People Know Gary Butler's Killer But Won't Say

On the morning of February 26, 1996, 25-year-old Gary Butler was found dead in a retention pond in Manville, New Jersey. Police initially called it a hit-and-run. The evidence said otherwise. Nearly thirty years later, no one has been charged — but according to Gary's sister Michelle, the people of Manville already know who did it. We sit down with Michelle Butler, who has spent decades demanding answers, to hear what the investigation got wrong, what the community won't say out loud, and why this case refuses to go cold.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Okay, we're here with Michelle, who is Gary Butler's sister. He was killed on the morning of February twenty-sixth, nineteen ninety-six in Manville, New Jersey. Um Michelle, uh what type of person was Gary?

SPEAKER_02 0:28

He was an adventurous. He loved to ride dirt bikes. Um he was pretty independent. Pretty independent guy. Um obviously never married, no kids, but he loved he loved children. Um and he and he was a family ki guy. Like he liked to be with his family.

unknown 0:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:56

He liked to dirt bike, you know, things like that.

SPEAKER_00 0:59

Now he he walked three miles to a different city at like two AM or or something. Um why do you do you have any theories on why he did that?

SPEAKER_02 1:13

Yes, unfortunately I do. Um, so my brother liked to steal things for some godly reason. Uh he went into Baumbrook, New Jersey. He walked he didn't drive, so he didn't have a car, so he he walked everywhere. So he walked from Mansville to Baumbrook and he stole a V CR from a church. And he was walking back from there after he stole a V CR from a church. Like I was saying, like he he didn't make the best decision and they weren't like profitable. Like he would steal things but not prof like he wasn't stealing diamonds or it was just for the thrill of it, it sounds like. Or he just was a really bad criminal because he got caught every time and he would like steal a pen or like uh maybe it was a maybe he had a problem, you know what I mean? Maybe it was an addiction. I don't know, but it you know, um unfortunately that was his whole life. That's what he did. Got him in a lot of trouble.

SPEAKER_00 2:22

Yeah, and um was he meeting people when he went to that um forget the name of the bar, pin pin something a bar?

SPEAKER_02 2:30

No, no, so he um I'm trying to think of the name of the bar too. It's a it's actually a boarding house, so he lived upstairs.

SPEAKER_00 2:39

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 2:39

Um, in one of the rooms and down the Chester Chester House, I think it's called, and downstairs there is a bar and pool tables and stuff. He liked to shoot pool. He was not a big drinker at all. Um so he uh but he would shoot pool down there and and they say for what I understand is he was shooting pool that that night.

SPEAKER_00 3:03

Oh yeah, it was called Pearhatch Bar.

SPEAKER_02 3:06

Oh, Pearhatch, okay. Chester House, I believe, is where he lived. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 3:11

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 3:14

So it's right there.

SPEAKER_00 3:16

Yeah, is he from there originally or where where is he from?

SPEAKER_02 3:20

No, so he's from we're we're both from Matutcha, New Jersey, which is uh not far from there at all.

SPEAKER_00 3:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 3:28

And uh he was living on his own, so he he found a boarding house, you know, like a room to rent in Manville.

SPEAKER_00 3:36

Yeah. And what was he planning to do um there? Get some type of job.

SPEAKER_02 3:46

He did work. He worked for a company called Coolomatic in Manville, New Jersey, which was like a block away from where he lived, and and actually where he was killed was right behind or I should say the side. He was right there where Coolomatic is. Where's where his company is.

SPEAKER_00 4:09

I wonder if there's any significance to that, like maybe a coworker or something like that.

SPEAKER_02 4:15

I don't know. Like just there's so many things it just it just doesn't make sense. So when we first got the call, the police came to my mother's house, they said that he was walking on the road, which made no sense because there's a sidewalk. He was walking on the road and got hit by a tractor trailer's rear mirror. Made no sense. Um when I went to go identify the body in Newark at the coroner's office, he just had like he was missing a tooth and he just had like a bruise on the side of his face. And uh and and and then a horseshoe he had a horseshoe cut in the back of his head. But it made absolutely no sense that he got hit by a child. Like not. I don't know why they thought that, but it made no sense. Um so I don't know where they came up with that. And then there was like a little bit of blood on the guardrail. So there's the street, then there's a guardrail, then there's a sidewalk, right? Um, so there was a little blood on the guardrail, which to me seems like maybe somebody dragged him, like pulled him over the guardrail. And then there was drag marks going down to like an inlet, like a it's now a park, like in like the water in the river inlet. And then there was a big pile of blood there right by the water, and so they must have put him down on the water, you know, on the ground, and then they threw him into the reservoir or the inlet, or I don't really know what you call that, but yeah, retention pond.

SPEAKER_00 5:56

Retention pond.

SPEAKER_02 5:56

Yeah, retention. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:58

Um now when I was researching this case, it said because of certain details with how he was killed and everything, that it likely points to somebody who knew him. Could you, you know, elaborate on that? Do you think it was somebody who knew him?

SPEAKER_02 6:16

Uh well, I don't think it was uh I don't think it was random. Um so I do think, yeah, I do think it was somebody he knew. Um but why is the part I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 6:30

You know.

SPEAKER_02 6:31

Um again, a lot of speculations, and I don't you know, I don't want to say the person's name and then God forbid, you know, but a lot of speculations, a lot of the people I've talked to um that live in that town still have given me some name a name. Everybody keeps coming back to the same name. Um, and apparently the whole town knows who did it, but nobody's coming forward. So that's the feedback I'm getting. Um and I wish this person would come forward.

SPEAKER_00 7:05

Yeah. And can you can you speak on maybe why these people aren't coming forward? Is this like I don't know, like a gang member or something?

SPEAKER_02 7:14

Or like No, no, no. No, neither, neither, neither. Um, neither. I don't know why people aren't going forward. People people have confessed to it that didn't do it. So this is the kind of county you're dealing with, okay? So people have come forward when it first happened and said they did it. It it came out to be that they didn't do it. Um I don't then everybody knows who this other person is that did it, who is older than my brother. Um but I don't know why nobody's coming forward. It's just that kind of talent.

SPEAKER_00 7:52

Um the police have to know. The police have to know people are talking, right?

SPEAKER_02 7:58

I would assume so. So the last time I called the police, because I call every year the prosecutor's office, the last time I called, which was last year, did not call this year, um, I was told that I got somebody on the phone and they said to me, Oh, there's a lot of boxes here. You tell me what do you know? And then I said whatever I said, and then they said, Oh, looks like you know more than I do, and then that was it.

SPEAKER_00 8:24

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_02 8:26

Yeah, it's terrible. So, you know, and everybody's told me, Oh, just let it go, let it go. But you know what? I my mother's old and she's you know, declining, and I would like closure. Even for my mother, for my sisters and myself, you know, I I just want to know what happened. Yeah. No, that's all.

SPEAKER_00 8:46

Just I you know I think that's totally understandable.

SPEAKER_02 8:50

Yeah. So what happens? And regardless of who somebody is, I mean, if you look at which I know you do this for a living, but there's a lot of cases out there like prostitutes or drifters or home and like those seem to be the cases that aren't getting the attention that they need um as much because maybe they weren't as important to somebody, but these people are still somebody's son or daughter or somebody's mom or sister or friend, you know, regardless of their life choices. Um, and I don't know if that's the case here. Are they not looking into it or because he wasn't Rockefeller? I mean, I don't know. You know, it's feeling a VCR. Like I don't remember.

SPEAKER_00 9:43

I agree exactly. There's another case it brings to mind where this kid was trouble to the law enforcement, and then some people basically kidnapped him and they can't find his body. And the police don't care because he was trouble to law enforcement. So, you know, uh I I don't mean that I'm not knocking police or anything, but that's real. It's it's the reality of a lot of these. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:13

You know, if you cause trouble, I mean, I guess you can just be disappeared. I don't know. You know.

SPEAKER_02 10:20

Right. Right. And there's more important cases. And it probably is very important cases, I I understand. But like you said, it's still a person. And, you know. I I ju I just I just want to know. Did he do something and he deserved it? Was it a complete accident? Was it you know, uh I just wanna know. And somebody panicked? I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 10:48

Right.

SPEAKER_02 10:49

Just just just let me know. I mean, you know, he didn't sell drugs, he he smoked pot. Um, you know, some people say, well, maybe it was a drug deal gone bad, okay, but do people get killed over pot? I don't know. Not my world. I don't know. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_00 11:09

So so maybe I don't know Yeah, it would just it would just be r it would just be nice to have some type of reason for this so that you can know why you don't have your brother in your life, you know?

SPEAKER_02 11:27

Correct, correct. I just want to know. Um and and I just I just want justice. If this person is walking around, how do I know this person didn't do it to other people?

SPEAKER_01 11:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:39

So how do I know, you know, this guy's not making a mock of of the justice system. You know what I mean? Because he's getting away with it. I I don't know. So, you know, or maybe there's somebody sitting there feeling totally guilty and you know, your story is going to help that, you know. And that's my plan. That is my plan. Um, I went and put the story on Reddit. I I I did everything and uh, you know, from Reddit actually two people called me um that knew my brother, and they were saying they thought this one person did it and um that my brother my brother worked for a roofer and the roofer had a life insurance policy out on him. Um and so they're like, Oh, he did it. And I you know, it was a minimal life insurance policy, the police checked him out. I don't think he did it.

SPEAKER_00 12:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:34

You know, I'm I'm talking five grand, okay? So if somebody's gonna kill somebody for five grand then that's insane.

SPEAKER_01 12:42

Right.

SPEAKER_02 12:42

So a and I don't know the exact amount, but I but I know that the police checked him out and I really don't think that he did it, you know.

SPEAKER_00 12:51

Yeah. But but whoever whoever did Yeah.

unknown 12:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:56

Go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 12:57

No, I was gonna say, but I did friend him on Facebook and I friended the other guy that I think that, you know, the police think might have something to do with it on Facebook, so hopefully they will accept my friend request just anonymously and see everything that I posted and then maybe they'll feel bad. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 13:20

And the and the other thing is we're all gonna meet our maker, you know, and you wanna make it right before you meet your maker, you know.

SPEAKER_02 13:27

Right. I some people, you know, some people who kill just don't really care. So Yeah. I don't know if this is the case. I and then that's my that's my thing that keeps me up at night. I just don't know.

SPEAKER_01 13:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:40

You know, I have children now and I would my brother never got to meet my children and that you know, that that's the one thing that hurts the most, you know?

SPEAKER_01 13:49

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:51

So I just I just wanna know. That's it. Right and move on and move on.

SPEAKER_00 13:58

Well, I'll I'll leave it at that and I'll I'll call you right back.

SPEAKER_02 14:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 14:04

All right.