4 missing friends found shot, dismembered in Oklahoma river; person of interest in custody

A person of interest in the murder and dismemberment of four Oklahoma friends was arrested Tuesday on an unrelated charge, police said.

The search for the four men who vanished after taking off together on their bicycles came to a grisly end when their body parts were discovered in a river over the weekend, police officials said.

The person of interest, Joe Kennedy, 67, was pulled over in a stolen vehicle in Daytona Beach Shores, Fla. He had been sought by police after the victims — Mark Chastain, 32; Billy Chastain, 30; Mike Sparks, 32; and Alex Stevens, 29 — turned up riddled with bullets and their bodies dismembered after having been reported missing by family members to the Okmulgee Police Department last week. They were last seen alive leaving Billy Chastain’s house on bicycles pulling trailers on Oct. 9 around 8 p.m.

“I’ve worked over 80 murders in my career,” Okmulgee Police Chief Joe Prentice said. “I have worked murders involving multiple victims. I have worked dismemberments, but this case involves the highest number of victims, and it’s a very violent event.”

Authorities now believe the group, described as close friends, intended to commit “some type of criminal act” when they left the house, Prentice said, citing information provided by a witness who was invited to join them. The witness told investigators the men were planning “to ‘hit a lick’ big enough for all of them,” the police chief said.

While it’s still unclear what exactly the victims were planning, authorities were able to track their movements to a salvage yard and then a local gas station with data collected from an app on Mark Chastain’s wife’s phone. From there, they visited a second scrapyard south of Okmulgee and then an adjoining property, where authorities believe they were killed.

Kennedy was the owner of both salvage yards visited by the victims.

On Friday, a person traveling by Deep Fork River called police, alerting them to something suspicious in the waters. When authorities arrived on the scene, they saw body parts peaking through the surface and eventually recovered the remains of all four men.

“Although the official cause and manner of death is still pending, each victim suffered gunshot wounds,” Prentice said. “All four bodies were dismembered before being placed in the river and that is what caused difficulty in determining identities.”

Authorities have not recovered any of their bicycles or the gun used in the slayings.