Because only one individual will perform all eight autopsies, results from the examinations are not expected until after the weekend, the release says.
Advertisement
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation is leading the investigation.
The victims found Friday include seven adults and a 16-year-old boy. “We just don’t know at this point”, DeWine said. But Beekman and others hanging out there midday Saturday said they weren’t concerned for their own safety because it’s an area where residents know and look out for each other.
The victims were all members of the Rhoden family of Piketon, Ohio, found dead in four separate homes. Three children – ages 3, 6 months and 4-days-old – were spared.
“We’re praying for the family”, Pastor Phil Fulton of the nearby Union Hill Church, which the victims attended, told TODAY. The schools are located about 10 miles from the shooting scenes. Police originally thought the death of Aldridge’s mother from cancer set off the shooter, but the investigation revealed he had planned the attack.
A motive isn’t clear, authorities said, but they urged other members of the Rhoden family to take precautions.
While work has been completed at the crime scenes, as of Saturday, DeWine said no arrests had yet been made, and the perpetrator or perpetrators may still be at large.
“The investigation is still in its early stages, and no arrests have been made”, the statement said.
Investigators say none of the deaths appeared self-inflicted.
OH authorities scrambled Saturday to establish who massacred eight members of a family in execution-style killings.
The mystery of who killed the eight has not only moved people living in the area of Piketon, a town of about 2,000 residents 90 miles east of Cincinnati, but also drawn the attention of top state officials.
Tierney had no information on whether a suspect was in custody. DeWine says it is not an active-shooter situation.
“If you were having a bad day, she’d be the first one to come up to you to question you about what was going on”.
“I think my brother-in-law is dead”, the caller said as she cried and tried to retain some degree of composure.
OH governor and Republican presidential candidate John Kasich tweeted that the situation was “beyond comprehension”.
Pike County Sheriff Charles Reader initially chalked up the uncertainty about possible suspects to the complexity of the investigation, spanning four crime scenes.
Authorities believe one gunman is behind the killings in Peebles, Ohio, and that he is on the loose, though a “person of interest” was detained in another community Friday night. This status meant nobody was allowed in or out for about an hour, but school was still in session, officials there said. Those addresses include 4077, 4199 and 3122 Union Hill Road. The incident was in the Scioto Valley District and was on the south side of 32, not the north side (our side).
“We don’t have all the answers for this”, Burkitt said. We are following the procedures suggested by Sheriff Reader.
Advertisement
Several people have been interviewed in connection to the Pike County family slayings Friday.
