Deputies in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, are searching for Kaegan Jude Solet, 47, of Houma, after four people were found stabbed to death and a child was critically wounded in what Terrebonne Parish Sheriff Tim Soignet described as an apparent series of stabbing incidents in the Ashland Drive area. Solet has prior violent crime cases dating to 2019, and the agency's own command staff said they cannot explain why he was not in custody.
The initial call brought deputies to the 200 block of Ashland Drive, where they found the injured child. The child was airlifted to an out-of-area hospital and remained in critical but stable condition, suffering what Lt. Blake Tabor described to Fox News Digital as "extremely significant" injuries. As deputies extended their search through nearby homes, they found four people dead. Authorities have not released the victims' identities and have not disclosed any relationship the deceased may have shared with one another, with the child, or with Solet. Investigators have also not said whether the four deaths occurred inside a single home or across multiple locations.
Two prior cases, one open question
Solet's name has appeared in Terrebonne Parish violent crime investigations before. In December 2019, Houma police responded to the Red Carpet Inn shortly after midnight on Christmas Eve after witnesses heard someone calling for help from inside a locked room. Officers found a 59-year-old woman with numerous stab wounds on the floor, unable to move. Police alleged Solet had been invited into the room, that an argument turned physical, and that he repeatedly stabbed the woman in her head and upper body before allegedly fleeing and locking the door behind him. Officers found him roughly 18 hours later and booked him on one count of attempted second-degree murder.
A separate second-degree murder warrant had been obtained for Solet in January 2019 in connection with the January 9 killing of Kemple Paul Scott Lovell. The final dispositions of both cases are not publicly known.
"I can't tell you. Certainly, that's the hot question, right? Why is he out?" Tabor told Fox News Digital. "We're probably just as stunned as everyone else is." He said questions about how the previous cases were handled "probably need to be answered," though he described the working relationship between the sheriff's office and the Terrebonne Parish District Attorney's Office as strong. Fox News Digital sought comment from that office on the circumstances of Solet's release and any court-ordered supervision; no response was received.
Solet had not been located as of the latest update. Authorities believe he is likely still in the Houma area but said they are not ruling out other possibilities. The sheriff's office asked anyone with information on his whereabouts to contact detectives at 985-876-2500.