Authorities in Louisiana are searching for a 47-year-old man identified as a person of interest after a series of stabbing incidents left four people dead and a child critically injured in Houma.

The violence unfolded on Saturday, September 12, in the Ashland Drive area of Houma, according to the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office.

Deputies were initially called to the area and discovered a juvenile suffering from what appeared to be a stab wound. The child was rushed by Acadian Ambulance Service Air Med to a hospital outside the area and remained in critical condition.

But what deputies discovered next transformed the emergency response into a major homicide investigation.

“As the investigation continued, deputies discovered multiple deceased victims inside nearby homes,” Terrebonne Parish Sheriff Tim Soignet said in a statement.

At least four people were pronounced dead.

Their identities had not been publicly released as of September 13, and authorities had also not disclosed whether the victims were related to one another or what connection, if any, they may have had to the man investigators are seeking.

Later in the investigation, authorities identified Kaegan Jude Solet, 47, of Houma, as a person of interest.

Sheriff Soignet stressed an important distinction: being labeled a person of interest does not mean Solet has been arrested, formally charged or found responsible for the killings.

That distinction is especially significant in a rapidly developing case where many details remain unknown.

Investigators believe Solet may still be somewhere near the area where the incidents occurred, although law enforcement has not ruled out the possibility that he traveled elsewhere.

Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office Lt. Blake Tabor told Fox News Digital that investigators were deploying all available resources in an effort to find him.

“We’re using every investigative tool that we have,” Tabor said, adding that authorities hoped to take him into custody quickly.

The search comes as residents of Houma face the aftermath of an exceptionally violent series of events.

Houma, located southwest of New Orleans, is the largest city in Terrebonne Parish. The discovery of multiple victims in homes near one another has prompted an intensive law-enforcement response while investigators work to determine exactly what happened, how the victims are connected and whether the incidents occurred as part of one continuous sequence.

At this stage, authorities have not publicly provided a timeline explaining the order in which the victims were attacked.

They have also not announced a motive.

The condition of the injured child has added another urgent and deeply troubling element to the case. The juvenile was discovered alive and critically wounded before deputies located the four deceased victims nearby.

Officials have not released the child’s age or identity.

As the manhunt continued, attention also turned to Solet’s prior history with law enforcement.

According to PEOPLE, Solet was previously charged with attempted second-degree murder in connection with a separate stabbing case in 2019.

In that incident, a woman was found at a motel suffering from “numerous stab wounds,” according to a Houma Police Department statement cited by the outlet.

Police later located Solet and took him into custody without incident.

However, that earlier case did not result in a conviction. Solet was ultimately found not guilty, according to local reporting cited by PEOPLE.

That history is relevant to the public record, but it does not establish guilt in the current investigation.

Authorities have so far described Solet only as a person of interest in connection with the September 12 killings.

As investigators search for him, Sheriff Soignet has appealed directly to the public for help.

Anyone who knows where Solet may be located has been urged to contact the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office. Authorities are also accepting anonymous tips through Crime Stoppers Bayou Region.

A cash reward of up to $1,000 may be available if information provided to Crime Stoppers results in an arrest, according to the sheriff’s office.

The scale of the crime has left law enforcement confronting several major questions at once.

Investigators must determine whether all of the attacks occurred at approximately the same time, establish the relationship between the victims, understand why multiple nearby homes became part of the crime scene and locate a person authorities believe may be able to provide crucial information.

Until that happens, officials are releasing information cautiously.

No identities of the deceased had been announced publicly when PEOPLE reported on the case, meaning families may still have been in the process of being notified.

There has also been no public explanation of the injured child’s relationship to the four people who died.

That lack of information means much of the story remains unresolved.

What authorities have confirmed is devastating enough: a child was discovered critically injured, and four other people were later found dead inside nearby residences.

The investigation then shifted quickly toward locating Solet.

Police have not said whether they believe he is armed, nor have they publicly described the evidence that led investigators to identify him as a person of interest.

The Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office also had not immediately responded to PEOPLE’s request for additional comment at the time of publication.

For residents in and around the Ashland Drive area, the continuing search means the case is not only an investigation into what has already happened but also an active effort to locate someone police believe is important to understanding the violence.

The deaths of four people and the critical injury of a child make the case one of the most serious criminal investigations currently facing local authorities.

Yet the absence of formal charges also means caution is necessary.

A person of interest is not the same as a suspect who has been charged, and no court has determined responsibility for the deaths.

For now, investigators are focused on finding Solet, gathering evidence from the multiple crime scenes and reconstructing the events that turned a residential part of Houma into the center of a major homicide investigation.

As families wait for answers and a critically injured child remains hospitalized, many of the most important questions are still unanswered.

Who were the victims? What connected the separate homes? What led to the violence? And what information might the person authorities are seeking be able to provide?

Until investigators locate Solet and release more details, the community is left with a tragedy whose full story has yet to emerge.