HOUMA, LA — Terrebonne Parish deputies responding Saturday night to a critically wounded child in the 200 block of Ashland Drive found four people stabbed to death inside nearby homes, prompting a parish-wide manhunt for 47-year-old Houma resident Kaegan Jude Solet, whom investigators named as a person of interest in the attacks.
The search for Solet carries urgent weight because he has been charged twice before in Terrebonne Parish — once for murder and once for attempted murder — and was convicted in neither case. Terrebonne Parish Sheriff Tim Soignet confirmed that detectives identified Solet in connection with an apparent series of stabbings concentrated in the Ashland Drive corridor of Houma, a city of roughly 33,000 people located about 63 miles southwest of New Orleans. Authorities stressed Sunday that naming someone a person of interest does not constitute an accusation of a crime, and that Solet had not been arrested or charged in connection with the latest deaths. The investigation remained active and in its preliminary stages.
Deputies were first dispatched Saturday night after a juvenile was found suffering stab wounds near 200 Ashland Drive, according to the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office. The child was airlifted to a hospital outside the area and remained listed in critical but stable condition. Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office Lt. Blake Tabor described the child’s injuries as “extremely significant,” adding, “That’s not something that you want to see ever.” As deputies expanded their search through the surrounding neighborhood, they located four adults dead inside homes near the initial scene. Authorities did not immediately release the names or ages of any victim, and had not disclosed whether the deceased knew one another, whether any were related to the injured child, or whether the attacks took place inside a single residence or multiple homes. The precise sequence of events that produced five victims — four fatal and one critical — was not established in the initial stages of the investigation.
The manhunt centered on Solet, who authorities believed was likely still in the Houma area as of early Sunday, though they said they were not ruling out the possibility that he had left. Tabor told reporters the sheriff’s office was deploying every available investigative resource, including forensic analysis and witness interviews, and expressed confidence that an arrest was imminent. “Our hope is that we plan to get him in custody very quickly,” Tabor said. Investigators said they had no information indicating Solet intended to flee Louisiana or go into hiding, but added that all possibilities were being explored. The sheriff’s office urged anyone with information about Solet’s whereabouts to contact Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office detectives at 985-876-2500. As of the latest available update, he had not been located.
Solet’s history with Terrebonne Parish law enforcement stretches back at least to January 2019, when detectives obtained a second-degree murder warrant in connection with the death of Kemple Paul Scott Lovell, a homeless man found in Houma with multiple stab wounds on Jan. 9, 2019. Then-Sheriff Jerry Larpenter announced at the time that investigators were searching for Solet, who had last been seen in the Houma area. An anonymous tip eventually led police to a shed behind a mobile home approximately one block west of Saturday night’s crime scene, where Solet was found hiding. A grand jury later declined to indict him, with then-First Assistant District Attorney Jason Dagate citing insufficient evidence. “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,” Dagate said at the time, according to the Houma Courier. “They made a decision to pretermit it, which means more information is needed to fully investigate.” Dagate added that prosecutors agreed with the grand jury’s assessment.
Less than a year after the Lovell murder warrant, Solet faced a second serious charge. Shortly after midnight on Christmas Eve 2019, Houma police responded to the Red Carpet Inn and found Cindy Boudreaux, 59, on the floor of her motel room with numerous stab wounds. Boudreaux was gasping, “don’t let me die,” as paramedics treated her, according to the Houma Courier. She initially identified her boyfriend, William Naquin, as her attacker but later accused Solet. Investigators said Solet had been invited into her room and that an argument escalated before he allegedly stabbed her in the head and upper body. He then allegedly fled and locked the door from the outside, trapping Boudreaux inside. Witnesses in the hallway heard someone calling for help and forced their way in. Officers located Solet roughly 18 hours later and booked him on one count of attempted second-degree murder. Prosecutors cited surveillance footage and DNA evidence placing Solet inside the room. In November 2023, however, a jury found Solet not guilty of the attack.
The sequence of outcomes — a murder charge dropped by a grand jury, an attempted-murder acquittal — left Solet free to move through Houma without any active criminal supervision, and the question of how that happened now shadows the current investigation. Tabor did not conceal his frustration when asked why Solet was not incarcerated. “I can’t tell you. Certainly, that’s the hot question, right? Why is he out?” Tabor said. “We’re probably just as stunned as everyone else is.” He noted that the sheriff’s office maintains a close working relationship with the Terrebonne Parish District Attorney’s Office but acknowledged that unresolved questions remain about the handling of Solet’s prior cases. “How this slipped through, I certainly don’t know, but it’s a question that probably needs to be answered,” Tabor said. The district attorney’s office did not respond to requests for information about the circumstances of Solet’s release or whether he had been under any form of court-ordered supervision at the time of the Saturday incidents.
The Ashland Drive neighborhood where the killings occurred is a residential corridor in western Houma. The proximity of Saturday’s crime scene to the shed where Solet was arrested in the 2019 Lovell case — approximately one block — was noted by investigators, though no significance had been formally attributed to the geographic overlap. The identities of the four people found dead were not released in the initial hours of the investigation, leaving residents and families in a state of uncertainty about whether anyone they knew was among the victims. Solet’s status as a person of interest, while legally distinct from a criminal charge, prompted the sheriff’s office to warn the public and ask for community assistance in locating him. The department’s public appeal underscored that the investigation’s outcome depended, in part, on information that only members of the community might possess.
As of Sunday morning, Solet remained at large, four people remained dead, and a child remained hospitalized in critical but stable condition in a facility outside Terrebonne Parish. Detectives said they expected to release additional details as the investigation advanced, with the next significant milestones being Solet’s apprehension and the formal identification of the four victims.
