Four people have been arrested in connection to the disappearance of two Kansas moms who haven’t been seen in two weeks.
Tad Bert Cullum, 43; Cole Earl Twombly, 50; Cora Twombly, 44; and Tifany Machel Adams, 54, were taken into custody and identified as suspects in the disappearance of Jilian Kelley, 39, and Veronica Butler, 27, Fox News reported, citing the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI). The OSBI reportedly told the outlet that one suspect was arrested in Texas County in Oklahoma – where the women were traveling to pick up Butler’s children – while the other three were arrested in Cimarron County.
The suspects were booked into the Texas County Jail on two counts each of first-degree murder, kidnapping, and one count each of conspiracy to commit murder in the first degree.
Adams is reportedly the paternal grandmother of Butler’s children, and they lived with her.
Less than 24 hours after the arrests, two bodies were found in Texas County, the OSBI announced on Facebook.
“Both individuals will be transported to the Medical Examiner’s Office to determine identification, as well as cause and manner of death,” the OSBI said. “This is still an ongoing investigation.”
The OSBI has not said officially that the two deceased bodies are connected to Kelley and Butler’s disappearance, though they offered condolences to the families during a press conference on Monday. The two bodies were found in the area where law enforcement was searching for Kelley and Butler.
Kelley was traveling with Butler to pick up Butler’s young children in Eva, Oklahoma, but they never arrived. Their vehicle was found abandoned in Elkhart, Kansas, just a few miles from their destination, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation said in a Facebook post on March 31.
What investigators discovered in the vehicle has led them to suspect foul play is involved, the OSBI said in an update. The bureau has not released what was found.
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The two women were traveling to pick up Butler’s 6-year-old daughter and 8-year-old son. Butler was reportedly involved in a custody dispute with the father of her children, Wrangler Cole Rickman, Inside Edition reported. Rickman had been released from prison, where he was serving a sentence for possession of a firearm, just a week before the women went missing. But Lauren Conlin, an independent journalist, spoke to Rickman’s grandmother, who said Rickman had been released from prison and ordered to go to rehab on the same day. She said Rickman was in rehab when the women disappeared.
“He [Rickman] was checked into rehab on the 22nd- 30 days no contact and cannot leave any outings from the facility for 30 days, and has to be there for six months. OSBI confirmed he was there,” the grandmother said, Conlin posted on X on April 2.
Rickman has not been arrested or charged in the disappearance of Butler or Kelley, but his mother was one of the four arrested in connection to the disappearance.