KSN-TV
WICHITA — A stretch of Oklahoma Highway 95 where two Southwest Kansas mothers were killed is being reclaimed to honor their memory.
Permanent markers are being installed to memorialize Veronica Butler and Jilian Kelley.
The decision was made in 2025 as part of Oklahoma House Bill 1486, which renames roads and bridges. Now, with lawmakers’ approval, the next step is paying for the signs to go up.
The two Kansas moms were reported missing on March 30, 2024, after driving to Oklahoma from Hugoton to pick up Butler’s children from Tifany Adams, the children’s paternal grandmother. Their vehicle was found abandoned on OK-95 just south of Elkhart, Kansas.
On Jan. 8, a GoFundMe to pay for the markers reached its goal. Tara Parker, an administrator on the Facebook page Justice for KS Moms Veronica Butler and Jilian Kelley, wants this to bring peace and relief to the families.
“It means somebody somewhere is going to ask, ‘Who was that?'” she said. “That means they’re going to go back and look at the story, and the story lives, they live on, and that makes a big difference; it gives you a little bit of a sense of relief. It doesn’t close the healing door, but it does help you down the journey of healing.”
Parker said it could take a few months to get the markers up.
Butler’s dad said this is a way to reclaim that stretch of road, not just for him but for his daughter and Kelley, too.
“I want the girls to own that stretch of road, if that makes sense, and they should own it,” Clint Butler said.
If there is any money left over from the GoFundMe, he wants to buy footstones for his daughter and Kelley with their pictures on them.
Background
Two weeks after Butler and Kelley were reported missing, their bodies were found buried inside a chest freezer. Investigators said the women had been stabbed to death. Five suspects were arrested the next month.
Those suspects were Adams, Tad Cullum, Cole Twombly, Cora Twombly and Paul Grice.
Adams pleaded no contest last year. The cases against the other four are working their way through the court system.
