At least seven people have died in “execution-style killings” in three homes along a rural Ohio road, US authorities said.
Ohio attorney general Mike DeWine and Pike County sheriff Charles Reader said that all the victims are believed to be members of the same family.
They are thought to be five adults and two children who were all shot dead.
An eighth body was later found at a separate location, said Jill Del Greco, spokeswoman with the Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI). No arrests have been made.
Pike County Sheriff Charles Reader said authorities were trying to determine a motive, identify the victims and determine if the killer or killers were among the dead. A dozen BCI agents were alerted to the shootings on Friday morning to Pike County, which is in a predominantly rural Appalachian Mountain region some 120kmeast of Cincinnati.
The Chillicothe Gazette newspaper said a local pastor identified one of victims as a woman, her adult children and grandchildren, as well as her ex-husband.
AP