This series contains adult language and descriptions of graphic violence throughout. Listener discretion is advised. Calorie Audio Welcome to the Pink Moon Murders a production of I Heart Radio and Cavalry Audio. This is episode two, Dog would Weekend. So, who murdered seven rodents and a bride to be? Who are sleeping at their homes during a full moon in the spring of and why and where others in the community still targeted. It's crazy to think you go to sleep one night, maybe snuggling with your loved one, and never wake up, or maybe you wake up in a struggle for your life, which you lose. I wonder what their last words were to each other. I love you, I can't stand you. Maybe the punch line of a joke, a prayer, a simple good night. And I imagine the two young moms, Hannah May and Hannah Hazel, curling into the fetal position to comfort and protect their little babies as they fell asleep. Confusion swirled throughout the region in the days after the shootings, and sorrow weakened and angered the victims loved ones. The first thought many people had was that this was a murder suicide and the killer was among the dead. Many family murders occur that way, So was that what happened here? And if so, who was the killer and why did he or she do it? Law enforcement officers swarmed into the county from twenty three jurisdictions around the state, some to provide protection and some to investigate. The Pike County Sheriff's office also welcomed officers from the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, who searched the woods near the four crime scenes, and the FBI was providing assistance. The sheriff knew this was too big of a crime spree for his all department, which had only thirteen deputies who still needed to patrol the four forty square miles, so he asked the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, based in the Capitol Columbus, to take over as the lead agency. As I was working throughout the few weeks after it happened, I would just be checking in, you know, all kinds of different police officers from other counties. That's hotel clerk Jeff Rife, who has lived in Pike County all his life. A group of them would go out, you know, um to the properties for so like so many hours, and then they'd come back and another group would go back out. Um and before when they'd meet up in the lobby and stuff, before they would really switch out shifts. Uh they would. You would just hear him talking, and a lot of them would speculate. I saw a grown man cry uh over. He was one of the first people there, he said, and he just he couldn't said he couldn't even stay in one of the trailers. It was so heinous and just gry, he said. He he walked outside and almost puked and just started crying. One of those cops who was brought in to help has been a buddy of mine since junior high. At the time, he patrolled the suburban area where we grew up and mainly dealt with misdemeanor theft's, criminal damaging, and occasional assaults. He spent a shift at the entrance to Union Hill Road, making sure only authorized personnel and residence drove on it. He told me he was nervous because no one knew who or where the killer or killers were and if they'd strike again. He's wearing a bullet resistant kevlar vest and carrying a smith and Weston forty caliber pistol with a shotgun in his car. But those roads and men had firearms near them too. For his whole shift, my buddy wondered if someone was aiming a rifle at him. He said, you're not sure why it happened, how it happened, what the motives were. Was it a serial killer, someone insane, a gang that had issues with the family, family trying to get back at somebody. He spent a second shift in front of the homestead that had Chris's and Frankie's trailers. He was nervous for that shift too. He said, you're out in the sticks with houses maybe an acre apart. It's easier to get away with a multiple murder than in a city or suburb. When I asked what stood out in his mind as far as anything that might be connected to criminal activity that could lead to mass murder, he said, we were in front of a double wide trailer that was in the ground with chicken coops and lots of roosters. Off to the right with hound dogs. Off to the left was a barn with various vehicles, kind of like a chop shop going on there. Investigators making small talk with him. We're thinking that if illegal cockfighting was going on with illegal gambling, maybe an argument over a bet turned deadly and there were too many cars, trucks and other vehicles, many being junkers, that were rushed. The missing parts parked around the yard for him to count. Were they stolen? Did the Rodents buy them? Did people just give them their broken down ones? If they were stolen, maybe bad guys decided to eliminate their criminal competition. My buddy ended by saying about the investigators. Everybody was like, fuck, this is crazy. Whatever these victims were into, they really piste off some guys. I spoke with relatives and friends of Rodents, Hannah, Hazel, Gilly and Manley's, who are Dana Roden's bloodline. Her maiden name was Dana Manley, but she kept the road in the last name after divorcing Chris. I asked several of them what they thought of the chop shop and cock fighting allegations. That's Brittany Pettit a longtime friend of little Chris Rodin, my boyfriend him and his uncle, and it was just for this like other people they do for money, but not the Rodents. She said they weren't involved. I then asked what she thought about all the vehicles parked around Chris Sr's homestead, which encompassed several acres of flat land carved from the forested hills. Dana Roden's dad had told a newspaper that between a hundred and a hundred and fifty vehicles were on it. Brittany, who is now twenty, smiled as she thought, a little Chris who was only sixteen when he was killed, Christie in the school every day and then different car, different car. I'm still thinking to myself, obviously, how did they have all that money? Why all these different cars that they can just drive around like I'm But as we talked further, she said she believed Chris had bought most of the cars at auctions throughout the region. He had an aptitude for fixing them up and flipping them for a profit, stripping some for parts. He and his male relatives worked on vehicles when they were between jobs, and especially during demolition derby season. I spoke a few times with Tony Rowden, whose brothers Chris and Kenneth were among the dead. Although he didn't want his voice used in this podcast, he agreed to let me record him and later read his words so I could get the facts right. He said, with contempt, there wasn't no chop shop here in a rural area. Drive around. I mean in yards you see fifteen cars setting in him. Wasn't no chop shop. And regarding the roosters, he said, just because somebody's got a barrel in a chicken to it, that doesn't mean it's actually used for cock fighting. People have that tendency to look at it that way, but it's just not so. They didn't fight chickens, They raised chickens. Pike County's sheriff and prosecutor in Ohio's Attorney General visited the crime scenes multiple times those first days. They decided to tell most of the vehicles into town for further investigation, and the Attorney General to Little newspaper that roosters and triangular cages were normally associated with cock fighting, but he didn't know if that was a factor in the road in deaths. Time might tell. As investigators meticulously dug through official records to see if any of the victims had criminal or civil case histories, social media users moved faster. Almost immediately, Online speculation turned to the youngest victim Little Chris Brittany, who became friends with him in kindergarten, said he was fun and left his family, but she admitted that he wasn't always the sweet, smiling boy he appeared to be in published photographs. Oh, I honestly feel like he was kind of a a bully, like I'm not. But he was definitely a bully. He was definitely a person who like he thought he was better than like, and you thought he was always right, always right. He was mr Right off the record. A prominent religious leader told me point blank that Little This was a mean kid. These were eye openers that took away some of the innocence I had defaulted to for the boy. I discovered his final Facebook post, which was on March, about five weeks before the murders. It's a meme of a shotgun with shells and the words I won't back up, I don't back down. I was raised up to stand my ground. A Google search taught me those are the lyrics to a country rap song titled answer to No One. Around that time, Little Chris had a beef with two young men after a car accident on Union Hill Road done on April twelve. One of the men. Nineteen year old Rusty Mongold posted, God, I can't stop thinking about the kid that hit me with his car. Every time I see a silver Tiberon, I get pumped and ready to beat his going. Mongold added, we will get them, all of them. And Mongold's friend Larry Jones swore that they would clear out that whole neck of the woods, but after the April shootings, they were quick to apologize online. Jones said, what has happened to the road and family was an absolute tragedy, and even though I had posted some stuff on here in the past, doesn't mean I would ever think about acting on it. Looking back, I feel awful about what I posted in the first place. I have nothing to hide, Mongold wrote on Facebook. Everyone's saying it was me, Please keep my name out your mouth because I would never wish death on anyone, nor shoot anyone, and I'm very sorry for everyone's loss. Regardless. Mongold was questioned by agents from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation. He also gave them a DNA sample to compare with any evidence from the crime scenes. Jones had a similar experience. After several hours, they were released from b c I custody, but the agents would not confirmed to a reporter that the two men were no longer suspects. By coincidence, a second young man with the last named Jones, was interrogated. Cell Phone footage shows Isaiah Jones, who was twenty one, being pulled out of a car by police officers shouting and pointing their weapons at him the evening after the murders. He said they held them at their station until morning. While he was locked up. Locals continued celebrating the beautiful flowering tree at the annual Dogwood Festival on East Main Street. It had free rides for the kids, vendors selling cotton candy, pro wrestlers performing under a tent, and country Western stars from Nashville new for that year, where the police officers patrolling in swat gear and Jones's home was being searched. After being released, he cried while swearing to a TV reporter that he had nothing to do with the murders, and the security camp footage proved he was home that night. I really want people to know that our had nothing to do with that, and that these were also friends and and then I went to school. He did admit that he'd had arguments with Rodents in the past, but said his arrest was because two mothers of his kids were just trying to collect the two dollar reward that had been established by a famous Cincinnati restaurant owner. They were angry with him and allegedly looking for easy money. Brittany spoke about an encounter a Little Chris and his friends had had with Isaiah Jones and his buddies and why investigators suspected Jones smart boy like kenty because apparently they lamed him for the murder because um Christal and the McDonald's and called him the N words, and apparently they threatened him and sever really come after your family If that's what happened, I can understand if Isaiah wanted to kick Little Chris's ass, but murder him and seven others, that's a stretch. Investigators focused on other leads and left Isaiah alone. Within just the first two days, they had received more than a hundred tips and investigated another fifty persons of interest. The Pink Moon Murders will return after the break and now back to the Pink Moon murders. Another accusation was against Tommy Gorman Jr. A few locals told me about a big fight the two Rodent boys had had with Tommy and his family months before the murders, something to do with the demolition derby at the annual Pike County Fair, but the details were vague. Fortunately, I was able to find news reports. One said Tommy might have killed the Rodents as payback. According to the reports, Little Chris and Frankie, with a bunch of friends, drove to the Gorman homestead. The Rodents were rare and the and their friends were egging them on. After exchanging some words, Frankie allegedly jumped Tommy, maybe with help from his boys, and beat him up pretty bad. Then they attacked his dad, Tommy Sr. Knocking out his fake teeth and breaking his hand. It wasn't until Tommy Junior's grandpa raced up in a derby car fired some gunshots into the earth that the Rodents and their friends fled. Eventually, Frankie, who was nineteen at the time, was indicted on a second degree felony for assault Little Chris was not. A jury trial was set, but Frankie's charge was later dismissed without prejudice. The reason is unclear. Eventually, I interviewed Tiffany, who at the time was married to Tommy Jr. And witnessed the fight. She and her now ex husband knew Frankie and the others from Piked in high school and the Demolition Derby Circuit. She told me Frankie ran cars each summer during Pike County's annual fair and in Greenup County, Kentucky, which is about thirty miles south along Route twenty three with Soda County in the Ohio River in the middle. She thinks Frankie also competed in Derby's and Jackson and Ross Counties, and little Chris might have competed in the crash up Derby's for boys riding lawnmowers before he got his driver's license. Tiffany described the fight. Frankie was there a little Christmas tell me everybody was there practically so what like cockroaches. Frankie had called me a bad name, more likely to my ex husband, and it just crazy. And Frankie came out to his mom's in Okay went into a big old fight like there was so many of them, it was crazy, Tiffany said. Frankie and Tommy squared off, and so did Tommy's friend with another boy from the road and posse. No one was allowed to touch little Chris because he was underage except Tommy's younger brother. It was like it was fair like one on one and tell like um one part where my husband's dad, I guess one kind of like held him down and the other kind of like kicked them because that's where he got concussion at is from the still too boots. They got bad, like it was starting to get on where it wasn't one on one no more. It was you know, to jumping on one or whatever. Tiffany confirmed the Tommy Jr's grandpa drove up and fired his gun into the air to scare off the attackers. Eventually someone called the police when they was a question my ex father on all he passed out because he had a concussion. They rushed into the hospital. So yeah, it was it was bad. It was bad, and it was just because of like I mean, I'm not saying it's right to call you a bad name, it right, but I was just wondering, like, how did it increase to that level where it became a fistfight and stuff. I mean, your husband basically was defending Yeah, yeah, he was defending me, of course, but like I guess, just from like all the dirties before I met my husband, I think they had a bad relationship before then. So some Rodents and Gorman's had a feud going on, but police didn't pursue it too much. Tiffany said that after the murders, they called and left messages for Tommy to call them back, but he didn't. He didn't want to get involved, and he was never arrested. Tiffany said she convinced police that he was in bed the night of April April. All of this shows that these two young Rodent males had alter egos, far from the sweet and loving characteristics I've read about in those early news profiles, but that duality appealed to some. Frankie was one of the bad boys that all the girls wanted. Chelsea, his ex girlfriend and the mother of his three year old son, told a reporter I was just lucky enough to get him. Frankie was a strong, healthy, and sometimes brash young man who could also be sweet and loving, and Brittany laughed while saying a good word to describe little Chris was reckless. And I remember the first time we like wrote wrote my first time writing with him, poor Willer, and he thought the Willie and I was terrified and I always diet like cry. She said. He was fun at school, especially in their government class. In class playing Journey music like Molly Cyrus. He would play that. He would walk the door walking with Scrina out oft the class and play it delious and almost every day after launch the Manly family, Dana Roden's bloodline has been heavily investigated for the murders. Her sister, Bobby Joe found the first bodies. Their dad rushed to Bobby Joe before the police did, and their brother found the bodies Danas trailer. There's a police adage the criminals often returned to the scene of a crime. Plus family members commit a high percentage of murders discovered at home, and in this case, there was no forced entry into the homes and the killer or killers got past all those dogs. Maybe Bobby Joe had lied during her call, so I can understand why law enforcement targeted the Mantelies. And all I can say is that it was extreme. Around three thirty in the morning on a officers rousted at Bobby Joe from sleep and took her to be interrogated for the umteenth time in less than two days. She said. They asked her what time she really arrived at Chris Rodin's home that morning, how much someone paid her to kill her family, and other disturbing questions. She was crying and shaking as she answered. The officers also fingerprinted her and took DNA samples, confiscated the clothes she was wearing when she found the bodies, and gave her a lie detect her. Afterwards, Bobby Joe told a newspaper reporter not having my family with me as the hardest. Sure, we had our little arguments here and there, but they still love you. You still love them, She added, I won't ever see them again until I meet them in heaven or hell. Her dad, Leonard, had harsh words regarding her. If I thought she did this, she want to be alive. If she killed my family, she ain't no better than anyone else. Leonard added that if he knew who was guilty, the sheriff want to have to worry about it. Bobby Joe and Dana's brother James, who had found the bodies at Dana's home, also was interrogated. Repeatedly. Investigators asked how much someone paid him to kill his family and how well he knew the dogs at the road in properties, among other questions. Leonard told a reporter that James failed a lie detector test but was innocent. An investigators were making lots of mistakes. Law enforcement looked hard at Leonard too. Here's pastor Phil. You know. They even went to a dumpster and found Leonard's old shoes and tried to tie that am. Yeah, he had bought a new pair of shoes, and the question why did you buy a new pair of shoes and where was they at? Blah blah blah. Can't imagine being investigated like that right after my daughter and three grandchildren were murdered, leaving for my great grandchildren without parents. But police were doing what they thought was best. They were under tremendous pressure to prevent future killings besides getting justice. The day the bodies were found, Ohio Attorney General Mike Dwine and Pike County Sheriff Charlie Reader held to press conferences. They emphasized that they and all law enforcement officers were working around the clock to execute search warrants, collect evidence, and interview persons of interest. After a TV reporter at a old blocked Union Hill Road asked Leonard how he was doing, he just broke down. He said his daughter and the others were laying up there as he pointed to the distance, maybe to the sky, and then complained that the police weren't doing anything about it. Well, if you really want to know, at my daughter and all of them went out there. About finally, Leonard collapsed onto the hood of a police car, as an officer stood far back and observed. My heart hurt for Leonard. He was crushed by the tragedy and beaten metaphorically by investigators. He was unshaven and looked like he hadn't slept in days. His lips quivered. This was on Monday, April, three days after the murders were discovered. Leonard had choice words for the police. Saturday evening. We had an accomplished compare with the deep time Sam Snut, I mean Pierre Snuts. After a reporter asked if he was worried about his family member bors who survived, Leonard said he had asked Cheff Reader, an Attorney General Dwine about that. During a meeting at Union Hill Church. I didn't get no answer. I told him been in front of a hundred fifty people, I don't want my gun, and if if they had after or something cut in my house and he kicks on the door he had. Just as Leonard felt the police were turning on him and his family, he was turning on them more Pink Moon murders. After a word from our sponsors, we now return to the Pink Moon murders. Fast forward three and a half years. I was hoping to interview Leonard myself over the phone. He was passionate and colorful, but said he couldn't speak on the record anymore because of the judges gag order. I said, I believe the gag order didn't apply to him, but he said the sheriff and two bc I agents were firm that he was no longer allowed to speak publicly. I wanted him to have the correct information, and so I called the Pike County Courthouse, got a statement passed from the judge that the gag order did not apply to family members, and called Leonard back. I said I could share with him the statement, but after some intense words about the judge and b c I agents, Leonard quit speaking. One of the questions I was hoping to ask him was how the killer. For the sake of brevity, I'm gonna say killer from now on, even though there might have been more than one, got past those dogs plus the chickens that could get noisy. He mentioned from day one that the dogs were vicious, and even he was scared getting out of his car when he visited Chris's place. Here's what he told those TV reporters at the roadblock two days after the discovery of the bodies. Whoever data the family, they were two dogs. They would eat you up. I later told Tony Rowden what Leonard said about Chris's dogs, and he replied, he ain't lying. He ain't lying. I've drove over there to Chriss and I wouldn't get out of the car until he came out. So that pit bull and box were big and vicious, and they had coonhounds with their keen senses to alert them when strangers were approaching. Tony suspected the killer brought steakes to distract the dogs, and maybe he knew the dogs. I pointed out that even if the dogs knew the killer and he had meat to distract them, I was sure at least a couple would bark after noticing an approacher. Although the pitbull and boxer usually stayed inside at night, the coonhounds remained outside. Tony replied that one of the biggest mysteries of this whole case is how the killer evaded the dogs. Solve that, and you might solve the crime. He said, so, I spent a lot of time pondering this. We know a full moon was shining that night, giving light to the pitch blackness out in the woods. I doubt the killer carried a flashlight. It was spring, meaning there were no crunchy leaves of fall or crunchy snow of winter on the ground to make noise. Maybe the killer drove up or hiked up the paved Union Hill Road and then crept over the grass to the front doors. I was able to pick the door locks or had keys, or climbed in the windows that Bobby Joe saw open at two locations that morning. Maybe the dogs were sleeping in the middle of the night. I can believe that I've had dogs, but all fifteen the killer didn't trip or sneeze or make any sound to wake them up. I'm wondering what I'm missing, and if the facts will ever come out. Whatever the investigators know, they're not sharing publicly. So this story is not just a who done it and why done it? But also now how done it? To learn as much as possible, I listened repeatedly to what officials said at press conferences. Besides the two on Friday, April, they held another two days later on Sunday, the final day of the Dogwood Festival. That was a day of the Grand Parade with the piked In High School marching band, Scottish Bagpiper's funny Car, clowns, girls throwing candy, and lots of American flags. That press conference opened with Sheriff Reeder addressing the media. I want everybody to be patient, but understand that we are working around the clock, twenty four hours a day, working on every lead that comes in, all the tips conducted, the interviews. We will provide information as as we can, but this is going to be a very lengthy process, he said. He spoke with relatives of the victims and told them to be armed because they might be targets. And then, as he stood tall and heroic, he warned the almost thirty thousand Pike County ins at large. I can tell you, if you are fearful, arm yourself. If you feel that you need to protect yourself or family, do so. I took an oath to serve and protect my counting, and I will do to so to my best of my ability. But I cannot promise any one of those thirty thousand that I can be there to stop anything well. Sheriff Reeder told residents to prepare themselves for what might happen. Attorney General d Wine provided an overview of what had already happened. This was a pre plan execution of eight individuals. It was a sophisticated operation, and those who carried it out were trying to do everything that they could do to hinder the investigation and their prosecution. The two men spoke about a variety of issues connected to the case, including how they didn't want to telegraph to the bad guys everything they knew. Twenty one minutes into the press conference, Reader and the Wine thank the media and prepared to walk away from the microphones and cameras. When an aid handed the sheriff a sheet of paper, He skimmed it and then handed it to the Attorney General, and they both silently read it. Then the wine spoke with the media for twenty seconds before walking away without taking any more questions. But his words were a game changer. Within hours, the dollar reward was rescinded and the court of public opinion turned hard against the Rodents. The family quickly went from being perceived as innocent and sympathetic victims some with flaws, to major criminals who may be got what they deserved, and investigators had their most substantial lead yet. The Pink Moon Murders as a Cavalry Audio production in association with I Heart Radio, written and narrated by David Radiman, Produced by Brandon Morgan of The Cavalry Audio and Casey Whaland for Wayland Productions, Edited by Tim mulhern, Executive produced by Dana Brunetti and Keegan Rosenberger.

This series contains adult language and descriptions of graphic violence throughout. Listener discretion is advised. Calorie Audio Welcome to the Pink Moon Murders a production of I Heart Radio and Cavalry Audio. This is episode two, Dog would Weekend. So, who murdered seven rodents and a bride to be? Who are sleeping at their homes during a full moon in the spring of and why and where others in the community still targeted. It's crazy to think you go to sleep one night, maybe snuggling with your loved one, and never wake up, or maybe you wake up in a struggle for your life, which you lose. I wonder what their last words were to each other. I love you, I can't stand you. Maybe the punch line of a joke, a prayer, a simple good night. And I imagine the two young moms, Hannah May and Hannah Hazel, curling into the fetal position to comfort and protect their little babies as they fell asleep. Confusion swirled throughout the region in the days after the shootings, and sorrow weakened and angered the victims loved ones. The first thought many people had was that this was a murder suicide and the killer was among the dead. Many family murders occur that way, So was that what happened here? And if so, who was the killer and why did he or she do it? Law enforcement officers swarmed into the county from twenty three jurisdictions around the state, some to provide protection and some to investigate. The Pike County Sheriff's office also welcomed officers from the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, who searched the woods near the four crime scenes, and the FBI was providing assistance. The sheriff knew this was too big of a crime spree for his all department, which had only thirteen deputies who still needed to patrol the four forty square miles, so he asked the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, based in the Capitol Columbus, to take over as the lead agency. As I was working throughout the few weeks after it happened, I would just be checking in, you know, all kinds of different police officers from other counties. That's hotel clerk Jeff Rife, who has lived in Pike County all his life. A group of them would go out, you know, um to the properties for so like so many hours, and then they'd come back and another group would go back out. Um and before when they'd meet up in the lobby and stuff, before they would really switch out shifts. Uh they would. You would just hear him talking, and a lot of them would speculate. I saw a grown man cry uh over. He was one of the first people there, he said, and he just he couldn't said he couldn't even stay in one of the trailers. It was so heinous and just gry, he said. He he walked outside and almost puked and just started crying. One of those cops who was brought in to help has been a buddy of mine since junior high. At the time, he patrolled the suburban area where we grew up and mainly dealt with misdemeanor theft's, criminal damaging, and occasional assaults. He spent a shift at the entrance to Union Hill Road, making sure only authorized personnel and residence drove on it. He told me he was nervous because no one knew who or where the killer or killers were and if they'd strike again. He's wearing a bullet resistant kevlar vest and carrying a smith and Weston forty caliber pistol with a shotgun in his car. But those roads and men had firearms near them too. For his whole shift, my buddy wondered if someone was aiming a rifle at him. He said, you're not sure why it happened, how it happened, what the motives were. Was it a serial killer, someone insane, a gang that had issues with the family, family trying to get back at somebody. He spent a second shift in front of the homestead that had Chris's and Frankie's trailers. He was nervous for that shift too. He said, you're out in the sticks with houses maybe an acre apart. It's easier to get away with a multiple murder than in a city or suburb. When I asked what stood out in his mind as far as anything that might be connected to criminal activity that could lead to mass murder, he said, we were in front of a double wide trailer that was in the ground with chicken coops and lots of roosters. Off to the right with hound dogs. Off to the left was a barn with various vehicles, kind of like a chop shop going on there. Investigators making small talk with him. We're thinking that if illegal cockfighting was going on with illegal gambling, maybe an argument over a bet turned deadly and there were too many cars, trucks and other vehicles, many being junkers, that were rushed. The missing parts parked around the yard for him to count. Were they stolen? Did the Rodents buy them? Did people just give them their broken down ones? If they were stolen, maybe bad guys decided to eliminate their criminal competition. My buddy ended by saying about the investigators. Everybody was like, fuck, this is crazy. Whatever these victims were into, they really piste off some guys. I spoke with relatives and friends of Rodents, Hannah, Hazel, Gilly and Manley's, who are Dana Roden's bloodline. Her maiden name was Dana Manley, but she kept the road in the last name after divorcing Chris. I asked several of them what they thought of the chop shop and cock fighting allegations. That's Brittany Pettit a longtime friend of little Chris Rodin, my boyfriend him and his uncle, and it was just for this like other people they do for money, but not the Rodents. She said they weren't involved. I then asked what she thought about all the vehicles parked around Chris Sr's homestead, which encompassed several acres of flat land carved from the forested hills. Dana Roden's dad had told a newspaper that between a hundred and a hundred and fifty vehicles were on it. Brittany, who is now twenty, smiled as she thought, a little Chris who was only sixteen when he was killed, Christie in the school every day and then different car, different car. I'm still thinking to myself, obviously, how did they have all that money? Why all these different cars that they can just drive around like I'm But as we talked further, she said she believed Chris had bought most of the cars at auctions throughout the region. He had an aptitude for fixing them up and flipping them for a profit, stripping some for parts. He and his male relatives worked on vehicles when they were between jobs, and especially during demolition derby season. I spoke a few times with Tony Rowden, whose brothers Chris and Kenneth were among the dead. Although he didn't want his voice used in this podcast, he agreed to let me record him and later read his words so I could get the facts right. He said, with contempt, there wasn't no chop shop here in a rural area. Drive around. I mean in yards you see fifteen cars setting in him. Wasn't no chop shop. And regarding the roosters, he said, just because somebody's got a barrel in a chicken to it, that doesn't mean it's actually used for cock fighting. People have that tendency to look at it that way, but it's just not so. They didn't fight chickens, They raised chickens. Pike County's sheriff and prosecutor in Ohio's Attorney General visited the crime scenes multiple times those first days. They decided to tell most of the vehicles into town for further investigation, and the Attorney General to Little newspaper that roosters and triangular cages were normally associated with cock fighting, but he didn't know if that was a factor in the road in deaths. Time might tell. As investigators meticulously dug through official records to see if any of the victims had criminal or civil case histories, social media users moved faster. Almost immediately, Online speculation turned to the youngest victim Little Chris Brittany, who became friends with him in kindergarten, said he was fun and left his family, but she admitted that he wasn't always the sweet, smiling boy he appeared to be in published photographs. Oh, I honestly feel like he was kind of a a bully, like I'm not. But he was definitely a bully. He was definitely a person who like he thought he was better than like, and you thought he was always right, always right. He was mr Right off the record. A prominent religious leader told me point blank that Little This was a mean kid. These were eye openers that took away some of the innocence I had defaulted to for the boy. I discovered his final Facebook post, which was on March, about five weeks before the murders. It's a meme of a shotgun with shells and the words I won't back up, I don't back down. I was raised up to stand my ground. A Google search taught me those are the lyrics to a country rap song titled answer to No One. Around that time, Little Chris had a beef with two young men after a car accident on Union Hill Road done on April twelve. One of the men. Nineteen year old Rusty Mongold posted, God, I can't stop thinking about the kid that hit me with his car. Every time I see a silver Tiberon, I get pumped and ready to beat his going. Mongold added, we will get them, all of them. And Mongold's friend Larry Jones swore that they would clear out that whole neck of the woods, but after the April shootings, they were quick to apologize online. Jones said, what has happened to the road and family was an absolute tragedy, and even though I had posted some stuff on here in the past, doesn't mean I would ever think about acting on it. Looking back, I feel awful about what I posted in the first place. I have nothing to hide, Mongold wrote on Facebook. Everyone's saying it was me, Please keep my name out your mouth because I would never wish death on anyone, nor shoot anyone, and I'm very sorry for everyone's loss. Regardless. Mongold was questioned by agents from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation. He also gave them a DNA sample to compare with any evidence from the crime scenes. Jones had a similar experience. After several hours, they were released from b c I custody, but the agents would not confirmed to a reporter that the two men were no longer suspects. By coincidence, a second young man with the last named Jones, was interrogated. Cell Phone footage shows Isaiah Jones, who was twenty one, being pulled out of a car by police officers shouting and pointing their weapons at him the evening after the murders. He said they held them at their station until morning. While he was locked up. Locals continued celebrating the beautiful flowering tree at the annual Dogwood Festival on East Main Street. It had free rides for the kids, vendors selling cotton candy, pro wrestlers performing under a tent, and country Western stars from Nashville new for that year, where the police officers patrolling in swat gear and Jones's home was being searched. After being released, he cried while swearing to a TV reporter that he had nothing to do with the murders, and the security camp footage proved he was home that night. I really want people to know that our had nothing to do with that, and that these were also friends and and then I went to school. He did admit that he'd had arguments with Rodents in the past, but said his arrest was because two mothers of his kids were just trying to collect the two dollar reward that had been established by a famous Cincinnati restaurant owner. They were angry with him and allegedly looking for easy money. Brittany spoke about an encounter a Little Chris and his friends had had with Isaiah Jones and his buddies and why investigators suspected Jones smart boy like kenty because apparently they lamed him for the murder because um Christal and the McDonald's and called him the N words, and apparently they threatened him and sever really come after your family If that's what happened, I can understand if Isaiah wanted to kick Little Chris's ass, but murder him and seven others, that's a stretch. Investigators focused on other leads and left Isaiah alone. Within just the first two days, they had received more than a hundred tips and investigated another fifty persons of interest. The Pink Moon Murders will return after the break and now back to the Pink Moon murders. Another accusation was against Tommy Gorman Jr. A few locals told me about a big fight the two Rodent boys had had with Tommy and his family months before the murders, something to do with the demolition derby at the annual Pike County Fair, but the details were vague. Fortunately, I was able to find news reports. One said Tommy might have killed the Rodents as payback. According to the reports, Little Chris and Frankie, with a bunch of friends, drove to the Gorman homestead. The Rodents were rare and the and their friends were egging them on. After exchanging some words, Frankie allegedly jumped Tommy, maybe with help from his boys, and beat him up pretty bad. Then they attacked his dad, Tommy Sr. Knocking out his fake teeth and breaking his hand. It wasn't until Tommy Junior's grandpa raced up in a derby car fired some gunshots into the earth that the Rodents and their friends fled. Eventually, Frankie, who was nineteen at the time, was indicted on a second degree felony for assault Little Chris was not. A jury trial was set, but Frankie's charge was later dismissed without prejudice. The reason is unclear. Eventually, I interviewed Tiffany, who at the time was married to Tommy Jr. And witnessed the fight. She and her now ex husband knew Frankie and the others from Piked in high school and the Demolition Derby Circuit. She told me Frankie ran cars each summer during Pike County's annual fair and in Greenup County, Kentucky, which is about thirty miles south along Route twenty three with Soda County in the Ohio River in the middle. She thinks Frankie also competed in Derby's and Jackson and Ross Counties, and little Chris might have competed in the crash up Derby's for boys riding lawnmowers before he got his driver's license. Tiffany described the fight. Frankie was there a little Christmas tell me everybody was there practically so what like cockroaches. Frankie had called me a bad name, more likely to my ex husband, and it just crazy. And Frankie came out to his mom's in Okay went into a big old fight like there was so many of them, it was crazy, Tiffany said. Frankie and Tommy squared off, and so did Tommy's friend with another boy from the road and posse. No one was allowed to touch little Chris because he was underage except Tommy's younger brother. It was like it was fair like one on one and tell like um one part where my husband's dad, I guess one kind of like held him down and the other kind of like kicked them because that's where he got concussion at is from the still too boots. They got bad, like it was starting to get on where it wasn't one on one no more. It was you know, to jumping on one or whatever. Tiffany confirmed the Tommy Jr's grandpa drove up and fired his gun into the air to scare off the attackers. Eventually someone called the police when they was a question my ex father on all he passed out because he had a concussion. They rushed into the hospital. So yeah, it was it was bad. It was bad, and it was just because of like I mean, I'm not saying it's right to call you a bad name, it right, but I was just wondering, like, how did it increase to that level where it became a fistfight and stuff. I mean, your husband basically was defending Yeah, yeah, he was defending me, of course, but like I guess, just from like all the dirties before I met my husband, I think they had a bad relationship before then. So some Rodents and Gorman's had a feud going on, but police didn't pursue it too much. Tiffany said that after the murders, they called and left messages for Tommy to call them back, but he didn't. He didn't want to get involved, and he was never arrested. Tiffany said she convinced police that he was in bed the night of April April. All of this shows that these two young Rodent males had alter egos, far from the sweet and loving characteristics I've read about in those early news profiles, but that duality appealed to some. Frankie was one of the bad boys that all the girls wanted. Chelsea, his ex girlfriend and the mother of his three year old son, told a reporter I was just lucky enough to get him. Frankie was a strong, healthy, and sometimes brash young man who could also be sweet and loving, and Brittany laughed while saying a good word to describe little Chris was reckless. And I remember the first time we like wrote wrote my first time writing with him, poor Willer, and he thought the Willie and I was terrified and I always diet like cry. She said. He was fun at school, especially in their government class. In class playing Journey music like Molly Cyrus. He would play that. He would walk the door walking with Scrina out oft the class and play it delious and almost every day after launch the Manly family, Dana Roden's bloodline has been heavily investigated for the murders. Her sister, Bobby Joe found the first bodies. Their dad rushed to Bobby Joe before the police did, and their brother found the bodies Danas trailer. There's a police adage the criminals often returned to the scene of a crime. Plus family members commit a high percentage of murders discovered at home, and in this case, there was no forced entry into the homes and the killer or killers got past all those dogs. Maybe Bobby Joe had lied during her call, so I can understand why law enforcement targeted the Mantelies. And all I can say is that it was extreme. Around three thirty in the morning on a officers rousted at Bobby Joe from sleep and took her to be interrogated for the umteenth time in less than two days. She said. They asked her what time she really arrived at Chris Rodin's home that morning, how much someone paid her to kill her family, and other disturbing questions. She was crying and shaking as she answered. The officers also fingerprinted her and took DNA samples, confiscated the clothes she was wearing when she found the bodies, and gave her a lie detect her. Afterwards, Bobby Joe told a newspaper reporter not having my family with me as the hardest. Sure, we had our little arguments here and there, but they still love you. You still love them, She added, I won't ever see them again until I meet them in heaven or hell. Her dad, Leonard, had harsh words regarding her. If I thought she did this, she want to be alive. If she killed my family, she ain't no better than anyone else. Leonard added that if he knew who was guilty, the sheriff want to have to worry about it. Bobby Joe and Dana's brother James, who had found the bodies at Dana's home, also was interrogated. Repeatedly. Investigators asked how much someone paid him to kill his family and how well he knew the dogs at the road in properties, among other questions. Leonard told a reporter that James failed a lie detector test but was innocent. An investigators were making lots of mistakes. Law enforcement looked hard at Leonard too. Here's pastor Phil. You know. They even went to a dumpster and found Leonard's old shoes and tried to tie that am. Yeah, he had bought a new pair of shoes, and the question why did you buy a new pair of shoes and where was they at? Blah blah blah. Can't imagine being investigated like that right after my daughter and three grandchildren were murdered, leaving for my great grandchildren without parents. But police were doing what they thought was best. They were under tremendous pressure to prevent future killings besides getting justice. The day the bodies were found, Ohio Attorney General Mike Dwine and Pike County Sheriff Charlie Reader held to press conferences. They emphasized that they and all law enforcement officers were working around the clock to execute search warrants, collect evidence, and interview persons of interest. After a TV reporter at a old blocked Union Hill Road asked Leonard how he was doing, he just broke down. He said his daughter and the others were laying up there as he pointed to the distance, maybe to the sky, and then complained that the police weren't doing anything about it. Well, if you really want to know, at my daughter and all of them went out there. About finally, Leonard collapsed onto the hood of a police car, as an officer stood far back and observed. My heart hurt for Leonard. He was crushed by the tragedy and beaten metaphorically by investigators. He was unshaven and looked like he hadn't slept in days. His lips quivered. This was on Monday, April, three days after the murders were discovered. Leonard had choice words for the police. Saturday evening. We had an accomplished compare with the deep time Sam Snut, I mean Pierre Snuts. After a reporter asked if he was worried about his family member bors who survived, Leonard said he had asked Cheff Reader, an Attorney General Dwine about that. During a meeting at Union Hill Church. I didn't get no answer. I told him been in front of a hundred fifty people, I don't want my gun, and if if they had after or something cut in my house and he kicks on the door he had. Just as Leonard felt the police were turning on him and his family, he was turning on them more Pink Moon murders. After a word from our sponsors, we now return to the Pink Moon murders. Fast forward three and a half years. I was hoping to interview Leonard myself over the phone. He was passionate and colorful, but said he couldn't speak on the record anymore because of the judges gag order. I said, I believe the gag order didn't apply to him, but he said the sheriff and two bc I agents were firm that he was no longer allowed to speak publicly. I wanted him to have the correct information, and so I called the Pike County Courthouse, got a statement passed from the judge that the gag order did not apply to family members, and called Leonard back. I said I could share with him the statement, but after some intense words about the judge and b c I agents, Leonard quit speaking. One of the questions I was hoping to ask him was how the killer. For the sake of brevity, I'm gonna say killer from now on, even though there might have been more than one, got past those dogs plus the chickens that could get noisy. He mentioned from day one that the dogs were vicious, and even he was scared getting out of his car when he visited Chris's place. Here's what he told those TV reporters at the roadblock two days after the discovery of the bodies. Whoever data the family, they were two dogs. They would eat you up. I later told Tony Rowden what Leonard said about Chris's dogs, and he replied, he ain't lying. He ain't lying. I've drove over there to Chriss and I wouldn't get out of the car until he came out. So that pit bull and box were big and vicious, and they had coonhounds with their keen senses to alert them when strangers were approaching. Tony suspected the killer brought steakes to distract the dogs, and maybe he knew the dogs. I pointed out that even if the dogs knew the killer and he had meat to distract them, I was sure at least a couple would bark after noticing an approacher. Although the pitbull and boxer usually stayed inside at night, the coonhounds remained outside. Tony replied that one of the biggest mysteries of this whole case is how the killer evaded the dogs. Solve that, and you might solve the crime. He said, so, I spent a lot of time pondering this. We know a full moon was shining that night, giving light to the pitch blackness out in the woods. I doubt the killer carried a flashlight. It was spring, meaning there were no crunchy leaves of fall or crunchy snow of winter on the ground to make noise. Maybe the killer drove up or hiked up the paved Union Hill Road and then crept over the grass to the front doors. I was able to pick the door locks or had keys, or climbed in the windows that Bobby Joe saw open at two locations that morning. Maybe the dogs were sleeping in the middle of the night. I can believe that I've had dogs, but all fifteen the killer didn't trip or sneeze or make any sound to wake them up. I'm wondering what I'm missing, and if the facts will ever come out. Whatever the investigators know, they're not sharing publicly. So this story is not just a who done it and why done it? But also now how done it? To learn as much as possible, I listened repeatedly to what officials said at press conferences. Besides the two on Friday, April, they held another two days later on Sunday, the final day of the Dogwood Festival. That was a day of the Grand Parade with the piked In High School marching band, Scottish Bagpiper's funny Car, clowns, girls throwing candy, and lots of American flags. That press conference opened with Sheriff Reeder addressing the media. I want everybody to be patient, but understand that we are working around the clock, twenty four hours a day, working on every lead that comes in, all the tips conducted, the interviews. We will provide information as as we can, but this is going to be a very lengthy process, he said. He spoke with relatives of the victims and told them to be armed because they might be targets. And then, as he stood tall and heroic, he warned the almost thirty thousand Pike County ins at large. I can tell you, if you are fearful, arm yourself. If you feel that you need to protect yourself or family, do so. I took an oath to serve and protect my counting, and I will do to so to my best of my ability. But I cannot promise any one of those thirty thousand that I can be there to stop anything well. Sheriff Reeder told residents to prepare themselves for what might happen. Attorney General d Wine provided an overview of what had already happened. This was a pre plan execution of eight individuals. It was a sophisticated operation, and those who carried it out were trying to do everything that they could do to hinder the investigation and their prosecution. The two men spoke about a variety of issues connected to the case, including how they didn't want to telegraph to the bad guys everything they knew. Twenty one minutes into the press conference, Reader and the Wine thank the media and prepared to walk away from the microphones and cameras. When an aid handed the sheriff a sheet of paper, He skimmed it and then handed it to the Attorney General, and they both silently read it. Then the wine spoke with the media for twenty seconds before walking away without taking any more questions. But his words were a game changer. Within hours, the dollar reward was rescinded and the court of public opinion turned hard against the Rodents. The family quickly went from being perceived as innocent and sympathetic victims some with flaws, to major criminals who may be got what they deserved, and investigators had their most substantial lead yet. The Pink Moon Murders as a Cavalry Audio production in association with I Heart Radio, written and narrated by David Radiman, Produced by Brandon Morgan of The Cavalry Audio and Casey Whaland for Wayland Productions, Edited by Tim mulhern, Executive produced by Dana Brunetti and Keegan Rosenberger.