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Custody issue played role in slaying of eight

WAVERLY, Ohio (AP) — A family of four was arrested Tuesday in the gruesome 2016 slayings of eight people from another family in rural Ohio in a crime that prosecutors suggested stemmed from a custody dispute, authorities said.

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said a grand jury indicted the four on aggravated murder charges and could be sentenced to death if convicted.

DeWine gave scant detail about why the victims were killed, but said the custody of a young child played a role. He said they had carefully planned the killings for months.

“There certainly was an obsession with custody, obsession with control of children,” said DeWine, who earlier this month was elected governor.

He added: “I just might tell you this is just the most bizarre story I’ve ever seen in being involved in law enforcement.”

Authorities said marijuana growing operations were found at three of the four crime scenes. That’s not uncommon in this corner of Appalachia but stoked rumors that the slayings were related to drugs, one of many theories on possible motives that percolated in public locally.

DeWine said Tuesday “there’s an undercurrent of drugs” in the case, but there’s no evidence the killings were drug-related. He wouldn’t elaborate.

Arrested were four members of the Wagner family, who lived near the scenes of the killing about 60 miles south of Columbus. They’ve long been considered the chief suspects, DeWine said.

One of those arrested was Edward “Jake” Wagner, 26, who was a long-time former boyfriend of 19-year-old Hanna Rhoden, one of the eight victims, and shared custody of their daughter at the time of the massacre.

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