The four men were reported missing one week ago after relatives told authorities that none of them had returned from a bike ride.
The dismembered remains of four missing Oklahoma men have been pulled from a river and police said Monday they are looking for a person of interest who has since disappeared.
The four men, all friends, were last seen Oct. 9 at 8 p.m. when they rode off on bicycles from one of their homes, police said. Relatives reported them missing the next day after calls to their cellphones went straight to voicemail, according to Okmulgee Police Chief Joe Prentice.
The victims were identified as Mark Chastain, 32, Billy Chastain, 30, Mike Sparks, 32, and Alex Stevens, 29.
Their mysterious disappearance grew darker on Friday after police received a call about suspicious items floating in the Deep Fork River, just outside Okmulgee, a small city 40 miles from Tulsa.
Over the weekend, police pulled multiple body pieces from the river, Prentice announced at a Monday press conference. Autopsies determined they belonged to the missing men, the police chief said.
“I’ve worked over 80 murders in my career … but this case involves the highest number of victims and it’s a very violent event,” Prentice said.
Each man had been shot and then dismembered, he said. The four had “planned to commit some kind of criminal act” on the night they rode off, the chief said. A witness told investigators the men had boasted they were going to “hit a lick big enough for all of them,” Prentice said.
The witness had been invited to join the men but didn’t go, the police chief said.
Investigators don’t know what the men were planning, or where, Prentice said.
Police are looking for Joe Kennedy, the owner of a scrapyard near the murder site, the chief said. He was reported missing Saturday night and “may be suicidal” Prentice said. He has not been named a suspect, “and I don’t have any evidence that Mr. Kennedy poses a threat,” Prentice said. No charges have been filed against him, the chief said.
Kennedy was questioned by police last week and denied knowing the four men, Prentice said.
Last week, Prentice said the men are believed to have visited two salvage yards the night they left on bicycles. Their bikes have not been found, he said Monday.
Evidence appears to show the men were killed near one salvage yard and then dismembered and dumped in a nearby river, Prentice said. “It’s a very violent event,” the chief said. Investigators pulled human remains from the water from Friday through Monday, he said.
The body parts were put in the river late on the night the men pedaled off or very early the next morning, Prentice said.
Anyone with information about what is now a murder case is urged to call the police department at 918-756-3511 or email tips@ok
Body parts “protruding from” an Oklahoma river were found by authorities Friday in their search for four men who went missing during their Sunday bike ride, police said.
Officers found multiple human remains sticking out from the surface of Deep Fork River around 1:49 p.m. after a caller reported suspicious items in the water, Okmulgee Police Chief Joe Prentice said at a press conference.
“There is definitely what appears to be body parts protruding from the water,” Prentice said, noting the remains lie “immediately adjacent to a bridge.”
Police are unable to determine whether the remains belong to missing men Mark Chastain, 32, his brother Billy Chastain, 30, Mike Sparks, 32, and Alex Stevens, 29.
Only two of the men left with cell phones, and both went straight to voicemail following their departure. One phone last pinged at a salvage yard.
Officials, “out of respect,” notified the families of the discovery, even though the remains have not yet been identified, Prentice said.
Bicycles have not been found at the scene, he noted.
