Kansas moms killings: What we know

(NewsNation) — Five people have been arrested in the killings of two Kansas moms who went missing March 30 in rural Oklahoma and were found deceased two weeks later.

Tifany Adams, 54; her boyfriend Tad Cullum, 43; Cora Twombly, 44; and her husband Cole Twombly, 50, and Paul Grice, 31, have each been charged with kidnapping and first-degree murder of Veronica Butler, 27, and Jilian Kelley, 39.

Butler and Kelley vanished while en route to pick up Butler’s children for a supervised visit. Adams is the paternal grandmother of Butler’s children.

While police have not shared much about the ongoing investigation with the public, probable cause affidavits filed in support of the criminal charges against the suspects, obtained by NewsNation, revealed a bitter custody battle between Butler and Adams involving death threats and plans for violence.

Wrangler Rickman, the father of the two children, had legal custody but was in a rehabilitation facility so the children were living with Adams at the time of the disappearance.

Who are the moms Veronica Butler and Jilian Kelley?

Butler, 27, was 5 feet, 4 inches tall, with red hair and green eyes. She was last seen wearing a blue short-sleeved shirt, denim shorts, and HEYDUDE shoes. Police said Butler has a butterfly tattoo on her left forearm.

Kelley, 39, has brown hair and blue eyes. She was last seen wearing a long-sleeved shirt, white-washed blue jeans and either tan or beige shoes. Oklahoma Highway Patrol said Kelley has several tattoos, including a Chinese symbol on her left forearm and a sunflower on her left shoulder.

The two women were traveling together to Eva, Oklahoma, to pick up Butler’s two children aged 6 and 8, for supervised visitation from Adams’ home, court papers stated. The children had been staying with Adams.

Police have described the two women as more acquaintances than friends. NewsNation reported that Kelley was the supervisor of the childhood visits for Butler. Family members, who have been asked to postpone media interviews until the police tell them otherwise, say the two women were involved in their community and their churches.

Butler will be remembered with a memorial service at the beginning of May. A memorial will be held for Kelley on Sunday, April 28.

Who are the five suspects?

On April 13, four people were arrested in connection to the disappearance of the Kansas moms.

Tad Bert Cullum, 43, Tifany Machel Adams, 54, Cole Earl Twombly, 50 and Cora Twombly, 44, were arrested in Texas and Cimarron Counties, Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.

All four were booked into the Texas County Jail on two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of kidnapping and one count of conspiracy to commit murder in the first degree, according to police.

On April 24, a fifth person was arrested. OSBI said that “based on the evidence and information gathered from the case,” Paul Grice, 31, was arrested and booked into the Texas County Jail with the same charges as the other four previously arrested.

According to the affidavit of probable cause for Grice’s arrest warrant, he admitted he was part of the planning, killing and burying of Butler and Kelley.

Grice was allegedly involved in a previous murder plot but was not arrested along with the others. NewsNation learned that Grice was taken into custody and questioned by authorities but was then released.

Grice was mentioned several times in affidavits related to the case. He was allegedly involved in other attempts to kill Butler, the affidavit states. One attempt was in February 2024; another attempt was on March 29, 2024.

NewsNation obtained land records Grice had filed last year stating his children were his creation and not subject to government control.

The four suspects earlier arrested were arraigned in an Oklahoma court April 17, when a judge denied each of them bond. The quintet, allegedly part of an antigovernment religious group called “God’s Misfits,” have become central figures in the investigation.

The victims’ families attended the arraignment of the four suspects, filling the first three rows of the courtroom. Family members heckled the suspects, shouting expletives at them.

NewsNation’s Brian Entin spoke with Butler’s aunt as she left the courtroom. She told Entin that Butler and Kelley didn’t deserve to be killed, nor did the family deserve to have to endure the grief of such a loss.

“There’s just too many emotions, so much anger,” she said. “I don’t understand how somebody can hate somebody so much that you want to kill them. My niece did not deserve that and neither did the young lady with her. She was just there to help her.”

Grice’s first appearance is scheduled for Wednesday, May 1.

All four suspects are expected back in court sometime next month.

The four suspects jailed in the killings of two Kansas mothers are being kept apart from one another at Oklahoma’s Texas County jail, the county sheriff told NewsNation’s “Banfield.” Texas County Sheriff Matt Boley provided details on procedures at the 96-bed facility, which currently houses 47 inmates — 36 men and 11 women.

The four suspects lived in the Oklahoma Panhandle, a thin strip of land with a history of lawlessness and criminality in the 1800s. The area where the suspects lived and where the two bodies were found had historically been known as “No Man’s Land.”

The leader of the religious group in South Carolina called “God’s Misfits,” who goes by the name “Squirrel,” says the suspects do not share the same God as him. Squirrel defended his religious organization, adding that he has no relationship with the four suspects, who also are part of a group with the name “God’s Misfits,” and has never been to Oklahoma.

Affidavits detail alleged plot targeting the women

Several details have emerged about the killings of the Kansas mothers whose suspected killers had a violent history of plotting to kill and went to extreme lengths to conceal the crime, according to court documents that reveal why the defendants were denied bail.

On the day Butler went missing, Adams asked her preferred court-approved supervisor to “take a couple weeks off” and then told Butler to find someone else to supervise her visitation with her children that day, court papers revealed. Butler then asked Kelley to go with her.  

The visit was a designated, court-approved visitation that takes place every Saturday.

Probable cause affidavits showed that just 10 days before the women went missing, Butler had filed a petition in court for more visitation with her children and was seeking full custody. Her children were living with Adams at the time. 

Investigators referred to the legal back and forth as a “problematic” custody battle between Adams and Butler, which had been ongoing since February 2019. 

Adams’ cell phone searches include web searches for taser pain level, gun shops, prepaid cell phones and how to get someone out of their house, in the weeks leading up to the disappearance, according to the probable cause affidavit.

The Twombly’s teen daughter told investigators that her mother spoke with her about a previous attempt to kill Butler in February, but that it failed because she didn’t leave her house. That plan was to throw an anvil through Butler’s window, court papers stated.

The daughter also told police that the four told her they were going on a “mission” the day of the women’s disappearance.

When they returned, they told their daughter “things didn’t go as planned” but they wouldn’t have to worry about Butler again, and that Kelley also had to die because she supported Butler. 

When she asked her mother if the bodies were put in a well, she replied “something like that.”

According to court documents obtained by NewsNation affiliate KSN, Adams reportedly admitted responsibility for the two women’s deaths.

In the motions to hold the four defendants without bail, records state, in part, that Adams “did provide a recorded statement to law enforcement indicating her responsibility for the death of the deceased.”

The document also alleges that Adams and Cullum “have a history of violent interactions including death threats and intimidation … abide by their own philosophy and have no regard for the sanctity of human life.”

When arrested, Cullum allegedly had a rifle, ammunition, body armor and a “go-bag” at his residence.

According to the documents, Adams and Cullum plotted to kill Butler previously by “dropping an anvil through her windshield.”

Prosecutors cited this alleged propensity for violence, along with evidence the pair were well-resourced and prepared for potential flight, in their bid to hold them without bail — a request the judge granted.

Of particular concern were statements by the suspects that they “knew the path the judge walked to work” in a previous custody case involving Butler’s children, raising fears they could try to intimidate the court.

The judge entered not-guilty pleas for all four defendants, with the possibility of capital punishment still on the table. In Oklahoma, the maximum sentence for murder is death, life or life without parole.

“Now faced with the consequences of a sentence of death or life in prison, the defendants would be willing to do anything since they have shown to be willing to commit capital murder in order to limit Veronica’s visitation,” court documents state.

Where was the women’s missing car found?

The car the two women were traveling in was found in a vast, open area near Yarbrough School, from which Butler graduated in 2015.

NewsNation reported the car was found just 3 miles from its intended destination. The meetup with the children’s grandmother was set to take place at an abandoned gas station in a section of Oklahoma called Four Corners, but the women never arrived.

The drive from Hugoton to the meetup spot in Eva is about 45 minutes.

Was blood found near their located vehicle?

Court papers revealed that blood was found on the roadway and edge of the roadway near the car.

Butler’s glasses were also found on the roadway by the car near a broken hammer, according to the probable cause affidavit.

Investigators also said a pistol magazine was found inside Kelley’s purse in the car but that there was no gun found.

“An examination of the vehicle and area surrounding the vehicle found evidence of a severe injury,” the affidavit stated.

Police recover bodies

Two bodies were found in rural Texas County, Oklahoma, after police began searching for the remains of the two moms who went missing more than two weeks ago, OSBI said on Apr. 14.

A two-day excavation of a burial site in a cow pasture revealed the bodies of the two women in a chest freezer, according to search warrants filed in court May 15, NewsNation’s affiliate KFOR reported.

The deceased individuals will be transported to a medical examiner’s office to determine identification, as well as cause and manner of death, police said. The OSBI, the FBI and the Texas County Sheriff’s Department found the bodies.

Shortly after the disappearance of Butler and Kelley, and less than ten miles from where they went missing, two burner phones used by the four were at a property where a hole had been dug, filled back in, and covered with hay, court papers stated.

NewsNation’s Brian Entin confirmed with a medical examiner the women were not shot as previously reported. A cause of death is still pending.

Cullum allegedly dug a 10-foot grave on property owner Jamie Beasley‘s land near a dam and pond, claiming he just needed to “do some dirt work” and bury concrete, according to the landlord.

Two days before the women disappeared, Cullum asked Beasley if he could use a skid-steer to remove a stump and dig on the property. Beasley agreed.

After the women went missing, Cullum warned Beasley that police considered him a suspect and that the skid-steer tracks “might look suspicious.” Beasley said he would simply confirm Cullum had been doing dirt work if asked.

NewsNation visited the site at night and documented the disturbed earth about 50 feet from the dam where authorities eventually found the bodies buried 10 feet underground.

There was a hay bale nearby that sources said Cullum had strategically positioned to attract cattle and obscure evidence of the digging.

The property, which is located 8 1/2 miles from the location where the women disappeared and where Butler’s vehicle was found, had fresh dirt work done, and discarded burner phones were found.

“The area of disturbed dirt was excavated, and the bodies of two individuals were discovered,” court records state.

Video shows Adams days after deaths

A newly released video Adams just days after the women’s deaths.

The video, from just four days after the brutal killings, appeared to show Adams behaving normally at the self-checkout of a store with her grandchildren.

Anyone with information regarding this case is asked to contact the OSBI at tips@osbi.ok.gov or 800-522-8017.