Three people charged with disturbing human remains after body found in North Carolina river

A group of kayakers from North Carolina encountered human remains while paddling on the Johns River on August 30, prompting a death investigation.

The man whose body was found near the Corpening Bridge has been identified as Mark Dwayne Mitchell, according to the Burke County Sheriff's Office. The office has arrested three people in connection with the case, according to a news release from the office.

Robert Ford Dale, Jr., 58, Rocky Lee Dale, 35, and Lorie Knight Stephens, 50, face charges of concealing an unnatural death and disturbing human remains, according to arrest warrants obtained by PEOPLE.

They have not yet pleaded to the charges, Burke County Deputy Detective Sara Canada tells PEOPLE.

Investigators have released scant information about the circumstances of Mitchell's death, and on Tuesday, Sept. 10, Canada told PEOPLE that the sheriff's office had not yet filed many of the preliminary documents in the case.

Rick Ramsey – who employed Mitchell as a handyman and worked on several properties nearby – told local station WSOC-TV that he provided the man with a place to stay and that several items went missing near the house around that time.

“Something seemed off,” Ramsey told the outlet. “I don't know, it's just sad why someone would treat him like that, dead or alive.”

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As part of the death investigation, detectives executed a search warrant on Friday, Sept. 6, at the elder Dale's home – about an eight-minute drive from where Mitchell's body was found – which led to a series of additional charges against father and son, according to police.

Police said they found “numerous firearms, some of which were proven to be stolen,” as well as methamphetamine in the house in Morganton, North Carolina, according to a press release from the sheriff's office.

The elder Dale – who the court said has served multiple prison sentences, including for a second-degree murder conviction in 1993 – was charged Monday, Sept. 9, with nine additional drug- and gun-related felony counts, including one count of possession of a weapon of mass destruction, according to his arrest warrant.

His son has been charged with seven more felonies, most of them gun possession charges, and is also accused of failing to register as a sex offender. (Canada tells PEOPLE that the younger Dale was convicted as a sex offender in another county and faces additional separate charges in Burke County.)

According to the sheriff's office, father and son will make their first court appearance on the second charge at 9 a.m. on Thursday, September 9.

At a bail hearing on the initial charges on Monday, Sept. 9, the elder Dale's secured bail was increased to $250,000, while the younger Dale's secured bail was set at $500,000 and Stephens' remained at $75,000, Canada said.

The three, who are being held in the Burke County Jail, are scheduled to have a probable cause hearing on Monday, September 30. The case will then go before a grand jury in October.

PEOPLE asked the trio's public defenders for comment. Only the father's lawyer responded.

In a telephone interview, Steve Cheuvront said the elder Dale was arrested in connection with the alleged disposal of Mitchell's body, not his death, adding that investigators' understanding of the case was still “very preliminary.”

“I feel sorry for his family,” adds Cheuvront.