(NewsNation) — Gruesome details have emerged out of Oklahoma, where the bodies of four men were found in a river near Okmulgee, chopped in half and dismembered. Now police have a person of interest — Joseph Lloyd Kennedy, who’s in jail in Florida.
Kennedy has not been named a suspect or charged with a crime and had reportedly been in talks with law enforcement in Oklahoma after they found signs of a violent event near his scrapyard, but then Kennedy apparently disappeared.
He was arrested on Tuesday near Daytona Beach for driving a truck that was reportedly stolen and appeared in court on Wednesday in Volusia County. The judge ordered Kennedy to be held without bond in the interest of “public safety”.
Police haven’t said why they’re focused on Kennedy, but one of the victims’ phones last pinged in the salvage yard before being found dead, police said.
Mark Chastain, Brian Chastain, Mike Sparks and Alex Stevens were found shot and dismembered in the river after the men went missing on Oct. 9.
“All four bodies were dismembered before being placed in the river. And that is what caused difficulty in determining identity, and that’s why it took so long,” Chief Prentice said.
In an interview with the Daily Mail, the mother of Alex Stevens, Teresa Stevens, revealed some of the awful details around her son’s death, saying: ‘My son and his friends were first shot multiple times, chopped in half at their waist and then thrown into the Deep Fork River to rot away.”
Later adding: “It’s something you read about on the news, about what they did to my son and his friends…To chop a body in half is what the drug cartels do to the dead. Whoever did this clearly wanted to send a message.”
Chief Prentice said this dismemberment case involves the highest number of victims and described it as a “very violent event.”
Anyone with any information about the murders is asked to call 918-756-3511.