'She looked up and made a gasping noise': Pike County killer Jake Wagner's chilling confession of murder

As per reports, Jake along with his parents — Billy and Angela — and brother Geroge, are all accused of carrying out the execution-style murders that claimed the lives of eight members of the Rhoden and Gilley families. The cruelty was apparently carried out just to get custody of Jake’s daughter, Sophia, whose mother was Hanna.

Jake and Angela had already pleaded guilty to the crime and are now reportedly testifying against George as part of their plea deals. It has been said that Jake and Hanna began dating when she was just 13 and he was 17. By the age of 15, Hanna became pregnant with Sophia, whom they lovingly called Sophie. “My baby was born Nov. 13, 2013, at 2.30 am,” the suspect told the court.

But in 2015, Hanna ended her relationship with Jake, making him angry, he revealed in court. He also claimed that Hanna getting involved with other men made him concerned for their daughter. He reportedly said, “I was concerned that Hanna was going to let my daughter get molested like (Hanna) did. My daughter told me that Hanna locked her in her bedroom and let her scream for hours.”

Jake told the jury that when he asked Hanna, “What if your carelessness leads to our daughter being molested like you were?” she allegedly told him, “‘We’ll just have to deal with it.’” The man went on to reveal that when he failed to get the sole guardianship of his daughter, he turned to his father, who “told him something had to be done, the only option is to kill Hanna Rhoden,” Fox 19 reported. He did not agree to the plan at first but later decided to go with it.

The alleged killer also disclosed to the court that the actual targets were Hanna, her father Chris Rhoden Sr, her uncle Kenneth Rhoden, and her older brother, Frankie Rhoden. But Dana, Chris Rhoden Sr’s cousin Gary Rhoden, Frankie’s fiance Hannah “Hazel” Gilley and Hanna Rhoden’s younger brother, Chris Rhoden Jr, also got killed because “they would be witnesses so we had to kill them, too.”