Phone records show Wagner family relations were strained in 2016

Patricia Gallagher Newberry Cincinnati Enquirer

WAVERLY, Ohio – Tensions among members of Pike County’s Wagner family were high before and after April 2016, when they allegedly gunned down a neighboringfamilyinabrewingcustody dispute.

11:04 p.m., records show. His phone received or made calls to numbers for his sons, wife, mother, brother and two friends. Between 5:55 p.m. and 10:55 p.m., he made one call to and received five from shooting victim Chris Rhoden Sr.

The former Terrace Plaza Hotel is gearing up for redevelopment. The new owner says the building has to be stabilized for public safety.

staff. We’ve been talking with them for fivetosixyearsaboutwhatneededtobe done immediately versus what needs to be done over time.”

Birkla had been trying to buy the building since 2018 and lobbied against the local preservation community’s efforts to designate Terrace Plaza Hotel as a local landmark. He was successful.

Birkla Investment Group will go before the city’s planning department next week and participate in a community discussion regarding the emergency loan request, after which the department will provide a recommendation to approve or deny funding. A date for the meeting has not been set yet.

The Enquirer obtained an early October letter forwarded to members of the Downtown Residents’ Council in which Moormann explained that the request for TIF district-funded loans requires a public input process. The developer expectsthecounciltotakeuptheissuelater in the month followed by a vote by city council in early November.

The developer is seeking a loan to assist in the financing necessary to stabilize the building and create a safe environment for the public,” wrote Moormann in the letter. “... Our first priority is public safety.”

Filing an emergency loan request with the city isn’t a common move developers have to make, but it has happened in recent years. The Cincinnati CenterCityDevelopmentCorp.received a $2.9 million forgivable loan in 2020 to fund the redevelopment of the former Macy’s store building at 505 Vine Street, now known as the Foundry.

In response to a written request to the city’s buildings and inspections department, the city manager’s office further explained why the city is taking this loan request so seriously:

“The scale, location, and economic impact of this property set it apart from the typical nuisance abatement or stabilization project. Further, the fact that this new owner is not the cause of the current conditions but is seeking to remedy the conditions at the property also is an important factor. It is important to note that at present any City funding will be in the form of a repayable loan, to provide financing for a portion of needed abatement work. In the future, we will be engaging with the developer on redevelopment. At that time, we will be exploring both cash and other financial support for the redevelopment of the property.”

That emerged in court last week, as investigators in Ohio’s largest-ever criminal investigation laid out cell phone use for George “Billy”Wagner, estranged wife Angela Wagner, younger son Edward “Jake” Wagner and, to a more limited extent, older son George WagnerIV.George“Billy”Wagnerisnow facing eight counts of aggravated murder and other charges in connection to the shooting deaths of seven members of the Rhoden family and one future member.

A series of texts between Billy and Angela Wagner, beginning in late 2015, shows the couple’s relationship was frayed but not over, with conversations about living apart, their children and their grandchildren.

At one point, Billy tells Angela “Everything has turned to ---.”

Yes, I agree with you,” she replies. “Can I help you in any way?”

His response: “Bullet to the head would fix me right up.”

Later he says. “I miss you more than you will ever know” and asks her to run away with him. “I can’t leave Bulvine and Sophie,” she responds, referring to their grandchildren.

The Wagners killed the Rhodens, the prosecution maintains, in a plot to win custody of Sophie, the daughter Jake Wagner shared with victim Hanna May Rhoden

Five calls with Chris Rhoden Sr.

On the day before the Rhodens were found dead in four different rural homes on April 22, 2016, Billy Wagner’s phone showed 25 calls between 8:13 a.m. and

Prosecutors earlier told jurors Billy Wagner left his phone at home when he went to Rhoden Sr.’s trailer that night. He then asked Rhoden to call the phone – pretending it would help him find it –as a way to create an alibi.

Billy Wagner’s phone records indicate he was living at his mother’s address in the early part of 2016, given the cell towers that processed first and last calls of each day, according to Dana Forney, a criminal intelligence supervisor with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation. That stopped when the Rhodens were killed, Forney said.

On the 21st (of April), you see this change,” Forney said, with Billy Wagner’s first and last calls of the day routed through a cell tower near where his wife and sons then lived.

Angela Wagner looked to leave

Angela Wagner’s phone records showed her desire to leave Ohio, with several searches for homes and jobs in Alaska, said Julia Everslage, who also works in criminal intelligence for BCI The family moved there from mid-2017 to mid-2018 while still facing increasing scrutiny in the Rhoden investigation.

Angela Wagner also conducted searches about sexual assault in the belief that Jake’s young daughter was being abused, Eveslage said, once landing on a 2014 Atlantic magazine article titled “Rape Culture in the Alaskan Wilderness.” Wagner also searched Facebook and news sites for information about the Rhoden deaths.

Angela Wagner used “coded language” in texts with Jake Wagner about items we believe were used to build suppressors,” Eveslage said. Suppressors are also known as gun silencers.