2 bodies found in case of missing pastor’s wife Jilian Kelly, Veronica Butler
A day after the arrest of four people in connection with the disappearance of missing pastor’s wife, Jilian Kelley, 39, and 27-year-old Veronica Butler, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation has announced the recovery of two bodies they're working to identify.
“On April 14, the OSBI, FBI – Federal Bureau of Investigation, Texas County Sheriff's Department, and the Office of the Oklahoma Chief Medical Examiner recovered two deceased persons in rural Texas County,” the agency announced in a brief update Sunday night.
“Both individuals will be transported to the Medical Examiner’s Office to determine identification, as well as cause and manner of death. This is still an ongoing investigation.”
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Kelley is the wife of Pastor Heath Kelley who leads Hugoton First Christian Church in Kansas. Heath Kelley recently agreed to serve as the new pastor of Willow Christian Church in Nebraska starting in June. Both churches have been praying for the safe return of the pastor's wife and Butler.
The women disappeared in Oklahoma on March 30. A source close to Butler told ABC 7 that the missing mom was supposed to pick up her 6-year-old daughter and 8-year-old son in Eva, Oklahoma, to celebrate her daughter's birthday. Butler had been involved in an ongoing custody battle with the family of her children's father, Wrangler Cole Rickman. Jilian Kelley had traveled with Butler from Elkhart on what was supposed to be a 16-mile trip, but the trip ended 3 miles short of their destination.
Their vehicle was found abandoned near Highway 95 and Road L, south of Elkhart, Kansas, in rural Texas County.
Investigators who found evidence suggesting foul play in the disappearance of the women announced on Saturday that they had arrested four people in connection with the disappearance of Kelley and Butler, including the paternal grandmother of Butler’s children, 54-year-old Tifany Machel Adams. Others arrested are Tad Bert Cullum, 43; Cole Earl Twombly, 50; and Cora Twombly, 44.
All four individuals were arrested in Texas and Cimarron counties and charged with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of kidnapping, and one count of conspiracy to commit murder in the first degree.
In a motion filed in the Cimarron County Court in Oklahoma last November, Tifany Adams, the children's paternal grandmother, opposed any adjustment in the supervised visitation arrangement Butler had with her children, noting that the children had been exposed to sexual abuse while under her care.
The motion alleged the children's father was a drug addict who had no interest in caring for his children. It noted, however, that he trusted Adams more than he trusted Butler to protect the children.
"Petitioner appears to be capitalizing on the indifference Mr. Rickman has shown for his children. Mr. Rickman has removed himself from the children's lives. Instead of being a father, he now seeks out the pleasures of drinking alcohol, using drugs, and other degenerate behavior," the complaint explains.
"When he left the children, he left the children in his mother's care, not in the Petitioner's care. The reason for this is twofold. First, it would have been a violation of the court's order granting Mr. Rickman temporary emergency custody for him to leave the minor children with Petitioner. This is because, and the point cannot be stressed enough, Petitioner's brother has been found to have sexually abused the minor children by this court, and Petitioner has been found to have violated the no-contact order prohibiting the minor children from being around Petitioner's abusive sibling," it adds.
"The second reason is because, obviously, Mr. Rickman trusts Ms. Adams with the children more than he trusts the Petitioner with the children."
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