'God's Misfits' held in killings of Kansas women over custody battle

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Two Kansas women who went missing on a trip to pick up children for a birthday party two weeks ago were killed over a custody dispute involving a small group of anti-government Oklahomans who called themselves “God's Misfits,” authorities said Monday.

Their vehicle was found along a rural Oklahoma highway just south of the state line, with ample evidence of a bloody confrontation, setting off a two-week effort to secure the children's safety while searching for the women and avoiding more violence. Ultimately, their bodies were found a day after four suspects were arrested without incident on charges of kidnapping and murder, authorities said.

Veronica Butler, 27, and Jilian Kelley, 39, of Hugoton, Kansas, had arranged with the grandmother of Butler's two children to meet at a highway intersection and pick up the 6- and 8-year-old for the March 30 birthday party in Kansas. Butler's family found the vehicle just a few miles from the meet-up spot after the women missed the party.

“This case did not end the way we had hoped. It’s certainly been a tragedy for everyone involved,” Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation Director Aungela Spurlock said.

The suspects arrested Saturday include 54-year-old Tifany Adams, who was the children's grandmother, and three others who call themselves “God’s Misfits,” according to their arrest affidavits. Adams, 43-year-old Tad Bert Cullum, 50-year-old Cole Earl Twombly and 44-year-old Cora Twombly are charged with first-degree murder, kidnapping and conspiracy to commit murder in the first degree.

The affidavits say Butler was in a “problematic custody battle” with Adams. Her son, the father of Butler’s two children, was in a rehabilitation facility in Oklahoma City, hours away from Guymon, and Butler was allowed only supervised visits each Saturday. Kelley, the wife of a pastor in Hugoton, was Butler's court-authorized choice to supervise visitations.

As investigators searched for the women, Adams told them she had left the children in the care of another couple on the morning of March 30; the couple was part of God's Misfits, her arrest affidavit said.

It was a gruesome scene that law enforcement encountered.

“Blood was found on the roadway and the edge of the roadway. Butler’s glasses were also found in the roadway south of the vehicle, near a broken hammer. A pistol magazine was found inside Kelley’s purse at the scene, but no pistol was found,” one of the affidavits said.

A teenage witness told authorities that Cora Twombly said that she and her husband Cole Twombly blocked the road to stop Butler and Kelley and divert them to where Adams, her boyfriend Cullum and another person were waiting for them. The teen asked why Kelley had to die and was told that “she wasn’t innocent either” because she supported Butler,” the affidavit said.

The affidavit also said that according to Cora Twombly, at one point "the plan was to throw an an anvil through Butler’s windshield while driving, making it look like an accident because anvils regularly fall off of work vehicles.

Authorities revealed no details at Monday’s news conference about where the bodies were found, but the affidavits say pre-paid phones bought by Tifany Adams stopped transmitting that morning not far from the crime scene, in the vicinity of a pasture rented by Tad Cullum, where “a hole had been dug and filled back in and then covered with hay.” The property's owner said he saw Cullum using heavy equipment to dig the hole on March 29.

The issue was that Butler had asked the court for more time with her children, and Butler’s attorney told investigators that her request for unsupervised visitation was likely to be granted at a hearing in April, the affidavit said.

The Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals issued a ruling in 2022 directing a trial court to enter a shared custody arrangement.

“We acknowledge both of these very young and immature parents presented conflicting testimony about the other party’s inappropriate behavior and choices,” the appellate court wrote, but said “the children are nurtured and comforted by Mother” and ”happy and excited to be with Father."

On March 23, with a court date looming, Adams bought five stun guns at a store in Guymon, according to the affidavit.

It wasn’t entirely clear where the children were at throughout the crime. Authorities said the affidavits weren't unsealed until Monday, with all the suspects in custody, in part to protect them.

”The reason they were filed under seal was to protect our law enforcement officers and to try to keep the children out of harm’s way," said District Attorney George Leach III. "We were successful. No shots were fired and the children were kept out of harm’s way.”

All four suspects are being held without bond in the Texas County Jail and are scheduled to make an initial court appearance Wednesday morning, said Texas County Court Clerk Renee Ellis. Court records don’t indicate whether any have an attorney who could speak on their behalf.

Relatives of Tad Cullum, Cole Twombly and Cora Twombly didn’t not immediately return phone messages from The Associated Press seeking comment. Tifany Adams’ stepmother, Elise Adams, said she didn’t know if she had a lawyer and had no information on her arrest.

“I don’t know a thing about her business,” Elise Adams said. “All I can tell you about her is she was a wonderful step-daughter to me.”

OSBI spokesman Hunter McKee said Butler and Kelley are dead, and that the four defendants were responsible for the women going missing, but would not confirm that the bodies found were identified as the missing Kansas women, pending a report from Medical Examiner’s Office.

“This case is tragic," McKee said. "You have two people who are dead and four people who committed an absolutely brutal crime.”

Hollingsworth reported from Mission, Kansas..

This booking photo provided by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation shows Cora Twombly. On Saturday, April 13, 2024, Oklahoma authorities said they arrested and charged four people, including Twombly, with murder and kidnapping over the weekend in connection with the disappearances of Veronica Butler and Jilian Kelley. (Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation via AP)

This booking photo provided by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation shows Cole Earl Twombly. On Saturday, April 13, 2024, Oklahoma authorities said they arrested and charged four people, including Twombly, with murder and kidnapping over the weekend in connection with the disappearances of Veronica Butler and Jilian Kelley. (Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation via AP)

This booking photo provided by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation shows Tad Bert Cullum. On Saturday, April 13, 2024, Oklahoma authorities said they arrested and charged four people, including Cullum, with murder and kidnapping over the weekend in connection with the disappearances of Veronica Butler and Jilian Kelley. (Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation via AP)

This booking photo provided by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation shows Tifany Machel Adams. On Saturday, April 13, 2024, Oklahoma authorities said they arrested and charged four people, including Adams, with murder and kidnapping over the weekend in connection with the disappearances of Veronica Butler and Jilian Kelley. (Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation via AP)

This combination of booking photo provided by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation shows Tad Bert Cullum, top left, Cora Twombly, top right, Tifany Machel Adams, bottom left, and Cole Earl Twombly, bottom right. On Saturday, April 13, 2024, Oklahoma authorities said they arrested and charged these four people with murder and kidnapping over the weekend in connection with the disappearances of Veronica Butler and Jilian Kelley. (Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation via AP)

FILE - This combination photo shows Veronica Butler, left, and Jilian Kelley, right. On Saturday, April 13, 2024, Oklahoma authorities said they arrested and charged four people with murder and kidnapping over the weekend in connection with the disappearances of the two Oklahoma women. (Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation via AP, File)

BOCA RATON, Fla. (AP) — Florida's ban on most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, before many women even know they are pregnant, went into effect Wednesday, and some doctors are concerned that women in the state will no longer have access to needed health care.

Dr. Leah Roberts, a reproductive endocrinologist and fertility specialist with Boca Fertility in Boca Raton, said the anti-abortion laws being enacted by Florida and other red states are being vaguely written by people who don't understand medical science. The rules are affecting not just women who want therapeutic abortions, meaning procedures to terminate viable pregnancies because of personal choice, but also nonviable pregnancies for women who want to have babies.

“We’re coming in between them and their doctors and preventing them from getting care until it’s literally saving their lives, sometimes at the expense of their fertility,” Roberts said.

The new ban has an exception for saving a woman's life, as well as in cases involving rape and incest, but Roberts said health care workers are still prevented from performing an abortion on a nonviable pregnancy that they know may become deadly — such as when the fetus is missing organs or implanted outside the uterus — until it actually becomes deadly.

“We’re being told that we have to wait until the mother is septic to be able to intervene,” Roberts said.

Besides the physical danger, there's also the psychological trauma of having to carry a fetus that the mother knows will never be a healthy baby, Roberts said.

“They’re feeling the kicks for months after they’re being told that they’re never going to have a live birth," Roberts said. “And it’s just horrifying when you could take care of it at 20 weeks, and they could move on, and they could get pregnant with their next pregnancy and be able to hold their babies that much sooner.”

She said a huge issue with the ban is that the doctors who perform emergency abortions have to learn the procedures by performing therapeutic abortions. So if most abortions are banned, the next generation of doctors won't be able to develop the skills needed to perform an emergency abortion.

Roberts said she's concerned the restrictions will also prompt veteran doctors to leave Florida, as they have in other states that have enacted abortion bans.

“We’re going to have less access to care for our general population, even if it’s just basic maternity care and normal OB-GYN care, because people are leaving,” Roberts said.

In addition, women are going to have to travel far from home to get abortions. Florida Access Network executive director Stephanie Pineiro said the organization, which helps provide funding for abortions, expects costs to increase dramatically. She estimates it will cost around $3,000 for a woman to travel to another state for an abortion. The closest place after 12 weeks would be Virginia or Illinois, but before 12 weeks would be North Carolina.

“It’s very emotionally draining and challenging to deal with these types of barriers and have to leave your home,” Pineiro said.

The Florida Supreme Court, with five of its seven members appointed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, ruled 6-1 last month to uphold the state's ban on most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, which cleared the way for the six-week ban. The 15-week ban, signed by DeSantis in 2022, had been enforced while it was challenged in court. The six-week ban, passed by the Legislature a year later, was written so that it would not take effect until a month after the 2022 law was upheld.

Republican state Sen. Erin Grall, who sponsored the six-week ban, previously said bodily autonomy should not include abortions.

“We live in a time where the consequences of our actions are an afterthought and convenience has been substitution for responsibility," Grall said, “and this is unacceptable when it comes to the protection of the most vulnerable.”

Voters may be able to enshrine abortion rights in Florida's constitution after a separate state Supreme Court ruling allowed a proposed constitutional amendment to be on the November ballot. The proposal says, “no law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s healthcare provider.” It provides for one exception that is already in the state constitution: Parents must be notified before their minor children can get an abortion.

Florida Democrats hope young voters would vote to enshrine abortion rights, as a way to combat the 900,000 voter registration edge Republicans have over Democrats in the state. They hope moderate views of the ballot initiative will turn out younger voters to vote Democrat when faced with the binary choice between a six-week abortion ban or protecting abortion until viability.

Jayden D'Onofrio, chairman of the Florida Future Leaders political action committee, said young Florida voters have a “real opportunity to shape the electoral landscape." Being that abortion rights have prevailed in elections nationwide, he thinks that Florida can engage young voters to register and vote for Democrats.

Nathan Mitchell, president of Florida Atlantic University College Republicans, said he would support a total abortion ban, and he hopes the amendment doesn't pass. Mitchell said he's seen most people want restrictions on abortion, usually for bans within 10 to 15 weeks of gestation.

Most Republican-controlled states have adopted bans or restrictions on abortions since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022. A survey of abortion providers conducted for the Society of Family Planning, which advocates for abortion access, found that Florida had the second-largest increase in the total number of abortions provided since the decision. The state’s data shows that more than 7,700 women from other states received abortions in Florida in 2023.

Florida Democratic leaders are encouraging women to seek help from abortion funds and resources. On Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Lauren Book encouraged women to access abortion travel funds and urged them to avoid “taking matters into your own hands.”

Matat reported from West Palm Beach, Florida.

FILE - Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis answers questions from the media, March 7, 2023, at the state Capitol in Tallahassee, Fla. Florida's ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, before many women even know they are pregnant, went into effect Wednesday, May 1, 2024. The Florida Supreme Court, with five of its seven members appointed by DeSantis, ruled 6-1 last month to uphold the state's ban on most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, which cleared the way for the six-week ban. (AP Photo/Phil Sears, File)

Dr. Leah Roberts, a reproductive endocrinologist-fertility specialist, discusses Florida’s six-week abortion ban, which took effect Wednesday, May 1, 2024, in her office and laboratory in Boca Raton, Fla., Tuesday, April 29. (AP Photo/Daniel Kozin)

Dr. Leah Roberts, a reproductive endocrinologist-fertility specialist, discusses Florida’s six-week abortion ban, which took effect Wednesday, May 1, 2024, in her office and laboratory in Boca Raton, Fla., Tuesday, April 29. (AP Photo/Daniel Kozin)

Dr. Leah Roberts, a reproductive endocrinologist-fertility specialist, looks through a microscope while discussing Florida’s six-week abortion ban, which took effect Wednesday, May 1, 2024, in her office and laboratory in Boca Raton, Fla., Tuesday, April 29. (AP Photo/Daniel Kozin)

Dr. Leah Roberts, a reproductive endocrinologist-fertility specialist, discusses Florida’s six-week abortion ban, which took effect Wednesday, May 1, 2024, in her office and laboratory in Boca Raton, Fla., Tuesday, April 29. (AP Photo/Daniel Kozin)