US News
Authorities suspect “foul play” after two Kansas moms traveling in Oklahoma went missing after the car they were driving was found abandoned in a remote part of the Sooner state.
Veronica Butler and Jillian Kelly went missing Saturday in a “rural” area of Texas County near Highway 95 and Road L. Oklahoma State Bureau.
Investigators revealed Wednesday that a thorough analysis of the circumstances surrounding their disappearance has revealed “evidence indicating foul play.”
Butler, 27, and Kelly, 39, traveled only 16 miles to pick up Butler's 6-year-old daughter and 8-year-old son, who lived with her ex-mother-in-law in Ewa, Okla. According to ABC7.
When the women never arrived to pick up the children, Butler's ex-husband found the car on the side of the road near the school from which Butler graduated in 2015, according to the report.
The car was found three miles north of Eva.
Kelly — a mother of four — was suspected of traveling with Butler to help him with a custody issue, sources familiar with the matter said. NewsNation On Wednesday.
Strangely, the school near where the girl disappeared and the Yarbrough school from which Butler graduated began operating under lockdown Tuesday. According to a Facebook post.
and the Texas County Sheriff's Department provided An Endangered Missing Counselor for Two Mothers.
Both mothers were members of the Hugoton First Christian Church in Kansas and were reported to be more “acquaintances” than “friends,” according to NewsNation.
A pastor's wife and secretary of a community church, Kelly is said to regularly participate in volunteer work, including running the church's children's programs. According to ABC7.
Her husband, Heath Kelly, formerly pastor of Hugoton, recently became the new minister at Willow Christian Church in Nebraska.
The congregation is asking the community to continue to spread the word about the missing and pray that the two women will be found.
“Pray that Jillian and her friend Veronica are safe and that they are found soon. God please take these girls home to their families who are so worried about them,” the church wrote in a Facebook post Mail Monday.
Butler's friend told ABC7 that he hopes the girls are found, but that the odds of finding a missing person diminish after the “first 24-48 hours” pass.
“It's really hard to get to know someone I've been in touch with since I was 16 (missing), it's really hard,” the source told the outlet.
Oklahoma State Bureau said They are currently saying “no arrests have been made” after the mothers were suspected to have gone missing under suspicious circumstances.
“There's every reason to believe they could be at risk,” Hunter McGee, public information manager with the bureau told ABC News tuesday
“It was very rural. They were nowhere to be seen. … The fact is we had no contact with them for so long.
