Person of Interest Named After Remains of 4 Men Found

Update: Police are now calling the discovery of four bodies in Oklahoma a quadruple homicide, and they have named a person of interest in the case. Authorities in Okmulgee say the four adult male friends, including two brothers, were killed at a local scrapyard, dismembered, and thrown in a river, reports ABC News. Okmulgee Police Chief Joe Prentice says the men were planning to commit a crime, though no further details were provided. The owner of the scrapyard, Joe Kennedy, is being called a person of interest, and police are trying to track him down. Our story from Sunday follows:

It appears that the worst fears about four men who vanished this week in a small Oklahoma city have been realized. Police in Okmulgee say they discovered the remains of four men in a local river, reports News on 6. Identities have not yet been confirmed, but the discovery comes days after Mark Chastain 32; brother Billy Chastain, 30; Mike Sparks, 32; and 29-year-old Alex Stevens were reported missing, per NBC News. Police have not said whether they believe foul play was involved.

“This process (including identification) will take some time, and currently, we have more questions than answers,” said Okmulgee Police Chief Joe Prentice. The men were last seen last Sunday evening, when they set out on a bike ride—family members say they did so regularly, often to a local scrap yard, per Insider. The bicycles have not been recovered. GPS data from two of the men's phones had police searching an area nowhere near the river where the remains were found. “We’re not giving up," says Prentice. "If these are your loved ones all we are doing is switching focus and we are gonna work just as hard to find out what happened to them as we did trying to find them." (More Oklahoma stories.)