Were Ohio Family Executions Drug Related?

The "sophisticated" Ohio family executions that left eight relatives dead last week were likely linked to a pot growing operation.

Marijuana plants were discovered at "several" of the crime scenes, according to the newest case updates.

Police don't yet want to say whether drugs are the reason the victims were all shot to death "execution style" in their homes on April 22nd -- many as they slept -- but a "major" dope ring with "ties to a Mexican cartel" had recently been busted in the area.

The well-orchestrated bloodbath in Pikes County targeted adult family members as well as young adults and teens. At least three toddlers were also found, unharmed but close by, at separate locations.

The slain have been confirmed as 44yo Kenneth Rhoden; 40yo Christopher Rhoden Sr.; 38yo Gary Rhoden; 37yo Dana Rhoden; 20yo Clarence “Frankie” Rhoden; 20yo Hannah Gilley; 19yo Hanna Rhoden; and 16yo Christopher Rhoden Jr.

Investigators are still trying to patch together the events that preceded the Ohio family mass murder and may have identified some persons of interest, but still have no suspects and haven't charged anyone.

They say they're anticipating a "lengthy investigation" before arrests can finally be made because the killers "did everything they could to hinder prosecution," though what precisely that entailed hasn't been disclosed yet.

A law enforcement spokesman did inform reporters yesterday that over four dozen people have already been questioned and “18 pieces of evidence are now at the state crime lab" for analysis by the BCI. 

Naturally, the murdered family's pot crop was also impounded.

At this point in their homicide probe police don't believe the gunman (or gunmen) was among the dead, since they're convinced the slayings were not the result of a domestic squabble that descended into deadly violence.

They're urging anyone with information to contact 911 or the state attorney's office.

A wealthy Ohioan is additionally offering a $25,000 reward for tips which will lead to the murderer/s swift apprehension and prosecution.

EPONYMOUS ROX

FORSAKEN: Michelle Knight needs our support

Please welcome back MICHELLE KNIGHT and lend her your support

It takes character and courage to endure the severe abuses that the Cleveland Captives were subjected to each and every day without interruption for a decade.

 

Of those three women, Ms. Knight suffered the longest and received the harshest treatment during her brutal confinement in the heart of Cleveland Ohio, where she wasn't even acknowledged by authorities to be missing.

The Cleveland house of horrors is a sensational story of sadism and survival, but what we know about this disturbing matter at the moment, only days since the victims' liberation, will prove to be just the tip of the iceberg. It is not just a juicy headliner; it is a case of unprecedented perversion and cruelty.

This we must consider too: Knight was not the first young woman the now-52-year-old pedophile and rapist Ariel Castro snatched -- she says there was already at least one other female imprisoned when she arrived at his dungeon at the age of 20, and who shortly thereafter "disappeared" without a word.

 

Investigators say they also found a woman's name written on one of the walls in the captor's basement, together with "Rest in peace."  Considering this phrase's common usage, and what the basement itself was used for, it's pretty easy to guess the meaning. 

 

And at Castro's hands, Michelle was not merely held against her will in bondage and repeatedly raped, either. She was starved and viciously beaten, sometimes punched in the stomach in order to abort a developing fetus.

 

In all, she believes she was impregnated by this demented psychopath five times, and five times she was compelled to abort a baby through this shockingly violent and life-threatening technique of his. Whilst at the same time being required to successfully midwife another captive's pregnancy, on threats of death should that infant have died during childbirth. 

 

Michelle Knight's tormentor additionally and routinely pummeled her head and face, and because of that she is now said to be hearing impaired and possibly even disfigured from the ordeal.

 

But, prior to the nightmare that unfolded once Michelle was abducted and placed in chains, she was also mistreated by police, social workers, her school system, and the courts, in a journey to hell that began at her high school with a rape that the Cleveland police refused to prosecute.

 

Not arresting her rapist, seizing custody of the baby once it was born, failing to investigate her disappearance, not discussing her miraculous reappearance this month, quietly trying to force her out onto the street...

 

The city of Cleveland is mum about Michelle Knight now because they know they owe this forsaken woman, that someday soon they'll be forced to pay up for all the neglect and disdain they've treated her with.

Contempt which was unmatched, by the way, until she had the misfortune of accepting a ride with a *friendly* neighbor in August 2002.

 

So, before you leave this site today, please take a moment to deliver Ms. Knight some much needed words of encouragement, either below as a comment or on the Facebook page which a kindly stranger has set up for that purpose.

 

This heroic but injured woman has no support system such as her younger co-prisoners obviously do, which is no doubt the reason why she promptly returned to the hospital upon being released. She therefore requires our care and compassion, or else she might perish, and in the process allow a sadistic predator a victory he doesn't deserve.

 

EPONYMOUS ROX