Topeka ? David Owen told a Kansas City newspaper earlier this year that his frequent run-ins with homeless men he said he was trying to help prompted his father to buy a funeral plot in case one of them killed him.

On Thursday, it appeared Owen’s father was right to worry as Topeka police said they had arrested four homeless men in the death of Owen, a registered sex offender and lobbyist.

Police found Owen’s body July 2 near the Kansas River, about a week after he had been reported missing.

Officials said they became worried when Owen, a fixture at Topeka City Council meetings and the Statehouse, didn’t appear at several events and his father said he hadn’t heard from his son since June 16.

Police Sgt. Steve Taylor said the four men were taken into custody in north Topeka close to the Kansas River “where the body was located.”

So far, the men haven’t been charged but are being held in the Shawnee County Jail on suspicion of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated robbery and arson.

Taylor refused to provide more details about the case but said more arrests were possible. He added that Owen “wasn’t shot, he wasn’t stabbed and he wasn’t bludgeoned.”

Police earlier had said they didn’t think Owen was a victim of foul play. But they said they were concerned by reports that Owen had been beaten several times in the past when he confronted homeless people camped along the Kansas River, admonishing them to contact their families.

In an interview published in March, Owen told The Pitch, a Kansas City, Mo., weekly newspaper, about his frequent confrontations with the homeless. He said his father had become worried about it and had bought him a burial plot in Cimarron, his hometown.