Bodies of 4 missing Oklahoma men found dismembered in river after they told a buddy they were going to HIT A LICK

OKMULGEE, Oklahoma — Four men set out on their bicycles last weekend to “Hit A Lick” and wound up with their bodies being chopped up and drop in a nearby river.

The bodies of four men  Mark Chastain, 32; Billy Chastain, 30; Mike Sparks, 32; and Alex Stevens, 29,   were  found shot and dismembered on Friday in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, just a day earlier were reported missing.

The four men, whom police described as “close friends,” were last seen leaving Billy Chastain’s house on bicycles “pulling trailers” around 8 p.m. on Oct. 9, Police Chief Joe Prentice said.

During a press conference Monday, Prentice said that based on information provided by a witness who was invited to join them, police believe the victims planned to commit “some type of criminal act” when they left the house. The witness told investigators that the men were planning “to ‘hit a lick’ big enough for all of them,” the police chief said.

Prentice said police don’t know what the men were planning to do. But during the dayslong search for them, investigators were able to trace their movements to a salvage yard and then a local gas station using data from an app on Mark Chastain’s wife’s phone. After leaving the station, the men visited a second scrapyard south of Okmulgee, where Chastain’s phone turned off. It was on a property next to that second yard where police now believe a “violent event” occurred, resulting in the deaths of the four men.

According to The Associated Press, Okmulgee Police Chief Joe Prentice said in a news conference Monday that the men who were found in the Deep Fork River were identified as the four missing friends.

On Friday afternoon, a passerby alerted police to an area of the Deep Fork River southwest of town after noticing suspicious items partially submerged in the water. Authorities identified the objects as human remains and ultimately recovered the bodies of four men. Due to the condition of the remains, it wasn’t until late Sunday night that the bodies were confirmed to belong to the missing friends.

“Although the official cause and manner of death is still pending, each victim suffered gunshot wounds, [and] all four bodies were dismembered before being placed in the river,” Prentice said. “That is what caused difficulty in determining identity, and that’s why it took so long.”

Earlier in the week, Prentice described the situation as “unusual,” saying that it was the first time in his career that he had seen four men go missing at the same time. On Monday, he said that while he had worked dozens of murders and had seen cases where bodies are dismembered, “this case involves the highest number of victims.”

“It’s a very violent event, so I can’t say that I’ve never worked anything like it,” Prentice said, “but it’s right up there at the top.”

For days, family members had been searching for answers about what happened to the men, making pleas on social media for any information that might lead them to their loved ones.

“If anybody in this town has a camera on their house or on their doorbell or anything review your footage just to be sure that you didn’t catch them walking by or riding by please do it for our families,” Sparks’s fiancé, Chrystal Dawn Sparks, wrote on Facebook early Friday morning.

The owner of the two salvage yards, identified by police as Joe Kennedy, was named a person of interest in the killings. Investigators last spoke with Kennedy on Friday afternoon, when the men’s remains were discovered in a nearby river, before the bodies were positively identified. Prentice said at the time that Kennedy “appeared to be cooperative” and “was not antagonistic.” He has since been reported missing and may be experiencing suicidal ideations.

“I don’t have any evidence that Mr. Kennedy is a threat to anyone else, but I would use caution,” Prentice said. “If anyone sees Mr. Kennedy, please call the local authorities.”

A few hours later, the chief said that police located Kennedy’s vehicle but not Kennedy himself. The blue PT Cruiser had been abandoned behind a business in Morris, Oklahoma, but it was unclear how it got there.

On Tuesday, Kennedy was driving near the 2800 block of South Atlantic Avenue at 8:30 a.m. in Daytona Beach, Florida when a police license plate reader detected Kennedy’s vehicle, listing the car as stolen and its driver as “missing.”

Joe Kennedy, 67, was arrested without incident and made no statement to officer and was confirmed by the Oklahoma police to be a person of interest in a quadruple homicide.

Kennedy,  is being held without bail. He was booked into the Volusia County Branch Jail at 10:21 a.m. Tuesday on a single charge of grand theft of a motor vehicle, according to Corrections Department records.

Kennedy was also booked for a probation hold connected to a 2012 shooting in Oklahoma.

In 2013, Kennedy pleaded no contest to felony assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and misdemeanor obstructing a police officer, court records showed.

He had to meet conditions of probation until May 15, 2023, court records showed.

They messed with the wrong guy who apparently gave up his freedom in exchange for protecting his own honor.