An Oklahoma man reportedly killed his daughter’s boyfriend at her request.
The boyfriend, 18-year-old Anthony Pietrzak, was found hogtied and beaten to death early Sept. 28 near the home he lived in with his girlfriend outside Tulsa, Fox News reports.
The girlfriend’s father, 46-year-old Dearld Peal, and 40-year-old Tracy Price, were arrested the previous day on kidnapping charges.
The two were charged with first-degree murder after Pietrzak’s body was found.
The girlfriend has not been charged, and her name was not released by police.
According to Officer Jeanne Mackenzie, Peal was asked by his daughter to beat up Pietrzak because of past physical abuse.
“She got these … individuals to beat up her boyfriend because she alleged he was beating on her,” MacKenzie said. “It’s very horrific. Just beating someone to death, there’s no other way to describe it.”
Mackenzie said more arrests were possible and detectives were trying to determine if a third person was involved in the attack.
Police were alerted about the kidnapping through a Crime Stoppers tip, said Sgt. Dave Walker, the head of the department’s homicide division.
The anonymous tip provided detailed information, including the victim’s first name, and information about suspects and witnesses. The caller also claimed, inaccurately it turned out, that the Pietrzak’s body had been dismembered.
In a press release, Walker said that detectives “located a witness that observed a male being thrown out of a residence, … beaten, hogtied and thrown in the back of a pickup,” the Tulsa World reports.
In a probable cause affidavit, police allege they then drove to Peal’s home, where Price placed a pillowcase over Pietrzak’s head while he was still hog tied in the back of the truck.
In the affidavit, homicide Detective B.R. Hill wrote that Peal told Pietrzak “that he would never be able to hurt his daughter again,” and Price told Peal that Pietrzak “made his peace with his Lord.”
Peal told detective that he wasn’t there when Pietrzak was killed, but knew he was going to die, KOTV reports.
Pietrzak’s family denies that he was beating his girlfriend, claiming instead that she was beating him. She is pregnant and due in October, they added.
The case is Tulsa’s 66th homicide of 2017.