OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Two Kansas women who disappeared while trying to pick up children for a birthday party two weeks ago have been killed in a custody dispute involving a group of anti-government Oklahomans calling themselves “God’s Scoundrels.” , authorities said Monday.
Their vehicle was found on March 30 off a rural highway in Oklahoma with enough evidence of a bloody confrontation to spark a multi-agency effort to keep the children safe while searching for the women and avoiding more violence.
Veronica Butler, 27, and Jillian Kelly, 39, of Hugoton, Kansas, arranged with the grandmother of Butler’s two children to meet at a highway intersection on the morning of March 30 and pick up the 6- and 8-year-old.
“This case did not end as we had hoped. This is definitely a tragedy for everyone involved,” Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation Director Aungella Spurlock said.
The four people arrested Saturday on charges of kidnapping and first-degree murder are the grandmother, Tiffany Adams, 54; her boyfriend Tad Cullum, 43; Cora Twombly, 44; and her husband, Cole Twombly, 50. All met regularly with several others in a group they called “God’s Misfits,” their arrest affidavits said. Relatives of Tad Cullum and the Twomblys did not immediately return phone messages seeking comment. Tiffany Adams’ stepmother, Elise Adams, said she had no information on the case.
Butler’s family found the vehicle just a few miles from the meeting place after the women missed the party in Kansas. It was a terrible scene.
“Blood was found on the roadway and on the edge of the roadway. Butler’s glasses were also found in the roadway south of the vehicle, near a broken hammer. A pistol magazine was found in Kelly’s purse at the crime scene, but no gun was found,” the affidavit states.
Investigators gathered evidence that the murders were planned, with Adams buying pre-paid “hot” cell phones for communication and five stun guns at a nearby store. Her Internet searches included questions about pain levels when using the weapons, the affidavit said.
A teenage witness told authorities that Cora Twombly said that at one point “the plan was to throw an anvil through Butler’s windshield while he was driving, making it look like an accident because anvils regularly fall off work vehicles.”
The affidavit said Butler and Adams were in a “problematic custody battle.” Adams’ son was in a rehabilitation center hours away in Oklahoma City, and Butler was only allowed supervised visits every Saturday. Kelly, the wife of a pastor in Hugoton, was chosen by Butler’s court to oversee the visits.
The Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals ordered a judge in 2022 to grant the children’s parents joint custody. The ruling described them as “very young and immature parents” who accused each other of “inappropriate behavior and choices” but said the “children are raised and comforted by a mother” and “happy and excited to be with a father.”
Butler’s request for more time with her children and unsupervised visitation will likely be granted at a hearing in April, Butler’s attorney told investigators.
On March 23, with a court date approaching, Adams bought the stun guns. On March 29, Cullum used heavy equipment to dig a hole in a pasture he rented not far from the meeting location, the affidavit said.
Authorities did not say at Monday’s press conference where the bodies were found, but the affidavit said some of the “burner phones” stopped transmitting that morning near the pasture where “a hole had been dug and backfilled and then covered with hay .”
During the search, it was not clear where the children were. Adams told investigators she left them in the care of another couple on March 29 and 30; the affidavit said the couple regularly hosted “God’s Dissenters” meetings.
Authorities said the affidavits were not being released until the children’s safety was assured. “We have achieved success. No shots were fired and the children were kept out of harm’s way,” said District Attorney George Leach III.
The four people charged are being held without bond in a Texas county jail pending a court appearance Wednesday, Texas District Court Clerk Renee Ellis said. Court records do not indicate whether anyone has an attorney speaking on their behalf.
“I don’t know anything about her business,” Elise Adams said when asked about Tiffany Adams. “All I can tell you about her is that she was a wonderful stepdaughter to me.”
OSBI spokesman Hunter McKee said the identities of the bodies and causes of death are pending the medical examiner’s report.
“This case is tragic,” McKee said. “You have two people who are dead and four people who have committed an absolutely brutal crime.
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Hollingsworth reported from Mission, Kansas.
