The Okmulgee Police Department named a person of interest on Monday in the murders of four men, whose dismembered bodies were found with gunshot wounds in a river on Friday.
The four men – Mark Chastain, 32, Billy Chastain, 30, Mike Sparks, 32, and Alex Stevens, 29 – left a home in western Okmulgee on bikes on the evening of Oct. 9.
A witness told police that they were invited that night to join the men to “hit a lick big enough for all of them,” or commit a criminal act, Okmulgee Police Chief Joe Prentice said at a press conference on Monday. It’s unclear what type of crime they allegedly planned to commit.
The bodies were found dismembered with gunshot wounds in the Deep Fork River on Friday after a passerby noticed something suspicious while crossing a bridge. The bikes have not been located.
Police searched a nearby scrapyard on 20th St. owned by Joe Kennedy on Friday and “evidence of a violent event was discovered on an adjoining property,” Prentice said.
Kennedy was reported missing on Saturday and may be suicidal. A blue PT Cruiser that he was driving was found behind a business on Monday afternoon in Morris, Oklahoma, about six miles east of Okmulgee.
Police are now searching for Kennedy, who has been named a person of interest in the case. Kennedy was cooperative when police last spoke to him on Friday, Prentice said.
The families of the four victims, who all lived in Okmulgee, have been notified.
“They were upset I think they had already resolved themselves that this was their loved ones, but the additional information about dismemberment was obviously a shock, they were very distraught,” Prentice said Monday.
