Members of an Ohio family accused of executing eight members of a rival family in 2016 over a custody dispute of a little girl, were photographed attending one of their victim's funerals.
George Wagner IV, 30, is on trial in a Pike County courtroom for the gruesome killings that he allegedly carried out with his father, George "Billy" Wagner III, his brother, Edward "Jake" Wagner and his mother, Angela Wagner.
Cody Manley testified that he found his cousin, Frankie Rhoden and fiancé Hannah "Hazel" Gilley, both 20, dead in their room April 22, 2016.
The couple's six-month-old Ruger had been nursing when his mother was shot five times in the head and face.
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"I just froze," he said. "I saw things I didn't want to see."
Less than a week later, he encountered the three Wagner men at the funeral of his slain 38-year-old cousin, Gary Rhoden.
Recently surfaced photos from the Cincinnati Enquirer showed the men entering the Greenup, Kentucky, funeral home April 27, 2016, looking somber and wearing plaid shirts and jeans – less than one week after the mass murder.
It was the first of eight funerals for the slain members of the Rhoden family. Manley said he also saw the Wagners at other victims' funerals.
They were found shot to death, April 22, 2016, most of them killed in their sleep –- but the Wagner family was not implicated in the murders until 2018.
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Jake Wagner shared a child with his ex-girlfriend, Hanna May Rhoden, 19, and prosecutors say she was primary target. He shot her in the head to secure sole custody of their 3-year-old daughter, Sophia.
He spared the life of the five-day-old infant she shared with another man. The baby was found splattered in her mother's blood and positioned near her breast.
Witnesses testified Friday that Jake Wagner was abusive toward Hanna May Rhoden calling her fat, locking her in a room for six months, and choking and beating her before she left him.
The Wagners' other alleged victims included Christopher Rhoden, Sr., 40, his ex-wife Dana Manley Rhoden, 37, Christopher Rhoden Jr., 16, and Kenneth Rhoden, 44.
Jake Wagner pleaded guilty last year to killing five of the victims and is expected to testify against his brother, who he says was present but did not pull the trigger.
Angela Wagner, who helped plot the mass murder but did not participate in the killings, also pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate against her son. The Wagner father has pleaded not guilty.
