In the quiet town of Henryetta, Oklahoma, a dark story unfolded in October of 2022, culminating in the tragic death of 29-year-old Alex Stevens and three of his close friends. The four men, including brothers Mark and Billy Chastain, ages 32 and 30 respectively, and 32-year-old Mike Sparks, were reported missing on October 9th after leaving one of their homes on bicycles.
Their families grew concerned when none of them returned, and attempts to contact them went straight to voicemail.
The search for the missing men took a grim turn on October 14th when their dismembered bodies were discovered in the Deep Fork River. Autopsy results would later confirm that all four men had been shot to death before their bodies were brutally mutilated. The discovery sent shockwaves through the community and launched an intensive homicide investigation that quickly focused on a local scrapyard owner, 67-year-old Joseph Kennedy.
Investigators were led to Kennedy’s scrapyard after tracking the cell phone of one of the victims to the location. While a search of the scrapyard itself yielded little, evidence of a violent event was discovered on an adjacent property. There, authorities found blood, a broken set of dentures, and other personal items belonging to the victims. A bullet was also recovered from a tree near the property. As the investigation intensified, Kennedy was named a person of interest.
Before he could be extensively questioned, Joseph Kennedy disappeared. He was apprehended days later in Daytona Beach Shores, Florida, driving a stolen vehicle. Following his arrest, more disturbing details emerged. Kennedy’s girlfriend at the time told investigators that he had confessed to the murders. She claimed he told her that he killed the four men because he was 'tired of getting robbed' and that he 'just started shooting' after catching them on his property. According to her statement, he admitted to dismembering their bodies after he had shot them. Kennedy was extradited back to Oklahoma, where he was charged with four counts of first-degree murder.
