The more details come out about this case, the less we understand it.
As we’ve been following, Oklahoma moms Veronica Butler (left), 27, and Jillian Kelley (right), 39, were declared missing last month after leaving together to see Veronica’s kids. Their car was found with evidence that led Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agents to believe they’d already met with a brutal end. We’ve learned since that evidence was in part blood. “Pools” of it, apparently. That and Veronica’s broken glasses, a hammer, and a pistol magazine in Jillian’s purse. So yeah, cops had good reason to declare foul play was involved.
The case was broken this week. The moms’ remains were found, and four suspects have been arrested and charged with the murders. The leader seems to have been Tifany Adams, 54, who was actually the woman whose place the kids were staying at — because she’s their grandmother on the father’s side! See, Veronica and the children’s father are in the middle of a divorce. She’s trying to get custody from her ex, who is reportedly in rehab currently. So Tifany has the kids. This was Veronica’s time to visit, and her friend Jillian — a pastor’s wife — was acting as a supervisor.
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Tifany is alleged to have wrangled her boyfriend Tad Bert Cullum, 43, and a couple friends to help her kill her estranged daughter-in-law. Those friends, Cole Earl Twombly, 50, and Cora Twombly, 44, were apparently part of a fringe religious anti-government group called God’s Misfits. But getting some creepy-sounding cult or militia or whatever to just murder Veronica (it’s possible Jillian was collateral damage) was apparently not the first option.
The feds seem to have gotten much of their information from Cora Twombly’s teen daughter CW, who apparently immediately flipped on her family. And who could blame her if all this is true? But it means we now have a LOT more info.
She told officers this has been going on some time — that Tifany had been trying to kill Veronica for WEEKS! Apparently the first idea was to kill her in February. We guess Veronica knew because they couldn’t figure out how to get her out in the open to do it. Records on Tifany’s phone show she googled — in addition to gun purchasing info — how to lure someone out of their house.
What’s more, despite having weeks to plan these God’s Misfits lived up to their name as they hatched some truly bonkers ideas for murders. According to the affidavit the first murder plot was to kill Veronica by DROPPING AN ANVIL ON HER CAR. We could not make this up. The most Looney Tunes murder plot we’ve ever heard of. Apparently they figured they could make it look like an accident “because anvils regularly fall off of work vehicles.” Wow.
It’s unclear so far exactly how they did kill the moms (allegedly), but there may have been a Wile E. Coyote element after all. Investigators noted they found a hole had been dug in the ground near where the car was found, filled with hay. We didn’t understand what that even meant when we first read it. But when combined with the anvil it’s all starting to make sense… Did they really expect the car to crash into some kind of tiger trap??
If so, it didn’t work. CW told OSBI agents her parents came home and told her the “mission” didn’t go as planned — but at least they didn’t have to worry about Veronica anymore. Yeesh.
All four are charged with first-degree murder, kidnapping, and first-degree conspiracy to commit murder. It’s unclear if anyone else will be charged. What a genuinely head-scratching series of events.
[Images via Veronica Butler/Jillian Kelley/Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation/Facebook]
