Murder- suicide Saturday
The body of James V. Rhodes, 44, was found lying at this spot alongside Union Ridge Road Sunday morning by a man stopping to pick up a resident for work. (Salem News photo by Jo Ann Bobby-Gilbert)
Sheriff’s deputies and a county coroner’s investigator confer near a driveway on Union Ridge Road near Rogers where the body of James V. Rhodes was discovered Sunday morning. He is believed to have shot two people, one of whom died, prior to taking his own life. (Salem News photo by Jo Ann Bobby-Gilbert)
The body of James V. Rhodes, 44, was found lying at this spot alongside Union Ridge Road Sunday morning by a man stopping to pick up a resident for work. (Salem News photo by Jo Ann Bobby-Gilbert)
Sheriff’s deputies and a county coroner’s investigator confer near a driveway on Union Ridge Road near Rogers where the body of James V. Rhodes was discovered Sunday morning. He is believed to have shot two people, one of whom died, prior to taking his own life. (Salem News photo by Jo Ann Bobby-Gilbert)
Trending
ROGERS -- Two people are dead and a third wounded following a late night incident Saturday that began at a home on Dyke Road and ended at the side of Union Ridge Road.
Dead is 49-year-old Tammy Ramage, who a sheriff's deputy said was shot several times at her home at 49411 Dyke Road by James V. Rhodes, 44, who then shot and killed himself outside a home on Union Ridge Road. Also shot by Rhodes, according to deputies at the scene on Union Ridge, was Daniel Moffett, whose injuries were not believed to be life-threatening. His age and address were not known Sunday night.
A second man at the home, a 50-year-old whose address is listed in court reports as the Dyke Road house, escaped injury when he ran barefooted outside as Rhodes reloaded the gun after telling him he was going to be shot, too, Deputy Allan Young reported.
Rhodes arrived at the Dyke Road home about 11 p.m. Saturday looking for his ex-girlfriend, Ramage's daughter, according to the deputy, who said the couple had broken off their relationship a couple weeks ago. Rhodes was allowed into the home by Ramage, who was sitting at the kitchen table with Moffett, with the second man possibly lying on the couch.
When told his ex-girlfriend was not there, Rhodes said he was going into a back room to do some drugs, Young reported, saying Ramage decided she did not want him there, and one of the men went back to the room to tell him he would need to leave. At that point, Rhodes did not say anything but went back into the living room, where he shot Moffett twice while he sat at the table. He then turned the gun on Ramage, shooting her once before she could run back into a bedroom, where he shot her three more times, Young said.
Rhodes began reloading the weapon and advised the other man he intended to shoot him, too, prompting the man to run out the door to escape, according to Young.
Another man had driven Rhodes to the house and was sitting in a vehicle outside, unaware of what was happening inside, Young said, saying, "He didn't know what was going on."
As of Sunday morning, the investigation indicated that, following the shooting on Dyke Road, Rhodes asked to be driven to a home at 8431 Union Ridge Road, where the man apparently dropped him off at the end of the driveway and left. According to the county auditor's office, that house is owned by Mary Weaver of New Waterford.
The sheriff's office was called at 11:55 p.m. Saturday about the shooting on Dyke Road, where they discovered Ramage dead and Moffett injured. A search was launched for Rhodes, with other police departments reporting they were advised of a BOLO (be on the lookout) for the suspect.
At 8:01 a.m., the sheriff's office was called by a man who had stopped at the Union Ridge home where Rhodes had been dropped off the previous night, planning to pick up a resident there for work. He discovered Rhodes' body lying in the grass at the end of the driveway, the victim of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Young reported.
The details were pieced together throughout the night and morning as part of the ongoing investigation being conducted by the sheriff's department, its homicide task force, prosecutor's office, coroner and Ohio Bureau of Investigation and Identification.