The search continues for Teresa Butler

Teresa Butler

This year hope seems to be fading. A close friend of Butler's said she was unaware of any special activities designed to renew public interest in the case. It seems that Teresa Butler is becoming another face on the National Center for Missing Adults poster list. She joins hundreds who are missing across the country; some for decades.

In spite of having no significant developments in the case during 2008, New Madrid County Sheriff Terry Stevens says that the Teresa Butler case remains open.

"This is still an ongoing and active investigation," Stevens confirmed Friday.

"We continue to receive periodic leads in the case, and we had one as recent as two weeks ago," he adds.

"Unfortunately, we checked the lead out and found it to be fruitless, but we remain hopeful and optimistic that this case will be solved."

Prior to the most recent lead referred to by Stevens, the most substantial turn in the case came in December 2006 when authorities began excavating land near Tallapoosa, a community south of Risco. Investigators were led to that property by a report that Butler's body would be found there along with some burned tires and other rubbish. Investigators turned up no sign of human remains at that site, though there apparently were some burned items located.

The only other tangible lead that was furnished to the public involved a report that a call was placed from Butler's cell phone after she disappeared. The number called turned out to belong to two older women who had never heard of Teresa Butler and claimed that they never spoke to her.

Butler was 35 years old when she disappeared. She worked in the photo lab at Wal-Mart in Dexter. She was reported missing by her husband, Gary Dale Butler, 31 years of age at the time, around 10 a.m. Jan. 25, 2006. He had just returned home from his job at a steel mill in Blytheville, Ark. when he found his two children, then ages two and four, unattended with no sign of his wife. Gary Dale Butler told authorities that it was not like his wife to leave the children unattended. Authorities were contacted, and Teresa Butler was reported missing.

The last person reported to have seen Teresa Butler alive was her sister-in-law who stopped by the Butler house the night before the disappearance.

There was no sign of forced entry into the house, no sign of struggle and very few items missing, it was reported. Investigators found only a few missing items at the Butler residence. Her wedding rings were left behind, though her husband said she normally took off her rings before going to bed at night. Among the few items that were determined to be missing, investigators found that a video camera, Butler's purse, her cell phone, a flash light and a stereo from the Jeep were missing.

New Madrid County Sheriff Terry Stevens previously stated that some furniture covers were taken from the residence for examination, but nothing indicated that there was a struggle within the home. No information was ever released indicating the items provided any clues to solving the case. A special task force was recruited, and ditches, fields and the entire surrounding area were searched. No findings were ever reported to the public through these search efforts.

On the anniversary of Teresa Butler's disappearance in 2008, friends and family attempted to call attention to the missing woman's plight by hanging yellow ribbons throughout the area. A picture of Teresa Butler is posted on the National Center for Missing Adults; and many web pages feature information about her disappearance, along with a variety of pictures that depict Butler from high school graduation until the time she disappeared.

The family even contacted some psychics in an attempt to find some closure on the case. There were no reports of any progress on solving the case from that source either.

Teresa Butler would be 38 years old today. She is 5' 7" and weighed around 110 pounds with dark hair at the time of her disappearance.