DAYTONA BEACH SHORES, Fla. — A man named by investigators as a “person of interest” in the murder and dismemberment of four men in Oklahoma was arrested on unrelated charges in Florida on Tuesday.
The Okmulgee Police Department announced Joe Kennedy had been arrested in a news release. Police said that Kennedy was in a vehicle that had been reported stolen to the sheriff’s office on Oct. 17 when he was arrested in Daytona Beach Shores.
Kennedy was arrested on charges of grand theft of a motor vehicle and fugitive from justice, and was held without bond in the Volusia County Jail, according to online records.
On Monday, Okmulgee police said they were looking for Kennedy after his blue PT Cruiser was found abandoned, KOKI reported. Kennedy was named a “person of interest” following the murder of four men in Okmulgee.
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The four men, identified as Mark Chastain, Billy Chastain, Mike Sparks and Alex Stevens, had left a house in Okmulgee on bicycles on Oct. 9, The Associated Press reported. Their bodies were discovered on Friday, having been shot and dismembered.
Police interviewed Kennedy, who owns a nearby scrapyard, but Kennedy disappeared after the interview, the AP reported.
Police told KOKI that the district attorney and sheriff will begin the process of returning Kennedy to Okmulgee County.