Four friends left a home in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, on bicycles the evening of October 9, 2022: 32-year-old Mark Chastain, his brother Billy Chastain, 30-year-old Mike Sparks, and 29-year-old Alex Stevens. A witness later told police the group had talked about wanting to hit a lick big enough for all of them, though what they intended to do was not specified.

A passerby eventually spotted something in the Deep Fork River; investigators recovered the four men’s dismembered bodies and determined all had been shot before being discarded in the water. A ping from Mark Chastain’s phone and evidence of a violent event on property adjoining a local scrapyard led police to the yard owned by Joe Kennedy. Kennedy was later found in Daytona Beach Shores, Florida, driving a stolen vehicle and taken into custody.

Kennedy’s lawyer asserted he acted in self-defense, claiming the men came to the scrapyard to commit a crime. The district attorney noted all four victims had been shot in the back, and DNA on Kennedy’s shoes matched one of the victims. A judge denied bond, citing Kennedy as a flight risk.

Did anyone in Okmulgee know the four men’s plans that night or see them after they left on their bicycles?