PEEBLES, Ohio, April 22 (UPI) — At least eight people, including children, were found dead in four southern Ohio homes Friday, the apparent victims of “execution style” killings, law enforcement officials said.
Authorities said during a news conference Friday afternoon that five adults and children were found in four separate locations in a rural area about 80 miles east of Cincinnati in Pike County, Ohio. A short time later, officials discovered an eighth victim, WLWT-TV reported.
Officials said seven of the eight victims were members of the same family. Five were adults and two were children. It wasn’t immediately known whether the eighth victim was also a relative.
WLWT reported that the two killed children are believed to be in their teens.
By all official accounts, each victim was shot to death. The gunman, authorities indicated, has not yet been captured.
Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine and Pike County Sheriff Charles Reader said investigators are trying to determine a motive, identify the dead and determine if the killer or killers were among the deceased individuals or at large.
Mid-afternoon Friday, authorities said the perpetrator was “probably” still on the loose.
The bodies were found in four locations on Union Hill Road, a rural wooded area in the southern part of the state. A number of law enforcement agencies responded to the scene, including investigators from Adams and Pike counties. Ohio’s Bureau of Criminal Investigations is also headed there.
A school in the area was locked down as police processed the crime scenes and attempted to determine if there was a danger to the community. It was eventually lifted.
Pastor Phil Fulton of the nearby Union Hill Church told WCPO the victims includedadults and children from the same family. He said one of the victims was the mother of the adults and children involved.
He said it was “very out of character for our community, but with the ways of the world, the way things are going, [so] I guess maybe we shouldn’t be surprised. But we are. This is so tragic.”
Ohio governor and Republican presidential hopeful John Kasich tweeted his concerns Friday, saying “Reports we are receiving from Peebles are tragic beyond comprehension.”
