Authorities in Oklahoma said a man in custody on suspicion of killing his Black employee buried the victim’s body in a hole that had been dug for a septic tank. According to KFOR, the suspect, identified as Dan Triplett, also lied about the whereabouts of 50-year-old Brent Mack when the victim’s daughter called to ask of him.
Mack’s disappearance was reported to the Guthrie Police Department on September 29. His daughter, Raychelle Wilson, told authorities the last time her father was seen or heard from was on September 20. She added that she reached out to Triplett when she couldn’t get in touch with her father.
But the suspect told her he had fired Mack and driven him to a laundromat, the probable cause affidavit stated. Triplett also allegedly claimed he had given Mack a $1,000 severance. “He worked with Dan for roughly about three years and they had kind of a love-hate situation I would say,” Wilson said.
The affidavit also stated that surveillance footage that was obtained from the area and reviewed by detectives showed Triplet never stopped at the laundromat to drop Mack off.
“Lt. Bruning asked Dan about locations where he dropped Mack off and Dan changed the location several times. Dan was shown a copy of the video footage showing him driving by the Holiday Laundry and not stopping. When confronted with the inconsistencies in the story, Dan became very red faced and appeared to be angry,” the affidavit added.
Besides being inconsistent with the location he claimed he dropped Mack off, Triplett told investigators the last place the two of them went to work was in Crescent. But investigators eventually established that wasn’t so as the two had actually gone to work at a home in Mulhall on September 20. That was the day Mack was last seen or heard from.
And after investigators reviewed surveillance footage that was obtained from the home in question, “it was apparent that two people arrive at the job site on 09/20/2021 in Dan’s vehicle, but only one person is seen leaving.”
In the video, Mack was also seen getting into a hole that had been dug for a septic tank, the affidavit stated, per KFOR. But the footage never showed him again. Mack’s body was found in the septic tank on October 21 after authorities removed it.
“On October 22, 2021, Agent Woodward was notified that the Medical Examiners officer had located what’s believed to be a projectile in the chest cavity with an entry wound in the upper left back,” the affidavit stated.
Triplett has since been charged with first-degree murder and desecration of a human corpse. Authorities are also yet to determine the motive behind the killing.
“It hit me like a ton of bricks. You took my brother. You took their dad. You took an uncle,” Mack’s brother said. “But I’ll tell you, you didn’t get away with it. So you will pay the ultimate price.”
