Recovered bodies in missing Kansas moms search yet to be identified: Police

(NewsNation) — Oklahoma police were unable to publicly confirm the identity of two bodies recovered in rural Texas County on Sunday amid a search for two Kansas women who disappeared late last month.

It is still unknown whether the remains are those of Veronica Butler, 27, and Jilian Kelley, 39.

An investigation into the killings remains ongoing. Police would not say whether the bodies were found together.

The two bodies were transported to a medical examiner’s office Sunday to determine identification as well as cause and manner of death, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI) said.

Tad Bert Cullum, 43; Tifany Machel Adams, 54; Cole Earl Twombly, 50; and Cora Twombly, 44, were arrested in Texas and Cimarron counties without incident in connection with the disappearance of the women, OSBI said Saturday.

Adams is the paternal grandmother of Butler’s children, and Cullum is Adams’ boyfriend, according to court papers. Cole and Cora Twombly are friends with Adams.

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

Butler and Kelley disappeared March 30 without a trace except for an abandoned car on the roadside. Their car was found 1,000 feet off of Oklahoma State Highway 95 along a dirt path. The two were traveling together to pick up Butler’s two children for supervised visitation from Adams’ home.

All four suspects 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.

The first court appearance for all four suspects has been scheduled for Wednesday morning, where they will be arraigned.

A “problematic” custody battle 

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. 

Wrangler Rickman, the father of the two children, had legal custody, but Adams and Cullum refused to let Rickman have them at times, prompting police calls, the affidavit stated. 

Rickman also discussed “death threats” by Adams and Cullum in court recordings of the custody case, according to court papers. 

Rickman’s grandmother told investigators that in February this year, Rickman told her that they didn’t have to worry about the custody battle much longer because “Adams had it under control” and that “we will take out Veronica at drop off,” the affidavit stated.

At the time of the women’s disappearance, Rickman was in a rehabilitation facility, investigators said. 

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, an acquaintance, to go with her. 

They never made it to the usual pickup point at an abandoned gas station in Texas County. 

Butler was a mother to six children who are currently safe, authorities said. 

Twomblys’ daughter reveals the four suspects were on a “mission” 

Investigators interviewed Twombly’s 16-year-old daughter, who said she overheard group conversations about Butler not protecting kids from her brother’s alleged sexual abuse. 

All four had been part of an anti-government group called “God’s Misfits” and met regularly. 

The teen said her mother told her about a previous attempt to kill Butler near Hugoton, Kansas, in February but that it failed because she didn’t leave her house. According to Cora, that plan was to throw an anvil through Butler’s window.

On March 29, the Twomblys told their daughter they would not be home when she woke up the next morning because they were going on a “mission.”

She told police that they did not get home until around noon on March 30th and told her to clean the interior of their Chevrolet pickup as soon as they got back.  

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.”

Web searches, burner phones, and dirt ditches revealed in affidavit 

According to the probable cause affidavit, 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.

On February 13, Adams bought three pre-paid cell phones in Guymon, Oklahoma. All three phones were in the area where the abandoned car was located. They were powered on and accessed for the first time at or near Cullen’s residences.  

The Twombley’s teen daughter told investigators that Adams gave everyone burner phones so they could communicate without using personal devices and saw two burner phones charging on her mother’s nightstand.

One week before the woman’s disappearance,  Adams bought five stun guns in Guymon, according to court papers. 

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

The property owner, Jamie Beasley, said that dirt work was done with a skid steer by Cullum on March 29 and was finished March 30. Cullum rents pasture property owned by Beasley.

Beasley knew Cullum left his skid steer on the property on March 29, and when he awoke on March 30, it was gone. 

On March 31, Cullum was at Beasley’s house and told Beasley that police were looking at him for the disappearance of Butler and Kelley and that he didn’t want police to cause a problem for Beasley. 

Beasley said if anyone asked, he would say Cullum had done tree and dirt work for him.

Read the affidavits

NewsNation’s Damita Menezes contributed to this report.