Manhunt in Ohio for suspect in death of four

COLUMBUS: A manhunt is underway in Ohio for a suspect in the shooting deaths of four people including a seven-year-old boy, whose body was apparently hidden in a home where the others were also found, authorities said.

Warrants were issued on Thursday for 23-year-old Arron Lawson for three counts of murder and one count of aggravated murder, as the search for the suspect focused on a wooded area near the southern tip of the state.

Lawrence County sheriff’s deputies found the bodies of three adults inside a house trailer on Wednesday. While at the scene, they were told that a seven-year-old boy also lived there and had not been seen.

Authorities issued a missing-child alert and spent hours searching for Devin Holston only to find the child dead inside the same house trailer, his body apparently hidden.

Lawrence County Sheriff Jeffery Lawless said a fourth adult who came there after work was stabbed there and fled to seek help. That person was later flown to a hospital in Huntington, West Virginia.

Deputies spotted Lawson on Thursday in a blue truck in Ironton, about 24km south of where the victims were found in an unincorporated area, but they lost him after a brief chase when he crashed into a ditch and ran into the woods, Lawless said. — AP