‘No trace’ of two Kansas women missing after drive to Oklahoma, investigators say
Fox News senior correspondent Alicia Acuna reports on the search for two Kansas women who vanished while driving to Oklahoma.
A pastor tells Fox News that the lack of answers surrounding the mysterious disappearance of two women who vanished while traveling to pick up children in Oklahoma is "weighing heavily" on their loved ones.
Tim Singer of the Hugoton Assembly of God in Kansas made the remark as it’s now been four days since Veronica Butler – a 27-year-old member of his church — and Jilian Kelley, 39, were last seen. The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation told Fox News Digital on Tuesday that it believes the women are "in danger" after their car was found abandoned in a remote area of the state on Saturday.
"I think they are doing as well as can be expected under the circumstances," Singer said in reference to Butler’s fiancé and Kelley’s husband, who is a pastor at another church in the area. "The fact that they don’t have any answers currently is weighing heavily on them."
Singer added that the women, who are from Hugoton, were driving to pick up Veronica’s children on Saturday to take them back to a birthday party. When he received word they never made it to their destination, Singer said he and Kelley’s husband got in a car and drove in the direction they believed they were heading – only to encounter their abandoned vehicle surrounded by law enforcement.
PASTOR’S WIFE AMONG 2 MISSING WOMEN WHO OKLAHOMA INVESTIGATORS NOW BELIEVE ARE ‘IN DANGER’
Hugoton Assembly of God Pastor Tim Singer tells Fox News that Jilian Kelley, left, and Veronica Butler were heading Saturday to pick up Butler's children to bring them back to a birthday party in Hugoton, Kansas. (Shutterstock)
"We are doing what we can to try to just piece everything together and find out where these women may have gone, who may have spoken to them right before they left their vehicle," Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI) public information manager Hunter McKee told Fox News.
McKee also told Fox News Digital on Wednesday, "Right now we do not believe that the public is in immediate danger" and "It’s an ongoing investigation so everything is on the table that we are looking at."
The Texas County Sheriff’s Office previously said the women were "traveling together to pick up children" but they "never made it to the pickup location."
Veronica Butler, left, and Jilian Kelley were last seen Saturday while driving to pick up children, police say. (Oklahoma Highway Patrol)
"Veronica has several tattoos, a Chinese symbol on her left forearm, a sunflower on her left shoulder," says a missing persons advisory from the Texas County Sheriff’s Office. "Jilian has a butterfly tattoo on her left forearm."
The alert describes Butler as being 5-feet 4-inches tall with red hair and green eyes, last seen wearing a blue short-sleeve shirt and denim shorts.
Kelley has brown hair and blue eyes and was last seen wearing a long-sleeve shirt, blue jeans and tan or beige shoes, the alert adds.
The area near the Oklahoma-Kansas border where the vehicle the two women were traveling in was found abandoned on Saturday, according to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation. (Google Maps)
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The vehicle they were traveling in was "found abandoned near Highway 95 and Road L, south of Elkhart, Kansas, in rural Texas County," according to the OSBI.
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