Press Conference
Friday, 14th Oct.
Chief - At around 13:48 this afternoon, dispatch received a report of suspicious items in the river in the area of the bridge that goes across Sharp Rd, which is located SW of Okmulgee. Officers responded and discovered what appears to be multiple human remains in the river. Multiple agencies are responding and we'll work to begin the recovery process. This process will take time and currently we have more questions than answers. The families of Mark Chastain, Billy Chastain, Mike Sparks and Alex Stevens have been notified of the discovery. At this time, we cannot make an identification, but out of respect we let the families know before it was officially announced. If it turns out that these four missing men, are the remains in the river, then the focus of our investigation will shift from finding them to what happened to them. If it is determined it is not them then we will have a separate investigation. That is the conclusion of my statement and I will answer questions if you have any.
Reporter - How much human remains have you found?
Chief - I can tell you that there are multiple, but I can't see everything and all of it is in the river itself. So until we have searched the entire area and got everything that we can see, out and made sure there's nothing else, I can't give you a definitive answer. But there are multiple objects in the water that appear to be human remains.
Reporter - Like bodies or parts?
Chief - Well, I can't see everything. There is definitely what appears to be body parts protruding from the water. I can't tell you what's under the water.
Reporter - Are they in a vehicle or....?
Chief - No.
Reporter - And do we have a team out there right now trying to retrieve them?
Chief - There are multiple agencies on scene right now that will begin by documenting the scene by aerial footage. Then they will photograph the scene. They will approach each object individually, photograph it close up and then start the recovery process.
Reporter - And are those agencies FBI and...?
Chief - The district 25 Violent Crime Task Force is on scene and is leading the investigation and officers from the Okmulgee Police Department, the Okmulgee County Sheriff's Office and the District Attorney's Office, as well as some officers from (inaudible) are out there. OSPI has provided two crime scene agents and the medical examiner's forensic anthropologist is on their way, and may be on scene by now.
Reporter - And how were these parts discovered?
Chief - A passer by saw something that looked suspicious in the water and called dispatch.
Reporter - Is this in any way related to any of the locations that family believed that they had previously been seen?
Chief - I am not aware of this particular location being mentioned by family. There were multiple locations that the family did mention. I'm not aware of this being one of them.
Reporter - Any injuries visible on the remains?
Chief - I can't tell.
Reporter - And it was just the passer by that indicated these might be human remains?
Chief - I have not talked to that individual. My understanding is, the passer by saw something in the water that he thought was suspicious and felt compelled to report it.
Reporter - So as of right now, the bodies have not yet been recovered from the body of water?
Chief - No, they're still in the river and they will be in the river for some time. It will take some time to do the recovery. We have to be very, very meticulous.
Reporter - Do we know if the passer by happened to know any of the family members or potentially the people whose remains they might belong to?
Chief - I don't know. I don't have an answer to that question.
Reporter - You said this entire time you don't say there's foul play involved until you have evidence - Is this evidence of foul play?
Chief - This is what I would call evidence that there's potentially foul play involved. But I need to be clear, we don't know that this is our missing men yet. So, you know, I want to make sure that I'm clear about that. Until we do, I can't tell you that they met with foul play.
Reporter - Are the remains in close proximity to one another?
Chief - Probably a maximum of 75 yards total.
Reporter - And I know you said it was hard for you to see everything, but does it seem like it's multiple people, remains? More than one person?
Chief - Yes.
Reporter - Are they clothed?
Chief - It's hard to tell. I think so.
Reporter - Does it seem like 4 people to you?
Chief - I can't see enough of it to tell you for sure.
Reporter - Any sign of the bicycles where the men were last seen?
Chief - I was out there for a fair length of time. I did not see any bicycles.
Reporter - Before this discovery did y'all find anything on the surveillance footage you we're going through today?
Chief - We've been going through surveillance video for multiple days and as I'm sure you already know, that's a very, very tedious process and we did not find any images of our missing men on any of the surveillance we've gone through up to now.
Reporter - Was this an area that you guys considered searching prior to this?
Chief - All of the information that we had up to this point indicated that our missing men, based on telephone data, had gone East, leaving town and then ultimately South on 75. This is in the opposite direction. So no, we never considered this as a search area.
Reporter - Are the bodies - Can you tell if there's any trauma in the sense of - Are they just laying there or in a bag, or anything of that nature? Somebody, you know, might have put them there.
Chief - I can't see any bags, but you have to understand, they're partially submerged in the river. You can see portions of what appears to be a body and again, I want to be clear, based on my training and experience it looks like these are human bodies. Until I get people out to them I can't 100% confirm that and part of the reason for that is - everything is partially submerged and you can't see very much of it. It looks like they're clothed, but I can't confirm that and I don't see any evidence of a plastic bag, or any other type of bag, but I can't tell you definitively.
Reporter - And since we haven't positively ID these bodies as our missing men - Does the search continue for them or is it suspended?
Chief - Well, I guess the best way to explain that is - we will take leads as they come in and we follow them up. This is going to occupy a large portion of our time right now, which is going to slow us down. We're not stopping anything completely until we know that these men are found, but I have to dedicate resources to this. Some of my people that were involved in the review of video and what not will be doing this.
Reporter - There's been speculation of reported sightings - Did we ever find out whether that was true or if they were really last seen and heard from on Sunday?.
Chief - The only thing that I can confirm definitively is that they were last... Mark Chastain was last spoken to on the phone shortly after 5:00 pm. on Sunday. Four, possibly as many as six individuals left the residence, but the time, that is stated by the neighbour is off, based on the phone data. Beyond that, I can't confirm anything. We have had many, many, many reports of sightings. We haven't been able to confirm any of them. I had one today that was in Monroe, LA, so....
Reporter - When you say that they had left the residence - Which residence had they left?
Chief - There is a residence that is associated with Billy Chastain. He stayed there but I don't know that he lived there full time and it is on W 6th St. they left that residence, presumably together and that's all we know. Everything else, all the other information that we have that we can confirm is based on cell phone data. So I can tell you where Mark Chastain cell phone went, but I can't tell you definitively whether he had it at the time.
Reporter - You said possibly six individuals maybe left that house. Do you have any idea who the other two might be?
Chief - I can't tell you for sure that there were six, and if there were, I had no idea who the other two would be.
Reporter - Aside from the bodies were there any other items near these remains?
Chief - Not that I can see and identify, no. There's some debris out there that you expect to find on the riverbank, but you know, beer cans and things like that, but I can't tell you if any of it is is related.
Reporter - Is it close to a road, or a bridge?
Chief - It is immediately adjacent to a bridge. The objects can be seen standing on the bridge.
Reporter - Is there a diving team out there? I assume you're working pretty hard to preserve the evidence?
Chief - We have requested Oklahoma Highway Patrol's boat team to assist with recovery. I haven't been on scene since I sent the e-mail out for this press conference, but I can tell you that based on what I saw out there, I don't think the rivers deep enough to need a diver.
Reporter - I just wondered - Why did you notify the family when you are unable to identify that there are even bodies out there?
Chief - The natural conclusion - Once the information gets out on social media or announced to the news by the family would be that their loved ones have been found deceased and I didn't want them to hear that from the news. I wanted them to hear it from me and I've made it clear to them that I cannot tell them definitively whether this is their loved ones.
Reporter - How long will you be out there working on this?
Chief - Until we're finished. I would say tomorrow.
Reporter - And based on the locations of the remains, does it appear that they were thrown into the river from the bridge?
Chief - Anything I provide you with that would be pure speculation. I don't know.
Reporter - And when you say until tomorrow - Are you going to be working through the night?
Chief - That decision will be made some time tonight and I think it will probably depend on how much available light and how much artificial light we can get to where we need it. Some of the objects are very close to the bridge which should be not much of a challenge to get light to it. Others are further away and the terrains fairly rugged there. I think that'd be pretty difficult. If we have to suspend the recovery effort tonight we will keep security personnel out there until tomorrow where we can restart the process.
Reporter - When you mentioned you guys may have a reason to believe that there's maybe foul play - What led you to believe that?
Chief - Well, the fact that I believe there are bodies in the river is the only reason at this point. Once I know the identity of those bodies, I'll have you a firmer answer.
Reporter - Is that bridge closed off? Or what's the access to the area right now?
Chief - The road is closed for a long distance in both directions.
Reporter - It's been a really long week for you guys. Can you just speak to what this development means for your department in this case?
Chief - Well, I'd like to say it means rest, but I think that's gonna be awhile. It does come with, I don't want to say relief, but it takes some of the pressure of finding these men, assuming that's who we're talking about off of this, so that we can shift gears and find out what happened to them. If it's not them then we're right back to square one and we'll be operating two investigations at the same time.
Reporter - Once the bodies are pulled from the river how long do you think it would take the medical examiner to give you guys an ID?
Chief - I would defer to the medical examiner's office with that question, but I think that logically that will depend on what their workload is like and how difficult the process is going to be. They're usually pretty quick at it though.
Reporter - How many remains? How many bodies?
Chief - I don't know. I won't know until we get them all recovered. And once I have that information I'll e-mail out and update with as much as I can give you.
Reporter - Now, having found them in a body of water, you were mentioning earlier that you guys have to very meticulous - Can you explain a little bit of why that is?
Chief - Well, we're meticulous at every crime scene. But when you have water, spotting evidence is much more difficult. So the evidence search process in the immediate area of anything, any item of evidence that you do find, and in this case were talking about human remains, you have to be extra meticulous. You have to go that extra step to make sure you don't miss anything.
Reporter - Anything else that we didn't ask that you would like to add?
Chief - Oh, good Lord. I can't think of anything else.
Reporter - What's your message to the family?
Chief - We're not giving up. If these are your loved ones, all we're doing is switching focus, and we're going to work just as hard to find out what happened to them as we did trying to find them.
Reporter - If foul play is involved is there a message to the perpetrator or perpetrators out there?
Chief - I'll tell him when I see him.
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