The investigation into four men who disappeared after leaving a home in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, on bicycles last week is now a murder investigation, the local police chief says, after four dismembered bodies were pulled of a river have been positively identified as the missing men. the official cause and manner of death is still pending, each victim sustained gunshot wounds,” Okmulgee Police Chief Joe Prentice said Monday at a press conference. dismembered before being placed in the river and that’s what caused difficulties in determining identities and that’s why it took so long.” The four men living in Okmulgee – Mark Chastain, 32; Billy Chastain, 30; Mike Sparks, 32; and Alex Stevens, 29 – were reported missing by relatives on Monday evening or early Tuesday, Okmulgee Police previously said, after leaving Billy Chastain’s home on a bicycle around 9 p.m. Oct. 9. foul play,” Prentice said at Monday’s news conference, citing a witness who told investigators they were asked to join in and “hit a pretty big lick for each of them “. “It’s common terminology for engaging in some type of criminal behavior, but we don’t know what they were planning or where they were planning to do it,” Prentice said. Additionally, police searched a scrap yard Saturday in Okmulgee, Prentice said While ‘nothing of note was observed’ inside, Prentice said there was ‘evidence of a violent event’ found on a nearby property Prentice said there was a person of interest but no charges were filed The person of interest disappeared on Saturday evening and may be suicidal, Prentice said The four bodies were found on Friday after a passerby called police for seeing something suspicious. Prentice was notified of the positive IDs on Sunday evening, he said Monday, and the families of the four men have also been notified. They had seemed resigned to the fact that the bodies were those of the their loved ones, Prentice said, but the news that they had been dismembered was “obviously a shock”. The police did not find any bicycles or the weapon used in the murders. “I’ve worked on over 80 murders in my career. I’ve worked on murders involving multiple victims. I’ve worked on dismemberments, but this case involves the most victims, and that’s a very violent event,” Prentice said. “So I can’t say I’ve never worked like this, but it’s way up there.”
The investigation into four men who disappeared after leaving a home in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, on bicycles last week is now a murder investigation, the local police chief has said, after four dismembered bodies pulled from a river have been positively identified as the missing men.
“While the official cause and manner of death are still unknown, each victim suffered gunshot wounds,” Okmulgee Police Chief Joe Prentice said Monday at a news conference. “The four bodies were dismembered before they were placed in the river and that’s what caused difficulties in determining identities and that’s why it took so long.”
The four men living in Okmulgee – Mark Chastain, 32; Billy Chastain, 30; Mike Sparks, 32; and Alex Stevens, 29 – were reported missing by relatives last Monday evening or early Tuesday, Okmulgee Police previously said, after leaving Billy Chastain’s home on a bicycle at around 9pm on October 9.
Investigators now believe the four men planned to ‘commit some type of criminal act’, Prentice said at Monday’s news conference, citing a witness who told investigators they were asked to join and to “make a pretty big lick for each of them”.
“It’s common terminology for engaging in some type of criminal behavior, but we don’t know what they were planning or where they were planning to do it,” Prentice said.
Additionally, police searched a junkyard in Okmulgee on Saturday, Prentice said. While “nothing noteworthy was observed” inside, Prentice said there was “evidence of a violent event” found on a nearby property.
Prentice said there was a person of interest but no charges were filed. The person of interest disappeared Saturday night and may be suicidal, Prentice said.
The four bodies were found on Friday after a passerby called police for seeing something suspicious. Prentice was notified of the positive identification on Sunday evening, he said Monday, and the families of the four men have also been notified. They had seemed resigned to the fact that the bodies were those of their loved ones, Prentice said, but the news that they had been dismembered was “obviously a shock”.
The police did not recover any bicycles or the weapon used in the murders.
“I’ve worked on over 80 murders in my career. I’ve worked on murders involving multiple victims. I’ve worked on dismemberments, but this case involves the most victims, and it’s an event very violent,” Prentice said. “So I can’t say I’ve never worked like this, but it’s way up there.”