- The Washington Times - Monday, April 15, 2024

Two Kansas women who went missing weeks ago in rural Oklahoma were confirmed dead Monday, as investigators come off a busy weekend that featured four arrests and two bodies recovered in the case.

The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation said Veronica Butler, 27, and Jillian Kelley, 39, are both dead. Authorities were waiting to hear from the medical examiner before saying the two corpses found Sunday were the missing Kansas mothers.    

“You all know we have been working very diligently for the last two weeks to bring closure to the families,” OSBI Director Aungela Spurlock said at a press conference Monday. “This has been challenging for everybody involved. This case did not end the way we had hoped.”

OSBI spokesman Hunter McKee called the deaths of the women an “absolutely brutal crime.”

Investigators charged four people — Tifany Adams, 54; Tad Cullum, 43; Cole Twombly, 50, and Cora Twombly, 44 — with murder and kidnapping Saturday after making arrests in Texas and Cimarron counties.

All the suspects are being held in the Texas County Jail.

Police didn’t share how the suspects were connected to Ms. Butler and Ms. Kelley or what their role was in their March 30 disappearance.

Authorities suggested foul play was at hand soon after the victims went missing in northern Oklahoma while going to pick up Ms. Butler’s children from a birthday party in Kansas.

Police remained tight-lipped about what led them to that conclusion, but Texas County Sheriff Matt Boley said deputies “found some things that just weren’t adding up” when inspecting the pair’s abandoned car about 11 miles south of the Kansas border.  

“Once we arrived on scene and we gained a little bit of information, we felt this wasn’t a random deal,” Texas County Sheriff Matt Boley said Monday. “We felt that, with some of the information coming in, that it was more targeted.”

Authorities also said the suspects were arrested without incident and children were kept out of harm’s way. Investigators didn’t elaborate on who the children were or how they may have been in danger.

The four defendants are scheduled to appear in court Wednesday.

This article is based in part on wire service reports.

• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.

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