(NEW YORK) — In the wake of the disappearance and killing of two women from Kansas, newly released court documents detail, according to prosecutors, the motive and evidence behind the alleged murder-kidnapping.
On Monday, the affidavit of probable cause for the arrest warrants of the four suspects arrested in connection with the alleged murder of moms Veronica Butler, 27, and Jilian Kelley, 39, was released.
The four individuals are Tad Bert Cullum, 43; Tifany Machel Adams, 54; Cole Earl Twombly, 50, and Cora Twombly, 44. All four remain in custody.
Ongoing custody battle
In the court documents, investigators state they discovered Butler was in a “problematic custody battle” with suspect Tifany Adams’ son for the custody of Butler’s two children.
Adams is the grandmother of Butler’s children and mother of the kids’ father, Wrangler Rickman, who has legal custody, according to the documents.
The custody battle between Butler and Rickman began in February 2019, according to the documents.
Previous child custody case recordings were obtained by investigators, in which Rickman allegedly discussed death threats made by his mother and her boyfriend, fellow suspect Tad Cullum, with legal representatives.
On March 30, the day of Butler and Kelley’s disappearance, Kelley was chosen to supervise Butler’s court-ordered custody exchange with Adams at 10:00 a.m. local time.
Adams’ preferred custody supervisor, Cheryl Brune, was allegedly “unavailable” for the March 30 exchange, however, Brune allegedly told investigators Adams had told her to take time off.
The children’s father was allegedly in an Oklahoma City rehabilitation facility at the time of the disappearance, according to the documents.
Investigators report that Adams claimed she was at home when Butler called to cancel the custody exchange at 9:00 a.m., local time.
Evidence near the vehicle
Amid the investigation into Butler and Kelley’s disappearance, authorities say they found their vehicle abandoned in rural Oklahoma, near the Kansas border.
An examination of the vehicle and the area surrounding found evidence of severe injury, according to the affidavit, which notes, blood was found on the roadway and edge of the roadway.
Butler’s glasses were also found in the roadway south of the vehicle near a broken hammer and a pistol magazine was found inside Kelley’s purse at the scene, but no pistol was found, according to documents.
Anti-government group
The affidavit states the two other suspects, married couple Cora and Cole Twombly, are allegedly members of an anti-government group called “God’s Misfits” with Adams and Cullum.
According to the court documents, an unnamed teen reported the Twomblys’ potential involvement in the alleged murder-kidnapping to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.
The teen allegedly told investigators that they “overheard” Cora allegedly confirm her involvement in the deaths and saw the alleged burner phones used in the suspected scheme.
All four suspects are scheduled to make their initial court appearance on Wednesday, according to officials.
Unidentified bodies discovered
On Sunday, police recovered two dead bodies in rural Texas amid the investigation into Butler’s and Kelly’s disappearance.
The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, the FBI and the Texas County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement on X that the bodies will be “transported to the Office of the Oklahoma Chief Medical Examiner to determine identification and cause and manner of death.”
(LITTLE ROCK, Ar.) — The Arkansas State Conference of the NAACP and the Lawyers Committee on Civil Rights are calling on a federal court to enact an injunction against the state of Arkansas over its Literacy, Empowerment, Accountability, Readiness, Networking and School Safety Act, known as the LEARNS Act, which is intended to prohibit public schools from teaching Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) and Critical Race Theory (CRT). Supporters of the LEARNS Act describe such teaching as “indoctrination.”
The NAACP joined the amended lawsuit, obtained first by ABC News, on Friday. The initial lawsuit was filed in March by national civil rights attorney Mike Laux in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas Central District. The NAACP and the Lawyers Committee on Civil Rights also filed a request for an injunction on Friday in an attempt to prevent the LEARNS Act from being enforced as the lawsuit is being litigated.
This latest effort is a part of the NAACP’s attempt to fight what they describe as a wave of anti-Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) legislation across the country. The lawsuit argues that the Advanced Placement (AP) African American Studies classes taught in Arkansas’ public schools have received inequitable treatment and have been marginalized and underfunded when compared to other advanced placement courses. The suit claims that the alleged inequities have both deprived students the opportunity to learn about African American history and contributions, and have maintained a level of systemic inequality.
“We refuse to go back. The NAACP will continue to use every tool at our disposal to ensure that our constitutional rights are protected, and our culture respected. This is what standing for community looks like,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson told ABC News.
Johnson added, “From Arkansas to Alabama, the desecration of diversity, equity and inclusion poses an imminent threat to the future of our nation.”
In January 2023, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed an executive order to prohibit what the order describes as “indoctrination” and the teaching of critical race theory (CRT) in Arkansas public schools. At the time she signed the order, Sanders said CRT “is antithetical to the traditional American values of neutrality, equality, and fairness. It emphasizes skin color as a person’s primary characteristic, thereby resurrecting segregationist values, which America has fought so hard to reject.”
The governor added, “It is the policy of this administration that CRT, discrimination, and indoctrination have no place in Arkansas classrooms.”
Two months later, Huckabee Sanders signed the 144-page LEARNS Act into law.
The LEARNS Act allowed the Arkansas Department of Education to create “enhanced processes and policies that prevent prohibited indoctrination, including Critical Race Theory, as it relates to employees, contractors, and guest speakers or lecturers of the department.”
Although the legislation was met with resistance, the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled in favor of the law saying that the act passed with a valid emergency clause in October.
The plaintiffs in the new lawsuit include two high school teachers and two students from Little Rock Central High School, in Little Rock, Arkansas. The same high school was the focal point of the 1957 Supreme Court ruling which ordered the integration of public schools in the U.S., three years after the Supreme Court’s landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision.
Nine Black students, who thereafter were known as the “Little Rock Nine,” were subsequently allowed to enroll in Little Rock Central High School. The students became targets of anti-integration mobs, prompting then-President Dwight Eisenhower to deploy the National Guard to enforce the law and protect the students.
In addition to Little Rock Central High School’s place in American history culture, it is also Gov. Huckabee Sanders’ alma mater, with the majority of its student body now comprised of students of color.
One of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, Ruthie Walls, is an AP teacher of African American studies. According to the lawsuit, Walls – who was named Little Rock Central High School’s “Teacher of the Year” for the 2023-2024 school year – is hamstrung by the bill.
The amended lawsuit says because of the LEARNS Act, Walls “now self-censors herself out of fear of the penalties that she may face,” and that she does not deeply delve into historic topics such as the impact of Jim Crow laws and the consequences of Brown v. Board of Education. The amended complaint further says Walls worries that the effects of the LEARNS Act will negatively affect her students’ success on the AP exam.
Additionally, the lawsuit alleges that the state of Arkansas and the Arkansas Department of Education “have purged state-provided resources, including information on civil rights from the NEA, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, and Selma online with no explanation for the removal.”
The lawsuit further alleges that the “State’s preferred 1776 Unites curriculum…could be interpreted as undermining discrimination and equal protection by white-washing history.”
The lawsuit also alleges that a state doesn’t have “unchecked power to impose upon the teachers in its schools any conditions that it chooses,” and cannot prohibit teaching a “theory or doctrine where that prohibition is based upon reasons that violate the First Amendment.”
This Arkansas lawsuit is the latest in a broader national effort to fight anti-DEI legislation. In March, the NAACP sent a letter urging Black current and prospective NCAA student-athlete players to reconsider attending colleges in the state of Florida after the University of Florida announced plans to dismantle its Diversity Equity and Inclusion department. The dismantling is in response to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Stop WOKE Act, which, like the LEARN Act, passed in 2023.
In her State of the State address on Wednesday, Gov. Huckabee Sanders said that education was her first priority. She stated in part that the first year of the LEARNS Act “targeted the most at-risk students in our state. But education freedom is for everyone, and soon, Education Freedom Accounts will be too.” The latter is in reference to an Arkansas program to allow eligible families to receive public funds to pay for private or home schooling for their children.
Huckabee Sanders added, “Educational freedom is the least we can do for those who put everything on the line for our freedom. This time next year, we will have universal education freedom for the first time in Arkansas history.”
She urged the state legislature to send her a budget that fully funds the LEARNS Act, which she said she will sign.
“Students should be allowed to learn about real history, not a whitewashed version,” David Hinojosa, director of the Educational Opportunities Project at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, told ABC News. “The most painful chapters of American history should not be buried because it makes some people uncomfortable.”
“Frankly, it’s downright offensive and unjust for Arkansas to be forcing educators to censor their discussion on racism and stripping the AP African American Studies course of all its benefits, including extra weight for their GPAs, and potentially earning college credit,” Hinojosa.
“Make no mistake, these coordinated efforts to rewrite our history, remove our leaders from classrooms and degrade our culture are a covert attempt to revert the progress we’ve worked tirelessly to secure,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson told ABC News.
(WASHINGTON) — NASA announced Monday it is revising plans for its Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission due to the estimated cost and long wait time for samples to return to Earth.
The mission’s goal was to collect samples of rock, soil, atmosphere and loose surface material and deliver them back to Earth via the Mars Perseverance rover. The rover, which landed in 2021, has been collecting and storing samples in specially designed tubes. The mission was a joint effort with the European Space Agency.
During a press conference, NASA administrator Bill Nelson said although the federal space agency is “committed” to retrieving the samples, independent reviews have estimated the project would cost between $8 billion and $11 billion and samples may not return until 2040.
“That is unacceptable to wait that long,” Nelson said. “It’s the decade of the 2040s that we’re going to be landing astronauts on Mars … the long and short of it then is that the current budget environment doesn’t allow us to pursue an $11 billion architecture and 2040 is too long.”
To make the mission work, NASA is requesting assistance from the NASA community, including the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL), to create a new, updated mission design that “has reduced complexity, improve resiliency and risk posture, and well as well as strong accountability and coordination,” Nicky Fox, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, said during the press conference.
Nelson said he is asking NASA centers and JPL to report back in the fall for alternate plans to make the mission quicker and cheaper to carry out.
The sample retrieval orbiter was scheduled to launch in 2027 and the lander in 2028, the latter carrying a NASA-led Mars rocket and small Mars helicopters. It was scheduled to land in 2030 and Perseverance would bring the samples to the lander, attached to the lightweight rocket.
Next, the rocket — carrying the samples — would launch to meet the orbiter, the first to do so from another planet. Lastly, the orbiter would carry the samples the rest of the way to Earth, with plans to originally return in 2033, according to NASA.
The helicopters would be used as backups in case Perseverance is not able to bring the sample tubes to the lander or in case sample tubes are accidentally left on the Mars surface.
“Collecting compelling science samples that will help scientists understand the geological history of Mars, the evolution of its climate, and prepare for future human explorers,” NASA wrote. “The return of the samples will also help NASA’s search for signs of ancient life.”
Despite the schedule set by NASA, the future of the mission has been in question after an independent review board reviewed the federal space agency’s plans and goals for the MSR mission and presented a report in September 2023.
In the report, the mission was described as having “[an] unrealistic budget and schedule expectations from the beginning.”
The authors of the report said the program would cost between $8 billion and $11 billion and that “technical issues, risks, and performance-to-date indicate a near zero probability” of the estimated launch dates. The report found the 2027/2028 date was more likely to occur in 2033, delaying the mission by a few years. Additionally, the Decadal Survey, conducted by the National Research Council said samples were unlikely to return until the 2040s.
“Independent review boards like the one we commissioned for Mars Sample Return help review whether we’re on the right track to meet our mission goals within the appropriate budget,” Sandra Connelly, deputy associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, said in a statement after the report’s release. “We thank the board for its work, and now our job is to assess the report and address if there are elements of the program that need to change.”
Past missions to Mars have confirmed that certain areas of the planet were capable of supporting life in the past, according to NASA. Evidence indicates parts of Mars were warm and wet about three billion years ago, which would be around the same time early life was developing on Earth.
“This commonality raises the prospect that discoveries on Mars can give us important insights about the origin and evolution of life on Earth,” NASA stated.
(NEW YORK) — The attack lasted just 27 seconds, but writer Salman Rushdie said in that short amount of time he experienced the worst and best of humanity.
In an interview Monday with ABC News’ “Good Morning America” co-host George Stephanopoulos, the 76-year-old author of “The Satanic Verses” recounted the 2022 attack on him at a lecture in Chautauqua, New York, allegedly by a 24-year-old man bent on carrying out a Fatwa imposed on Rushdie in 1989 by Ruhollah Khomeini, the former supreme leader of Iran.
Rushdie said he believed he was going to die, but then people who witnessed the attack rushed to protect him. He said his book chronicles the doctors who saved his life and how his wife, Eliza, became the heroine of his story for nursing him back to health.
“No question,” he told Stephanopoulos. “I mean, lying there in this lake of blood, which was mine and was expanding, I remember thinking in a completely calm way, Oh yeah, I think I’m dying. And then, fortunately, I was wrong.”
In his long road to recovery, Rushdie said he felt compelled to write a memoir about the horrific experience — “Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder” — which will be available in bookstores on Tuesday. He said writing the book was his way of “taking the power back.”
“It became my way of controlling the narrative if you’d like,” Rushdie said. “What I felt is that the book itself, I mean, it’s about a knife but it also kind of is a knife. I don’t have any guns or knives, so this is the tool I use. And I thought I would use it to fight back.”
On Aug. 12, 2022, Rushdie was speaking at the Chautauqua Institution about violence against writers when the alleged knife-wielding suspect, Hadi Matar, charged the stage and stabbed the writer more than a dozen times. Matar has pleaded not guilty to second-degree attempted murder and assault charges in connection with the attack.
It had been more than three decades since Rushdie faced death threats after his novel, “The Satanic Verses,” which was inspired by the life of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and was published in 1988. The book was deemed blasphemous by Khomeini and an insult to Islam. Khomeini issued a fatwa, or death sentence, against Rushdie.
Rushdie said Monday that he believed threats against his life had faded and all but forgotten. He conceded that he had let his guard down.
“I’ve been living here, George, close to 25 years in New York City and in that time, I’ve done hundreds of public events, you know, book tours, literary festivals, reading, lectures,” Rushdie told Stephanopoulos. “And there’s never been a hint of a problem until this time.”
While his book is largely about the assassination attempt on him, he said it is also a love story.
“I always thought there were three people in this book. There’s me, there’s him, who I refuse to use his name,” he said of the suspect. “And there’s my wife, Eliza. We had met five years before this attack took place.”
Describing his marriage as the “happiest relationship of my life,” Rushdie said his wife has been his rock, the guiding force behind his recovery.
“She was just astonishing in taking care of me and then looking after things and taking charge of things,” said Rushdie, adding, “and bringing me back.”
In the “GMA” interview, Rushdie said he had a premonition of the attack that came to him in a “bad dream.”
“You can explain the bad dream because the place I was giving the lecture was called an amphitheater. So I had a dream about being in an amphitheater, except in my dream it was like the Colosseum. It was like a Ridley Scott movie,” Rushdie said. “And there was a gladiator with a spear stabbing downwards and I was rolling around on the ground. And I woke up from the dream quite alarmed and, at first, I thought, Oh, I don’t want to go. And then I thought it was a dream.”
Rushdie, who bears scars from the attack on his face and is blinded in his right eye, recalled how time “became a very weird thing” during the stabbing and its immediate aftermath.
“It seemed to go very fast at moments … and to me like an eternity at other times,” Rushdie said. “I had a very weird experience of time in that extreme situation.”
A longtime atheist, Rushdie said the near-death experience made him briefly believe in the supernatural.
“For a minute it did, and then it didn’t, and maybe it should have,” Rushdie said.
As far as his health goes, he told Stephanopoulos, “I’m alright. I think I’m, to my surprise and I think to everybody else’s surprise, pretty well.”
Matar, of New Jersey, was initially scheduled to go on trial in January, but his attorney was granted a delay to review the manuscript of Rushdie’s book.
Rushdie said he plans to testify at the trial whenever it occurs.
“I believe the DA wants me to testify and so I will,” Rushdie said. “That’s OK. There’s nothing I will say on the witness stand that I haven’t already said in this book.”
Former US President Donald Trump waves as he departs Trump Tower for Manhattan Criminal Court, to attend the first day of his trial for allegedly covering up hush money payments linked to extramarital affairs, in New York City on April 15, 2024. — CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump is on trial in New York City, where he is facing felony charges related to a 2016 hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. It marks the first time in history that a former U.S. president has been tried on criminal charges.
Trump last April pleaded not guilty to a 34-count indictment charging him with falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment his then-attorney Michael Cohen made to Daniels in order to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election.
Jury selection could take up to two weeks, with the entire trial expected to last between six and eight weeks.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Apr 15, 9:41 AM Trump calls trial ‘assault on America’
Former President Trump arrived at the courtroom at 9:32 a.m. flanked by members of his legal team.
In brief remarks to reporters on the way in, he called his criminal trial an “assault on America.”
“Nothing like this has ever happened before,” Trump said, marking his first comments of the day as he becomes the first former American president to face criminal charges.
“There is no case,” he said. “This is political persecution.”
Trump also attacked President Joe Biden and said the case should not go forward.
Upon entering the courtroom, he sat at the defendant’s table as his lawyers and court officers buzzed around him.
Apr 15, 9:23 AM Members of DA’s team arrive
Several members of the Manhattan district attorney’s office have arrived in the courtroom.
Proceedings are scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. ET.
Apr 15, 9:06 AM Trump arrives at courthouse
Former President Trump has arrived at the courthouse in lower Manhattan.
He stepped out of his motorcade, waved, and walked into the side entrance.
A small group of supporters and protestors both cheered and booed his arrival.
Apr 15, 8:59 AM Trump en route to courthouse
Former President Trump is en route to the courthouse in lower Manhattan for this morning’s proceedings.
The former president left for the the courthouse from Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan.
Apr 15, 7:26 AM Court may start with hearing on Trump testifying
Court this morning may start with a hearing over what prosecutors can ask Trump during cross-examination should he take the stand later in the trial.
The judge would hear arguments from both the people and the defense. The proceedings would then move into jury selection later in the morning.
Prosecutors have indicated they would want to cross-examine Trump on approximately “thirteen different court determinations,” including the recent civil finding that he sexually abused columnist E. Jean Carroll, the criminal conviction of the Trump Organization last year, the finding that he committed a decade of business fraud, and the dissolution of his charity, according to sources familiar with the matter.
The hearing — known as a Sandoval hearing — is standard practice before jury selection and typically occurs when a defendant signals a willingness to testify.
In a filing last month, Trump’s lawyers requested a Sandoval hearing to limit the scope of Trump’s potential cross examination, if he opted to testify.
ABC News’ Katherine Faulders contributed to this report.
Apr 15, 7:06 AM Jury selection set to begin
Former President Trump will leave his Trump Tower apartment in Midtown Manhattan this morning and travel down to lower Manhattan for the first day of jury selection in his criminal hush money trial.
The proceedings come after Trump unsuccessfully tried three times last week to delay the start of the trial through the filing of appeals.
As a defendant in a criminal case, the former president will be required to be in court for the entire trial, which is expected to take six to eight weeks.
Former US President Donald Trump waves as he departs Trump Tower for Manhattan Criminal Court, to attend the first day of his trial for allegedly covering up hush money payments linked to extramarital affairs, in New York City on April 15, 2024. — CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump is on trial in New York City, where he is facing felony charges related to a 2016 hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. It marks the first time in history that a former U.S. president has been tried on criminal charges.
Trump last April pleaded not guilty to a 34-count indictment charging him with falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment his then-attorney Michael Cohen made to Daniels in order to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election.
Jury selection could take up to two weeks, with the entire trial expected to last between six and eight weeks.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Apr 15, 10:03 AM Proceedings are underway
“All rise,” the bailiff announced at 9:59 a.m. ET. “This is the People of the State of New York v. Donald J. Trump.”
And with that, proceedings are underway.
Members of the prosecution and the defense, including the former president, stood briefly as Judge Juan Merchan entered the courtroom and took his seat on the bench.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg entered the courtroom shortly before court went into session.
Apr 15, 9:41 AM Trump calls trial ‘assault on America’
Former President Trump arrived at the courtroom at 9:32 a.m. flanked by members of his legal team.
In brief remarks to reporters on the way in, he called his criminal trial an “assault on America.”
“Nothing like this has ever happened before,” Trump said, marking his first comments of the day as he becomes the first former American president to face criminal charges.
“There is no case,” he said. “This is political persecution.”
Trump also attacked President Joe Biden and said the case should not go forward.
Upon entering the courtroom, he sat at the defendant’s table as his lawyers and court officers buzzed around him.
Apr 15, 9:23 AM Members of DA’s team arrive
Several members of the Manhattan district attorney’s office have arrived in the courtroom.
Proceedings are scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. ET.
Apr 15, 9:06 AM Trump arrives at courthouse
Former President Trump has arrived at the courthouse in lower Manhattan.
He stepped out of his motorcade, waved, and walked into the side entrance.
A small group of supporters and protestors both cheered and booed his arrival.
Apr 15, 8:59 AM Trump en route to courthouse
Former President Trump is en route to the courthouse in lower Manhattan for this morning’s proceedings.
The former president left for the the courthouse from Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan.
Apr 15, 7:26 AM Court may start with hearing on Trump testifying
Court this morning may start with a hearing over what prosecutors can ask Trump during cross-examination should he take the stand later in the trial.
The judge would hear arguments from both the people and the defense. The proceedings would then move into jury selection later in the morning.
Prosecutors have indicated they would want to cross-examine Trump on approximately “thirteen different court determinations,” including the recent civil finding that he sexually abused columnist E. Jean Carroll, the criminal conviction of the Trump Organization last year, the finding that he committed a decade of business fraud, and the dissolution of his charity, according to sources familiar with the matter.
The hearing — known as a Sandoval hearing — is standard practice before jury selection and typically occurs when a defendant signals a willingness to testify.
In a filing last month, Trump’s lawyers requested a Sandoval hearing to limit the scope of Trump’s potential cross examination, if he opted to testify.
ABC News’ Katherine Faulders contributed to this report.
Apr 15, 7:06 AM Jury selection set to begin
Former President Trump will leave his Trump Tower apartment in Midtown Manhattan this morning and travel down to lower Manhattan for the first day of jury selection in his criminal hush money trial.
The proceedings come after Trump unsuccessfully tried three times last week to delay the start of the trial through the filing of appeals.
As a defendant in a criminal case, the former president will be required to be in court for the entire trial, which is expected to take six to eight weeks.
A crane works on the debris of the Francis Scott Key Bridge on March 29, 2024 in Baltimore. — Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
(BALTIMORE) — The FBI is investigating whether there was any criminal wrongdoing in the crash that brought down the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore in March, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
The probe will look at whether the crew left port with the knowledge something could be wrong with the ship, according to a source.
On Monday morning, agents from the FBI were aboard the ship, according to the Justice Department.
“The FBI is present aboard the cargo ship Dali conducting court authorized law enforcement activity,” the FBI Baltimore said in a statement.
The FBI did not offer further comment.
“Federal agents today are conducting a court-approved search of the Dali,” according to a DOJ spokesperson. “We have no further comment at this time.”
The container ship Dali struck one of the piers on the Key Bridge early on the morning of March 26, causing the bridge to collapse and killing six construction workers who were filling potholes on the span. Two other workers survived the incident.
No one on the cargo ship was injured in the collision, though several containers fell into the channel.
President Joe Biden, who visited the collapse site on April 5, has pledged to fully support Baltimore’s rebuilding efforts. He said during his visit its his “intention that the federal government will pay for the entire cost of reconstruction of that bridge.”
Veronica Butler, 27, and Jilian Kelley, 39, are seen in undated photos released on March 31, 2024, by the Texas County Sheriff’s Department. — Texas County Sheriff’s Department
(GUYMON, Okla.) — Police recovered two dead bodies in rural Texas amid the investigation into the disappearance of two mothers from Kansas who went missing in Oklahoma, authorities announced Sunday.
The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, the FBI and the Texas County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement on X that the bodies will be “transported to the Office of the Oklahoma Chief Medical Examiner to determine identification and cause and manner of death.”
Authorities have not identified the deceased.
Moms Veronica Butler, 27, and Jilian Kelley, 39, both from Hugoton, Kansas, have been missing since March 30. The last known information about the missing women is that they were driving in Oklahoma to pick up Butler’s children for a birthday party in Kansas.
Authorities later found their vehicle abandoned in rural Oklahoma, near the Kansas border.
On Saturday, Oklahoma police announced four people were arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of kidnapping and one count of conspiracy to commit murder in the first degree in connection with Butler and Kelley’s disappearance.
The four individuals are Tad Bert Cullum, 43; Tifany Machel Adams, 54; Cole Earl Twombly, 50, and Cora Twombly, 44. All four remained in custody on Sunday night.
ABC News wasn’t immediately able to locate a legal representative for those charged.
ABC News’ Amanda Morris contributed to this report.
(CHICAGO) — A child was killed and at least 10 other people were injured, including a 1-year-old and an 8-year-old, when gunfire broke out at a family gathering in Chicago, according to police.
No suspects have been arrested in the mass shooting that erupted Saturday night on the city’s South Side, and police are asking for the public’s help in identifying those who might be responsible for the shooting.
Deputy Chief Don Jerome said the shooting was likely gang-related.
“This was not a random act of violence,” Jerome said during a news conference Saturday night. “Regardless of the motivation for this incident, three innocent children were struck tonight and one of them tragically succumbed to her wounds.”
The slain victim was identified by her father as 9-year-old Ariana Molina, who police said was shot in the head. She was taken to Comer Children’s Hospital, where she was pronounced dead, police said.
Ariana’s father, Jose Molina, told ABC News that the shooting also left him and his wife with bullet wounds. He said his wife remains hospitalized with a bullet wound to the back and that he suffered wounds to his feet.
He said his daughter was “wonderful and helpful, and was everything to him.”
The shooting unfolded during a large family outdoor gathering in the Back of the Yards neighborhood, police said. Witnesses told police that around 9:18 p.m., a black sedan pulled up to the event and occupants opened fire on the crowd without warning.
Police said there were likely two shooters responsible for the carnage.
“The offenders’ actions, make no mistake, are horrific and unacceptable in our city,” Jerome said.
Police officers went to the scene after a ShotSpotter alert detected 18 gunshot rounds at the location, according to police.
Officers found multiple victims suffering from gunshot wounds and started performing life-saving measures, authorities said.
At least three people were in critical condition, including the 1-year-old and 8-year-old boys, police said. Both children were shot in the abdomen and were being treated Sunday at Comer Children’s Hospital, according to police.
A 36-year-old man who suffered two gunshot wounds to the back was also in critical condition Sunday at the University of Chicago Medical Center, police said.
The other victims ranged in age from 19 to 40, police said.
Chicago Alderman Stephanie Coleman, who represents Chicago’s 16th Ward where the shooting occurred, released a statement Sunday calling the shooting “a cowardly crime.”
“The Back of the Yards community is united in our grief, prayers and collective mindset that we must continue to stand firm against these senseless acts of physical force,” Coleman said.
“Violence is a citywide issue that continues to falsely characterize the true essence and intrinsic nature of our neighborhoods. This tragedy has left us all heartbroken and distressed,” Coleman said.
(SALINA, N.Y.) — A sheriff’s deputy and a police officer have died after shots were fired as they investigated a stolen vehicle in Salina, New York, officials confirmed early Monday morning.
A Syracuse police officer and an Onondaga County sheriff’s deputy were initially taken to a local hospital in critical condition following the shooting, officials said earlier. Both were pronounced dead at University Hospital, a police official said Monday morning.
The person authorities consider the prime suspect in the case was also killed.
Just after 8 p.m. ET, the officers were trying to perform a vehicle traffic stop, officials said Monday morning. When the vehicle did not stop, the officers got the license plate number and went to a location associated with it, according to the authorities.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
ABC News’ Megan Wordell and Darren Reynolds contributed to this report.
