Investigators have laid out the details of a custody battle that ended in tragedy, resulting in the deaths of Veronica Butler and Jilian Kelley. Tifany Machel Adams, the grandmother of Butler’s children, along with her boyfriend Tad Cullum and married couple Cole and Cora Twombly, have been charged with the murders. The investigation revealed a plot to kill Butler, involving an anvil being thrown through her windshield. Adams had bought burner phones, stun guns, and conducted searches on how to get someone out of a house leading up to the murders.
Butler and Kelley were lured to a remote location in Oklahoma, forced into another vehicle, and confined. Blood, a broken hammer, and a magazine for a pistol were found at the scene. Phone records indicated that their phones stopped sending signals at the time they disappeared. A witness, the teenage daughter of the Twomblys, revealed that her parents, along with Adams and Cullum, were part of an anti-government group called God’s Misfits. She detailed how they planned and carried out the murders, blocking the road to stop Butler and Kelley and diverting them to where the group was waiting.
Adams seemingly had physical custody of her grandchildren, preventing Butler from seeing them. Phone records confirmed that Adams was the last person in touch with Butler before her disappearance. The Twomblys’ daughter provided crucial information to investigators, revealing the group’s involvement in the murders. Meanwhile, Cullum had been working on a property, using a skid steer to dig a hole, burying something and covering it with hay. All three burner phones were tracked to the location where Butler and Kelley disappeared, eventually leading to the discovery of their remains in Texas County, Oklahoma.
The suspects were denied bond during their initial court appearance and were assigned court-appointed attorneys. Butler’s relatives expressed their grief and confusion over the senseless murders, questioning how someone could hate the mother of their grandchildren enough to take her life. Wednesday, the day set for a custody hearing between Adams and Butler, turned into the suspects’ first court appearance for murder. The tragic outcome of the custody battle resulted in the loss of two lives and left a community mourning the loss of Veronica Butler and Jilian Kelley.
