Four missing friends found shot and dismembered in Oklahoma river

Four close friends who randomly disappeared in Oklahoma were killed, dismembered and thrown in a river, according to police.

The four Oklahoma men were last seen on October 9th after leaving Okmulgee on bicycles around 8pm.

The men were all from Okmulgee, which is a city of roughly 11,000 people 40 miles (64km) south of Tulsa.

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The bodies were discovered Friday after a passer-by saw something suspicious in the river near a bridge, authorities confirmed.

The Okmulgee Police Chief Joe Prentice said the bodies found in the Deep Fork River are those of the four missing friends: Mark Chastain, 32, Billy Chastain, 30, Mike Sparks, 32, and Alex Stevens, 29.

Clockwise from top left, Mike Sparks, Billy Chastain, Mark Chastain and Alex Stevens (Okmulgee Police Dept.)

Prentice said all four had been shot, and identifying them was slowed because their bodies had been dismembered.

The Police Chief told media officials: “I’ve worked over 80 murders in my career, involving multiple victims, dismemberment, but this case involves the highest number of victims, and it’s a very violent event.”

The investigation led police to a scrap yard over the weekend.

Police were led to that area by a ping from Mark Chastain’s phone.

The owner of the scrapyard, Joe Kennedy, is a person of interest, and not a suspect in the quadruple murder, Okmulgee Police Chief Joe Prentice said at a news conference on Monday.

Prentice added: "All four bodies were dismembered before being placed in the river and that is what caused the difficulty in determining identity,"

"The river appears to be a dump site. This is now a murder investigation."

Joe Kennedy, 67, was initially reported as a missing person, and disappeared, later to be arrested in Daytona Beach Shores, Florida, and taken into custody for allegedly driving a car that had been reported stolen in Okmulgee County.

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