Two of the victims of a triple homicide at an Atlanta-area golf course over the July 4 weekend were found bound with tape, according to an arrest warrant.
Paul Pierson, 76, and Henry Valdez, 46, had their hands, legs, and mouths bound when police found their bodies in the bed of a pickup truck parked near the 10th hole of the Pinetree Country Club in Kennesaw, Georgia, last Saturday. The body of 46-year-old golf pro Gene Siller was also found near the truck.
Police have identified the alleged murderer as 23-year-old Bryan Anthony Rhoden, who was taken into custody Thursday evening, four days after the bizarre triple homicide stumped authorities.
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Rhoden wound up on police radar just hours after the murders last weekend, but cops had not yet connected him to the golf course killings, so he bonded out Tuesday night, booking records show.
Driving a black Maserati Ghibli, according to a separate arrest warrant, he was stopped by Chamblee police on misdemeanor charges including DUI, a headlight violation, providing false identification, driving without insurance, driving an unregistered vehicle, and having the wrong license plate on his car.
Rhoden was taken into custody again on Thursday evening by a multi-agency task force including members of the Chamblee, Georgia Police Department, the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office, and the U.S. Marshals Service. Rhoden was unarmed and was taken in without a struggle, the sheriff’s office said. In addition to three counts of murder, Rhoden is charged with three counts of aggravated assault and two counts of kidnapping, according to Cobb County Police Chief Tim Cox, who said at a press conference that Rhoden had no accomplices and was a “lone shooter.”
Cobb County police have not said how investigators linked Rhoden, an aspiring rapper who performs under the name B. Rod, to the three killings. He is set to appear virtually from jail before a judge in Cobb County Magistrate Court at 8 p.m. Friday.
Police say Valdez and Pierson, who lived in California and Kansas, respectively, were found dead in the enclosed bed of Pierson’s Dodge Ram 3500 pickup after Rhoden drove the truck onto the 10th hole of the Pinetree Country Club on Saturday afternoon. When Siller, the club’s golf director, approached the vehicle to find out what was going on, Rhoden allegedly shot him in the head and fled on foot.
Police believe Siller was killed because he “witnessed an active crime taking place” but it’s still unclear precisely what that crime was. The relationship between Pierson, Valdez, and Rhoden remains unclear. None have any affiliation with the Pinetree club at all, said Cox, and investigators have not revealed a motive or what prompted Rhoden to drive onto the golf course.
Reached by phone, Siller’s wife, Ashley, declined to comment. Henry Valdez’s sister, Erma, told The Daily Beast, “Henry was a loving son, brother, uncle, and friend. A lover of music, surfing, traveling, and made friends wherever he traveled to. His laugh could erupt a room and his big heart will be missed greatly.”
Little is known about Pierson and Valdez, and Erma Valdez would not speculate as to what her brother was doing in Atlanta. Pierson is the co-founder of EcoServices, an environmental remediation company in Nevada, according to the company’s website. Valdez started an apparel business in 2010, according to California state incorporation records. He also established two other entities in the state, whose activities are not immediately discernible.
Records show Rhoden was previously arrested for allegedly getting into a shootout at Georgia State University over a drug deal gone wrong.
Five years before the golf club triple homicide, Rhoden allegedly shot 19-year-old Shelton Torance Flournoy three times in the chest during an argument over a drug deal in the parking lot of a Georgia State dorm.
Rhoden, who was attending Georgia State at the time, was hit once in the chest. Both men survived and were later charged with assault, attempted murder, and weapons possession. Rhoden was released from the Fulton County Jail on a signature bond three days later, according to jail records. But there is no record of a trial or conviction, and Rhoden’s case was sealed in 2017.
The Georgia State University shootout wasn’t Rhoden’s only previous run in with the law.
In 2020, Atlanta airport police seized nearly $20,000 in suspected drug money from Rhoden as he boarded a flight to Los Angeles. He was never charged with a crime. Rhoden was also arrested last year after a high-speed chase in Indiana, reportedly clocking speeds up to 150 mph.
A Georgia State spokesperson declined to provide further details about Rhoden’s time there as a student.
