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A person of interest has been identified after four missing men were found dismembered with gunshot wounds in a river in eastern Oklahoma last week.
The Okmulgee Police Department announced that Joe Kennedy, 67, was arrested Monday in Daytona Beach Shores, Florida, for allegedly driving a stolen vehicle. He has been identified as a “person of interest” connected to the deaths of Mark Chastain, 32, Billy Chastain, 30, Mike Sparks, 32, and Alex Stevens, 29.
Okmulgee Police Chief Joe Prentice said Tuesday that Kennedy would be extradited back to Okmulgee county for questioning.
Four men have been reported missing to the Okmulgee Police Department overnight. Mark Chastain 32 of Okmulgee, Billy…
Posted by Okmulgee Police Department on Tuesday, October 11, 2022
“The District Attorney and the Sheriff will begin the process of getting Kennedy back to Okmulgee County,” said Prentice. “The murder investigation is ongoing, and investigators follow leads daily. Additional information will be relayed when it is available.”
He did not mention if charges would be brought against Kennedy. Prentice also noted they would revoke a deferred ten-year prison sentence Kennedy received in connection to a shooting in 2012.
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The New York Post reported that one of the victims had pinged his phone at a scrap yard owned by Kennedy the night they went missing.
“A search of a nearby scrap yard turned up evidence of a ‘violent event,’ and police were looking to speak to Kennedy, who had been interviewed by cops Friday before going missing a day later,” the outlet wrote, citing police.
When Kennedy was interviewed by investigators Friday, he claimed not to know the four men, according to Prentice via the Associated Press.
On the night of October 9, the four men — who were close friends — disappeared after they were last seen leaving Billy Chastian’s house on bicycles.
Remains were recovered Friday in Deep Fork River in Okmulgee — located approximately 40 miles south of Tulsa — and confirmed Monday belonging to the missing four men. Police noted that the four men’s bodies had gunshot wounds and were dismembered, but an official cause of death has not been determined. No gun or bicycle was discovered near the scene.
Police suggested the four victims were planning on committing a crime the night they went missing, based on interviewing an individual who was asked to participate but declined, ABC News reported. The details of the alleged crime are unknown.
You can follow Ethan Letkeman on Twitter at @EthanLetkeman.
