Most of the Ohio Family Massacre Victims Were Shot Multiple Times

04_22_ohio_shooting_01
Authorities create a perimeter near a crime scene on Union Hill Road in Pike County, Ohio, April 22. Eight members of the same family were killed. John Minchillo/AP
By

Before joining Newsweek, Lucy Westcott was an editorial fellow at The Wire. Previously a United Nations correspondent for the Inter Press Service, she has also written for the Guardian, Bustle, American Journalism Review, and the Capital News Service, and interned at the BBC’s Washington bureau. Lucy received her Masters of Journalism degree from the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, College Park, and got her start in journalism writing copy for a police station. She was born and raised in Swindon, U.K.

Writers Page
Trust Project Icon Newsweek Is A Trust Project Member

🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.

One of the victims of last week's slayings of eight members of the Rhoden family in rural Ohio was found with nine gunshot wounds, authorities said on Tuesday.

Investigators revealed the preliminary results of the autopsies by the Hamilton County Coroner's Office. One victim was shot once; one was shot twice; two victims were shot three times; one victim was shot four times; two victims each had five gunshot wounds and one victim had nine gunshot wounds, according to the coroner's office.

The coroner's office did not match the names of the victims with the numbers of gunshot wounds. The autopsy results also showed soft tissue bruising on a number of the victims. The ages of the victims ranged from 16 to 44.

Rhoden_Family_Tree_0426
A family tree of the murdered members of the Rhoden family, provided by the Ohio Attorney General's Office. Ohio Attorney General's Office

The members of the Rhoden family were found shot to death on Friday across four locations in Pike County, southern Ohio. Authorities said at the time that all eight were shot in the head "execution-style" and that many were asleep in their beds when they were killed, but the findings released Tuesday appear to contradict the earlier assertions at least in some cases. Three young children survived the shootings.

The autopsy results come two days after officials said marijuana grow operations were discovered near three of the four locations where bodies were found. However, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said investigators still don't know whether drugs or evidence that cockfighting took place in the vicinity are related to the murders.

Officials have remained tight-lipped about the investigation since Sunday and have not said they have made any arrests. In an update on Tuesday, DeWine and Pike County Sheriff Charles Reader said an additional 61 pieces of evidence have been sent to the Bureau of Criminal Investigation laboratory, bringing the total pieces of evidence to 79.

More than 300 tips have been received in connection with the shootings since Friday, authorities said, and officials served additional search warrants on Monday. However, authorities aren't releasing the number of search warrants or the locations being searched.

Request Reprint & Licensing Submit Correction View Editorial & AI Guidelines