Man found buried under septic tank after boss lied about whereabouts
Daniel Triplett claimed he fired Brent Mack and dropped him off with severance pay
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An Oklahoma business owner has been charged with allegedly killing an employee and burying him under a client’s septic tank.
Daniel Triplettt is accused of killing Brent Mack, 50, who worked for his septic tank installation company and was arrested a month after the victim disappeared.
The alarm was raised by Mr Mack’s daughter, Raychelle Wilson, on 28 September when she told police in Guthrie, Oklahoma, that no one had seen her father for several days.
When Ms Wilson reached out to 66-year-old Mr Triplett, he allegedly messaged her that he had fired Mr Mack on 20 September and dropped him off outside a laundromat in the town.
He added that he had fired Mr Mack for having a “violent demeanor”, paid him $1,000 in severance money and had not seen him since.
Court records state that Mr Mack had telephoned his girlfriend in Texas on 20 September, but that all calls stopped on that day.
“He worked with Dan for roughly about three years, and they had kind of a love-hate situation, I would say,” Ms Wilson told KFOR.
“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.”
Mr Triplett has been charged with first-degree murder and desecration of a human corpse, according to authorities.
Investigators say that surveillance footage shows both men working on a septic tank on 20 September, at a different property than the one Mr Triplett claimed he had been at on the day Mr Mack disappeared.
The home owner told officers that Mr Triplett, who is white, and Mr Mack, who is Black, had worked at his property, and the video showed Mr Mack climbing into the septic tank hole but never leaving.
The client told investigators that only one man had left the job site when the work was done and when police dug up the septic tank they found Mr Mack’s body.
Mr Triplett is currently in custody at Logan County Jail and is being held without bond.