HUGOTON, Kan. (KAKE) - Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation Public Information Manager Hunter McKee said at a news conference Monday morning that the search for 27-year-old Veronica Butler, and 39-year-old Jilian Kelley from Hugoton is over, and that both are likely dead.

“This case did not end the way we had hoped," said OSBI Director Angela Spurlock. "It has certainly been a tragedy for everybody involved.”

Court documents in the arrest of the four people connected to the disappearance, say that Butler and her two children's paternal grandmother Tifany Adams were in a problematic custody battle.

“It is still an ongoing investigation," McKee said. "And that is for our investigative purposes. Again, we can say that the evidence that was discovered inside of that abandoned vehicle and around it, we're able to help our investigators determine that there was foul play involved.”

The affidavits say that Butler and Kelley were driving to pick up Butler’s children in the Oklahoma panhandle on March 30th, but they never showed up.

Family members found Butler's car in a rural area near the Oklahoma-Kansas border.

The court documents say authorities discovered blood outside the car, Butler's glasses, a broken hammer, and a pistol magazine in Kelley's purse, but no gun.

After days of searching and talking to witnesses, the 16-year-old daughter of two of the suspects, Cora and Cole Twombly told authorities all four of the suspects told her they were involved in the deaths of Butler and Kelley.

The documents also say investigators found the bodies on private property, below a dam, in the pasture where there was fresh dirt.

The community of Hugoton reacted to the news.

“It's been a real bad thing for everybody, the whole town, when you live in a town this size, you know, everybody knows everybody or knows somebody that knows them,” said Hugoton resident Jane Nix.

The OSBI is not confirming that the two bodies found Sunday are those of Butler and Kelley.