Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Mourners honor 6 family members shot to death in Ohio
WEST PORTSMOUTH, Ohio — Black hearses carried six of the eight family members slain in southern Ohio to a hillside cemetery, where mourners crowded around blue tents shielding the caskets Tuesday.
Some showed up to the last of three funerals for the victims wearing blue jeans, caps and bright orange shirts with the words “Rhoden Proud, Rhoden Strong.”
Deputies were posted outside the church where the funeral was held as authorities continue chasing leads on the slayings.
Seven adults and a 16year-old boy from the Rhoden family were found dead April 22 at four homes scattered across a few miles of countryside near Piketon, about 80 miles east of Cincinnati. All eight were shot in the head, and none of the deaths appeared self-inflicted, authorities said. Three children were unharmed.
Tuesday’s funeral honored Christopher Rhoden, 40, his ex-wife, Dana Rhoden, 37, and their three children — Clarence “Frankie” Rhoden, 20, Hanna, 19, and Christopher Jr., 16. Christopher Rhoden Sr.’s brother, Kenneth Rhoden, 44, also was honored.
David Dickerson, who works for the Pike County prosecutor’s office, called the funeral somber and said the family is grateful for the support it has received.
“The southern Ohio community is a close-knit family, and even though it was, you know, 20 to 30 minutes away, it rocked our community,” said the Rev. Mark Seevers at the Dry Run Church of Christ in West Portsmouth. “Everyone is grieving and mourning.”
Authorities are trying to determine who killed the victims and why.
On the day the bodies were discovered, law enforcement officials had urged other members of the Rhoden family to take precautions because it appeared the family was targeted.
Services for a cousin, Gary Rhoden, 38, were held Thursday in South Shore, Ky., and Saturday for Frankie Rhoden’s fiancee, Hannah Gilley, 20, in Otway, Ohio.