Two Kansas women who were brutally mur*dered and buried in a freezer in the Oklahoma Panhandle earlier this year died of “multiple sharp force trauma,” according to a preliminary autopsy report.
The Oklahoma County medical examiner’s office this week released the summary reports for 27-year-old Veronica Butler and 39-year-old Jilian Kelley. But the full report won’t be issued until November 15.
In late March, Butler and Kelley were traveling together from Hugoton, Kansas to pick up children Butler’s children when the two women went missing. Their car was found abandoned in a remote part of northern Oklahoma near the Kansas border. Their bodies were found weeks later in Texas County, Oklahoma.
Court documents released last month stated that 50-year-old Cole Earl Twombly and 44-year-old Cora Twombly were the lookouts the day of the mur*ders and confided in their daughter in hope of receiving an alibi for the morning of the mur*ders.
Paul Grice, 31, in part, allegedly stabbed and k*illed Butler, sliced his hand “badly” with the knife and accompanied the bodies of both victims to their burial site. The document says Grice threw off his clothing, stun device and the knife used to ki*ll Buter into the burial site. His clothing found in the burial site contained his and Butler’s DNA.
Tad Cullum, 43, in part, got permission from the landowners to dig the hole for the burial site and dug the whole with his skid steer the day before the mur*ders.
Cullum is accused of fatally stabbing Kelley and driving the bodies to the burial site. He put his clothing in the burial site, in addition to Butler and Kelley inside a freezer in the previously dug hole. His clothing, found at the site, also contained his and Kelley’s DNA. The accessories to the knife, found at the burial site, were found in his home.
The document said 50-year-old Tifany Machel Adams purchased burner phones from Walmart which were used by the conspirators to communicate. She purchased the stun devices at Standard Supply, one of which was found at the burial site. She also bought the yellow straps that were placed around the freezer containing the bodies of Butler and Kelley at Tractor Supply.
“Adams hated and despised Butler and wanted her dead,” the document said.
Each suspect was charged with two counts of first-degree mu*rder, two counts of kid*napping and one count of conspiracy.
