Four Oklahoma men who had gone missing while on a bicycle ride were shot and their dismembered bodies were discarded into a river, police said Monday.
Mark Chastain, 32, Billy Chastain, 30, Mike Sparks, 32, and Alex Stevens, 29, were reported missing last week before human remains were found in a shallow portion of the Deep Fork River southwest of Okmulgee, police chief Joe Prentice said.
Oct. 15, 202201:44
All four were shot and identifications were slowed because their bodies had been dismembered, according to Prentice.
“We believe the men planned to commit some type of criminal act,” Prentice told reporters. “We do not know what they planned or where they planned to do it.”
Investigators base that belief on a witness who had been invited to come along as the men planned to “hit a lick big enough for all of them,” the chief revealed, using slang for a profitable criminal act.
The investigation led police over the weekend to a salvage yard.
“Nothing remarkable was observed inside the salvage yard, but evidence of a violent event was discovered on an adjoining property,” Prentice said.
The chief named the salvage yard owner, Joe Kennedy, as a “person of interest,” who detectives are seeking to interview.
Kennedy was reported missing Saturday night “and may be suicidal,” according to Prentice.
The man’s blue Chrysler PT Cruiser was found “abandoned behind a business in” Morris, Oklahoma, police later said.
“Investigators are looking into how it came to be there,” according to a police statement. “Currently we have no vehicle information for Kennedy.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
