Pike County massacre first responder describes finding days-old survivor next to deceased mother
Wednesday marked the third day of testimony in George Wagner IV's murder trial
Wednesday marked the third day of testimony in George Wagner IV's murder trial
Wednesday marked the third day of testimony in George Wagner IV's murder trial
A picture jurors saw Wednesday in George Wagner IV's murder trial showed an open doorway that Timothy Dickerson walked through on an April morning in 2016.
"Went into the home, I then turned right, went into a room and found a deceased male," said Dickerson, formerly with the Pike County Sheriff's Office. "He was in the bed."
That murder victim was 16-year-old Chris Rhoden Jr., one of eight Rhodens allegedly killed by four members of the Wagner family in the middle of the night.
George Wagner IV is the first in his family to go on trial.
First responders like Dickerson, who is now Pike County's EMA director, took the witness stand Wednesday, describing what it was like to process multiple crime scenes, including the home where Chris Rhoden Jr., his sister Hanna Mae Rhoden, and their mother Dana Rhoden were killed.
During another day of traumatic testimony, loved ones in the courtroom wept and clutched each other's hands.
But Dickerson did describe a discovery that generated a true sense of gratitude 바카라 게임 웹사이트 Hanna Rhoden's newborn baby.
"Could you give us an approximate age of the baby, if you could, Director Dickerson?" said Pike County Attorney Rob Junk.
"I learned later that the baby was three days old. It was very tiny," Dickerson said.
Dickerson saw the baby next to Hanna Rhoden's body.
"Either I made a noise or there was a noise, because the baby's arms came up," he said.
It was a sign of life in a scene of absolute despair.
"From what I remember, I just remember the diaper having blood on it, um, but alive," Dickerson said. "It was a traumatic scene, a large scene. And when we, when I discovered that the baby was alive, I was very thankful for that."
A chunk of Wednesday's testimony, especially during cross-examination by Wagner's attorneys, centered on marijuana grow sites at one of the crime scenes. Wagner's attorneys also raised jurisdictional issues. Exactly why they did so remains unknown at this point.