John Jefferson
Top row, from left: Veronica Butler, Tifany Machel Adams, and Tad Bert Cullum. Bottom row, from left: Jilian Kelley, Cora Twombly and Cole Earl Twombly. Victims’ photos from Texas County Sheriff’s Office). (Suspects’ photos from Oklahoma Bureau of Investigation).
An autopsy details the final bloody moments of two women whose bodies were found buried in an underground freezer in Oklahoma in a case that stemmed from a bizarre child custody dispute.
Veronica Butler, 27, and Jilian Kelley, 39, were found dead in April, nearly two weeks after they disappeared after leaving southern Kansas and traveling to Texas County, Oklahoma, to pick up Butler’s kids for a birthday party, Law&Crime reported.
Five people face charges in the slayings. Tifany Adams, 54, her boyfriend, Tad Bert Cullum, 43, along with Cora Twombly, 44, and her husband, Cole Earl Twombly, 50, are charged with first-degree murder, kidnapping and one count of conspiracy to commit murder. A fifth person, 31-year-old Paul Grice, is facing the same charges.
Adams is the paternal grandmother of Butler’s two children and the two were in a bitter custody dispute, Law&Crime reported. Butler’s family reported her and Kelley missing on March 30 after they failed to return from a meeting with Adams to pick up the kids.
In its autopsy report obtained by Law&Crime, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Oklahoma said Butler suffered 30 sharp force injuries to the head and neck.
She also had a single blunt force injury to the top of the back of the head with possible stun gun marks to the lower neck and upper back, the report said.
“After having been fatally attacked, Veronica Butler was then deliberately concealed inside a sealed freezer along with the body of Jilian Kelley,” the report said.
The freezer was then buried 4½ to 8 feet below ground and covered with a large concrete slab, the report went on to say. Under the freezer, authorities found clothing, a stun gun, a roll of tape, and a knife, the report said.
“Given the extent of Ms. Butler’s injuries, including defects to both of her internal jugular veins with resultant exsanguination, it is my opinion that her death was very quick and likely occurred before she was placed inside the freezer and buried,” the report said. “This opinion is additionally supported by the fact that her body appeared to have remained exactly how it was placed inside the freezer.”
Warrants obtained by Law&Crime say Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI) agents searched a property in rural Texas County, Oklahoma, on April 13. Agents had tracked burner phones used by the suspects from the site of the alleged murders to a farm Cullum rented to raise cattle, according to the warrant. There, agents found a possible burial site. Investigators found the bodies of the two moms the next day after digging up the chest freezer. Detectives also reportedly recovered items belonging to the suspects.
Cops interviewed the property owner who said he saw Cullum digging on the farm with a skid steer on March 29 and in the early morning of March 30. The property owner told agents that on March 28 or 29 Cullum and Adams asked if they could cut down a tree, remove the stump and complete some “dirt work” near a concrete pile. The owner agreed to let them do the work and the skid steer was gone by noon on March 30, the warrant said.
On March 31, Cullum came to the property owner’s house and said people were “looking at him for the disappearance of Butler and Kelley,” according to the warrant. Cullum reportedly told the property owner it “looked bad” that there were all the skid steer tracks but no skid steer. Cullum told the property owner that if anyone asked to say that Cullum had done the tree and dirt work for the property owner, the warrant said.
Butler had court-ordered visitation with her children each Saturday and Kelley was one of the people the court approved to supervise the visit. Kelley stepped in after the regular supervisor was unavailable, investigators say. The two set out around 9 a.m. to pick up the kids but the pair never made it to their destination.
Paul Grice (Texas County Sheriff’s Department).
Butler’s family members searched for her vehicle and found it abandoned shortly after noon on March 30 along Highway 95 and Road L in Texas County near the border with Kansas. According to a probable cause affidavit, cops found “evidence of severe injury,” including blood surrounding the vehicle. Officers also recovered Butler’s sunglasses and a broken hammer on the road, and a pistol magazine without a pistol in Kelley’s purse.
Investigators with the OSBI quickly zeroed in on Adams after learning of the custody dispute, according to the affidavit. Adams’ son, the kids’ father, had full custody of the kids but she often took care of them.
In an April interview with detectives, a teenage family member of the Twomblys described to detectives how the suspects allegedly said they are part of a religious and anti-government group dubbed “God’s Misfits” and revealed other alleged details of the bizarre plot.
Law&Crime’s David Harris contributed to this report.
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