(NewsNation) — The Office of the Oklahoma Chief Medical Examiner has identified two bodies found in Texas County as Veronica Butler, 27, and Jilian Kelley, 39, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation said Tuesday.
The two bodies were found Sunday after police began searching for the remains of the Kansas moms, who went missing more than two weeks ago. The cause of death is still pending from the medical examiner’s office.
Paternal grandmother Tifany Adams, 54; her boyfriend Tad Cullum, 43; Cora Twombly, 44; and her husband Cole Twombly, 50, are each charged with kidnapping and first-degree murder of Butler and Kelley, who vanished March 30 while en route to pick up Butler’s children for a supervised visit.
Adams and the other three suspects had been part of an anti-government group called “God’s Misfits” and had spoken about a previous murder attempt on Butler as well as plans to “take care of her,” according to probable cause affidavits filed in support of the criminal charges obtained by NewsNation.
The mothers’ vehicle was discovered abandoned 1,000 feet off of Oklahoma State Highway 95 along a dirt path.
Authorities have said the disappearance is believed to be linked to a violent escalation in a custody dispute between Butler and Adams.
The daughter of one of the suspects told investigators that the four were going on a “mission” the day Butler and Kelley went missing.
The four suspects lived in the Oklahoma Panhandle, a thin strip of land with a history of lawlessness and criminality in the 1800s. The Oklahoma Panhandle, where the suspects lived as well as where two bodies were found, had historically been known as “No Man’s Land.”
NewsNation’s Safia Samee Ali contributed to this report.