Chicago police say the bodies of four men, one woman and a child have been found inside a home on the city's South Side.
The Chicago Tribune reports police said all of the people were bound and stabbed.
A relative said the dead were a family who lived in the home. Police said the child was 11 or 12-years-old.
Department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi says police entered the house after receiving a call from a co-worker of the woman to check the welfare of the occupants of a home in Chicago's Gage Park neighbourhood.
He said he had not seen the woman for several days.