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‘Person of Interest’ in deaths of 4 Oklahoma Friends Arrested in Florida

A person of interest in the gruesome death of four Oklahoma friends was arrested for allegedly stealing a car on Tuesday.

Joe Kennedy, 67, was arrested in Daytona Beach Shores, Florida, after allegedly being found in a vehicle that had been reported stolen to authorities on Monday, according to the Okmulgee Police Department (OPD).

A warrant for his arrest has also been issued in Okmulgee County District Court for a violation of his probation related to a shooting in 2012, according to OPD.

According to a press release from the Daytona Beach Shores Department of Public Safety, the arrest was made after a license plate reader alerted her that a pickup of a Toyota Tundra was stolen after it drove past her.

Kennedy was arrested and booked into the Volusia County jail in Florida on charges of grand theft of a motor vehicle. According to the release, he is currently being held without bond. It is unknown whether he has hired lawyers to speak on his behalf.

According to OPD officials, the District Attorney and Sheriff will begin the process of moving Kennedy to Okmulgee County to undergo further investigations into Kennedy’s alleged involvement in the deaths of four friends.

Mark Chastain, 32, Billy Chastain, 30, Mike Sparks, 32, and Alex Stevens, 29, went missing on Oct. 9 after leaving one of their homes on bikes. A passerby found what authorities later identified as multiple human remains days later.

Okmulgee Police Chief Joe Prentice confirmed in a news briefing shared by Tulsa’s KJRH-TV on Monday that the human remains found were those of the missing friends, and that the four men may have been killed while planning a crime.

Their official cause of death has not been determined, but they were shot, according to Prentice, who also said that the missing people’s investigation is now being handled as a murder investigation.

He added at the time that the men’s bicycles had not been found.

“I’ve worked over 80 murders in my career. I have worked on murders involving multiple victims. I have worked dismemberings. But this case involves the highest number of victims and it’s a very violent event. I can’t say that I’ve never worked anything like it but it’s right up there,” Prentice said of the case.

He later stated that Kennedy had been cooperating with police prior to his disappearance and that he did not know the victims.

When their families were informed of the investigation’s progress, they were “distraught” and “shocked.”

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