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The bodies of 4 males were recovered Friday successful a stream extracurricular an Oklahoma metropolis wherever authorities person been searching for 4 missing men -- though it wasn't wide if the remains are those of the missing, constabulary said.
Friday's find extracurricular the metropolis of Okmulgee came arsenic constabulary person been looking for 4 section men who disappeared after, investigators believe, they near an Okmulgee location connected bicycles Sunday evening.
Still, the city's constabulary main told the missing men's families of the remains' find arsenic a courtesy earlier helium alerted quality media, helium said.
"The earthy (assumption), erstwhile the accusation gets retired ... would beryllium that their loved ones were recovered deceased," truthful helium notified them portion emphasizing helium didn't cognize the bodies' identities, metropolis Police Chief Joe Prentice said successful a Friday quality conference.
Police haven't said however the 4 dormant males died. A aesculapian examiner successful Tulsa volition behaviour autopsies and marque identifications, Prentice said.
Prentice suspects foul play successful the deaths of those recovered successful the river, helium told CNN Saturday, but did not elaborate, and did not straight reply questions astir whether determination were signs of trauma.
A passerby called constabulary aft seeing thing suspicious successful a stream Friday day extracurricular Okmulgee, a metropolis of astir 11,000 radical astir a 35-mile thrust southbound of Tulsa, Prentice said.
Police arrived and saw remains protruding from the river, Prentice said. Police initially said they didn't cognize however galore bodies were there, though hours aboriginal they said 4 antheral bodies had been removed from the water.
Four friends reported missing this week
The bodies punctuate a deepening enigma for constabulary successful the eastbound Oklahoma city: What happened to 4 friends who were reported missing from their hometown this week? And if the bodies aren't those of these 4 men, whose are they?
Four men surviving successful Okmulgee -- Mark Chastain, 32; Billy Chastain, 30; Mike Sparks, 32; and Alex Stevens, 29 -- were reported missing by relatives Monday nighttime oregon aboriginal Tuesday, Okmulgee constabulary said.
"All 4 are adjacent friends and are believed to person near Billy Chastain's location connected the westbound broadside of Okmulgee" connected Sunday, October 9, astir 8 p.m., constabulary said successful their archetypal release.
"All were reportedly connected bicycles," the constabulary connection reads, without elaborating astir wherefore they'd gathered oregon wherever they mightiness person intended to go.
At slightest 2 men were believed to person compartment phones with them. Police were capable to hint the way of astatine slightest 1 telephone to the eastbound of municipality and past south, but the telephone yet was turned disconnected oregon mislaid power, constabulary said.
Data indicates the phones went to 2 salvage yards -- 1 astir 5 miles from the river, and the different astir 10 to 12 miles from the river, Prentice told CNN connected Saturday. Police haven't said whether the phones person been recovered.
Because the telephone information wasn't adjacent the river, "we ne'er considered this (river) arsenic a hunt area," helium told reporters Friday.
Prentice cautioned that the phones' paths didn't needfully person to beryllium the way that the men traveled.
No bicycles person been found, Prentice said Saturday.
Police person received reports of sightings of the men aft Sunday evening, but investigators -- including those checking surveillance videos successful the country -- person not verified immoderate of them, Prentice told reporters Friday.
CNN's effort to scope the Tulsa aesculapian examiner for remark Saturday was not instantly successful.
The CNN Wire™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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