Two bodies found in search for missing Kansas women in Oklahoma, OSBI reports

Moran Elwell and Jana Hayes, The Oklahoman
Updated ·2 min read
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Two Kansas women, Veronica Butler, 27, and Jilian Kelley, 39, went missing in Oklahoma's panhandle, authorities said.
Two Kansas women, Veronica Butler, 27, and Jilian Kelley, 39, went missing in Oklahoma's panhandle, authorities said.

Update: The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation said Monday that there is "no" chance two Kansas women, Veronica Butler, 27, and Jilian Kelley, 39, are alive. Read the full update.

Two deceased people have been recovered in rural Texas County, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation announced Sunday night on its Facebook page.

The post said the remains will be taken to the Medical Examiner's Office to determine identification, and cause and manner of death. The investigation is ongoing, the OSBI added.

The recovery by the OSBI, the FBI, Texas County Sheriff's Department and the Office of the Oklahoma Chief Medical Examiner comes as law enforcement have been searching for two Kansas women, Veronica Butler, 27, and Jilian Kelley, 39, who authorities said went missing in Oklahoma's panhandle.

More: Four arrested, two bodies found: What we know about two Kansas women missing in Oklahoma

Four arrests have been made related to the women, authorities said. All four were booked into the Texas County jail Saturday, each on two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of kidnapping and one count of conspiracy to commit murder in the first degree, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation said. Official charges have not been filed.

More: Four arrested, suspected of murder after Kansas women missing in Oklahoma's Texas County

One arrest was made in Texas County, and three were made in Cimarron County, OSBI spokesperson Hunter McKee said. Both counties are in the Oklahoma panhandle, between Kansas and Texas.

Butler and Kelley were on their way to pick up children but never made it to the pick up location, according to a missing person's poster from the Texas County Sheriff's Office.

Their car was found abandoned in rural Texas County, Oklahoma — near Highway 95 and Road L, just south of Elkhart, Kansas, and the Oklahoma/Kansas border, OSBI told USA Today.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Missing Kansas women: OSBI reports two bodies found in rural Oklahoma