Authorities are working to identify two bodies found in rural Oklahoma on Sunday, a day after four people were arrested on murder and kidnapping charges in connection with the disappearance of two women late last month.
Agency and FBI officials offered condolences at a news conference Monday to the families of Veronica Butler, 27, and Jilian Kelley, 39, while emphasizing that the bodies found in Texas County remain not identified. However, Butler and Kelley are not believed to be alive, added Hunter McKee, spokesman for the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.
In the meantime, investigators are confident that the four people arrested this weekend are connected to their disappearance and that the public is in no danger related to the case, McKee said.
“Based on the evidence and information we were able to obtain throughout the investigation – what was found inside the vehicle, witnesses, family, friends of the victims that we were able to speak with “Throughout this process – we were able to obtain information to determine that these four people were responsible for the disappearance of these two women,” McKee said.
Authorities arrested Tad Bert Cullum, 43, Tifany Machel Adams, 54, Cole Earl Twombly, 50, and Cora Twombly, 44, on Saturday in Texas and Cimarron counties, the Texas Bureau of Investigation said. Oklahoma State. said in a press release.
“All four individuals were booked into the Texas County Jail on two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of kidnapping, and one count of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder,” the release said.
Each of the suspects is expected to make their first court appearance Wednesday morning, according to online court records. It’s unclear if they have lawyers.
Butler and Kelley were traveling together to pick up children but never made it to the pick-up location, the Texas County Sheriff’s Department said in an “endangered missing person” notice issued March 30. Their vehicle was found abandoned near Interstate 95 in Oklahoma’s southern Texas County. of the state’s border with Kansas, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation said.
Evidence in and around the vehicle helped investigators determine that “there was foul play,” McKee told reporters Monday, emphasizing that the children were safe. McKee declined to further characterize the evidence, citing the ongoing investigation.
The two bodies found Sunday were found in a “very rural area,” McKee said, adding that the Oklahoma medical examiner’s office would determine the identity, as well as the cause and manner of death.
“This case did not end as we hoped. This was certainly a tragedy for everyone involved,” Aungela Spurlock, director of the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, said Monday.
CNN has contacted police for information on any relationship between the suspects and the missing women.
This is a developing story and has been updated.
CNN’s Dakin Andone and Elizabeth Wolfe contributed to this report.
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