Mother Vanishes While Kids Are Home Alone
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Teresa Butler’s husband arrived home to find his kids alone and his wife nowhere to be found.
Teresa Lynn Butler was born on November 26, 1970. She was married to Gary Dale Butler, with whom she had two sons, and worked in a photo center in a Walmart — being that she had a passion for photography. The family’s home was located on Eight Ditch Road, near Highway 62, in Risco, Missouri.
Butler appeared to have an ordinary and happy life. She was on good terms with her family, friends, and colleagues; everyone seemed to like her.
However, Gary’s ex-wife, with whom he had other children, did not seem to like her. At one point, Teresa was constantly receiving threatening calls from the unnamed ex-wife.
Teresa’s father and her co-workers noticed how disturbed she would get by the calls. According to Gary, Teresa and his ex-wife ended up amicably solving their problems and were now on good terms.
On January 24, 2006, 35-year-old Teresa went to work as usual. In the evening, she went home and spent some time with her family until her husband left for work. Gary worked the night shift at the Maverick Tube Corporation in Blytheville, Arkansas. Just after he left, Sarah Buchanan, her sister-in-law, stopped by for a quick visit and at 10 PM Teresa spoke to a relative on the phone.
When Gary took a break around 11 PM, he called his wife several times. Teresa did not answer and so he assumed she had gone to bed.
The next day, Gary arrived home at 10 AM. His two sons, 4 and 2 years old, were in their parent’s bedroom; the youngest one was sucking on an empty bottle and had a full diaper. However, Teresa was nowhere to be found.
He immediately called the New Madrid County police.
Police investigated the scene and noticed several things:
- There was no sign of forced entry or struggle. However, a key was found broken in one of the door’s locks — possibly a piece of a bump key, used to pick locks. Moreover, the front door was locked.
- One of the porch’s lightbulbs was unscrewed. With this light off, it would have made it harder for neighbors or passers to see people coming in and out of the front door.
- Easily pawnable and untraceable objects were missing: a video camera, a Playstation with games, a Nintendo Game Cube with games, a large Mag-Lite flashlight, a digital camera, and the stereo from Teresa’s jeep parked in the driveway.
- Teresa’s jacket was in the house, but her phone and purse were gone.
- Teresa’s wedding rings, which she took off every night, were found under the sofa.
Interestingly, two calls were made from Teresa’s phone in the early hours of the morning she went missing.
At 3:16 AM, Teresa called a man in Gideon, Missouri. However, he didn’t see the call until hours later. After she had been reported missing, Teresa called a residence in Clarkton, Missouri. One of the two elderly women that lived there answered her call but said that it was complete silence on the other end.
Oddly, no one has any idea why these two residences in particular were called — Teresa had no connections whatsoever to these people.
However, they did all share the same area code, 543, so it’s hard to believe it was just a coincidence.
On the same day Teresa went missing, an unidentified person contacted the police with new information. They claimed that they had witnessed a drug deal where a video camera had been exchanged. The witness managed to view what was on it and realized it belonged to Teresa. They told authorities where it was, in a ditch between Malden and Risco, and it was recovered. However, the video recorder had no serial number and the tape was not in it anymore, making it impossible to prove it belonged to Teresa.
Oddly, sometime after Teresa went missing, Gary’s mother received a “strange” letter. The family has never released its contents.
Authorities are certain foul play is involved in Teresa’s disappearance. They have questioned several people and have one strong suspect. The person was brought in for questioning but, assumingly, they didn’t have enough evidence against the unnamed suspect.
Rumour has it two people may have been involved in the kidnapping and theft.
Teresa’s husband Gary had a strong alibi and was cleared by authorities. He has since passed away.
In late 2017, some people thought that they might get some answers on Teresa’s whereabouts. Authorities conducted a search and dug through a farmer’s field, with his permission, not even five miles from what had been Teresa’s home.
Authorities did not say what they were looking for or whose case it was related to. Evidently, nothing came from this.
