The bodies of two Kansas women who went missing in the Oklahoma Panhandle in March were discovered in a chest freezer buried in a cow pasture, according to court records linked to five people charged with murder and kidnapping.
On March 30, Veronica Butler, 27, and Jilian Kelley, 39, her court supervisor in a children’s custody case, went missing. Their corpses were discovered on a property in Texas County, Oklahoma, on April 14, fewer than 10 miles from where they went missing, according to an affidavit filed last week during the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation’s search warrant application.
According to court records, it took authorities one day to locate the remains when excavation began. Personal things unrelated to Butler or Kelley were also discovered in the hole.
“A chest freezer was uncovered and unlocked. Butler and Kelley’s bodies were found in the chest freezer, according to the affidavit.
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Five defendants have been detained and are being held without release at the Texas County Jail in Guymon. They are Tiffany Adams, 54; her boyfriend, Tad Bert Cullum, 43; Cole Earl Twombly, 50, and his wife, Cora Twombly, 44; and Paul Grice, 31, according to a jail spokesperson.
They are charged with two counts of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, and two counts of kidnapping, according to court documents.
According to Tim Laughlin, executive director of the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System, public defenders are representing all of the suspects except Cullum.
Laughlin declined to respond on Wednesday afternoon. Cullum’s stated attorney in court records was not available for comment. According to a representative for the State Bureau of Investigation, no new suspects have been identified.
According to court records, Cullum rented the farm where Butler and Kelley were located for cattle grazing. The affidavit stated that Butler and Adams were embroiled in a “problematic” custody fight over Butler’s two children, which began in February 2019. According to the court records, Adams is the mother of the children’s father.
Butler recently requested prolonged visitation with her children, and her lawyer told the State Bureau of Investigation she would most likely receive unsupervised visitation at a court hearing on April 17, according to court records.
According to the inquiry bureau document, the children’s father stated that Adams did not always allow him to have his children, even though he had legal custody.
According to the affidavit, records from the custody lawsuit revealed that Adams’ son discussed death threats from Adams and Cullum. The affidavit does not identify who the death threats were aimed at. Butler had intended to take her daughter to a birthday party on the day she went missing, which was also a visiting day.
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Butler’s relatives discovered her abandoned 2009 Nissan Altima near Highway 95, and officials uncovered indications of “severe injury” near the vehicle, according to the affidavit. “Blood was found on the roadway and edge of the roadway,” according to the affidavit. “Butler’s spectacles were also discovered on the pavement south of the vehicle, beside a broken hammer. A pistol magazine was discovered in Kelley’s handbag, but no pistol was recovered.
Later that day, Texas County authorities issued an “endangered missing advisory”.
The State Bureau of Investigation revealed that Adams purchased three prepaid telephones in February. According to court filings, all three phones were located near Butler’s car about the same time the women went missing.
According to the search warrant return, officials have seized evidence, including multiple items of clothing and other objects that may have blood on them. The items included Wrangler blue jeans with a black belt, a brown sweatshirt, a black hooded sweatshirt, a reddish-pink sweater, and a roll of duct tape.
According to the warrants, a 16-year-old witness who spoke with authorities stated that the accused are members of an “anti-government group” with a “religious affiliation” called “God’s Misfits.” Meetings were occasionally conducted at the Twomblys’ home, according to court records.
A Facebook profile that claimed to belong to the group stated, “We are NOT and have never been a part of anything in Oklahoma. “We are husband and wife spreading Jesus.”