The four people charged with the murders of two Kansas women who vanished in Oklahoma late last month conspired to kill them to stop a bitter custody dispute with one of the women — and had tried to kill her in February.
Veronica Butler, 27, and Jilian Kelley, 39, disappeared on March 30 while traveling to from Kansas to pick up Butler’s children, as CrimeOnline reported. Kelley, a pastor’s wife, was one of four people approved to supervise Butler’s visits with the children, which took place every Saturday, according to a probable cause affidavit filed in the case.
The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation arrested Tifany Adams, Tad Cullum, Cole Trombly, and Cora Trombly on Saturday, charging them with murder, kidnapping, and conspiracy in the deaths of Butler and Kelley. On Sunday, investigators they’d found two bodies they believe to be the missing women and are awaiting a medical examiner’s identification.
The codefendant’s daughter
The most critical information in the affidavit came from the 16-year-old daughter of Cora Trombly and Coby White, apparently her previous husband. Identified in the document as CW, the girl told investigators that her mother, Cole Trombly, Adams, Cullum, and another man were all “involved in the deaths of Butler and Kelley.”
Adams Affidavit by kc wildmoon on Scribd
CW said that Adams provided the group with burner phones to communicate, and that she had seen two of the phones charging in her mother’s bedroom. The four were all part of an anti-government religious group, she said. The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation confirmed that information and said they called themselves “God’s Misfits” and that they met weekly at another couple’s home.
“CW was told on March 29, 2024, that Cora and Cole would not be home in the morning when she woke and were going on a ‘mission,’” the affidavit says.
She awoke at about 10 a.m. on March 30, and her mother and her husband were gone, having taken a blue and gray Chevrolet pickup and a blue flatbed pickup owned by a relative. The girl said she was told the clean the Chevrolet when they returned.
“CW asked Cora what had happened and was told that things did not go as planned, but they would not have to worry about her (Butler) again,” the affidavit says. “CW was told that Cora and Cole blocked the road to stop Butler and Kelley and divert them to where Adams, Cullum, and [the fifth man] were. CW asked about Kelley and why she had to die and was told by Cora that she wasn’t innocent either, as she had supported Butler.”
“CW asked Cora if their bodies were put in a well, and Cora replied, ‘something like that.’”
CW also told investigators that the same five people had gone to Kansas in February with a plan to kill Butler, but she would not leave her home, coinciding with a search on Adams’ phone about that time about how to get someone out of their house.
“According to Cora, the plan was to throw an anvil through Butler’s windshield while driving, making it look like an accident because anvils regularly fall off of work vehicles,” the affidavit said.
It’s not clear why the fifth man was not arrested.
The affidavit also says that Cora and Cole Trombly arrived in Texas while the investigator was interviewing the daughter.
“Cora was verbally aggressive and was very upset with your affiant that she was not granted access to CW and her brother,” the officer wrote in the affidavit. “Cole exited the vehicle armed with a handgun in a holster on his belt.”
The day of the disappearance
Adams, Butler’s mother-in-law, had custody of the children while her son, Wrangler Rickman, who had legal custody of the children but was in rehab in Oklahoma City at the time the women disappeared, the documents say. Adams had a preferred supervisor for the visitations, a woman named Cheryl Brune.
Adams said that Brune was unable to supervise on March 30, forcing Butler to hire a supervisor for the scheduled visit. She chose Kelley. Brune, however, later told investigators that she would have been available on that date had she been asked.
According to the affidavit, Butler told her family members she was picking up the children from Adams at a particular intersection in Oklahoma called Four Corners (State Highway 95 and US 64) in Texas County, Oklahoma, at 10 a.m. on March 30. Cell phone date showed the two women travelled to Highway 95 and Road L, about 5 miles north of the intersection where they were to meet Adams, stopping there about 20 minutes before 10. At about that time, their cell phones vanished from carriers.
The plan had been for Butler to bring her daughter to a birthday party. When she never arrived, family members began searching, and eventually found her vehicle just west of the Highway 95 and Road L intersection. They contacted police shortly after noon, and officers arrived on scene, finding “evidence of severe injury,” including blood on the roadway and the edge of the roadway, the affidavit said. They also found Butler’s glasses on the roadway near a broken hammer and a pistol magazine — but no firearm — in Kelley’s purse.
When investigators spoke with Adams, she told them that the children had spent the night at another couple’s home the night before and that she’d planned to pick them up before the visitation. But, she said, she called Butler at 9 a.m., and Butler told her she wasn’t going to make it to the meeting.
The affidavit says that Butler’s phone records confirmed that phone call, which happened at precisely the time she was picking up Kelley in Hugoton, Kansas, for the trip to Oklahoma.
The custody case
According to the affidavit, the custody battle for the children began in February 2019. Most recently, Butler had filed in February requesting extended visitation. A hearing was scheduled for April 17, and Butler’s attorney told investigators that she was likely to be granted unsupervised visitation at that time.
The long transcripts of the case, however, revealed that Adams was trying to control access to the children, even at times from her son. On more than one occasion, she refused to let him have them, although he had legal custody, and at one time law enforcement was called when she refused to do so. At that time, the officer reportedly told Rickman the children were “better off” with his mother.
723272981 Murder in the First Degree Deliberate Intent 21 Murder in the First Degree Deliberate Intent 21 0… by kc wildmoon on Scribd
Other documents in the case reveal Rickman discussing death threats by his mother, but the affidavit did not say who those threats were against.
Rickman’s grandmother, Debi Knox-Davis, told investigators that he had told her in February that “they didn’t have to worry about the custody battle much longer because Adams had it under control, that Adms knew the path the judge walked to work, and ‘we will take out Veronica at drop off.’” Rickman denied making those comments.
Further investigation
Investigators also found that Adams searched for gun shops on her cell phone and bought five stun guns from a store in Guymon, Oklahoma, on March 23. The three burner phones were bought in February, and search warrants revealed they had been near the area where Butler’s car was found on March 30, as well as the Twombly’s residence and Cullum’s residence.
Two of the phones were also tracked to a property about 8 1/2 miles from where Butler’s car was located. That property, below a dam, was a pasture where investigators found fresh dirt work. Concrete was also moved into the area, where investigators found that hole was dug and refilled then covered with hay.
Investigators said that the burner phones stopped transmitting that morning either near that property or the Twomblys’ property. It’s not clear if they have been found, but the affidavit said specifically that Butler and Kelley’s phones had not been found.
It’s also not said in the affidavit if this location, below the dam, is where the bodies of Kelley and Butler were found.
For the latest true crime and justice news, subscribe to the ‘Crime Stories with Nancy Grace’ podcast.
[Featured image: Veronica Butler and Jilian Kelley/Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation]
