A witness had been invited to join the men to “hit a lick big enough for all of them,” or to engage in some kind of criminal behavior, a police chief said on Monday.
The mysterious disappearance of four friends in Oklahoma took a grim turn on Monday after the police confirmed that their remains had been found in a river after they had been fatally shot and then dismembered.
Joe Prentice, the police chief in Okmulgee, a city of about 11,000 people about 40 miles south of Tulsa, said at a news conference on Monday that the remains had been identified as those of Mark Chastain, 32; Billy Chastain, 30; Mike Sparks, 32; and Alex Stevens, 29, all of Okmulgee. The chief said the Chastains were brothers.
Chief Prentice said that investigators believed the men had planned to “commit some type of criminal act” after they left Billy Chastain’s home on Okmulgee’s west side around 8 p.m. on Oct. 9. All four were reportedly riding bicycles, the police said.
Their plan to engage in criminal activity was based on information from a witness who had been invited to join the men to “hit a lick big enough for all of them,” the chief said, quoting the witness.
“That is common terminology for engaging in some type of criminal behavior, but we do not know what they were planning or where they planned to do it,” he added.
The men had been reported missing last week after they left Billy Chastain’s home, the police said.
Mark Chastain’s wife, Jessica, told 2 News Oklahoma last week that her husband had parked his car at a house owned by the Chastain family on Sunday. The four men often spent time there, she said.
“They don’t go far — never,” Ms. Chastain told the news station.
On Friday, a passer-by noticed something suspicious in the Deep Fork River, leading investigators to find what appeared to be human remains protruding from the water.
But it wasn’t until Monday that the police confirmed the identities of the remains. Chief Prentice said it took some time to make the identification because all four had gunshot wounds and had apparently been dumped in the river after they were dismembered.
Chief Prentice said that the police were looking for the owner of a local salvage yard, Joe Kennedy, whom he described as a “person of interest” in the investigation. Mr. Kennedy’s salvage yard is next to a property where investigators discovered “evidence of a violent event,” the chief said, without elaborating.
He said that a signal from Mark Chastain’s cellphone had pinged at and around the salvage yard. No charges have been filed and the cause and manner of the deaths have yet to be determined, the chief said.
When Mr. Kennedy spoke to investigators on Friday, he denied knowing the men, Chief Prentice said, adding that he had no reason to believe the men had any relationship with Mr. Kennedy. On Saturday, Mr. Kennedy was reported missing and he may be suicidal, the chief said.
There was no immediate response on Monday to a text message sent to a number listed for a salvage yard under Mr. Kennedy’s name.
Investigators have not recovered the gun used in the killings, Chief Prentice said. They also have not yet found the bicycles that the men had reportedly been riding.
“Unfortunately, I have no description of the bicycles,” Chief Prentice said. “At least one, and we believe all, of the boys had multiple bicycles, and there’s no way to know which ones they were on.”
Chief Prentice said that the investigation was continuing and that the police were waiting for cellphone records and had requested video surveillance from businesses in the area. He said his best guess was that the men’s remains were dumped in the river on the night of Oct. 9 or the morning of Oct. 10.
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