7 found dead in Oklahoma amid search for missing teens

Seven bodies were found on a piece of property in rural Oklahoma on Monday afternoon during a search for two teenage girls who had been reported missing and were said to have been seen with a convicted sex offender, according to officials with the Okmulgee County Sheriff’s Office.

None of the seven victims was identified, and authorities would not say whether they included the missing girls, Ivy Webster, 14, and Brittany Brewer, 16.

But Sheriff Eddy Rice said that authorities had called off the search for Ivy and Brittany after the bodies were found at the property, near Henryetta, just south of Tulsa. “We believe to have found everything that we were seeking this morning,” Rice said. The sheriff said he could not provide any details about the seven deaths, but said the case was being investigated as a homicide.

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol issued a missing-persons alert earlier Monday saying it was believed that the girls had last been seen about 1:30 a.m. in Henryetta in a white Chevrolet pickup with Jesse L. McFadden.

McFadden, 39, is a registered sex offender and rapist who was scheduled to go on trial Monday in Muskogee County on several charges, including child pornography and soliciting sexual conduct or communication with a minor using technology.

A bench warrant was issued after McFadden failed to appear in court Monday morning.

Ivy spent Saturday at a friend’s house and was reported missing after she failed to return home Sunday evening, according to a Facebook post from the Sheriff’s Office.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.