Veronica Butler and Jilian Kelley left Hugoton, Kansas, on March 30, 2024, to visit Butler’s children in Eva, Oklahoma. Sadly, the women never made it. Instead, the women were brutally murdered, their bodies frozen and then buried in Texas County, Oklahoma. Their killers didn’t think anyone would ever find them, but that’s the funny thing about law enforcement officials: They’re pretty darn good at their jobs. It didn’t take long to find the people responsible, including 54-year-old Tifany Machel Adams, the paternal grandmother of Butler’s children. Adams orchestrated the murders and will now spend the rest of her life in jail, now that she’s been convicted of the crime.
On March 31, 2024, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation found Butler and Kelly’s abandoned vehicle near Highway 95 and Road L, noted a release posted to social media two weeks later. Days later, investigators announced evidence inside the vehicle led them to suspect foul play, and they and pleaded with anyone who might have information to come forward. Just a day after the release was posted, police found the women’s remains buried inside a chest freezer in rural Texas County.
In September 2024, News Nation reported that police had arrested five people in connection with the women’s deaths. They charged Adams, 33-year-old Tad Cullum, 44-year-old Cora Twombly, 50-year-old Cole Twombly, and 31-year-old Paul Grice with kidnapping and first-degree murder. Grice reportedly killed Butler, and Cullum killed Kelly. The Twomblys served as lookouts, and Adams planned it all, authorities claimed. She bought burner phones, clothes, and stun devices used in the brutal killings.
Adams, Cullum, and the Twomblys are self-proclaimed members of an anti-government group called “God’s Misfits.” Law & Crime reported. It appears Adams and friends somehow thought that committing murder, freezing bodies, and burying them was doing God’s work. A court disagreed.
Cora Twombly and Grice accepted plea agreements in exchange for their testimony. Cullum and Cole Twombly will appear in court at a later date, per Law & Crime.
As for the mastermind, a court convicted Adams of two counts of murder in the first degree, two counts of unlawful removal of a body, and two counts of desecration of a human corpse after she “pleaded no-contest” to the charges, KWCH reported. She’ll spend the rest of her life in jail without the possibility of parole. We suppose that time will give Adams plenty of time to pray and perhaps ask for forgiveness.
