PIKETON, Ohio – Nearly a week after eight family members were found shot to death at four homes in rural Ohio, investigators have announced no arrests, no motive and few details beyond saying it was a meticulously planned "execution."
But the discovery of marijuana-growing operations at some of the crime scenes has given the case a new, more sinister cast.
Relatives of the victims say they were surprised by the marijuana. Some neighbors say they had heard rumors. And some say the pot-growing was a case of courting trouble.
Large marijuana operations are common in Ohio's Pike County, the scene of the killings, and there have been some big seizures of pot plants there.
About one-fifth of Pike County's 28,000 people live in poverty, and the area has some of Ohio's high rates of unemployment and drug-overdose deaths.
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