4 Members of Religious Anti-Government Group ‘God’s Misfits’ Accused of Murdering Pastor’s Wife and Friend

Investigators believe recent murders were motivated by a child custody dispute.

On April 16, the Office of the Oklahoma Chief Medical Examiner confirmed that the two deceased victims they recovered in a rural Texas field were 27-year-old Veronica Butler and 39-year-old Jilian Kelley.

Veronica Butler (l) and Jilian Kelley (r) / Photos provided by Oklahoma Highway Patrol

An affidavit from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI) says Kelley and Butler went missing on March 30 while on their way to Eva, Oklahoma, to pick up Butler’s 6-year-old daughter and 8-year-old son for the daughter’s birthday party. Police later discovered Butler’s abandoned car in rural Texas County, Oklahoma.

The affidavit said special agents found evidence of a violent struggle in and near the car, including blood splatters, Butler’s glasses near a broken hammer, and a pistol magazine in Kelley’s purse.

Kelley was the wife of Pastor Heath Kelley of Hugoton First Christian Church in Hugoton, Kansas, and the mother of four. Once the two women went missing, notes of prayers flooded the internet in support and concern.

On April 13, police arrested Tifany Machel Adams, along with Adams’ romantic partner, Tad Cullum, and friends Cole and Cora Twombly. The group was all charged with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of kidnapping, and one count of conspiracy to commit murder in the first degree.

Investigators say the two women were victims of a conspiracy to murder them over a custody battle involving Butler’s two children.

According to court documents, Butler was in a custody battle with Adams, the paternal grandmother of Butler’s children. The children’s father, Adams’s son, was at a rehab facility in Oklahoma City at the time of Butler and Kelley’s disappearance.

The double murder is said to have occurred about 10 days after Butler petitioned for full custody of her children. A custody hearing was scheduled for April 17, and Butler’s lawyer informed investigators that Butler was likely to have unsupervised visitation, which Adams wanted to avoid. Adams claimed the children had been exposed to sexual abuse while staying with Butler.

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Kelley was traveling with Butler to serve as the court-ordered supervisor for her child visitation. Butler had selected Kelley in place of another supervisor, whom Adams had earlier selected but was unavailable that day.

The four suspects are part of an anti-government group called “God’s Misfits,” according to the Associated Press. The religious group is said to have regularly met at the home of Cole and Cora Twombly.

Through a search warrant, investigators found Adams’ phone searches for taser gun pain level, gun shops, prepaid mobile phones, and ways to get someone out of their house. Adams also bought five taser guns and three prepaid cell phones. The three phones were located near Butler’s car after the women disappeared. OSBI officers also spoke to Cora Twombly’s teen daughter, who said she overheard the four suspects plotting to murder Butler and Kelley.

The teen said Adams gave the group prepaid phones, and Cole and Cora Twombly informed her that on March 29 they would be “on a mission.” She added that Cole and Cora later told her things had not gone as planned but that Butler was no longer a concern, according to the affidavit.

The girl said the gang had considered several ways to kill the two women, including throwing an anvil through Butler’s car glass to make the killings look like an accident. When she inquired why the group wanted to kill Kelley and Butler, Cora responded by saying Kelley “wasn’t innocent either, as she had supported Butler.”

The OSBI said Twombly’s daughter described God’s Misfits as an “anti-government group that has a religious affiliation.”

Investigators found that “God’s Misfits” held regular, weekly meetings. Three other known members of the group are not suspects.

There is no online presence of the Oklahoma-based God’s Misfits group.

Another Facebook group called “God’s Misfits” have moved to displace themselves from the Oklahoma murder case, claiming they had nothing to do with it.

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