HENRYETTA, OKLAHOMA (AP) – United States (US) authorities searching a rural Oklahoma property for two missing teenagers discovered the bodies of seven people on Monday, including the suspected remains of the teens and a convicted sex offender who was sought along with them, the local sheriff said.
Okmulgee County Sheriff Eddy Rice said the state medical examiner will have to confirm the identities of the victims, but “we believe that we have found the persons”. He said the bodies were believed to include those of 14-year-old Ivy Webster and 16-year-old Brittany Brewer, along with Jesse McFadden, the felon authorities had said the teens were travelling with.
“We are no longer looking,” Rice said. “We believe to have found everything that we were seeking this morning. Our hearts go out to the families and friends, schoolmates and everyone else.”
He declined to provide details of how they died or other details.
The bodies were found during a search near the town of Henryetta, a town of about 6,000 located about 145 kilometres east of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation spokesman Gerald Davidson said. A missing endangered person advisory had been issued earlier in the day for the two teenagers before it was cancelled on Monday afternoon by the Oklahoma Highway Patrol.
The advisory for Webster and Brewer had said they were reportedly seen travelling with McFadden, who was on the state’s sex offender registry.
Oklahoma Department of Corrections prison records show McFadden was convicted of first-degree rape in 2003 and released in October 2020.
Court records show McFadden was scheduled to appear in court on Monday for the start of a jury trial on charges of soliciting sexual conduct with a minor and possession of child pornography.
A message left on Monday evening with McFadden’s attorney in that case was not immediately returned.
Brittany Brewer’s father told KOTV in Tulsa that one of the bodies discovered was his daughter.
