One of two women believed to be dead was involved in a dispute over custody of her children with one of the people arrested in her disappearance, court documents show.
Veronica Butler, 27 and Jilian Kelley, 39, were reported missing on March 30 after Butler’s vehicle was found abandoned in rural Texas County, Oklahoma.
A probable cause affidavit said Butler had been in a problematic custody battle with Tifany Adams for custody of Butler’s two children. The father of the children was Wrangler Rickman, Adams’ son.
Adams, 54, was one of four people arrested in the disappearance of the two women. The others were Tad Bert Cullum, 43; Cole Earl Twombly, 50 and Cora Twombly, 44.
The daughter of one of the suspects said those arrested belonged to an anti-government group with a religious affiliation. The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation identified the group as God’s Misfits.
Court documents say Adams and Cullum were in a relationship.
Rickman had custody of the children, and Butler could see them every Saturday under court-ordered supervision.
The person who usually supervised the visits, Cheryl Brune, said she was not available to supervise a visitation scheduled on March 30, the day of the disappearance. Butler called Kelley and had planned for her to supervise the visit, court documents show.
Butler told family members that she was going to go pick up her children from Adams at 10 a.m. March 30. She had planned to bring her daughter to a birthday party. When she did not come back, family members went to go look for her.
Two of Butler’s family members found her car in rural Texas County, Oklahoma. They called police at 12:09 p.m.
Police found blood on the roadway and Butler’s glasses south of the vehicle near a broken hammer. A pistol magazine was found in Kelley’s purse, but no pistol was inside the purse, according to the affidavit.
Butler and Kelley’s phones stopped transmitting at 9:42 a.m. Police did not find either phone at the scene. Adams was the last known person to communicate with Butler about meeting at 10 a.m.
Butler’s attorney informed the bureau of a court hearing scheduled on April 17 where Butler would likely receive unsupervised visits with her kids. Through the child custody case, Adams sometimes refused to let Rickman have his children, though he had legal custody of them, the affidavit said.
Rickman’s grandmother, Debi Knox-Davis, said in an interview with the bureau that in mid- to late February Rickman had 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 care of Veronica at drop off,” the affidavit described.
Rickman was in Oklahoma City at the time of the disappearance and denies having that conversation with Knox-Davis.
On April 1, bureau agents seized Adams’ phone. A search of the device turned up web searches for taser pain level, gun shops, prepaid cell phones and how to get someone out of their house.
Days later, the OSBI interviewed a teen who is the daughter of one of the suspects, Cora Twombly. The teen said that her mother, Cole Twombly, Adams, Cullum and one other person had been involved in the deaths of Butler and Kelley.
On March 30, the teen reported waking up and not finding Cora and Cole Twombly home. The couple returned at noon and the teen asked her mother what had happened. Cora Twombly said that they “would not have to worry about her (Butler) again,” the affidavit said.
The teen also mentioned another attempt by Adams, Cullum and the Twombly’s to kill Butler in February in Hugoton, Kansas. That attempt was unsuccessful, according to court documents.
The OSBI learned that Adams bought three prepaid phones on Feb. 13. All three phones stopped transmitting the morning of March 30 at another person’s home, where investigators say a hole had been dug, refilled and covered with hay.
The site of the hole was about 8 and a half miles from where the women disappeared.
On Sunday, the OSBI announced they had found two unidentified bodies. They did not say if they were the bodies of Butler and Kelley, but concluded that the women are no longer alive.
Oklahoma authorities recover 2 bodies a day after arresting 4 in missing Kansas women case
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