(NewsNation) — A local man who saw Oklahoma police find the two Kansas moms’ bodies knew both victims and the suspects being questioned in the murder investigation.
He told NewsNation’s senior national correspondent Brian Entin that the town is in shock and worried about being associated with what has happened.
“The people in this county are good people. And we don’t want this to reflect differently than what we really are. We’re not cults. We’re not misfits, not demons,” the neighbor said.
The Office of the Oklahoma Chief Medical Examiner identified two bodies found in Texas County as Veronica Butler, 27, and Jilian Kelley, 39, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation said Tuesday. NewsNation obtained exclusive video that shows police finding the bodies.
Paternal grandmother Tifany Adams, 54; her boyfriend Tad Cullum, 43; Cora Twombly, 44; and her husband Cole Twombly, 50, have each been charged with the kidnapping and first-degree murder of Butler and Kelley.
Butler was reportedly in the middle of a nasty custody battle with Adams, the grandmother of her children, at the time of her death.
The four suspects lived in the Oklahoma Panhandle, a thin strip of land with a history of lawlessness and criminality in the 1800s. The Oklahoma Panhandle, where the suspects lived and where the two bodies were found, had historically been known as “No Man’s Land.”
The quartet, allegedly part of an anti-government religious group called “God’s Misfits,” has become a central figure in the investigation. The group allegedly met at the Twombly’s residence weekly, court documents revealed.
Police say a fifth person who attended those meetings was not arrested. NewNation learned Wednesday night that the man was taken into custody and questioned by authorities but was then released.
NewsNation’s Brian Entin, Devan Markham and Stephanie Haines contributed to this report.