The last horrific moments of two women whose bodies were found buried in an underground freezer in Oklahoma after a strange child custody dispute are revealed via an autopsy.
Authorities found the bodies of Veronica Butler, 27, and Jilian Kelley, 39, in April, over two weeks after they had left southern Kansas and traveled to Texas County, Oklahoma, to pick up Butler’s children for a birthday celebration.
Five people have been charged in connection with the killings. In addition to first-degree murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder, Tifany Adams, 54, her lover Tad Bert Cullum, 43, Cora Twombly, 44, and her husband, Cole Earl Twombly, 50, are also charged. Paul Grice, 31, is the sixth individual charged with the same offenses.
The two were at odds over custody, and Adams is Butler’s paternal grandmother. On March 30, Butler and Kelley were reported missing by Butler’s family after they did not come back after a meeting with Adams to pick up their kids.
According to an autopsy conducted by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Oklahoma, Butler suffered 30 injuries to his head and neck from sharp objects.
The study also stated that she may have had stun gun marks on her upper back and lower neck, and that she had a single blunt force injury to the top of the back of her skull.
The inquiry found that Veronica Butler and Jilian Kelley’s bodies were purposefully hidden inside a sealed freezer after they were fatally attacked.
According to the investigation, the freezer was covered by a big slab of concrete and buried 4 to 8 feet below the ground. According to the report, behind the freezer, authorities found a knife, a roll of tape, a stun pistol, and clothing.
According to the inquiry, Ms. Butler’s death was very rapid and most likely happened before she was put in the freezer and buried because of the severity of her injuries, which included damage to both of her internal jugular veins with subsequent exsanguination.
The fact that her body seemed to have stayed in the freezer exactly how it was placed lends further credence to this view.
According to warrants, on April 13, agents of the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI) conducted a search of a property located in rural Texas County, Oklahoma. The warrant states that investigators followed the suspects’ burner phones from the scene of the alleged killings to a cattle property that Cullum rented.
Agents found a potential burial place there. The next day, investigators dug up the chest freezer and discovered the bodies of the two mothers. According to reports, detectives found the suspects’ belongings.
Cops interviewed the property owner, who reported seeing Cullum dig on the farm with a skid steer on March 29 and early March 30.
The property owner informed agents that on March 28 or 29, Cullum and Adams asked if they could cut down a tree, remove the stump, and do some dirt work near a concrete pile. The owner agreed to let them do the work, and the skid steer left by noon on March 30, according to the warrant.
According to the warrant, Cullum visited the property owner s home on March 31 and claimed that people were looking at him for the disappearance of Butler and Kelley. Cullum reportedly informed the property owner that the absence of a skid steer, despite having all the skid steer tracks, looked bad. According to the warrant, Cullum told the property owner that if anyone asked, he would tell them that he had done the tree and dirt work for him.
Butler had court-ordered visitation with her children on Saturdays, and Kelley was one of the people the court approved to supervise the visits. According to investigators, Kelley stepped in when the regular supervisor was unavailable. The two left around 9 a.m. to pick up the kids, but they never arrived at their destination.
Butler s family members searched for her vehicle and discovered it abandoned shortly after noon on March 30 on Highway 95 and Road L in Texas County, near the Kansas border.
According to a probable cause affidavit, officers discovered evidence of severe injury, including blood around the vehicle. Officers also found Butler s sunglasses and a broken hammer on the road, as well as a pistol magazine in Kelley s purse that did not contain a pistol.
According to the affidavit, investigators from the OSBI quickly focused on Adams after learning of the custody dispute. Adams son, the children s father, had full custody of them, but she frequently cared for them.
In an April interview with detectives, a teenage family member of the Twomblys described how the suspects allegedly claimed to be members of a religious and anti-government group known as God s Misfits and revealed other alleged details about the bizarre plot.
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