Authorities in Florida have arrested a person of interest in the Oklahoma case involving four men whose dismembered remains had been found in a river.
Joe Kennedy, the owner of a scrapyard that the victims had visited, was arrested Tuesday in Daytona Beach Shores in a vehicle that had been reported stolen, announced Oklahoma’s Okmulgee Police Chief Joe Prentice.
According to online records, Kennedy is currently being held in Volusia County Jail. He faces one charge of automobile theft and one count as a fugitive.
Prentice claimed that Kennedy was allegedly driving a car that had been reported stolen to Okmulgee Police on Monday. Prentice stated that Kennedy was also arrested Monday in connection to a 2012 unrelated case.
“The district attorney and the sheriff will begin the process of getting Kennedy back to Okmulgee County,”Prentice made Tuesday’s statement. “The murder investigation is ongoing and investigators continue to follow leads every day. Additional information will be relayed when it is available.”
The four victims, all friends, were last seen Oct. 9 at 8 p.m. when they rode off on bicycles from one of their homes, police said. According to the sheriff, relatives reported the victims missing the next day when calls to their cellphones went straight into voicemail.
Prentice announced Monday that the dismembered remains taken from a river were belonging to the missing men at a press conference. He also announced police were searching for a person of interest who had since disappeared and “may be suicidal.”
The chief stated that Kennedy’s blue PT Cruiser, which was originally purchased by Kennedy, was later found abandoned in Morris, a nearby town.
“I’ve worked over 80 murders in my career … but this case involves the highest number of victims and it’s a very violent event,”Prentice made these remarks at Monday’s press conferences.
The sheriff stated that evidence collected during an investigation showed that the men had been robbed. “planned to commit some kind of criminal act”They vanished that night.
Witness told investigators that the men boasted about going to. “hit a lick big enough for all of them,”Prentice stated.
The witness had been invited to join the men but didn’t go, the police chief said. Prentice stated that investigators aren’t able to determine what or where the men were planning.
Prentice stated that Kennedy was named as a person of concern because he owned a scrapyard near the crime scene.
The chief claimed that he was interrogated on Friday and denied knowing the names of the four men.