- Authorities have identified the suspects killed in a dramatic police chase and hostage situation in London, Ohio, as couple, Rodney, 54, and Elaine, 51, Helman
- Speaking to DailyMail.com Thursday, Rodney’s younger brother, Richard Helman revealed his sibling had suggested he planned to go out by suicide by cops
- Richard, 51, also revealed his brother and his wife were drug addicts who had fled from police several times before
The married couple killed in a gunfight with police after hijacking a semi-truck and holding the driver hostage in Ohio, were drug addicts who had gone on the run several times before and recently told relatives they would rather die than surrender, DailyMail.com can reveal.
Authorities have identified the two suspects involved in the dramatic police chase and hostage situation early Wednesday morning as Rodney Helman, 54, and his wife Elaine, 51, who lived in Dayton.
Speaking exclusively with DailyMail.com Thursday, Rodney’s younger brother, Richard Helman revealed that just two weeks earlier, his sibling had a conversation with a cousin that led him to believe the couple were planning to go down in a blaze of glory.
Public records show that both of the Helmans had lengthy rap sheets for mainly minor offenses including theft, possessing criminal tools, obstruction – and, in Rodney’s case, having prohibited items in a detention center.
Just last winter, the couple were involved in another traffic stop, during which Rodney had pushed his own elderly mother out of the car in a bid to drive off from cops in Moraine, Ohio, Richard revealed.
And just two weeks before Wednesday’s incident, Rodney made an ominous statement to his cousin in Tennessee.
‘He told our cousin that he’ll never go back to jail, that he’d die before he goes back to jail,’ said Richard, 51.
‘So I believe they had it planned that if they got cornered again, they were going to go out by suicide by cops.’
That cousin, Regina Crosley, 56, told DailyMail.com: ‘They had made the comment ”suicide by cop” before, to be honest with you.
‘They knew they had warrants in Ohio.
‘They assumed that one day they would get pulled over and go to jail. They made up their mind that they were not going to be separated and they were not going to go back to jail.
‘And it looks like that’s the way it went down.’
Crosley said one of their anxieties was that they wouldn’t be able to access their drugs behind bars. They were both addicted to painkillers, which they’d get on the black market, she noted.
‘I encouraged them to stop using the drugs,’ she said. ‘I truly believe the fear of not having their medicine and being sick was part of their not wanting to go back to jail.
‘I’m the one member of the family they were closest to,’ she wept. ‘We’ve been together since we were born, like brother and sister.
‘I know it looks bad and is really bad,’ she continued. ‘I’m sure the trucker was scared to death. But I know in my heart they did everything they could to protect him.’
After being pulled over by cops in the middle of the night, the couple sped off and then ditched their car and kidnapped the trucker in his own semi-truck, leading cops on a three-hour chase before they reportedly shot at cops and were then killed in a hail of bullets Wednesday morning.
The truck driver, who appeared with his hands up, was rescued with only minor injuries and the husband and wife were pronounced dead in a hospital.
Richard Helman said he always thought his brother would die from an overdose.
‘Not that he’d go out with his wife on national TV like Bonnie and Clyde,’ he said.
Richard, who serves as secretary and treasurer of Kamp George for Wounded Heroes, which offers all-inclusive vacations for first responders on disability, told DailyMail.com his brother was a former plumber who injured his back and got addicted to oxycodone, on his way to becoming a lifelong addict.
He married Elaine, who previously worked in a sandwich shop, out of high school and they had two children, who are now grown.
They had lived in Ohio and would also stay with family in Tennessee and Kentucky, abusing drugs and engaging in criminal activity to feed their habit, the brother said.
‘When he stayed with my mom, when they lived in Kentucky, my mom said that at like 3 in the morning, Rodney would be cleaning walls and cleaning floors and Elaine would be outside killing bugs,’ Richard told DailyMail.com.
‘I mean, you just don’t do that unless you’re on some type of major drug.’
In recent times, they were living out of their car, he said.
‘Obviously, he wasn’t doing any good for anybody,’ Richard said. ‘All they was doing is harming people, stealing from people. They were both strung out on drugs real bad.’
He said he hadn’t spoken with his older brother in five years, having a falling out after he co-signed a loan to get his brother a car.
‘He went delinquent on the loan,’ Richard explained. ‘So I was talking to him on the phone and asking him why he was going to a Kid Rock concert and going to a Cavs-Pistons game in Detroit, and not paying his car payment.
‘He basically told me to F off, that he could do what he wanted. And I said, ‘Well, I’m the last bridge you have and you just burned it.’ And I hung up.’
He said there were several warrants for Rodney’s arrest in Ohio. He’d often stay with their cousin in Tennessee, and ‘every time he came back to Ohio, he’d get pulled over.’
Rodney and his wife would often lie about their identities, often using the name of a family member. When stopped on Wednesday in London, Ohio, they gave their names as Rodney and Barbara Taylor of Somerset, Kentucky – Rodney and Richard’s late stepfather and mother.
‘The last time Rodney did it was in Franklin, Ohio and he gave police my name and part of my social security number,’ the brother told DailyMail.com.
‘Then a couple weeks later, I’m coming off the exit in Troy, Ohio, and a cop pulled me over and then all of a sudden three other cruisers surrounded me thinking I was him. It took me about two hours to clear up and I was let go.’
‘Last night is the third or fourth time that he fled from the police and gave a false name,’ Richard said.
The incident began at 1 am Wednesday when the couple were pulled over in their Dodge Caravan by an officer with the London Police Department for having no rear lights. Cops found they also had no registration papers.
As the officer tried to identify them they fled in their car, which they then ditched at a truck stop. There, they hijacked the occupied semi and took off in that too.
Police body cam footage released on Wednesday evening showed Elaine Helman claim they had been at the emergency room because she had injured her eye.
‘I just poked myself in the eye, with the scissors,’ she could be heard saying.
When the cop asked for Rodney’s driver’s license, he explained that he had his wallet in the woman’s bag, but that her bag had been stolen. As he looked for items in the car he assured the officer he did not have a gun.
‘My social security, my license, everything was in that thing,’ he told the cop.
During the interaction their dog, that was in the car with them, became increasingly agitated and restless, and both the couple and the cop attempted to calm it.
Within around ten minutes the couple pulled into a truck stop by a gas station and abandoned their car before fleeing on foot across the parking lot.
The officer also exited his car and chased the pair with his taser drawn. The officer then exclaimed that the man had a gun and took cover behind a parked car.
‘He’s got a gun,’ the officer was heard shouting as other police arrived at the scene.
Footage captured from the officer’s patrol vehicle showed the man attempting to flee with his pants around his ankles, causing him to fall over.
Police Chief Glenn Nicol said the man did not fire the gun at that moment, but that a live round was found at the truck stop later.
‘As the officer attempted to deploy a taser, the male suspect fell and pointed a handgun at the officer,’ read a police statement. ‘The suspect was able to flee to a nearby semi-tractor with no trailer.’
The couple both got into that unlocked parked semi, whose driver was in the cabin at the time.
Other officers from the London Police Department attempted to coax the pair out of the semi using a megaphone, but after about 20 minutes, at 1.30am, it pulled out of its parking spot, hitting a cruiser in the process.
A chase across multiple counties ensued, involving state troopers and police officers, as well as deputies from the Madison County Sheriff’s Office.
According to Nicol, the top speeds reached in the chase were between 60 and 65 mph.
‘Usually we try to not engage in such a long pursuit,’ he said. ‘However with the speeds and the seriousness of crime and with the abduction taking place we had to maintain contact with that vehicle.’
At around 3.20am the semi was brought to a halt and deputies attempted to negotiate the release of the driver, who was being held hostage by the couple.
As the officer returned briefly to his cruiser, the Dodge Caravan was turned on and took off, causing the officer to jump back in his patrol vehicle and give chase.
The chase ended at Interstate 70 near Dayton International Airport Access Road.
Authorities negotiated with the two suspects over cellphone for about four hours before choosing to approach the vehicle to free the hostage.
Footage showed how at around 7.30am Ohio State Highway Patrol’s Special Response Team surrounded the truck and gunfire was exchanged.
‘As troopers approached, they were fired upon. Troopers returned fire, striking both the male and female suspects,’ read the police statement.
Richard Helman said his mother called him and he turned on the news to see what was happening.
‘I don’t know how to feel, I’m just kind of glad to see this all came to an end,’ he said. ‘Obviously they were desperate. It had to come to an end one way or the other.
‘It’s sad this is the way it was. I’m glad that none of the police officers and the truck driver were seriously injured or killed because obviously he wasn’t going out without a fight.’
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