Police on Monday confirmed that the bodies pulled from an Oklahoma river last week were the four missing bicyclists — and revealed that the men had been shot and dismembered while on their way to commit a crime.
Okmulgee Police Department Chief Joe Prentice said that the human remains pulled from the Deep Fork River Friday belonged to Mark Chastain, 32, his brother Billy Chastain, 30, Mike Sparks, 32, and Alex Stevens, 29.
He said authorities believe that the cyclists had been in the process of committing a crime when they went missing on a bike ride from one of their houses last Sunday evening.
“We believe the men planned to commit some kind of criminal act when they left the resident on West 6th Street,” Prentice told reporters.
“That belief is based on information supplied by a witness who reports they were invited to go with the men to ‘hit a lick’ big enough for all of them,” he said, referring to slang for obtaining money illegally.
One of the victims’ phones last pinged at a salvage yard owned by a person of interest in the case, Joe Kennedy, officials said.
A search of a nearby scrap yard turned up evidence of a “violent event,” and police were looking to speak to Kennedy, who had been interviewed by cops on Friday before going missing a day later, police said.
Kennedy was not considered a suspect, but was possibly suicidal, according to Prentice.
Local, state and federal investigators said they believed they pulled the last of the victims’ dismembered body parts from the river Monday morning.
Prentice said the remains had likely been in the water since last Sunday and were not weighed down. The victims’ bicycles had not been recovered, nor had a murder weapon, according to police.
“I did speak with the family members,” Prentice said. “I think they had already resolved themselves that this was their loved ones but the additional information about dismemberment was obviously a shock and they were very distraught.”
“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. So I can’t say I’ve never worked anything like it, but it’s right up there at the top.”