Police have identified and are questioning a person of interest after they found four people were found shot to death in a car parked on a rural road in Tennessee.

Jacob Allen Bennett was arrested just hours after the discovery of the bodies on an unrelated charge, and are now considering him a person of interest in the horrific murders. Mark Gwyn, director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, told reporters that investigators “believe that we have the person that committed these crimes”.

The victims were later identified as 22-year-old Danielle Jacobson; Steven Presley, 17; Dominic Davis, 17; and John Lajeunesse, 16. Three of the four victims were current or former students in the local school districts. Donald Andrews, the Cumberland County’s school superintendent says: “It’s something that reverberates through the entire community. The loss of life is always tough, and especially (so) when it’s young people.”

A driver passing the parked car discovered the victims around 7 a.m. on Thursday morning. It is believed that they had been dead for no more than 24 hours prior to the discovery. Police are still working to piece together what exactly happened that night.

“They’re kind of like robots, they’re still going,” said Sheriff Butch Burgess, referring to the state and local investigators. “To them, it’s not a job, especially when they see the circumstances involve kids. It hits home.”

Police are refusing to speculate on the possible cause of the shootings. “There’s a lot of emotion that goes into this case just simply based on the age of these children,” said Casey Cox, the chief investigator on the case.

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