Who were Kansas moms Veronica Butler and Jilian Kelley? – The US Sun

THE remains of two missing Kansas moms, Veronica Butler and Jillian Kelley, were found on April 15 2024.

They vanished on March 30 and four people have been charged over their murder and kidnap. Here’s all we know about Veronica Butler and Jillian Kelley.

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Who were Veronica Butler and Jilian Kelley?

Veronica Butler, 27, and Jilian Kelly 39, were two moms from Hugoton Kansas.

Both women are thought to be involved in religious communities in the area.

Kelly was a wife of a local pastor who worked at Willow Christian Church in Nebraska – according to a post of the church Facebook account.

Kelly’s husband was previously the pastor at Hugoton First Christian Church in Kansas and The McCook Gazette reported that it is in the same area where Ms Butler went to church.

They were travelling to pick up Butler’s six and eight-year-old kids to attend a birthday party but they never made it.

Butler was, according to court documents, engaged in a custody battle with the children’s paternal grandmother, Tifany Adams.

She reportedly had custody of the children, as her son, Wrangler Rickman, was in a rehab facility.

This meant her visits to her kids had to be supervised and on that day preacher’s wife, Jilian Kelley was the approved supervisor.

The women knew each other, but it’s unclear from the official accounts if they were friends.

The mother of Ms Kelley told KFOR that her daughter is a mother of four who is popular in the community and does regular volunteering work.

She also added that Ms Kelley currently works as a secretary at Hugoton First Christian Church and runs all of its children’s programs.

Ms Kelley has brown hair, blue eyes and a butterfly tattoo on her left forearm.

Ms Butler had red hair, green eyes and several tattoos, including a Chinese symbol on her left forearm and a sunflower on her left shoulder, according to an endangered missing advisory posted by the Texas County Sheriff’s Department.

A friend of Butler described her to KFOR as being kind, good with kids and loving gardening, cooking and baking.

What happened to the two Kansas moms?

Police discovered the vehicle the pair were travelling on March 30 2024.

It was abandoned and sitting by the side of a road close to the place where they were due to meet Adams.

Texas County Sheriff Matt Boley said: “When police discovered the moms’ abandoned car, “they found some things that just weren’t adding up.

“Blood was found on the roadway and the edge of the roadway,” officers wrote in an affidavit obtained by the Associated Press.

“Butler’s glasses were also found in the roadway south of the vehicle, near a broken hammer.

“A pistol magazine was found inside Kelley’s purse at the scene, but no pistol was found.”

Adams bought stun guns in the days before the moms were killed, according to court documents.

The documents also say that her partner Tad Bert Cullum, dug a hole in a pasture not far from the planned meet-up spot.

“A hole had been dug and filled back in and then covered with hay,” police affidavits said.

The moms’ cause of death hasn’t been released.

Who are the suspects for Veronica Butler’s and Jilian Kelley’s murder?

On Saturday, four people were arrested and charged with murdering and kidnapping Butler and Kelley.

Tad Bert Cullum, 43, Tifany Machel Adams, 54, Cole Earl Twombly, 50, and Cora Twombly, 44, were taken into custody in Texas and Cimarron counties, according to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.

Adams is the grandmother of Butler’s two children and Cullum is Adams’ boyfriend, according to reports.

The family was locked in a complex custody battle as Adams’ son was in rehab at a facility in Oklahoma City, court documents show.

Butler’s attorney told investigators she was due to receive more visitation rights at a hearing in April.

All four suspects were booked into Texas County Jail on two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of kidnapping, and one count of conspiracy to commit murder in the first degree.

“This case is tragic,” OSBI Public Information Manager Hunter McKee said.

“You have two people who are dead and four people who committed an absolutely brutal crime.”

All four of the suspects were part of an anti-government, religious group called God’s Misfits, according to court documents.

Adams’ former attorney, Stephen Jones, told NewsNation he was shocked over Adams’ arrest.

He told the outlet the custody battle over the children had been ongoing for five years.

Adams was allegedly a member of a local anti-government group known as God’s Misfits, per NewsNation.

“Since 1960, they have changed politically. It’s very Evangelical, very conspiratorial in the sense. Not trusting the government,” Jones explained.

It has been revealed that the suspects used burner phones to communicate over the incident.

The phones were allegedly found on a pasture that Cullum rents for cattle grazing.