By Nouran Salahieh, CNN
A set of missing persons stories has turned into a murder investigation after dismembered bodies discovered in an Oklahoma river had been recognized as 4 males who vanished final week, police mentioned.
The males — Mark Chastain, 32; Billy Chastain, 30; Mike Sparks, 32; and Alex Stevens, 29 — had been reported missing by kinfolk final Monday evening or early Tuesday after leaving Billy Chastain’s Okmulgee, Oklahoma, dwelling on bicycles round 9 p.m. October 9, police have mentioned.
The males seem to have been planning to commit a crime after they set out, Okmulgee Police Chief Joe Prentice mentioned Monday, citing a preliminary investigation. All had been shot, he mentioned.
Meantime, a particular person police wish to speak with associated to the case has been missing as of Saturday evening and might be suicidal, the chief mentioned. The particular person just isn’t a suspect, and no costs have been filed, he mentioned.
“I’ve worked over 80 murders in my career. I have worked murders involving multiple victims. I have worked dismemberments, but this case involves the highest number of victims, and it’s a very violent event,” Prentice mentioned.
Here’s what we know in regards to the case:
All the lads discovered in the river had been shot
A passerby known as police Friday after seeing something suspicious in a river exterior Okmulgee, a metropolis of about 11,000 folks roughly a 35-mile drive south of Tulsa, Prentice beforehand mentioned.
Police arrived, noticed stays and located a number of bodies.
The bodies were identified because the 4 missing males — all having been shot and dismembered, the chief introduced Monday.
“Although the official cause and manner of death is still pending, each victim suffered gunshot wounds,” Prentice mentioned. “All four bodies were dismembered before being placed in the river, and that is what caused difficulty in determining identities.”
The stays had been recovered over a number of days, and it’s not clear what type of proof investigators will be capable to get better.
“Whenever water is involved, it makes it much more difficult to identify evidence,” the chief mentioned.
Police haven’t recovered any bicycles, nor the gun used in the killings.
Police imagine the 4 buddies had been planning a crime
While it stays unclear precisely what led as much as the lads’s deaths, it seems they had been planning to commit a crime after they left Chastain’s dwelling, Prentice mentioned, citing a preliminary investigation.
The perception is predicated on “information supplied by a witness who reports they were invited to go with the men to quote, unquote, ‘Hit a lick big enough for all of them,’” the chief mentioned Monday in a news convention.
“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,” Prentice added.
After the lads had been reported missing, police mentioned they believed a minimum of two of the lads had cell telephones with them. Investigators traced the telephones’ path, discovering the gadgets went to 2 salvage yards — one about 5 miles from the river, and the opposite about 10 to 12 miles from the river, Prentice informed CNN on Saturday.
Police later discovered “evidence of a violent event” on property adjoining one of these places, the chief mentioned with out elaborating.
A ‘person of interest’ is missing
Police have a particular person of curiosity in the case, and no costs have been filed, the chief mentioned Monday.
The particular person, who has denied figuring out the 4 males, just isn’t a suspect however “a person of interest that we’d like to talk to,” Prentice mentioned.
But the particular person has gone missing as of Saturday evening and might be suicidal, Prentice mentioned.
Now that the case is a murder probe, police might be extra tight-lipped about additional proceedings “to protect the integrity of the investigation,” Prentice mentioned.
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CNN’s Michelle Watson and Melissa Alonso contributed to this report.
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