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Police say the boys -- who are 8 and 9 years old -- are in a Cobb County youth detention center but could face adult criminal charges.

"Reportedly two 9-year-old boys and one 8-year-old boy took the girl into the woods against her will where she was raped," said Capt. Wayne Bennard of the Acworth Police Department.

Police reports show the girl went to authorities Saturday for the alleged attack, which she says happened Thursday.

The victim told police they had been playing outside the West Ridge Apartments before the attack.

Acworth Police Chief Mike Wilkie said one of the boys was accused of threatening to hit the girl with a rock before the assault occurred.

Wilkie also said the investigation is "far from over," and investigators are looking into claims that after the incident, the girl talked about it with her friends at a slumber party.

The girl told her mother about the alleged attack on Saturday.

"When she started telling me I didn't know how to react," said the victim's mother. "I was shocked, I didn't expect it."

"It's unbelievable they're starting at such a young age now," she added. You would think something like that at 14, 13; maybe a teenager, but their ages is really bothering me."

The suspects are being held at the Cobb County Youth Detention Center.

"The three boys have been charged with crimes ranging from rape, sexual assault, kidnapping and false imprisonment," said Bennard. "The reaction is dismay."

The father of one of the suspects told WSB-TV Channel 2 Action News his son denies any rape happened.

"Word had got back to her parents what she did and she changed her story around and said she was raped," said Brandon LeBlanc. "That's when they took her to the hospital and get rape kit and that's why they interrogating all these boys on these charges."

He said his son is a third grader at a local Baptist school who loves the Atlanta Falcons and is a batboy for his church's softball league.

Prosecutors had not received the case report from police on Monday, nor had they decided whether to try the suspects as adults.

"That decision hasn't been made," said Kathy Watkins, a spokeswoman for the Cobb County District Attorney's office. She had no further comment.

Acworth, which sits 30 miles northwest of Atlanta along the shores of Lake Allatoona, is a town of about 17,000.

"This wouldn't be normal anywhere, but especially not Acworth," Dennard said.

The suspects are scheduled to appear at a hearing at 2 p.m. at the Cobb County Juvenile Court, Dennard said.