A missing Kansas woman who disappeared this year and was found in a freezer buried in a cow pasture in the Oklahoma panhandle was killed in a stabbing attack that left her with dozens of wounds, according to a medical examiner’s report.
Veronica Butler, 27, died from sharp force trauma and had 30 wounds, 10 of which were consistent with her trying to defend herself, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Oklahoma said in its report.
Butler and Jilian Kelley, 39, a court supervisor in a children’s custody case, disappeared March 30. Their remains were found in Texas County, Oklahoma, on April 14, less than 10 miles from where they vanished, according to an affidavit filed by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.
Butler, who had a laceration on her head that may have been caused by a stun gun, was most likely dead when she was placed in the freezer and buried, according to the medical examiner.
Get top local stories in Philly delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC Philadelphia's News Headlines newsletter.
Five people have been charged with murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and kidnapping in the women's deaths.
The defendants are Tifany Adams; Adams’ boyfriend, Tad Bert Cullum; Cole Earl Twombly; Cora Twombly and Paul Grice.
Four of the five defendants are represented by the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System. The agency’s Executive Director Tim Laughlin on Thursday declined to comment.
U.S. & World
Stories that affect your life across the U.S. and around the world.
An attorney believed to be representing Cullum could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday afternoon.
Cullum rented the property where Butler and Kelley were found for cattle grazing, court records said.
Butler and Adams were involved in a custody dispute that began in February 2019, the affidavit said. Adams is the mother of the children’s father, according to the court record.
Butler had requested extended visitation, and her lawyer told the State Bureau of Investigation she would most likely get unsupervised visitation at a court hearing April 17, according to court records.
The investigation bureau affidavit also said the children’s father had said that, at times, Adams had not allowed him to have his children even though he had legal custody of them.
On the day she disappeared, a day she had visitation, Butler planned to take her daughter to a birthday party.
This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. More from NBC News:
