knew them very well. They went to this Man's church. They were pretty close to him. It sounds like Billy had confided in him on multiple different occasions, and still he had no idea what was really going on. Next up we hear from Caleb, who is Kelly's son and would also go on to become a pastor of the church as well. He said he met Jake and George when they were kids, and they got along really well. They would go hunt, they would fish, they would four wheel, and they would do all the typical type of kid activities together. He said that he moved to Alaska when he was fourteen, and he kind of semi kept in touch with George and Jake, and at one point when he was sixteen, George and Jake and the Wagner family came to Alaska to visit. Caleb said that in twenty fifteen he got a message from Jake on Facebook messenger and it was essentially asking him if there were any women's groups with the church up in Alaska that Hannah could attend. And Caleb thought that this was a really odd question, so he didn't respond. So again, this is another really interesting little testimony bit of information to show you that Jake Wagner thought that Hannah was essentially misguided and needed to go to Alaska to kind of straighten her out. He is just the actual worst. So anyways, Caleb says that in twenty seventeen, Jake had reached out and contacted him and said that they were coming back to Alaska and asked if they wanted to get dinner, and Jake and George ended up going over to Caleb and his wife's home for dinner. Now keep in mind, this was after the murders, and Caleb said that Alaska was pretty far away from everything else, so he didn't really keep up with what was going on back in Ohio. But he did hear that Hannah may Roden had passed away. However, he didn't know the circumstances of any of it, so he brought it up a dinner, just kind of catching up with everyone, and that is when Jake told him about the Rodin family murders, which is interesting dinner topic conversation. So shortly after this is when the Wagner family officially moved to Alaska, so it's believed that they went there in order to kind of scout it out to see if that would be a good place for them. To move. Now, they claim they didn't move there because of the BCI's investigation, but they a thousand percent moved there because of the BCI's investigation, and this trip was really about scouting it out to see if it would be a good place for them to live. So shortly after that they moved there, and they would end up attending the church that Caleb was the pastor at. He said that Jake Wagner started coming to church more frequently, especially when he started dating Beth Ann, And he said he really didn't know beth And very well. But Jake had talked to Caleb about marrying Beth Anne, and he tried to tell him it might be too soon, and all of the other stuff was going on at the time with the Wagner family investigation, and Caleb thought, you might want to let all of this other stuff settle and get finalized and have resolution in that before you look at getting married. So at one point in time came ended up being contacted by BCI agents about the Wagner family and they basically told him that he needed to stay away from them because they were dangerous. And he didn't really know how to feel about this, but given that the Wagner family were regularly attending church there. He felt that he needed to tell the church officials what was going on what he was told by the BCI, because he said, he very much respects law enforcement and thinks that they wouldn't have said something like that if it weren't true. He said, when everything came out officially and Jake Wagner confessed and took a plead deal, he was absolutely shocked by everything and had no idea that Jake had the capability of doing such a horrific thing. Same goes for his family, and he said that the way Jake acted when he was living in Alaska was no different than the way he acted when they were kids. So the fact that he was able to complete this horrifically horrible act and then go on and just pretend like everything was the same, nothing had changed, was just very shocking to him. And honestly, I can't even imagine having somebody as a childhood friend, somebody that I've grown up with, and then we become, you know, friends in our adult years, they end up living again in the same state again, end up attending church together. I would also be shocked by this whole thing. That this individual who have known pretty much since I was a little kid, was capable of doing this and also just carrying on as normal. Next up, we have Agent Ryan Scheider and he is back up on the stand. He talks about the reconstruction he did of the platform for the truck bed that Jake and George hid underneath when they first went to Chris Senior's home. So he essentially recreated this whole platform and had two people volunteer to get inside and lay down as Jake Wagner said that Jake and George did that night, and they very much went about choosing two people that were taller and a little bigger than Jake and George, more so just to prove that they could fit inside and lay down comfortably without any issues. The recreation of this whole thing was super necessary, and I think they did a great job in doing this. He then talks about the bugging of the properties. Originally, the Wagner family had been interested in purchasing a home in Missouri, and they were able to contact the people in Missouri to potentially get access to the home so that way they could wire it, but the sale never ended up going through, so that was kind of scrubbed. They also attempted to do the listening devices in the Alaska house as well, but the Wagners were in and out of there so quickly that they were never able to finish the project. So once they got back to Ohio and Jake and George got jobs at the Truck and Company, they were able to contact this company and they were cooperative and agreeable to letting the BCI agents wire the trucks that Jake and George were going to be using. So they officially started monitoring conversations of the Wagner family in May of twenty eighteen. So what they do from there is really really interesting. They want to kind of stimulate conversations between the Wagners now because they have the recording devices on them and they're able to kind of listen to what's going on and their messages back and forth, so they kind of start planting things. Ryan talks about how he had texted George and asked him if he could talk with him. He attached a picture of Jake holding a gun and said he wanted to talk to him about the photo. He had also asked Rita and Angela to provide handwriting samples, and there was also some type of message boards that I guess were talking about the murders and Angela was monitoring them actively and they knew that, so Ryan created an account on there and was kind of posting things here and there just to keep them talking about stuff, because if you remember, after the homicides occurred, they vowed as a family to not talk about the murders. So obviously, with this increase BCI involvement, they knew that they were kind of onto them, but they didn't know that they were listening. But they wanted to create a scenario in which they were forced to talk about it because if Agent Scheider is sending text messages to George, you know George is going to say something to Jake about that. This is the same thing that transpired in the Dan Markell case when they instigated the bump with Donna, Charlie and Katie. All of that kind of went down the way it did, and that is what led to them being able to get their arrest warrants and get convictions in that case. Because of that bump, they simulated a situation where they were essentially forced to talk about it, and they were able to get it all caught on audio. So next to defense and prosecution very much try to argue about bringing in the recordings of these different wire taps. Some of them are longer, some are shorter, and they go back and forth about these wire taps coming in and some the judge allows and some the judge doesn't allow. There was even some threats made to Agent Ryan during these wire taps that even made him have to have security at his home because they were threatening his life. So we are going to get into the wire taps. It is very, very apparent from these wire taps that George Wagner the fourth was so paranoid about things, things that weren't even a thing. Now. There was a conversation where he spoke about Sophia and beth Ann and how basically he thought that beth Ann was going to take Sophia and his son Bulvine and sell them into the sex trade. And I think that it's important to go over this type of stuff because this is the same type of conversation that was going on with Sophia and Hannah Mae Rodin. Allegedly there was talk about them being worried about her being sexually molested, and that is the whole reason that they carried out the murder so Jake could get sole custody because they were worried about Sophia's safety. That is very much how they put things. And then the next woman that Jake finds in Alaska, beth Ann. It's the exact same song and dance, and I just don't believe that either of these scenarios are true, and I truly think it's something the Wagners created in their own heads to justify their really really shitty behavior. Again, that is just my opinion, but it just seems way too coincidental that all of this stuff is transpiring with every relationship that they have, Tabitha, Hannah may Rhaden, beth An. It's just not possible that these people have such bad luck with women. I think they're the common denominator here and not the women. Again, just my opinion, and I wholeheartedly think that if beth Ann wasn't able to get away from them, that she fully would have been their next victim. Then there is talks about how beth Ann was allegedly poisoning them, and again that's the exact same scenario that they said about Tabitha. So it is literally a wash, rinse, and repeat of everything they've already gone through, just this time it's with beth Ann instead of with Tabitha. So that ends day thirty eight. There's still a lot of back and forth about the wire taps, what will be let in, what won't be There's a lot of arguing between the prosecution and the defense. Ultimately it's up to the judge with what's allowed in and what's not. So we are now going to get into date thirty nine, which is the day that we actually get to hear the wire taps. So we are going to get into all of that now, and I'm going to play recordings of the stuff for you guys, because I think it's really interesting to hear them actually talking. Sometimes it's hard to understand what they're saying. Sometimes it's jarbled and they mumble and all of that, but they're all really interesting and very insightful conversations if you ask me so. Pretty much, the rest of this episode is going to be recording heavy. I might interject every so often and explain something, but we're going to just be hearing all of these wire taps from here on forward. I do want to give credit to WCPO nine on YouTube for these audio recordings, that is where I am getting them from. They are publicly available on the internet. This whole trial was streamed and recorded, so all of that information is all over YouTube. If you want to go down the rabbit hole like I did and listen to everything, watch every witness give their testimony, listen to all of these recordings. There is a lot going on here. So, like I said, these wire taps include the trucks that Jake and George used for work, and also Jake, George, Angela, and Billy Wagner's cell phones, and then there was a couple other cell phones that they ended up getting and those as well. So we have phone calls between all of the Wagner family members that we're recorded. The first one we're gonna hear is a conversation between Jake and beth Anne and it is about Angela. I'm going to just start playing the recording. I am going to warn you in the very beginning it is really hard to hear what beth is saying to Jake, but things do get a little more clear as they go, But essentially it is beth Ann and Jake talking about Angela and you're just going to be able to hear kind of the progression of things from there. So we are going to play that, now. Would you bet? You check out? Worry what I can't. I'm gonna hope on my hearing because I'm in the back room and I court. Your mom telling you that you should back me again? Are more more I can't? I said, and I kind of the day. M hm hm, well all of them my. Okay whatever. And stupid than that. I set exactly saying that I should still look around the stuff like it. Was one along riding. Uh are you sure. That okay? Like, are you just going to take what offic said dropped the stud jack because apparently. They said something else that wasn't what you said before, like this first gas head it's. Something like that. I didn't hear any of that. You came backing out. I can't hear it out. I can't. I did m and AM has said that's what you did know if I the dead and drop it at that dropped apparently you go back over CERFCT you did, you didn't the idiot give it back? And more don't. Look like that and what not? Don't back you get the strict worry. Yok Nope, what. Okay? Mh bo bly what. Wow? And not really could bang a vocal with the kind of good vision. Kind of vision guys. I do want to interject here there are a lot of dead zones in this phone call, because honestly, Jake doesn't know what to say to Bethanne about this whole situation. So I think a lot of it is like him pausing trying to figure out, like what am I supposed to say to her? Because essentially this conversation was Jake and Angela having a conversation about beth Anne and her relationship with Sophia and how Angela basically told Jake you shouldn't stop suspecting her. And I can't even imagine what Bethane was thinking during this entire conversation and this entire experience in her life. I can't imagine going through this, especially knowing that Hannah may Rodin had also been previously killed and she was in the same place that Bethane was in. It's just wild even trying to fathom what that must feel like. So we're going to get back into the conversation now. There, like I said, are a lot of dead zones where it is like minutes of silence. I'm trying to do my best to cut those out, but anytime I do cut them out, I have to rewind and make sure that I'm not missing any important parts of the conversation. So just bear with me during this conversation. H I don't look back. I'm here. Job. That's it's really really difficult. So that will so much. Who thinks that I'm worse than a murderer, and she is so willing to believe. It, like something to believe. That I'm worse than a murderer. Mhm. All relationships they're going by trust that disloy, like the truck, and. It's kind of. The trust that eating away on Michael. Think, I don't know that I know why eat like that before and the dudet got. I don't know how we having fault. Oh yeah, okay, I'm goy. And so it is obvious that this whole thing is really eating away at Bethan. She says it makes her not even want to exist. And I can't imagine feeling like that being put into this type of situation where you have this family who essentially has taken you in again under their wing. Trying to control her and then putting these accusations on her to make her feel this way. It is a vicious cycle, and we're going to get more into it. But I truly think that Angela Wagner is the mastermind behind all of this, and we're going to get into wiretaps with her and Jake talking about Bethan and it's all going to kind of culminate and come full circle. But this poor girl was literally one of their other victims. And like I said, had they not been arrested, had she not gotten out, who knows what would have happened to her. So that is essentially the extent of the conversation between Jake and beth Anne. They again were talking about a conversation that Bethand overheard him having with his mom, Angela Wagner aka, in my opinion, the puppet master. So that was that conversation. There was a lot of silence in there. There was an occasional thing that I clipped out just because of the timing of it, but you got all the necessary and pertinent information that you really needed to in that clip. The next conversation we hear is going to be another conversation between Jake and Bethanne. And also keep in mind they were married at this time. They were legally a married couple at the time that all of this is transpiring. And this call occurred on May thirtieth of twenty eighteen, and in the call they are discussing the Wagner family dynamics. So buckle up. I heard that. You love me, don't matter what she thinks about me, and she let me what you think about me? Yeah, I can say that, but I am good with him. I think on the weekend beat day. I agree, you pig that out say that, but I look a herd. I dig out of the week and be to day out of the week. But that actually matter? Oh well that actually think you should turn out like her guard Now say you know, I just cant take a chain where she could be y over night writing, couldn't. I couldn't get the topic, her get the topic after. Pretty much. Stay away from the can the whole time go on in the end? How many where she could out her and if I could, if I have anything to do with them, picture out and. Go back to me because h becoming every saying on the line. But I. Okay, so I've. Told you because we keeps trying. To clothe me in the back. If I wanted to not be paying a patient percent of the time. And if she needed to see an e quote unlock when I work or. More than one minute, your mom will say that as a possible time when I could have been a bell, I'm WORTU really constantly on edge and constantly watching and constantly having to make sure that I don't touch the kids or that they don't follow me in the room or follow me into the house when your mom's not in. There or anything like that. And she's only and she's constantly watching the same way like kind of to make sure that they're not following me and make sure that we're all along together. And it is extremely stridful for everybody can and of course the kids don't understand why they can't wait with me until they keep saying. Like, hey, anybody like that like that? Then I can't do it because. Yeah, okay, it's really pretty would. Make because like I said, there was a. Time when. I want to being alone in the house and along in the road with. Five of them. That would be thinking a potential time where I could have been. Abasing one of the. Kids I'll try other words, doesn't know. I don't know. I need the way to get it. But it's doing you don't want what good? I'm sure, but I can't that. That's like let's putting out relationship no walk and you do amatic world come back? M m. I practically how it is anyway? Where is the that right now? That's practically how it is anyway? Why is it. Pretty much on hold? As did? Yeah? Okay, okay, hopefully they like remain here. Ah yeah. But after a year after that was still you're still into it. It's not going to accept me what your mom does? Yeah, you see that right? A little for mom do that around me? She'd beyond that sum me h yeah, I mean I could try and talk to mom about saying, but honestly, are that good? It may all day the particular. Really what they come down that. Said, I try talking mom about but how do you feel about it? That? Whatnot? But when it comes back down to it, it'd be better if he talk mom about alvid, how if. About knowed whatnot? M huh. They wouldn't care. That doesn't matter at her. See the home to care. A lot of how comeing affected me. That doesn't matter to her. The only thing that matters to her is the kids. And you died, so she didn't care that what alcoming affected me, because I mean, and think about it, if you had a snake in your house and she'd take me up a snake, doesn't thinking how you wouldn't care one bet how the how shutting your swinging. Out the think like they don't care. And that's the way it is. So it doesn't matter how something like me. Anyone but you, Okay. So after beth Anne makes that comment, there's a long pause of just pure and utter silence, and about a minute in beth Ann lets out a exasperated side just like she is done with this conversation. She's done with Jake and Angela pulling the strings and trying to make her out to be the bad guy when she is not the bad guy. She literally did nothing. And it's just so interesting the dynamics here, And we're going to get into the wire taps between Angela and Jake next and that is going to be an even wilder ride. Get ready to see Angela Wagner in action. It's going to be so interesting. We're going to finish out this wire tap between beth Ann and Jake, and then we're going to get into the rest. Different I I longed that the ussion is player that's gonna realize that there's pretty much no way discluding that was faking either. So it's kind of yah there mm hmm. I obviously I get proved the phone this point on that I I am not doing that, ah, but there's no where to go. But I did not did that and go no matter what happened that I shouldn't want to do me that. H h don't know. I'm very numb out o mhm mhmm. Other than that, what uh did you know all the whole first how I try to come. I didn't spend the whole first week, I said, in the first week, you did because she brought it up, she said, but sometimes go. Ah like sleep attending this week, and so you might. Think she she wanted she might have seen something during that time, like you might have wat you live to sleep. And then she was talking about the shirt off comment that Sophie had made in the. Living room, and so I did tell her that during the first week we're living here, you had sometime downe that joy of thing. After Sophie was asleep, like looking at my shirt. Work one came to m hm, do something more in here. I didn't say that it. Was all week long. I said that in the. First week that it happened that given I wanted to do think here actress the week that everyone with. An a first week me too, that that was not something that should be done. That happened. Don't you remember that? Yeah? Okay, so what's the big thing I was in that? Why that I did not right that I was Ah, she had said. H. He said, I want every night that the person one person. Whatever happened, And yes, what's yet or not that you knew was inaccurate because there. Was a line within the first week. I didn't pay every single line. It's because that was not what I intended to communicate. And anyway, the only thing I'm going to to communicate during the birth week. The good. I don't know about you, guys, but I am cringing internally listening to this conversation. Jake saying it's not a big deal after he's literally grilling her on what she said to his mom about their sex life is freaking weird. Okay, there is no getting around it. It's bizarre. It's weird. Why is he questioning what she told Angela? And why is Angela talking to Jake about it? Like this is all just such a weird family dynamic they have going on here and I cannot rationalize what is wrong with these people. This conversation is almost over, so we are going to get back to it and get wrapped up. I promise we are coming to the end soon. And Germany. Where not a Germany? Okay, So that is the conversation. She ends up saying she feels like she lives in Nazi Germany and Jake Wagner doesn't know where that is or apparently anything about the history of our world. But that is how we're going to end episode eight. Episode nine is going to be a doozy because we get to hear the wire task between Angela and Jake, and what I tell you, it is some wild backwoods hillbilly stuff. It is some wild backwoods hillbly stuff, like you can literally hear Banjo's playing in the background during some of these conversations. Not really, but really it. Is a wild ride. So we are going to call that good for episode eight of Summer series. We are going to pick up next week with continued wire taps, We're going to get through them, slowly but surely, and and I will see you guys back here next week for Part nine. See you then, bye,