Okmulgee County Sheriff Eddy Rice has reported that seven dead, including two missing teenagers and a convicted sex offender, were discovered on a property close to the tiny Oklahoma community of Henryetta on Monday.
The Sheriff said at a news briefing posted online by television station KOTV in Tulsa stating that the corpses believed to be 14-year-old Ivy Webster and 16-year-old Brittany Brewer were found when officers searched the property where the sex offender, Jesse McFadden, lived.
Other bodies likely included McFadden and members of his family, Rice said, cautioning that none of the victims had yet been formally identified by the county medical examiner.
The county issued an amber alert earlier Monday saying the two teens were missing, but the alert was called off after the bodies were found.
“Our hearts go out to the families and friends and schoolmates and everyone else, It’s just a tragedy,” he said.
Rice said officers arrived at about 3 p.m. (2000 GMT) to search the property and found the bodies.
Reuters reported that Brittany Brewer had gone to spend the weekend with the McFadden family, citing her father, Nathan Brewer. She was supposed to have returned home Sunday night but never arrived.
McFadden, 39, had been scheduled to begin a trial on Monday for using a cellphone while in prison to send sexual messages to a teenage girl, the station reported.
The Oklahoma Sex Offender Registry lists Jesse Lee McFadden, 39, who resides at the location where the remains were discovered and whose picture corresponds to that provided by the local media. It demonstrates that in 2003, he was found guilty of first-degree rape in Oklahoma.
The violent crime task force in the Okmulgee County District Attorney’s office received a tip on Monday that the two girls might be present at a property on Holly Road just outside of Henryetta, according to Gerald Davidson, a spokesman for the Oklahoma State Bureau.
“Two sheriff’s deputies visited the scene. They didn’t interact with anyone the first time, but on their second trip, they found information that guided them to the bodies,” Davidson said.
READ ALSO FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
