Four bodies found in Oklahoma river amid search for missing friends who vanished during bike ride

The bodies of four men were pulled from the waters of an Oklahoma river amid authorities’ search for a group of friends, who vanished during a bike ride nearly a week ago.

Authorities have been searching for Mark Chastain, 32, Billy Chastain, 30, Mike Sparks, 32, and Alex Stevens, 29 since Sunday, when they were last seen alive. The group at the time was leaving Billy Chastain’s home with their bikes, but they never returned and were all reported missing a short time later.

[ Four close friends missing after bike ride in Oklahoma ]

Okmulgee Police Chief Joe Prentice said authorities have not yet confirmed the identities of the remains pulled from Deep Fork River Friday night. He told reporters police had not initially searched the region, given the information they’d collected pointed toward the men leaving town and then traveling south on U.S. Highway 75.

“This is in the opposite direction,” Prentice said. “So, no, we never considered this as a search area.”

Just before 2 p.m. on Friday, though, authorities received a call about “something that looked suspicious in the water.” When Prentice arrived, he said that there appeared to be “body parts protruding from” the river. He later confirmed all four bodies were male and that they’d been recovered by around 10 p.m.

The remains were taken to the Medical Examiner’s Office in Tulsa for autopsy, where they will also be identified.

“If it turns out these four missing men are the remains in the river, then the focus of our investigation will shift from finding them to finding out what happened to them,” Prentice said.

He added that authorities need to carry out a thorough search of the river where the men were found before they determine whether foul play was involved.