A new report from the Oklahoma Office of the Chief Medical Examiner details the death of one of two women murdered over a child custody issue in Texas County earlier this year.
Jilian Kelley, 39, was accompanying 27-year-old Veronica Butler on March 30 to pick up her children from their grandmother’s house in March when they disappeared, as CrimeOnline reported. They were found later buried in a freezer on a rural property near where they disappeared.
Five people, including the grandmother, have been arrested for their murders.
The report says that Kelley suffered 16 sharp force injuries, nine of them deep stab wounds. She fought her attacker and had defensive wounds to her hands along with possible stun gun marks on her neck and shoulder.
The grandmother, 50-year-old Tifany Machel Adams, allegedly bought burner phones for the planned attack on the women as well as stun guns. One of them was found buried beneath the freezer along with clothing, a role of tape, and a knife. The freezer was buried 4 1/2 to 8 feet deep with a large concrete slab on top of it.
788381988 Jilian Kelley Full Medical Examiners Report by kc wildmoon on Scribd
Adams’ boyfriend, 43-year-old Tad Cullum, reportedly secured permission to dig a hole on the land, which did not belong to him, and used a skid steer to prepare the burial site a day before the murders occurred.
The medical examiner said Kelley suffered a “devastating upper cervical spinal cord injury” in the attack and that “her death was very rapid as she would have likely not only lost her ability to move her body below her head, but also her ability to breathe on her own.” She was “most likely” dead before she was placed in the freezer.
In addition to Adams and Cullum, Cole Twombley, 50; Cora Twombley, 44; and Paul Grice, 31; have been charged in the murders. Court documents released earlier say that Cullum killed Kelley and Grice killed Butler, with the Twombleys acting as lookouts.
The bodies of Kelley and Butler were found on April 14. The full report on Butler’s death is expected later this month.
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[Featured image: Veronica Butler and Jilian Kelley/Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation]
