Friend of one of the missing Kansas moms speaks out on NewsNation
Video above: Affidavits detail alleged plot targeting 2 Kansas women
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – A friend of one of the missing Kansas moms, Veronica Butler, made an appearance on NewsNation’s CUOMO Monday night.
Butler and Jilian Kelley went missing on March 30. After over a week of silence from law enforcement, details have been slowly released as to what may have happened to these women. The most recent information came from the affidavits from the four suspects who were arrested in connection to the case.
On Monday night, Buffie Schooley of Hugoton, who was a friend of Butler’s, had a live interview with Christopher Cuomo.
During the interview, Schooley states that when she heard her friend went missing, her first thought was that it might have something to do with the custody battle Butler was in.
“She had been going through a terrible battle for quite some time. I didn’t know all the all the other parts about her getting harassed and threatened. We didn’t talk about that much in our conversations, but I know that she was fighting for her children,” she said.
Schooley said that Butler was trying to change the location of the meet-up for her children.
Community reacts to arrests made in connection to missing Kansas women
“She was trying to change the venue as to where it was being held. And a couple times, she just said that she was going to pick up her children. Like the day before she disappeared, I saw her. She was headed out of town to get some groceries because they were going to have a little birthday party on the boat, I believe, for the child. And she was so excited to go see them and be with them. And I knew she was – had a court date coming up, and she was really thinking that she was going to be able to be getting her children back here with her all the time,” she said. “We need to keep an eye out for these children in the years and the weeks and months to come.”
Schooley wants the world to remember Veronica for who she was, not for how her life ended.
“She was a good person. She was young and full of adventure and full of life. And she wanted nothing more than her children to come home. She had a small business up here. I, too, have a business in this town. And we had seen each other on quite a few occasions, and she was a great, a great person. I really miss seeing her little blue car out back of her nutrition shop every day because that’s how I knew where she was,” she said.
Schooley also wanted to share the words of someone who was close to Butler but did not want to go on camera:
“I spoke with a very close, close, close person of hers, and I said, ‘If you could have me tell them thing, what would you have me tell them?’ And she said, ‘Veronica was never going to give up on her kids.’ She said, ‘And as long as Veronica needed her, she was going to be there for her and those babies.’ She didn’t want to come on camera. She wants to wait until all this is done.”
KSN’s Julia Thatcher also made an appearance on CUOMO Monday night. To watch the interview with Schooley and Thatcher, click here.
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