Catherine Rusoff
The bodies of two murdered women who earlier this year disappeared in rural Oklahoma They were eventually found buried on an agricultural property with a connection to the grandmother of one of the women’s children, according to court documents. A series of search and seizure warrants, issued at the time the police officers were arrested five suspects charged with the murders and released publicly this week, detail a complex and horrific scheme allegedly devised by members of a group called “God’s Misfits,” apparently to end a bitter custody battle.
Veronica Butler, 27, and Jilian Kelley, 39, disappeared March 30 in Texas County, a sparsely populated part of Oklahoma, where Butler intended to pick up her daughter for a birthday party, according to court documents. She had driven from Kansas that day with Kelley, who was appointed to supervise the visit under the custody order.
Their car was found abandoned at a location along Highway 95 in Kansas, near the Oklahoma border, where prosecutors allege they were lured by the suspects who planned to kill them. Authorities have not revealed what exactly caused Butler and Kelley’s deaths, but warrants noted that the scene around the car showed “evidence of serious injuries,” with blood left on the road. Police also noted that Butler’s glasses, a broken hammer and a potentially missing handgun from a bag that belonged to Kelley were found at the scene.
Investigators discovered Butler and Kelley’s remains on April 13. They were found inside a freezer that had been buried in a pasture, which the grandmother’s boyfriend rented to graze cattle and could access at any time, authorities said. The freezer was inside a hole filled with dirt and concrete, according to testimony.
The property owner told authorities that his renter, 43-year-old Tad Bert Cullum, asked on March 28 “if he could cut down a tree, remove a stump, bury some concrete” in an area below the dam where a concrete pile was located. was sitting above the ground. He said Cullum carried out this project within the next day or so.
Oklahoma Highway Patrol
Cullum was arrested along with 54-year-old Tifany Machel Adams, his better half and grandmother of Butler’s three children, who shared custody of the children. Authorities said Adams’ son and the children’s father, Wrangler Rickman, were at a rehabilitation center in Oklahoma City during the murders.
In seeking full custody of Butler’s children, Adams allegedly indicated that Butler failed to protect them from a violent brother. A teenager, identified only by the initials CW in court records, told investigators that she heard Adams accuse her brother of sexual abuse during conversations with the teenager’s mother, Cora Twombly, 44, and her husband, Cole, 50. Earl Twombly, who are also suspects.
The teen said her mother shared that information with her when Butler and Kelley were killed, and had previously warned her that she and Cole Twombly would be out of the house on a “mission” on the morning of March 30, according to the affidavits. The killings followed previous unsuccessful attempts to kill Butler near her home in Kansas, the teenager said, adding that in at least one of those cases Cora Twombly spoke openly about how the murder would unfold.
“CW stated that Cora told her that the plan to kill Butler in Kansas was to get in front of her while she was driving and throw an anvil through the windshield of her vehicle,” an affidavit read. Rickman also mentioned death threats from Adams and Cullum in recordings obtained in the child custody case, according to the document.
In addition to Cullum and Adams, the two Twomblys were arrested, along with 31-year-old Paul Grice, and taken into custody in Texas County, records show.
All five suspects allegedly belonged to an anti-government group called “God’s Misfits,” which had a religious affiliation and held regular meetings at Twombly’s home, according to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation. Each is charged with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of kidnapping and one count of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. On the murder charges, they could individually face life in prison or the death penalty in Oklahoma if convicted.
