Search widens for 2 friends missing since Oklahoma music festival

From the left, Ben Babar and Cody Parrick vanished after attending the Rocklahoma music festival.

The mysterious disappearance of two friends in Oklahoma who vanished after attending a music festival deepened Wednesday after authorities said that neither one used their cell phones or had any bank transactions since the beginning of the search.

Benjamin Baber and Cody Parrick, both 20, attended the Rocklahoma music festival near Pryor on May 22 but haven't been seen or heard from since. Authorities have been frustrated in the search due to the lack of clues, but have expanded the search to as far as New York.

Deputies told KRMG.com that their cell phones have been turned off and there has been no activity in their bank accounts. Authorities are also waiting for some of the flood water around U.S. 69 to recede.

"We're trying to have people think outside the box," Captian Rod Howell told the station. "See if there’re any ruts, see if there's any fence down leading into a body of water."

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Mayes County law enforcement officials and volunteers conducted a search on more than 400 acres around where the festival took place. Family members say Baber and Parrick had three-day passes for the Rocklahoma performances and were planning to be there for the entire weekend.

Authorities are also reportedly requesting mail carriers in rural areas to keep an eye out for anything unusual.

"I just want my baby back," Donna Berryman, Baber’s mother, told KJRH. "If anybody sees him, I want my baby back. I don't care how it is. I want to see him again."

Okmulgee County Sheriff Eddy Rice says he has enlisted the assistance of the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, but the sheriff says investigators have found nothing to indicate foul play.