The Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office has responded to a recent letter from Bryant Rhoades in which he renewed his claims of innocence and raised questions about unidentified DNA evidence. Rhoades is serving two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole for the November 2011 murders of 70-year-old Robert Grube and his 47-year-old daughter, Colleen, at their Fort Recovery area home. He was convicted and sentenced in 2014. Mercer County Prosecutor Erin Minor issued the following statement addressing the case and the DNA evidence:

"Bryant Rhoades is not innocent.  During the underlying investigation, Rhoades confessed to the crimes for which he was found guilty.  His co-defendant (Trevin Sanders-Rhoark) also confessed to committing the crimes with Rhoades, and the facts independently provided by both offenders were consistent. 

After Rhoades was found guilty by a three-judge panel of the Mercer County Common Pleas Court, he appealed to the Third District Court of Appeals but voluntarily dismissed that appeal.  In 2021, Rhoades filed a Motion to Vacate Guilty Plea.  That Motion was denied in 2022.

Unidentified female DNA was extracted from evidence found at the crime scene.  A DNA profile was obtained and uploaded into the State and National CODIS (“Combined DNA Index System”) databases.  The databases are frequently updated and known samples are compared to unknown samples.   Neither the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office nor the Mercer County Sheriff’s Office has been advised of any “hits” (i.e., that the unknown DNA sample matches a known sample that has been uploaded to the databases).   

During the underlying investigation, Rhoades told officers that a female was present during the commission of the crimes but that he did not know her name.  He further stated that she was killed to keep her from talking to law enforcement about the murders.  Law enforcement exhaustively investigated Rhoades’ claims but ultimately could not corroborate or negate them.

To date, it is unknown whether a female co-defendant was present during the commission of the crimes or whether the unknown female DNA belongs to someone involved in the manufacturing or packaging of the item upon which the DNA was found.

The Mercer County Sheriff’s Office has exhausted the DNA testing capabilities of the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation’s DNA laboratory, which is the agency that analyzes the Sheriff’s Office’s samples.  No further testing is planned at this time.

Regardless of the veracity of Rhoades claims concerning an unidentified female co-defendant, Rhoades’ guilt for his atrocious crimes has been established, and his post-conviction attempts have failed.  His fabricated, post-hoc claims of innocence from his prison cell only serve to inflict further pain and grief in the lives of the victims’ family and friends, who are forced to face this tragedy again, and again, and again . . . every time Rhoades beats his hollow drum of innocence. "