An Oklahoma District Attorney will seek the death penalty against two of the five suspects in the deaths of two Kansas women in 2024.

 

51-year-old Cole Earl Twombly and 44-year-old Tad Bert Cullum will face the possibly of the death penalty for their roles in deaths of Veronica Butler and Jilian Kelley in Texas County, Oklahoma. Court records show that District Attorney George Leach III will seek the death penalty against the two men on the grounds that the murders of Butler and Kelley were especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel and that the two could be a continued threat to society. They are set for arraignment on November 5th.

 

The victims were traveling together from their homes in Hugoton, Kansas, on March 30, 2024, to pick up Butler’s children when they went missing. Their bodies were discovered in a rural area of the Oklahoma panhandle two weeks later. Another suspect Tifany Adams entered a no contest plea last week to two counts of first-degree murder in the case. She is scheduled for sentencing on January 28th.

 

Two others Paul Grice and Cora Twombly are also charged in the case.