‘She just didn’t seem like she was there’: Rodhouse’s mother tearfully details daughter-in-law’s physical decline

WARNING: This story includes descriptions of explicit violence and graphic sexual content that may be considered profane, vulgar or offensive to some readers. Reader discretion is advised.

PITTSFIELD, Ill. — She cried when she walked past her son when she entered a courtroom in the Pike County Courthouse on Friday morning. She cried again as she walked past him when she was finished testifying.

When she was on the witness stand, she couldn’t look at him.

At the end of her testimony, she was asked if she still loved her son. “With all my heart,” she replied.

Delilah Schmidt, the mother of Austin Rodhouse, testified for nearly 50 minutes Friday morning during his trial in Pike County Circuit Court. An eight-woman, four-man jury listened to testimony for the fourth day of the five-day trial before Judge Charles H.W. Burch.

Rodhouse, who turns 31 next month, is being tried on 19 domestic violence and sex-related felonies.

• 3 counts of aggravated domestic battery, a Class 2 felony with a sentencing range of between three and seven years in the Illinois Department of Corrections. 
• 1 count of criminal sexual assault involving force, a Class 1 felony with a sentencing range of between four and 15 years in prison.
• 4 counts of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child, a Class X felony with a sentencing range of six to 60 years in prison.
• 3 counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault, a Class X felony with a sentencing range of six to 30 years in prison.
• 2 counts of child pornography, a Class X felony with a sentencing range of six to 30 years in prison.
• 3 counts of indecent solicitation of an adult, a Class 2 felony with a sentencing range of three to seven years in prison.
• 3 counts of aggravated battery to a child, a Class 3 felony with a sentencing range of two to five years in prison.

Schmidt said she and Matt Rodhouse, Austin’s father, got divorced in 1998. Their two daughters lived with her, while Austin lived with her. She said Austin’s wife, identified in court documents as “CC,” had a “bubbly personality” when they first met.

Rodhouse and his wife moved away from Pike County but returned when CC was pregnant. Assistant State’s Attorney Leecia Carnes asked Schmidt if she noticed changes in their relationship.

“I was very vocal about it to both of them, but (CC) was getting more quiet, losing weight, couldn’t have her phone sometimes because she wasn’t behaving,” she said.

Schmidt said she kept in contact with CC, mostly by phone calls.

“Her texts were usually just short,” she said.

“Were there ever times you got text messages from (CC’s) phone that you could tell it was not (CC)?” Carnes said. 

After Schmidt said yes, Carnes asked how she could tell.

“Because my son is very intelligent with his wording in the way he speaks,” Schmidt replied. “Austin’s (texts) were detailed. Austin’s were very thorough. (CC’s) conversations were just always really short, not a bunch of big words.”

Schmidt said she believed the texts that CC didn’t write were written by her son.

She said CC contacted her in July 2023 to say Austin had hit her and to come pick her up. Austin called his mother to tell her not to come or he would “cut her out of his life.”

Austin called later and told his mother not to come to the house because he might get in trouble or be arrested.

“He said I wasn’t supporting my family, so I couldn’t be around anymore,” Schmidt said.

Schmidt, a registered nurse, said she didn’t speak to her son again until November 2023 when he wished him happy birthday. She started to notice injuries with CC, such as darkness under her eye, a walking boot on her right leg and a brace on a finger. She also said her son never left CC alone in a room. Rodhouse and CC also talked openly to her about their BDSM sexual lifestyle.

“They would joke about stuff and just tried to get a reaction,” she said. “They would laugh at me. It just wasn’t a natural sex life to me.”

Schmidt described CC as distant. 

“She didn’t seem like she was there. She looked sick,” she said. “You could tell she wanted to say stuff, but she wouldn’t.”

Schmidt remembered the day she saw CC with Austin’s name tattooed to her forehead. Austin claimed CC paid a tattoo artist in Quincy to apply the tattoo. 

In early 2024, Schmidt began to have more contact with her son. She said CC was really thin and covered in tattoos, with her hair cut off. She also had “acne or boils” on her face.

“She just didn’t seem like she was there,” Schmidt said. “When you looked at her eyes, she was gone. (CC) wasn’t the (CC) I knew.”

Schmidt took care of her two grandsons when Rodhouse took his wife to Blessing Hospital on May 7 for surgery for a ruptured spleen. Her son contacted her when he was arrested the next day and said CC needed to be on medication and that she was a “psychopath.”

Defense attorney Casey Schnack asked Schmidt if she had asked family members to “say certain things” to affect her son’s prosecution or tell them what they should say If investigators reached out to them. Schmidt said no.

Testimony is expected to resume at 9 a.m. Monday. Rodhouse, a Pleasant Hill native, has pleaded not guilty to all charges. His wife is expected to testify Monday.