Daniel Joseph Triplett, a business owner in Oklahoma, was arrested and charged with the murder of his employee, Brent Mack, age 50. Mack's body was found buried under a septic tank last month.
In September, Mack's daughter, Raychelle Wilson, contacted Triplett to ask about her father's whereabouts.
Triplett lied to Wilson and claimed he fired Mack because of his "violent demeanor." Triplett's messages said he fired Mack on September 20, dropped him at a laundromat and gave him $1,000 in severance pay.
Surveillance footage didn't show Triplett or Mack at that location on September 20, only Triplett's car driving by.
The affidavit said:
"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."
Additional surveillance footage from September 20 showed Mack and Triplett working on a septic tank in Mulhall, Oklahoma, not in Crescent as Triplett initially told investigators.
Authorities spoke with the property owner about the job Triplett claimed he did with Mack on the day he went missing and confirmed it was actually done on September 7.
Law enforcement searched Triplett's home and offices and found a statement book for a client at E. County Road 69, who identified both Triplett, a White man, and Mack, a Black man, installed a septic tank.
More video surveillance footage showed Mack and Triplett entering the hole meant for the septic tank but only one of them came back up. The client confirmed only Triplett was seen leaving the job.
Investigators dug up the tank and found Mack's body.
Authorities said:
"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."
Wilson told KFOR about the relationship between her father and Triplett:
"He worked with Dan for roughly about three years and they had kind of a love-hate situation I would say."
"He just kept feeding my dad these lies about 'Oh, I'm going to eventually give you this company and you're going to take over,."
"My dad saw all of Dan's sides, the good, the bad, the ugly, so everything that Dan was doing that he wasn't supposed to be doing, my dad was aware."
Mack's cousin Ruth Wooten said:
"It's a sad thing that in this day and time someone would do something like that."
"It's just devastating all the way around, the whole thing."
"It's still not real."
Triplett is being held at Logan County Jail without bond under charge of one count of murder in the first degree, and desecration of a human corpse.
@GregAbbott_TX/X
