Search for missing boy ends

Published 12:47 pm Thursday, October 12, 2017

The search for a missing child has been ended even as the homicide investigation continues and the search for a person of interest continues.

8-year-old Devin Holston was reported missing after police found three people dead and one person stabbed at a house trailer located at 15497 State Route 93 near Decatur Township on Wednesday night.

On Thursday morning, the missing child report was ended. According to the Associated Press, neither the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office nor the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, which put out the missing child report, would not confirm if the boy had been found safe.

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On Wednesday evening and early Thursday morning, officers had conducted an extensive search of the area for the boy, which included the property in question, neighbors’ homes, friends’ and relatives’ houses and the woods around the area

Sheriff Jeff Lawless said the victims, whose names were not yet being released, were believed to have had died of apparent gunshot wounds.

He said another person received apparent stab wounds to the neck and head and went to a neighbor’s home, about a quarter mile north on the road, to seek help. That person was airlifted to Cabell Huntington Hospital.

The search continued for a person of interest in connection with the crime.

Lawless said a “be on the lookout” (BOLO) alert was being issued for Aaron Lawson, 23, of 15868 State Route 93 in Pedro, who was described as 5’9″ in height, weighing 139 pounds and having brown hair and hazel eyes.

Lawson was spotted by Deputies on State Route 141, near County Road 52, driving a Blue Chevrolet truck at about 12:30 a.m. and a pursuit ensued. Deputies said Lawson crashed the vehicle into a ditch on State Route 141 at County Road 44 South, fled on foot and he was lost in the woods. Police officers from all village agencies, the Ohio State Highway Patrol, Ashland, Kentucky police, and the Huntington Police K-9 unit assisted in the search for Lawson, but he was able to evade capture in the darkness.

The vehicle was confiscated and will be processed for evidence by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation, the sheriff’s office said.

On Thursday, law officers were continuing to follow up on sightings of Lawson.

Lawless said those involved in the incident “were all related in some way.”

He said whether there were further wounds on the victims in the home had not yet been determined, pending further investigation. He said, while the victims had not yet been positively identified by the coroner, deputies were nearly certain they knew who they were.

Rock Hill schools are closed all day Thursday as a result of the incident, Lawless said.

He said Rock Hill Elementary principal Freddie Evans had been “very cooperative in providing information to help” in the search for the boy.

Lawless said the sheriff’s department would be issuing a news release with more information soon.

He said the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation was assisting in the investigation and that autopsies would be conducted by the coroner out of Hamilton County. Members of the Lawrence County Drug and Major Crimes Task Force and BCI&I assisted in the search for Holston.

Anyone who may know the whereabouts of Lawson is urged to contact the sheriff’s office at 740-532-3525.