Pike County murders: 8 deaths, multiple arrests tied to one key factor — child custody Will Garbe The fight for custody of a child was at the center of a battle that led to one of Ohio’s most notable mass murders, the killings of eight members of a Pike County family, according to a Dayton Daily News investigation that first appeared in December of 2018. Today, on the fifth anniversary of the killings, Jake Wagner agreed to plead guilty to a number of charges in the case and to testify against some of his family members. Here is the 2018 Dayton Daily News investigative piece on the bitter child custody fight in its entirety: