Tifany Machel Adams, 56, an Oklahoma grandmother and former Republican Party chair in Cimarron County, received a life sentence without parole after pleading no contest in October 2025 to two counts of first-degree murder, plus corpse desecration and removal charges, in the 2024 killings of Kansas mothers Veronica Butler, 27, and Jilian Kelley, 39.
Case Background
On March 30, 2024, Butler and Kelley drove from Kansas to rural Texas County, Oklahoma, to pick up Butler’s young children (ages 6 and 8) from Adams—paternal grandmother—for a birthday party visit supervised by court order amid a fierce custody battle. Their van was found abandoned on Highway 95 with signs of foul play like blood evidence; bodies were discovered weeks later in a buried chest freezer on leased property, Butler stabbed 9 times with defensive wounds.
Motive and Group Ties
Prosecutors linked the ambush kidnapping to Adams’ opposition to Butler’s visitation rights, involving her boyfriend Tad Bert Cullum and members of “God’s Misfits,” a self-styled anti-government group that met weekly. Adams bought burner phones and stun guns; early plans allegedly included staging an anvil accident.
Co-Defendants and Pleas
Four others face murder, kidnapping, and conspiracy charges: Cullum (trial October 2026, death penalty challenged), Cole and Cora Twombly, and Paul Grice. Cora Twombly and Grice took pleas, testifying in December 2025— she faces 30 years minimum, he avoids death penalty. Dropped charges against Adams included conspiracy and child neglect.
This custody-fueled tragedy underscores risks in family disputes intersecting extremism, akin to prior cases like McKee’s targeted murders. Court records confirm sentencing around February 2, 2026, post-weather delay.
