Police in Okmulgee, Oklahoma say someone tried to divert their attention away from a river where the remains of four bodies were recovered Friday.
Divers pulled four male bodies from the Deep Fork River, near a bridge along Sharp Road in southwest Okmulgee Friday night, FOX23 News reports.
A passerby noticed suspicious objects “protruding from” the water just before 2 p.m. Friday and notified dispatch.
The remains are believed to be Mark Chastain, 32, his brother Billy Chastain, 30, Mike Sparks, 32, and Alex Stevens, 29. The four friends went missing after leaving Billy Chastain’s house in west Okmulgee to go bike riding together at 8 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 9.
Police said the men visited a junkyard about 9 miles from Billy’s home, then stopped at a gas station before riding their bicycles to a scrapyard in south Okmulgee. That’s where Mark Chastain’s cell phone last pinged before the battery died or the phone was turned off.
Only the Chastain brothers had their cell phones with them.
In a press briefing on Friday, Okmulgee Police Chief Joe Prentice said cell data from one of the phones suggested that the men may have ridden out of town in the opposite direction of the Deep Fork River.
He said police hadn’t considered searching the river because of the phone data.
“All the information we had up to this point indicated that our missing men based on telephone data had gone east leaving town and then ultimately south on 75. This is in the opposite direction. So, no, we never considered this as a search area,” said Chief Prentice.
No bicycles were found at or near the Deep Fork River where the human remains were recovered.
Chief Prentice said, “At this time, we cannot make an identification, but out of respect we let the families know before it was officially announced.”
The wife of one of the victims changed her Facebook status from “married” to “widowed” about an hour after the bodies were found.
In a Facebook post on Friday, an uncle of the Chastain brothers said he believes the owner of the scrapyard killed the four friends and dumped their bodies in the river.
There are unconfirmed rumors that the close friends were stealing parts from scrapyards in the Okmulgee area.
Mark Chastain’s wife, Jessica Chastain told FOX23 she is exhausted from crying.
“I’ve cried so much I just don’t have [any] tears left. I’m drained,” she said.
She said police didn’t take her seriously when she first reported her husband missing on Monday.
“Now look where we’re at. Nobody believed me. My husband wouldn’t just take off from me and his kids,” she said.
