BREAKING NEWS: Demolition company owner, 67, arrested in Florida after four friends were shot, dismembered and dumped in Oklahoma River
<!–
<!–
<!– <!–
<!–
<!–
<!–
A junkyard owner chased by police for the death and mutilation of four friends in Oklahoma has now been arrested.
Joe Kennedy, 67, was arrested Monday in Daytona Beach Shores, Florida, while driving a stolen vehicle. He is a person of interest in the ‘violent’ quadruple murder.
Okmulgee Police Chief Joe Prentice said the bodies found in the Deep Fork River late last week belong to Mark Chastain, 32, and Billy Chastain, 30, Mike Sparks, 32, and Alex Stevens, 29.
The men are said to have left a house in Okmulgee on their bicycles in the evening of October 9.
The police chief said the official cause of death is not yet known, but all four men had gunshot wounds and their bodies had been dismembered.
Pictured: Joe Kennedy, 67, the owner of several scrap yards, has been arrested after previously going missing
The group was reported missing last Monday and a witness claimed to have seen them walking down a street at 2 a.m. on Tuesday. Pictured: Mike Sparks (left) and Alex Stevens (right)
Mark Chastain (left), 32, and his brother Billy (right), 30, were among four cyclists whose bodies were found dismembered and dumped in an Oklahoma river
Officers said they suspect the men planned to commit “some sort of criminal act” before being slaughtered.
It’s because the wrecking yard owner Kennedy was named as a person of interest in the case and then mysteriously disappeared. He cooperated with authorities Friday night and denied knowing the four victims, Chief Prentice said.
Okmulgee Police Chief Joe Prentice confirmed that Kennedy is now in custody.
They confirmed that no evidence was found during a search of the salvage yard.
No charges have been filed against Kennedy as of Tuesday.
Police found Kennedy’s blue PT Cruiser behind a business in Morris, Oklahoma, before being subsequently arrested in Florida.
Prentice said in a statement: “The murder investigation is ongoing and investigators continue to follow clues every day. Additional information will be communicated as it becomes available.’
Kennedy is serving probation after pleading guilty in 2012 to assault and beating with a deadly weapon.
He told the sheriff’s officers how he caught six alleged burglars at one of his salvage yards and shot one of them. The others fled.
Investigators found the first remains on Friday and determined over the weekend that the victims died of gunshot wounds before being dismembered and dumped into the river.
A passerby saw something suspicious in the river near a bridge, police said. The bikes have not yet been found, Prentice said.
“All four bodies were dismembered before being placed in the river and that caused the difficulty of determining the identity,” Prentice said. ‘The river turns out to be a landfill. When there’s water involved, it’s much harder to find evidence,” he said.
“The relatives were angry. I think they had already decided that these were their loved ones, but the additional information about mutilation was clearly a shock, they were very distraught,” he revealed.
The men were reported missing after leaving Billy Chastain’s home in Okmulgee around 8pm on Oct. 9.