A US salvage yard owner who authorities consider a “person of interest” in the murder of four men whose dismembered bodies were found in an Oklahoma river has been arrested in Florida on unrelated charges.

Joe Kennedy, 67, was taken into custody in Daytona Beach Shores on Monday while driving a car that had been reported stolen in Oklahoma, police in the Oklahoma city of Okmulgee say.

Okmulgee Police Chief Joe Prentice has described Mr Kennedy as a person of interest in the Oklahoma killings and said evidence of a “violent event” was found on a property next to his salvage yard.

Mr Kennedy has not been charged in the murders of Mark Chastain, 32, Billy Chastain, 30, Mike Sparks, 32, and Alex Stevens, 29, whose cut-up remains were found in the North Fork River last the weekend. All four were determined to have died of gunshot wounds.

Okmulgee is a city of roughly 11,000 people south of Tulsa.

Chief Prentice said investigators wanted to speak to Mr Kennedy.

Mr Kennedy was being held without bail in Daytona Beach Shores and would face extradition proceedings to return to him to Oklahoma, officials said.

The four men were reported missing on October 9 after leaving Billy Chastain’s home in Okmulgee on bicycles.

Investigators began finding the remains in the river on Friday.