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A fifth member of the so-called “God’s Misfits” group accused of kidnapping and murdering two friends in Oklahoma has been arrested, ten days after their bodies were discovered.
Paul Grice, 31, is facing two kidnapping and two first-degree murder charges, as well as conspiracy to commit murder, over the deaths of Veronica Butler, 27, and Jilian Kelley, 39.
The pair were reported missing after their car was found abandoned in rural Texas County on 30 March.
Tifany Machel Adams, 54; Tad Bert Cullum, 43; Cole Earl Twombly, 50; and Cora Twombly, 44, were all arrested and charged on 13 April.
Ms Butler and Ms Kelley’s bodies were found the following day.
Mr Grice was named in arrest documents for the other suspects, obtained by The Independent, but police had not said anything about the suspect in public.
In a social media post on Wednesday, the Oklahoma Bureau of Investigation said Mr Grice had been arrested earlier in the day “based on the evidence and information gathered from the case”.
On 30 March, the two women were headed to pick up Ms Butler’s children, to then take her daughter to a birthday party.
According to the documents obtained by The Independent, Ms Butler was involved in a “problematic” custody battle for her children with one of the suspects, Tifany Adams.
Ms Adams is the children’s paternal grandmother and they had been staying with her, investigators said, while her son Wrangler Rickman, 26, is in a rehabilitation facility.
Ms Butler was allowed supervised visits on Saturdays. The day before she disappeared, Ms Butler was told by Ms Adams that her usual paid supervisors was not available, and she should bring her own chosen person.
Ms Kelley, a preacher’s wife, was that chosen person.
The pair were driving towards the pick-up point on Highway 95 when they were reportedly diverted off at Road L by two members of what police have described as an anti-government, religious group who call themselves “God’s Misfits”.
This was the spot where the car was found by Ms Butler’s relatives a few hours later, with signs of a “severe injury”.
Police found blood on the ground, along with Ms Butler’s glasses and a broken hammer. In Ms Kelley’s purse, they found a pistol magazine but no firearm.
When the other four suspects were arrested, the OSBI alleged that the group had plotted for weeks to kill Ms Butler, stating that they “lured” the two women to the point where they vanished.
Searches of Ms Adams’ phone showed she had looked up “taser pain level, gun shops, prepaid cellular phones and how to get someone out of their house”.
The two women were forced into another vehicle and taken “to another location with the intent to cause Veronica Butler/Jilian Kelley to be confined/imprisoned against [their] will,” the court documents read.
The Twomblys had reportedly blocked the road so that the two victims would be directed to where Ms Adams and Mr Cullum were positioned.
Three pre-paid phones, purchased by Ms Adams, pinged at the location where the women’s car was later found. Two of those phones were found in a pasture below a dam, around eight miles away, where a hole had recently been dug and then filled back in. Those devices had shown up close to the Twomblys’ residence and another home, the affidavit said.
It is unclear what happened following the apparent abductions or how the victims died. The Medical Examiner’s Office is yet to release its report.
As part of its investigation, the OSBI questioned Mr Rickman’s grandmother, Debi Knox-Davis, who said her grandson told her in mid-February that “they didn’t have to worry about the custody battle much longer because Adams had it under control”.
While Mr Rickman denied having the conversation, he allegedly told his grandmother that “we will take out Veronica at drop off”.
Investigators also interviewed Ms Twombley’s 16-year-old daughter, identified as “CW”. She alleged that the suspects were all part of an anti-government, religious group known as “God’s Misfits”.
CW alleged that the group had earlier tried to kill Ms Butler in February. One plan had been to throw an anvil through the woman’s windshield in order to make her death look like an accident.
On 29 March, Mr and Ms Twombly told their daughter that they were going on a “mission” the next day, so likely would not be there when she woke up, according to the affidavits. The couple returned home at around noon and told the girl to clean the interior of their Chevrolet pickup.
Ms Twombly told her daughter that “things did not go as planned, but that they would not have to worry about her [Butler] again,” the court documents said.
CW alleged that she had asked why Ms Kelley had to die and her mother told her that she wasn’t innocent because she had supported Ms Butler, the documents said.
Those documents named Mr Grice alongside the other four defendants.
Ms Adams, Mr Cullum and Mr and Ms Twombly appeared in court last week, wearing bullet-proof vests, to hear the charges against them.
