Editor’s note: Some of the details are disturbing and graphic.
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — The autopsy of Veronica Butler has been released less than a week after officials said it would be another six months until it was made public. On Wednesday, a judge denied a motion to keep it sealed.
Butler, 27, and Jilian Kelley, 39, were murdered earlier this year after they traveled from Hugoton to pick up Butler’s children in Oklahoma.
The women never made it to the children. They disappeared on March 30, and their bodies were found buried in a freezer about two weeks later. Five people have been arrested and charged in the case, including the children’s grandmother.
In September, documents revealed that both women had been stabbed to death, placed in a freezer and driven to the burial site in Texas County, Oklahoma. The medical examiner released her complete report on Kelley’s murder on Nov. 5.
On Thursday, she released the 14-page autopsy report detailing Butler’s death.
One thing that is different in this report is that a lasso-style rope was found loosely wrapped around Butler’s waist. The presence of the rope is not explained in the report.
One thing that is the same is that the medical examiner believes Butler’s death was also quick.
“Given the extent of Ms. Butler’s injuries … it is my opinion that her death was very quick and likely occurred before she was placed inside the freezer and buried,” Dr. Celia Cobb, Oklahoma medical examiner, wrote. “This opinion is additionally supported by the fact that her body appeared to have remained exactly how it was placed inside the freezer.”
In short, the report says the manner of Butler’s death is homicide. It says Butler had 30 cuts and stab wounds to her head, neck, shoulder, back, torso, hands, arm, and thigh. Cobb believes a third of the cuts indicate Butler was trying to defend herself.
There was also one blunt force injury to the top of her head and possible stun gun marks to the lower neck.
Cobb put the time of death as “unknown.”
The report provides very specific information about each wound and also discusses the freezer. It says investigators found the freezer under a concrete slab buried up to eight feet below ground. The freezer measured 4.5 feet long by 27 inches wide by 35 inches high and was sealed in yellow ratchet straps.
Under the freezer, investigators found and collected clothing, a stun gun, a roll of tape and a sheathed knife.
The investigators briefly opened the freezer to confirm the bodies were inside, then closed it, wrapped it in a clean red tarp and transported it inside a sealed, covered trailer.
When the freezer was opened again, investigators found that Butler’s body was on top of Kelley’s body. Also in the freezer were dirt, hay, an Apple watch, a pair of soiled shoes on the freezer floor, and two soiled gloves (one leather, one cloth).
The criminal cases against the children’s grandmother, Tifany Adams, and the other four defendants, Tad Cullum, Cole and Cora Twombly, and Paul Grice, are proceeding through the court system.
