Aaron Lawson, Suspected Of Killing 4, Including 7-Year-Old, Sought By Ohio Police

A manhunt is underway for a man who is suspected of fatally shooting four people, including a 7-year-old boy who had been reported missing, and stabbing a fifth in an Ohio home, reports said Thursday.

Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office said “person of interest” Aaron Lawson, 23, who is wanted for aggravated murder, was spotted in a blue pickup truck in Ironton, about 15 miles south of where the victims’ bodies were found in a trailer home in an unincorporated area of the county at about 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Police said they briefly chased Lawson before he fled into the woods after crashing his vehicle into a ditch, Sheriff Jeffery Lawless said.

The sheriff’s office cancelled an endangered-child advisory it had issued for the missing child, Devin Holston. The 7-year-old was also found dead in the trailer home, in a place that was "hidden," according to CBS News.

"We no longer have a missing child, what we have here is a horrible, horrible tragedy," Lawless said. He added that investigators may have been “delayed” in finding the 7-year-old’s body because the crime scene was spread across the entire residence.

"The entire residence is a crime scene. There’s things that happened in every room of that residence, so they were taking each room one room at a time and working their way through, doing a methodical search of the rooms," Lawless said. "That may have delayed them finding him once they got in there and started searching that room completely."

Three other adult victims were found shot dead in the trailer, and a fourth adult was found stabbed in the neck and head about a quarter mile away in another home, where the victim is said to have fled from the scene of the crime to seek help; he was flown to Cabell Huntington Hospital for treatment in West Virginia, the sheriff said.

So far, Lawson has only been referred to as a “person-of-interest” in the case by the authorities. The area where the bodies were found is located 130 miles east of Cincinnati and across the Ohio River from Huntington, West Virginia.

Lawson has been described as being 5-foot-9, weighing approximately 139 pounds, with brown hair and hazel eyes, The News Center reported.

None of the dead and injured adults in the case has been identified, as the sheriff’s office said releasing any further information would compromise the investigation into the case.

Police said there was no indication that Lawson was still armed, and the murder had been recovered.

"We’re confident we will find him," Lawless told a local ABC affiliate.

"We’re not going to stop until we do."

Schools in the area were placed on lockdown Thursday while the manhunt for Lawson continued. The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation has also been assisting in the search for the suspect, according to ABC News.

Lawless mentioned that the people killed were somehow related, and Lawson was known or related to everyone in the residence as he spent a lot of time there "visiting and socializing."

Lawson is being sought for three counts of murder and one count of aggravated murder. The victim who was stabbed multiple times is now in stable condition and is expected to be fine, Lawless told the media.