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Missing womens’ bodies found buried on farm property linked to grandma accused in complex murder plan, documents show
The bodies of two murdered women who earlier this year disappeared in rural Oklahoma were eventually found buried on a farming property with ties to the grandmother of one of the women’s children, according to court documents. A series of search warrants, filed around the time law enforcement arrested five suspects accused in the killings and released publicly this week, detail a complex and grisly scheme allegedly devised by members of a group called “God’s Misfits,” seemingly to end a difficult custody battle.
Veronica Butler, 27, and Jilian Kelley, 39, went missing on March 30 in Texas County, a sparsely-populated part of the Oklahoma panhandle, where Butler intended to pick up her daughter for a birthday party, according to court documents. She had driven from Kansas that day with Kelley, who was appointed to supervise the visit under a custody order.
Their car was found abandoned at a spot along Highway 95 in Kansas near the Oklahoma border, where prosecutors allege they were lured by the suspects who had been plotting to kill them. Authorities have not revealed what exactly caused Butler and Kelley’s deaths, but warrants noted that the scene around their car showed “evidence of a severe injury,” with blood left behind on the road. Police also noted Butler’s glasses, a broken hammer and a pistol potentially missing from a purse that belonged to Kelley were found at the scene.
Investigators discovered Butler and Kelley’s remains on April 13. They were found inside a chest freezer that had been buried in a pasture, which the grandmother’s boyfriend rented for cattle grazing and could access any time, authorties said. The freezer was inside a hole filled both with dirt and concrete, according to affidavits.
The property owner told authorities that his renter, 43-year-old Tad Bert Cullum, had asked on March 28 “if he could cut a tree down, remove a stump, bury some concrete” in an area below the dam where a concrete pile had been sitting above ground. He said Cullum carried out that project over the next day or so.
Oklahoma Highway Patrol
Cullum was arrested along with 54-year-old Tifany Machel Adams, his significant other and the grandmother of Butler’s three children, who shared custody of the kids. Authorities said Adams’ son and the children’s father, Wrangler Rickman, was in a rehabilitation center in Oklahoma City during the murders.
While seeking full custody of Butler’s children, Adams supposedly indicated that Butler had failed to protect them from a violent brother. A teenager, identified only by the initials C.W. in court filings, told investigators she had overheard Adams accuse the brother of sexual abuse during conversations with the teen’s mother, 44-year-old Cora Twombly, and her husband, 50-year-old Cole Earl Twombly, who are also supects.
The teenager said that her mother had shared that information with her when Butler and Kelley were killed, and earlier had advised she and Cole Twombly would be away from the house on a “mission” the morning of March 30, according to the affidavits. The murders happened after previous unsuccessful attempts to kill Butler near her home in Kansas, the teen said, adding that in at least one of those instances Cora Twombly spoke openly about how the murder would unfold.
“C.W. stated that Cora told her that the plan to kill Butler in Kansas was to get in front of her while she was driving and to throw and anvil through her vehicle windshield,” one affidavit read. Rickman had also mentioned death threats by Adams and Cullum in recordings obtained through the child custody case, according to the document.
In addition to Cullum and Adams, both Twomblys were arrested, along with 31-year-old Paul Grice, and taken into custody in Texas County, records show.
All five suspects allegedly belonged to an anti-government group called “God’s Misfits,” which had a religious affiliation and convened regular meetings at the Twombly home, according to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation. Each is charged with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of kidnapping and one count of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. For the murder charges, they could individually face lifetime prison sentences or the death penalty in Oklahoma if convicted.
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Beryl, the second tropical storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, took shape Friday as it barreled its way toward the Caribbean.
Beryl was expected to strengthen into a hurricane as it approached the Windward Islands in the West Indies, the National Hurricane Center reported in its latest advisory late Friday night.
Beryl was centered about 1,110 miles southeast of Barbados, the hurricane center said, with maximum sustained winds of 40 miles per hour and tropical storm-force winds extending 45 miles from its center. It was moving west at 18 mph.
The system was expected to hit the Windward Islands by late Sunday or Monday, and was forecast to bring anything from 3 to 6 inches of rain to the Windward Islands and Barbados. No watches or warnings were yet in place.
NOAA
Last week, Tropical Storm Alberto brought torrential flooding to portions of southern Texas and northeastern Mexico. It was responsible for at least four deaths in the Mexican states of Nuevo Leon and Veracruz, according to the Associated Press.
The Atlantic hurricane season began June 1 and lasts through Nov. 30. According to the hurricane center, the season’s first hurricane usually forms in early to mid-August, which would make Beryl unusual if it were to reach hurricane strength. In a report released last month, the NOAA predicted an “above average” hurricane season with 17 to 25 storms, 8 to 13 hurricanes and 4 to 7 major hurricanes of category 3 or higher.
A tropical storm is a tropical cyclone with maximum sustained winds of 39 to 73 mph, while a hurricane is defined as a tropical cyclone with maximum sustained winds greater than 74 mph.
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Martin Mull, beloved actor known for “Fernwood 2 Night,” “Roseanne” and “Sabrina the Teenage Witch,” dies at 80
Martin Mull, whose droll, esoteric comedy and acting made him a hip sensation in the 1970s and later a beloved guest star on sitcoms including “Roseanne” and “Arrested Development,” has died, his daughter said Friday. He was 80.
Mull’s Daughter, TV writer and comic artist Maggie Mull, said her father died at home on Thursday after “a valiant fight against a long illness.”
Mull, who was also a guitarist and painter, came to national fame with a recurring role on the Norman Lear-created satirical soap opera “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” and the starring role in its spinoff, “Fernwood 2 Night,” on which he played the host of a satirical talk show.
Mat Hayward/Getty Images for Netflix
“He was known for excelling at every creative discipline imaginable and also for doing Red Roof Inn commercials,” Maggie Mull said in an Instagram post. “He would find that joke funny. He was never not funny. My dad will be deeply missed by his wife and daughter, by his friends and coworkers, by fellow artists and comedians and musicians, and —the sign of a truly exceptional person— by many, many dogs.”
Melissa Joan Hart, who acted alongside Mull in the series “Sabrina the Teenage Witch,” paid tribute to him on Instagram on Friday, calling him “a wonderful man who I am better for knowing.”
“I have such fond memories of working with him and being in awe of his huge body of work,” she wrote.
Known for his blonde hair and well-trimmed mustache, Mull was born in Chicago, raised in Ohio and Connecticut. He studied art in Rhode Island and Rome. He combined his music and comedy in hip Hollywood clubs in the 1970s.
“In 1976 I was a guitar player and sit-down comic appearing at the Roxy on the Sunset Strip when Norman Lear walked in and heard me,” Mull told The Associated Press in 1980. “He cast me as the wife beater on ‘Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.’ Four months later I was spun off on my own show.”
In the 1980s he appeared in films including “Mr. Mom” and “Clue,” and in the 1990s had a recurring role on “Roseanne.”
He would later play private eye Gene Parmesan on “Arrested Development,” and would be nominated for an Emmy in 2016 for a guest turn on “Veep.”
