More than six years have passed since the killings of an entire family in Pike County.

Earlier court action and a trickle of other information points to what will likely be significant in the now-underway trial of George Wagner IV.

Opening statements in the trial – where Wagner IV is facing eight counts of aggravated murder and other charges in the deaths of Pike County’s Rhoden family – are now set for this Monday, delayed six days because of the illness of one of the parties in the case.

Cincinnati attorney and former Hamilton County Prosecutor Mike Allen, who has watched the Rhoden case since the beginning, offered a few observations with action about to resume.

Here is a summary of major developments since seven Rhodens and one future family member were shot to death the night of April 21-22, 2016, launching Ohio’s largest ever criminal investigation.

One of the surviving children after the killings was 3-year-old Brentley Rhoden, who unlocked the door for the discovery of one of the gruesome scenes in the largest homicide investigation in Ohio history.

"Just a couple of weeks ago as they were driving on Union Hill Road, Brentley told his mom he saw his dad. He was in the sky following them.

"'Didn't she see him, the 4-year-old asked his mom. "Didn't she see him?'"

Funeral Director Scott Davis in West Portsmouth was responsible for preparing the Rhoden family's final goodbyes. It was a task not many in his profession will ever face.

"He will straighten a tie, push a stray hair away from a face, adjust hands. He will run a lint roller over the clothing one last time. Then he will pat the chest, ever so gently. And move on to the next casket. And the next."

Geneva Rhoden's sorrow was incomprehensible following the loss of two grown sons, a daughter-in-law and three of her grandchildren.

"The Rev. Ernie Melvin summoned faith and strength and the solace of family. That is, he promised the nearly 500 people attending the Rhoden family services, what will get them through what seems an impassable mountain of sorrow.

"'You look out this morning, tears in the eyes of people, broken hearts,' Melvin said during the service lasting barely more than a half hour. "But this is a time for the family to pull together, to lean on another. To find strength in one another ... We have to help each other on this thing. We have to lift each other up.'"

In an effort to preserve evidence, investigators decided it was necessary to bring the trailers where the killings happened to a secured facility. It was a rare move and also did not go smoothly. There were flat tires and ultimately the homes had to be moved a second time to another facility.

"Two trailers and one camper, every window and door boarded with plywood, took a two-hour journey of 22 miles, first eastward on Ohio Route 32, then northward on U.S. Route 23 to the Relevant Compounding property in Waverly. That's where the state’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation and Pike County sheriff’s investigators have set up their command center in an effort to catch the killer or killers.

Moving three crime scenes, even ones with wheels, is not a simple process. At one point, the convoy stopped on the shoulder of eastbound Route 32. A driver of one of the trucks was seen rolling a tire to the rear of the mobile home he was hauling."

Up and out. The Wagner family pulled up their roots in Pike County and moved to Kanai, Alaska in what Edward "Jake" Wagner said was an effort to avoid undue attention on his family. They would eventually move back to Ohio.

"The news of the Wagners' move traveled quickly to Alaskan airwaves and newspapers. The internet, even though it is glacially slow here, buzzed with speculation, especially on several Facebook pages that track crime and safety issues in this city of 7,600."

London, Ohio likely isn't a place many Ohioans can place on a map, but it was where operations of the largest homicide investigation in the state's history would begin.

"'I walked into the room and there were five analysts sitting there with their laptops inputting data,' said Thomas Stickrath, the superintendent of Ohio's Bureau of Criminal Investigation, of the community center's transformation into a makeshift command center where an army of cops, forensic scientists and analysts set out that day to catch the killers.

He saw agents from the bureau's cyber-crimes, narcotics and special investigations units. In all, up to 14 crime scene investigators collected evidence at the crime scenes."

The Rhoden family history was complex before this tragedy. A surviving member described the family's path up to the killings in April 2016.

"One Saturday in the spring of 1984, Steven Rhoden, the little brother with whom Tony shared secrets and a room, went missing.

The sheriff assembled a search party. But as darkness set in, no one could find the green-eyed 14-year-old with sandy-blonde hair."

Closure in a case of this nature is a "fallacy" as one expert put it. Time went on and the family waited for answers as investigators continued their work. Eventually, indictments. But before those developments, the survivors had grief and questions in multitudes.

"The unmarked parcel of land has sunken and shifted in places since the Rhoden family was laid to rest at Scioto Burial Park in the town of McDermott early last May. Like those graves, nothing is settled a year after the Rhoden family massacre, a case that grabbed international headlines and focused on this Appalachian region for weeks last spring."

He opened the door in the morning after the killings as a little boy and will live with the experience his entire life. Brentley Rhoden was sleeping on a couch when his aunt knocked on the door.

"As Robinson explains her son's life, he's playing the video game Fortnite. His character is swinging an ax, smashing through walls.  'The fear has him. He's trapped behind it.'

The little boy's mother is trying to dig him out. 

The two of them stopped talking about what happened. The last nightmare Brentley had about the deaths was after their most recent chat about that night."

Due to an illness of one of the involved parties in the case, the trial has been delayed.

"The trial has been long anticipated in this corner of rural southern Ohio. The murders sent shockwaves throughout the state and beyond, with intense attention from news outlets, podcasters, authors and filmmakers.

The victims were all related, by blood or otherwise, living in four different homes in Pike County."

The first task of the seated jurors was to take a bus ride to various scenes relevant to the case they would be examining. That began with visits to various crime scenes.

"Starting their day in Pike County Common Pleas Court – where Judge Randy Deering asked them to take an oath of office – 12 jurors and six alternate jurors boarded a yellow school bus to tour crime scenes relevant to the Wagner case.

Deering said the tour, called a “jury view,” will help jurors better understand the evidence they will see or hear during a trial that is expected to last six to eight weeks. But he reminded jurors that they can only judge Wagner’s guilt or lack of guilt by evidence the state of Ohio presents against him."

As previously mentioned, a motion was filed and mutually agreed upon by both the prosecution and defense that a continuance be granted in the trial due to an illness with one of the involved primary parties in the case.

The judge in the 2016 Pike County massacre on Monday granted a request to delay proceedings for a week “due to the illness of a person involved in the trial.”

The court docket says lawyers for Wagner and the state of Ohio agreed to the delay.