On January 24, 2006, Teresa Lynn Butler, a 35-year-old White female, was last known to be at or near her residence on County Road 241, also known as Eight Ditch Road, just off Highway 62 near Risco, Missouri. She was a wife and mother of two young sons, remembered in public case summaries as a woman whose disappearance was immediately alarming because she would not have willingly left her children alone.
NamUs lists her date of last contact as January 24, 2006, and says a family member last heard from her at about 10:00 p.m. that evening. By the following morning, the quiet rural home had become the center of a deeply troubling investigation.
Teresa’s husband, Gary Dale “Dale” Butler, had been working an overnight shift. According to public case accounts, he tried to call Teresa during his lunch break, but the call went to voicemail, and he reportedly believed she was asleep. When he returned home at about 10:00 a.m. on January 25, he found their two young boys, ages two and four, alone inside the house. The children were unharmed, but they had clearly been left without their mother for some time; one account notes that the younger child had a full diaper and an empty bottle. Teresa was gone, and she has not been heard from since.
The circumstances inside and around the home deepened the concern. Several items were missing, including a video camera, a PlayStation with games, a Nintendo GameCube with games, a large MagLite flashlight, a digital camera, a car stereo, Teresa’s purse, and her cellular phone. Yet other things that might have been expected to leave with her did not: her wedding rings, black leather jacket, and forest-green Jeep were left behind. The Jeep itself remained at the residence, but the stereo was missing from it. Public reports also describe no clear signs of forced entry or a struggle, making the scene difficult for investigators and painful for loved ones trying to understand what had happened.
Teresa’s failure to appear at work added to the urgency. She was reportedly employed at a Walmart in Dexter, Missouri, and public reporting described her as a mother who cooked for her family, played with her children, enjoyed photography, and had a steady place in the rhythms of daily life. The idea that she would leave her sons unattended was repeatedly described as highly unusual. Early searches involved law enforcement and the surrounding community, including searches of the property and nearby areas; an early report said investigators searched on foot and from the air with assistance from a Missouri Highway Patrol airplane. Family, friends, and investigators were left facing a case that appeared suspicious from the beginning, but with few public answers.
Public missing-person listings described Teresa as 5 feet 7 inches tall and about 109 to 110 pounds, with brown or dark brown hair and brown eyes. She was also identified by the nickname or alias Teresa Lawrence. Distinguishing features listed in public case information include noticeable dimples, pierced ears, and a cesarean-section scar; NamUs lists three piercings in her left ear and two in her right ear, while some other summaries vary slightly on the number of piercings. NamUs also notes that she wore wire-frame glasses and also used contacts. These details became part of the information circulated in hopes that someone might recognize her or remember something important from the night she vanished.
For years, Teresa’s disappearance remained a source of anguish and frustration. Public reports described tips and possible sightings that did not resolve the case, and family and friends continued hoping for answers long after the initial search faded from daily headlines. In 2016, ten years after Teresa disappeared, reporting still described her family and friends as wanting to know what happened to her, noting that she had vanished sometime between about 10:00 p.m. on January 24 and the early morning hours of January 25, 2006. The New Madrid County Sheriff’s Office remained the investigating agency, and the case continued to be carried publicly as a missing-person matter.
A major development came in November 2019, when Melvin Ray Hufford Jr. of Tallapoosa, Missouri, was charged in connection with Teresa’s case. Public reports state that he had been considered a person of interest early in the investigation and was charged with first-degree involuntary manslaughter and tampering with physical evidence. Authorities alleged that he had confessed to causing Teresa’s death, and local reporting said he was accused of injecting her with methamphetamine on the night she died and of moving or concealing her body afterward. In January 2020, Hufford was reported to have been sentenced to a total of 10 years in prison, including seven years for manslaughter and three years for tampering with physical evidence.
Even with that prosecution, Teresa’s story remains one marked by grief, unanswered questions, and the absence of a full public resolution for those who loved her. The attached case data does not list her case resolution status as Alive or Deceased, and public NamUs information continues to identify the case as Missing Person / NamUs MP230. The public record tells the story of a 35-year-old mother last heard from on the night of January 24, 2006, at her rural home near Risco, Missouri; two young children found alone the next morning; personal and household items missing while her vehicle and wedding rings remained behind; years of searching and uncertainty; and, more than a decade later, criminal charges and a sentence connected to what authorities described as her death. At its center is Teresa Lynn Butler, a woman whose disappearance devastated her family and left a small Missouri community with a lasting sorrow and a case remembered for both its intimate human loss and its enduring unanswered questions.Last Seen: Jan 24, 2006
