4 Oklahoma State fraternity members arrested for dumping longhorn carcass outside rival frat

STILLWATER, Okla. - Four people have been arrested in connection to the dead longhorn found in front of an Oklahoma State University frat house in December.

Bennett Fady, Luke Ackerley, Brody Shelby, and Andrew King were arrested on Wednesday.

The four men were charged with misdemeanor unlawful removal/disposal of a carcass.

The longhorn was found on the front lawn of Oklahoma State's FarmHouse fraternity on the day before the Big 12 Championship game between OSU and the Texas Longhorns, catching national attention.

The words "F--- FH" were branded onto the cow.

An arrest warrant affidavit said members of the FarmHouse fraternity told police they thought the animal was left by a rival fraternity, Alpha Gamma Rho, due to an ongoing prank war between the two houses.

Investigators later learned that the Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity held a party at a member's uncle's house. Neighbors told investigators they typically saw three longhorns on the property, but there were only two, according to court documents.

The arrest warrant affidavit says that during interviews investigators were told that Bennett Fady discussed a plan to dump a dead longhorn on the FarmHouse property, but was discouraged from actually carrying out the plan by fellow fraternity members.

A review of video surveillance seized from the fraternity house discovered a significant gap in the security video during the time before and after the incident, documents show.

"There was a significant amount of collective lack of cooperation from the Alpha Gamma Rho organization, as it related to the investigation into the incident," an investigator noted in court documents.

A necropsy of the animal determined the longhorn likely died of a disease and that it was already dead when it was branded and dropped off at the fraternity house.

The four who were arrested were members of Alpha Gamma Rho.

They have pleaded not guilty to the charge.

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FOX 4 reached out to Oklahoma State University for a statement about the arrests.

"Oklahoma State expects all students to adhere to university codes of conduct, and appropriate action will be taken based on the outcome of an ongoing internal investigation," the university said.