The bodies of two Kansas women who disappeared in late March while on their way to Oklahoma were found in a chest freezer buried on property leased by one of the suspects in their murders.
Newly released court documents provide the new information, KFOR reported, although the documents say nothing new about the deaths of Veronica Butler and Jilian Kelley.
Butler and Kelley disappeared on March 30 while on their way to pick up Butler’s children from their paternal grandmother, Tifany Adams, in Texas County, Oklahoma, as CrimeOnline reported. Their bodies were found on May 15, a day after authorities arrested Adams, her boyfriend Tad Cullum, and married couple Cole and Cora Twombly. A fifth suspect, Paul Grice, was named in documents related to the first four arrests but not arrested until April 24.
Each of the five have been charged with two counts of murder, two counts of kidnapping, and one count of conspiracy to commit murder.
The new information comes from search warrants that allowed investigators to dig on a cow pasture leased by Cullum, which was connected to the suspects by cell phone data, KFOR said. After two days of digging, investigators found a chest freezer containing the bodies of Butler and Kelley.
Other items found at the burial site — jeans, sweatshirts, t-shirts, a black jacket, cloth gloves, ball caps, duct tape, and a sheathed knife — had possible blood on them, the warrants said.
The warrants also described how Grice asked a witness how long DNA would last on clothing in 15-foot deep hole and whether the witness knew “how to get a guy and his family” to Mexico.
The warrants further detail information about the cell phones that helped link the suspects to the burial site and the intersection where they were ambushed and abducted. Investigators said they found cell phones in a truck driven by the Twomblys at the time of their arrest that contained data linking them to the two cites. Court records say that Adams bought those phones and another one in February at a Walmart.
A stun gun Adams purchased was also found near the burial site, the warrants said.
Previously released documents allege that the suspects ambushed Kelley and Butler, who was involved in a custody dispute with Adams, at a site about eight and a half miles from the burial site. Police later found their abandoned car nearby, with evidence that indicated “evidence of a severe injury,” according to a probable cause affidavit.
They also found blood in the roadway along with Butler’s glasses, and a magazine clip in Kelley’s purse, but no gun.
Investigators said that Adams and Grice made statements implicating themselves in the murders, according to their probable cause affidavits.
All five of the suspects are being held without bail. A status hearing is scheduled for next month.
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[Featured image: Veronica Butler and Jilian Kelley/Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation]
