A deadly stabbing rampage in Louisiana left at least four people dead Saturday night, while a child remained in critical condition as authorities searched for a person of interest with a documented history of violent arrests.
Investigators with the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office responded to homes near the 200 block of Ashland Drive in Houma, Louisiana, where they found “multiple deceased victims” and a juvenile suffering from stab wounds.
The child, whose identity was not released, was taken to a hospital and was listed in critical condition, officials said.
Authorities named 47-year-old Kaegan Jude Solet as a person of interest in the fatal string of stabbings in Houma, a southwest Louisiana community about 63 miles from New Orleans.
Solet has been arrested multiple times over the past decade in connection with stabbing cases, including one that proved fatal, though he has not been convicted in any of them.
In January 2019, police charged Solet with the murder of Kemple Paul Scott Lovell, a homeless man who was discovered dead in Houma with multiple stab wounds.
Police said an anonymous tip helped lead them to Solet, who was allegedly hiding in a shed behind a mobile home roughly one block west of the scene of Saturday night’s killings.
That case did not move forward months later, when a grand jury declined to indict Solet, citing insufficient evidence.
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“Basically, the evidence we had that was presented to the grand jury wasn’t enough for them to come back with an indictment at this point and time,” then First Assistant District Attorney Jason Dagate told the Houma Courier. “They made a decision to pretermit it, which means more information is needed to fully investigate. At this time we completely agree with the grand jury.”
Later that year, in December 2019, Solet was charged with attempted second-degree murder after a woman was found severely injured and lying in a pool of blood inside Houma’s Red Carpet Inn.
Cindy Boudreaux, 59, was found inside a room of the motel gasping, “don’t let me die,” as paramedics tended to her, the Houma Courier reported.
She claimed a man entered her room and attacked her with a wine bottle before stabbing her numerous times.
Boudreaux initially said it was her boyfriend, William Naquin, who had attacked her but later accused Solet.
Solet, who claimed to be homeless at the time, said he had been inside the room with Boudreaux the previous night but had been sleeping on the streets the day of the attack.
Prosecutors pointed to security camera footage and Solet’s DNA being found inside the hotel room as evidence he committed the attack.
Solet was arrested and charged in the attempted murder but was found not guilty of the attack on November 2023, the outlet reported.