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A search for two missing teenagers came to an end Monday after law enforcement found seven bodies on a rural Oklahoma property, including the remains of the teenage girls, police said.
Search teams in Okmulgee County discovered the bodies on a property in Henryetta, a town of roughly 6,000 people. An endangered missing advisory was issued Monday morning for 14-year-old Ivy Webster and 16-year-old Brittany Brewer after the two failed to return home Sunday evening.
The alert said authorities suspected that the teens were with 39-year-old Jesse McFadden. Webster, Brewer and McFadden were believed to be among the seven discovered, police said. The other four bodies have not been identified, Okmulgee County Sheriff Eddy Rice said during a news conference at 4:30 p.m. local time.
*****MISSING / ENDANGERED JUVENILE*****We are working on a missing 14 year old female Ivy Webster from the Rural Henryetta Area. She went with a friend on Saturday to the McAlester area and was...
Rice would not provide details on the deaths or formally confirm the identities of the deceased during the press briefing, saying authorities are waiting for results from the medical examiner. Rice, who has been sheriff for decades, said his county hasn't seen a crime of this magnitude during his tenure.
"We've had our share or troubles and woes but this one is pretty bad," Rice said.
Newsweek has reached out to the Okmulgee County Sheriff's Office for comment via email.
McFadden, a registered sex offender who served prison time after being convicted of rape in 2003, was supposed to stand trial Monday in Muskogee County, records show. He was charged in 2017 with using a contraband cell phone in prison to send sexual messages to a teenage girl, according to News On 6.
"Our hearts go out to the families and friends, schoolmates and everyone else. It's just a tragedy in Okmulgee County," said Rice.
Nathan Brewer, the father of Brittany Brewer, told News On 6 that he is devastated.
"Brittany was an outgoing person," he said to the local news outlet. "She actually was selected to be Miss Henryetta ... coming up in July for this National Miss Pageant in Tulsa. And now she ain't gonna make it because she's dead. She's gone."
He said the victims' families will struggle to pay for the funerals, so he's working to set up a GoFundMe.
"So at this point, all I can say is for me and the Webster family, I know I don't have the money to bury my daughter, and I know the Webster family doesn't have the money to bury their daughter either," Brewer said.
A vigil for the victims was held Monday evening at Henryetta High School.
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Maura Zurick is the Newsweek Weekend Night Editor based in Cleveland, Ohio. Her focus is reporting on U.S. national news ... Read more