An Oklahoma grandmother was sentenced Monday to two life sentences without parole for the murders of two Kansas women during a custody exchange in 2024.
Tifany Adams pleaded no contest last year to multiple charges related to the murders of Veronica Butler and Julian Kelley, KFOR reported. In addition to the life sentences, she was sentenced to five years each for two counts of unlawful removal of a dead body and seven years each for two counts of unlawful desecration of a human corpse.
The bodies of Butler, 27, and Kelley, 39, were found on April 14, two weeks after they disappeared while traveling to pick up Butler’s children from their grandmother’s home in Texas County, Oklahoma, as CrimeOnline reported. Adams and four other people — her boyfriend Tad Cullum, Cole Twombly, his wife Cora Twombly, and Paul Grice — were later charged with multiple counts related to the murders.
The defendants were accused of ambushing the two women as they travelled to Adams’ home in Oklahoma from their homes in Kansas. After they were killed, their bodies were placed in a freezer and buried in a spot secured and prepared by Cullum.
Cora Twombly and Grice have taken plea deals that took the death penalty off the table for them in exchange for their testimony.
Cole Twombly and Cullum have pleaded not guilty and are expected to go on trial later this year.
Adams, Butler’s children’s paternal grandmother, was accused of masterminding the murders over a custody dispute.
Prosecutors agreed to drop charges of conspiracy and child neglect against Adams and also agreed not to require her to testify against her co-defendants, KFOR said.
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[Featured image: Veronica Butler and Jilian Kelley/Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation]
