Brent Mack, 50, and his boss had arrived to a client's job site on September 20. Surveillance footage showed Mack entering a hole meant for a septic tank, and never reemerging, an arrest affidavit stated.
A former city council member in Oklahoma has been denied bond after his employee’s body was discovered shot and buried under a septic tank, according to court documents. Daniel Joseph Triplett, 66, of Guthrie, is facing one charge of first-degree murder and one charge of desecrating a human corpse.
Authorities found the “decomposing body” of his alleged victim, 50-year-old Brent Mack, buried in a hole slightly deeper than where a septic tank had been installed, with “a projectile” lodged in his chest, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Mack, who was Black, had worked for Triplett in his septic tank installation business, and the pair had been installing that particular septic tank together for a client when Mack entered a hole in the ground but never reemerged, authorities said, citing surveillance footage.
The surveillance footage also showed Triplett moving gravel using a backhoe on his own, with Mack never reappearing in any of the footage, the document said.
“The video shows what appears to be a normal work day,” authorities reported in the affidavit. “The video doesn't show any type of physical altercation between the two men. The video doesn't show Brent siting or walking around while Dan is working.”
Mack had first gone missing in September. His daughter, Rachelle Wilson, told authorities with the Guthrie Police Department that no one had heard from him since September 20 – the last day any calls were made from his phone, with his final text message to his girlfriend in Texas sent around noon, reading, “Okay babe I’ll call you later,” according to the affidavit.
That was the same date Triplett told Wilson that he had fired Mack, when she reached out over Facebook Messenger, authorities said.
“He worked with Dan for roughly about three years and they had kind of a love-hate situation I would say,” Wilson said, according to KFOR.
In the messages, Triplett allegedly told her that he had dropped Mack off in front of a laundromat with $1,000 cash as severance after firing him that day, the affidavit said. Triplett later allegedly deleted the messages to Wilson but she had taken screenshots of their conversation, according to authorities.
Surveillance footage showed Triplett driving by the laundromat, but it did not show Mack being dropped off, authorities said.
When authorities questioned Triplett in October, he “became very red faced and appeared to be angry,” according to the affidavit.
Triplett was later arrested and charged in Mack’s murder, and remains behind bars until his next court date on November 18. He has not yet entered a plea.
His attorney Ronald Wallace’s office confirmed they are representing Triplett in his charges, and told Inside Edition Digital they had no comment in relation to the case.
