Nine people, including an alleged gunman, are dead in south-central Missouri following a series of overnight shootings at multiple crime scenes, authorities said on Friday.

The suspect, a 36-year-old man, fatally shot seven people in Texas County, Missouri, and wounded an eighth before apparently turning the gun on himself, said Sergeant Jeff Kinder, a spokesman for the Missouri state highway patrol. An elderly woman who apparently died of natural causes was found dead in another residence. It is not yet known if her death is related to the shootings.

The Texas County sheriff’s department said it responded to an emergency call just after 10pm on Thursday from a young girl reporting gunshots. The girl fled to a neighbor’s house, and deputies found two bodies in the home from which the girl called.

“Further investigation revealed five additional victims who were deceased and one additional victim who was wounded in three additional residences,” the department said.

The victims’ bodies were found in four different locations in Tyrone, in Texas County. The alleged gunman, from Tyrone, was later found in a vehicle in Shannon County dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, Kinder said during a press conference on Friday morning.

In total, nine people, including the elderly woman and the apparent gunman, were found dead.

Kinder said police would not reveal any names until officers had an opportunity to notify the victims families.

“In our job we see a lot of bad stuff. And this is bad … It’s not natural to see that sort of thing,” Kinder said.

The Houston Herald reported that the staff at local schools were told to arrive early to provide counseling sessions. There has been no confirmation on whether children were killed.

Texas County, Missouri, is in the southern part of the state near the Arkansas border and has a population just under 30,000 people, according to the 2010 Census.