Sara Nealeigh and Doug Stanglin

USA TODAY

PEEBLES, Ohio — Authorities believe at least one gunman is on the loose who killed eight members of one family "execution-style" early Friday in four separate homes in this rural Ohio community, but a "person of interest" was detained in another community Friday night.

Several of the victims, which included seven adults and a 16-year-old male, were killed in their bed in homes only a few miles apart.

Three children survived the ordeal, including a 4 day old sleeping next to its slain mother, along with a 3-year-old and a six-month-old.

State criminal investigators were interviewing a "person of interest" detained in Chillicothe, Ohio, early Friday night in connection with the deaths. No further information was given, but a vehicle was stopped at about 6:30 p.m. ET and officers from both the Chillicothe Police Department and Ross Count, Ohio, Sheriff's Office detained what appeared to be two people at the scene.

Sheriff George Lavender said the car was stopped as the result of a BOLO from the state Bureau of Criminal Investigation and that state agents were interviewing the suspects.

“This is a horrible, horrible tragedy," Ohio Attorney General Mike Dewine said in a meeting with reporters.

DeWine, along with Pike County Sheriff Charles Reader, said none of the victims — all shot in the head — had committed suicide, leading investigators to strongly suspect that they were killed by someone still on the loose.

"Obviously we have one person who is armed and dangerous and there may be more, two or three," DeWine said. "We don't really know how many people we are talking about."

Reader advised people in Pike County "not to panic, but certainly also to be careful." He said residents in this economically struggling region of Appalachia should lock their doors and stay alert.

The officials said the motive for the killings was unclear, but it appeared that the Rhoden family was specifically targeted. Two of the homes were within walking distance of each other on Union Mill Road, a third was about a mile away and the fourth was about another ten-minute drive from the first crime scene.

The rural road, which was swarming all morning with ambulances and local and state and local police, meanders through the countryside of farms, widely spaced homes near Peebles, a town of 1,800 people 80 miles east of Cincinnati.

Phil Fulton, pastor of the Union Hill church, said the Rhoden mother and children used to attend services at his church but hadn’t been there for some time.

Leonard Manley, who told the Cincinnati Enquirer that he is the father and grandfather of some of the victims, said his daughter discovered the bodies when she went to Union Hill Road to feed dogs and chickens as part of her normal routine.

Dozens of officers from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation were sent to the scene at the request of the Pike County Sheriff’s Office.

Police quickly erected barricades to keep out traffic. Several schools in the area were placed on lockdown as a precaution.

The killings took place near the county line between Adams and Pike counties. Officers from both jurisdictions responded to the call, as did officers from Ross County.

The FBI office in Cincinnati tweeted it is closely monitoring the situation in Pike County and has offered its assistance.

Nealeigh reports for the Chillicothe Gazette; Stanglin reported from McLean, Va.