Pod Insights Park Predators The Seashore About this episode When a husband and wife from New Hampshire vanish on the beach of Padre Island National Seashore in 2019, all the red flags go up about the vibrant couple’s disappearance. Then, concerning clues begin to emerge that lead investigators to a violent predator bound by love to an accomplice.
Transcript 0:00 Speaker 00 Hi, park enthusiasts. It's Delia. If you listen to Park Predators, you already know that sometimes the most beautiful places can hide the darkest secrets. But what happens when the danger isn't miles from civilization? It's in your community, and sometimes even in your own backyard. On Crime Junkie, hosts Ashley and Britt dive into real cases every week, from missing persons to unsolved murders, breaking down what we know, what we don't, and the details that still don't sit right. If you care about the stories behind the headlines and the victims at the center of them, you'll want to check out Crime Junkie. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts.
0:40 Speaker 00 Hi, park enthusiasts. I'm your host, Delia D'Ambra. And the case I'm going to share with you today takes place in the Padre Island National Seashore in Texas. This landscape is more than 130,000 acres and stretches for about 70 miles towards the United States' southern border with Mexico. According to the National Park Service, it's known for being one of the last intact coastal prairie habitats in the country. You can fish, birdwatch, beachcomber, camp, and even see turtle hatchling releases happen in real time if you're at the right spot. The park itself was established in 1962, and historians have confirmed that everyone from cattle ranchers to Native Americans to Spanish explorers traversed these beaches.
1:24 Speaker 00 In 2024, more than 514,000 people visited the national seashore, and nearly 46,000 of those folks were designated as overnight campers. The majority of those guests stayed in RVs, because, yeah, who wouldn't want to be right on the beach in the comfort of their own travel trailer? In the fall of 2019, that's exactly what the two victims in this case had in mind. But little did they know, a violent human predator and his companion were lurking in the same patch of paradise they set up their camp. This is Park Predators.
2:39 Speaker 00 On Thursday, October 17, 2019, a woman named Caitlin, who was living in New Hampshire, grabbed her phone to FaceTime her in-laws, 48-year-old James Butler III and 45-year-old Michelle Butler. But right away, she noticed something unusual. The FaceTime call wasn't going through. She tried again, but still couldn't reach the couple. Her follow-up messages also failed to go through, and she thought that was kind of strange, because her in-laws were normally really good about staying in touch. Caitlin's whole point in calling Michelle and James was to thank them for sending her daughter, who was the couple's granddaughter, a pair of new cowgirl boots that had been made in Texas. You see, a few weeks earlier, James and Michelle had departed their home state of New Hampshire
3:23 Speaker 00 and traveled to Texas to go RVing along Padre Island National Seashore. On October 15, the couple had mailed their granddaughter the boots from Texas, because she'd just begun horse-riding lessons, and they wanted to give her something unique to show off. But despite failing to get in touch with them, Caitlin tried not to let worry get the best of her. She gave Michelle and James a few days to get in touch, but by Wednesday, October 23, when the pair missed a scheduled check-in call with Caitlin and her husband, that's when all the red flags went up, and the family got in touch with authorities in Texas to report James and Michelle missing. Investigators with the Clayburg County Sheriff's Office took the case, and one of the first things they did was try and determine where James and Michelle
4:05 Speaker 00 had stayed when they arrived in southern Texas. Lodging records at Padre Baye Park, which is located in the nearby city of Corpus Christi, showed that the couple had arrived at that facility on September 30, but departed by October 14. When they left, they'd indicated to others that they were planning to camp on the beach, where it didn't cost money to stay overnight. But the national seashore was a really big landscape for authorities to try and canvas without more information. So they decided to dig into James and Michelle's social media activity to figure out where in the vast area they might have headed.
4:42 Speaker 00 According to an episode of Killer Couples that Oxygen did on this case, when investigators reviewed screenshots of the couple's online activity and posts leading up to their disappearance, they saw that on the evening of October 15th, James had snapped a picture of Michelle sitting in her beach chair facing the water. The caption alongside the post read, "Setting up on the beach, have lots to do. Level us out, set up generator, set up new fridge, set up cooking station outside, and so on. But it would never get done if my beautiful wife didn't do perimeter security for me." She says, "I will take the first shift covering the east. Oh, I love you, Michelle Butler."
5:23 Speaker 00 One of Michelle's sons also told investigators that he'd less spoken with his mom on the 15th. The next day, Wednesday, October 16th, Michelle and James had posted online again and shared photos of their RV set up at the beach. They captioned that post, "We have arrived at our home for the next week or two until we make our way to Fort Lauderdale via New Orleans." That same day, Michelle exchanged messages with the couple's mutual friend Barbara Hainsworth, who told producers for Oxygen's Killer Couples episode that she'd sent James and Michelle a meme responding to James's post of Michelle in her beach chair. And Michelle had replied, "It was that exchange between the two women that authorities determined
6:05 Speaker 00 was the last time anyone had actually interacted with James and Michelle." But thanks to the couple's posts, investigators were able to pinpoint where on the national seashore they'd set up their RV. From looking at their photos, authorities determined that James and Michelle had been near beach marker 262, which was in an area locals knew as the bowl. It was a fairly secluded spot that offered a bit more peace and quiet than some of the other places along the seashore. The dunes had been pushed back from the water there, so it sort of made a bowl-like space on the beach. The Clayburg County Sheriff's Office sent deputies out to the bowl to search for Michelle and James, but didn't find their silver 2018 Chevrolet pickup truck or their 2000 Cedar Creek brand RV.
6:49 Speaker 00 Not finding their vehicles, though, wasn't a major red flag to authorities because they figured that maybe the couple had just moved to a different part of the beach to camp or decided to leave the national seashore early. They knew from their social media posts and speaking with their families that Fort Lauderdale, Florida was the pair's next stop. They'd arranged to work at a Christmas tree farm there on November 20th. However, when Texas investigators contacted that farm, they learned that Michelle and James had never shown up, which pretty much killed the theory that they'd simply left Texas early to go to Florida. After that, the sheriff's office decided to put out a BOLO for James and Michelle's vehicles. Multiple law enforcement agencies, including Texas Rangers and members of the U.S. Coast
7:33 Speaker 00 Guard, coordinated to conduct a search for them and their vehicles along the roughly 77 miles of Padre Island. While that was happening, investigators began to canvass people who'd been staying on the beach and interviewed them about Michelle and James's disappearance. They wanted to know if anyone had seen the couple or interacted with them during the time they were camping. Unfortunately, though, no one had. To get the word out about their suspicious disappearance, their friend Barbara created a Facebook page titled "Finding James and Michelle Butler." Posts started going out, and word of what was happening in Texas began to spread. Meanwhile, on October 25th, investigators with the sheriff's office held a press conference to notify local media that the pair was missing.
8:18 Speaker 00 And right away, information and tips started to flow in. Some of these tips included reported sightings of the couple in other states. One by one, though, investigators chased down those leads, and they never led to Michelle and James. The following day, though, Saturday, October 26th, authorities got an update they desperately needed.
8:45 Speaker 00 One day last year, detectives knocked on the door of a multimillion-dollar mansion in Los Angeles County. Inside, they found a strange scene. A dining area converted into classrooms with children and toddlers seated at rows of desks. The couple that lived there had 21 kids.
9:05 Speaker 01 It's a house that looks like a castle, but it's under investigation for being a possible factory, a baby factory.
9:12 Speaker 00 Where had these children come from? Almost all of them were born through surrogates. But those surrogates had been deceived.
9:20 Speaker 02 Me and my coworker, we named her the surrogate pimp. That's the one time that we called the cops because she was screaming. And then he pulled out a gun.
9:27 Speaker 03 I started crying. I was like, what the heck did I just get myself into?
9:32 Speaker 00 I'm Ava Kaufman. "The Journey" is a new series from In the Dark and The New Yorker. Find it now in the In the Dark feed, wherever you get your podcasts. Officers with the U.S. Border Patrol more than 200 miles away from the national seashore called the sheriff's office to let them know that Michelle and James's pickup truck and travel trailer had been spotted crossing the border into Mexico at 10:58 PM on Monday, October 21st, two days before the couple failed to make that scheduled call with their kids. According to what the sheriff and a lieutenant shared with Producers for Oxygen, surveillance
10:16 Speaker 00 cameras at the Eagle Pass border crossing captured images of their truck and RV going into Mexico. Unfortunately, though, the footage wasn't clear enough to see who was driving the truck. This scenario really only meant one of two things was going on, though. One, Michelle and James had decided to make an unplanned trip to Mexico and leave their campsite at the national seashore without telling anyone. Or two, someone else was driving their vehicles. And if it was the latter scenario, that was worrisome to their family members and law enforcement.
10:50 Speaker 00 People who knew the couple told officials that it would have been unlike Michelle and James to make a detour into Mexico without at least notifying their kids. To get more clarity on their movements and determine if they were in fact just chilling in Mexico, authorities reviewed their cellphone records and that data revealed something interesting. Michelle's phone had died at 7:12 PM on October 16th, and by the next morning, at 10:30 AM on the 17th, James's phone had also died. Even more unsettling was the fact that both of their devices had gone offline at the same location, their campsite on Padre Island National Seashore, and they'd never come back on. It was that information, among other suspicions, that prompted a lieutenant for the sheriff's
11:35 Speaker 00 office named David Farias to drive back out to the national seashore shortly before 6:45 PM on the evening of Sunday, October 27th. He wanted to revisit the spot along the beach near the mile marker where the butlers had previously documented that they'd made their camp. He planned to do a more thorough search of the area the following afternoon, but while he was there, he took a quick look around. And the further he walked into the dunes, the more strange things he discovered. For example, the first small dune he got to, he saw several pieces of debris laying on top of the sand. The stuff included things like palm fronds, pieces of lumber, and even garbage. When he stepped back and assessed how it was all arranged, he realized it kind of looked
12:20 Speaker 00 like someone had placed all of the stuff together, almost to cover something up. There were also marks on the ground that appeared to Farias to be areas where wild coyotes or some kind of wildlife had attempted to drag something out of the sand. And there was also a very distinct bad smell lingering in the air. Unsure what exactly he might be dealing with, Farias called the sheriff and relayed what he'd found. He expressed that he didn't have a good feeling about the situation, and that feeling only got worse about an hour later when additional units arrived. After lighting up the scene and digging a little way into the sand beneath the debris, authorities discovered the tip of a bra. Because it was dark and difficult to see, the sheriff's office suspended their operations for the night
13:05 Speaker 00 and picked them back up the next morning with assistance from a forensic team with the Texas Department of Public Safety. Those folks carefully excavated the sand dune where the bra was found and unearthed two decomposed bodies in what was described as a shallow grave. One set of remains belonged to a female who was clothed, and the other belonged to a male who was also clothed. The woman had been set on top of the man, and it was clear from just looking at the pair that they were both victims of homicide. To get a better sense of how they died and when, authorities sent the bodies to the medical examiner's office for autopsies. A few days later, by November 1st, results from those examinations indicated they'd both been shot in the head with a 9mm firearm.
13:50 Speaker 00 Through dental records, fingerprints, and comparing some of James's tattoos with the male victims, the bodies were positively identified as James and Michelle Butler. In light of their remains being found, the sheriff's office officially designated the spot on the beach as a crime scene, while evidence techs continued to scour the sand for further clues. According to investigative reports, they found everything from trash, receipts, beer cans, more pieces of wood, water bottles, and a variety of other stuff that I'm not even sure they were sure were all related to the crime at hand. While that was happening, Lieutenant Farias learned from the U.S. Border Patrol that new photo evidence had been discovered of the Butler's pickup truck and RV near the Eagle Pass border crossing. According to what he told producers
14:34 Speaker 00 for Oxygen's Killer Couples episode, officers with the Eagle Pass Police Department had found a new surveillance image of James and Michelle's truck with two occupants inside. The driver was a white male who appeared to be in his 30s, who had gage ear piercings and face tattoos. And sitting in the passenger seat next to him was a white woman who also appeared to be in her 30s. It was clear from the image that neither person was Michelle or James. So the question investigators needed to answer was, who the heck were they? Officials in Texas quickly sent the surveillance image of the mystery couple to Mexican authorities and asked them to have their officers look for anyone who resembled them.
15:15 Speaker 00 A few days later, on November 4th, Clayburg County held another press conference and released the photo of the unknown couple to the public to see if anyone recognized them. It kind of goes without saying, but at that point, the man and woman were considered strong persons of interest. The news of all these developments and confirmation that Michelle and James had been murdered devastated their loved ones. Nobody could think of a single person who'd want to harm them because, by all accounts, they were described as "super friendly people who would help anyone in need." Michelle and James had met at a karaoke bar in Rumney, New Hampshire in 2010, not long after James retired from an impressive career in the US Navy. After they got together, they were inseparable.
16:00 Speaker 00 They dated for about five years before officially tying the knot in 2015. According to their obituaries, both had been previously married, and James had a son and a daughter with his ex-wife, and Michelle had three boys with her ex. Their blended family was large, but from what I gathered reading the source material and listening to interviews their friends did with producers for Oxygen, most of their kids were grown when James and Michelle met and got married, with the exception of the youngest, who eventually moved out and made the couple empty nesters in 2018. Shortly after that is when Michelle and James decided they were going to live the RV life full-time. So they quit their jobs, got a travel trailer, rented out their home in New Hampshire, and began visiting different national parks.
16:43 Speaker 00 Usually joining them for their adventures were their three cats. To make sure they'd have enough income for essentials, fuel, groceries, and so forth, the couple relied on James's Navy pension and money they'd make working seasonal jobs. According to Oxygen's Killer Couples episode, sometimes James would work as a handyman or maintenance worker, or they'd both find jobs guarding gates for oil fields. Like I mentioned earlier, they had plans after leaving Texas to work at a Christmas tree farm in Florida. So the kind of work they sought was the type of employment that didn't require them to stay grounded in one location for too long, but it paid enough money to make ends meet. One month before their deaths, they'd returned home to New Hampshire to celebrate Michelle's son Bradley's marriage to Caitlin.
17:27 Speaker 00 Then the couple headed back out to continue their adventuring. One of James's sisters, Deborah, told WMUR 9 News that traveling and living the RV life was a dream come true for her brother and his wife. She said, quote, "Their love for adventure, they were out there doing what they really loved doing. He was always saying that to me, that he loved it so much." End quote. In early November, Deborah, the couple's children, and people who knew them held a vigil in New Hampshire to mourn their deaths. Another vigil was also held in Texas at the spot on the beach where their remains had been found. An article by the Corpus Christi Caller Times showed that mourners erected wooden crosses adorned with flowers in Michelle and James's memory.
18:12 Speaker 00 Around that same time, authorities publicly released the second surveillance image of the mystery couple who'd been spotted driving the butlers truck into Mexico, hoping that someone would recognize the pair and come forward. And, boy, did that tactic pay off. A park ranger who'd been assigned to patrol Padre Island National Seashore reported that she'd pulled over a distinctly tattooed man on October 13, 2019, just days before James and Michelle Butler disappeared. This ranger's body worn camera showed that she'd pulled an awfully similar looking man over for failing to wear a seatbelt. When she checked his driver's license and camping registration form, those documents
18:55 Speaker 00 indicated the man was Tori Williams, who lived in Logan, Utah. Now, that name didn't mean a whole lot to homicide investigators when they initially learned it, because it was the first time they were hearing it. However, around the same time they reviewed the ranger's body cam, they realized that Tori Williams was a completely made up name. But a phone number associated with the alias came back to a 33-year-old man named Adam Curtis Williams.
19:23 Speaker 00 Right after that, a business owner in Corpus Christi, which is only a half hour or so from the national seashore, came forward and told investigators that on October 19th, they'd found an abandoned truck in their parking lot. It had been sitting there for several days, and when they called a wrecker to tow it away, the wrecker checked the vehicle's information and learned that it belonged to none other than 33-year-old Adam Williams. So after hearing Adam's name a second time and realizing that the ranger's account proved he'd been spotted along the national seashore around the time of the murders, and afterwards had seemingly abandoned his personal vehicle, that made investigators very suspicious of him. And their suspicions only grew stronger when they looked him up and discovered
20:06 Speaker 00 that he was a wanted fugitive from Utah with an extensive adult and juvenile criminal record for offenses related to drugs, theft, firearms, and sexual assault. Up until his release in December 2018, he'd been incarcerated at a federal prison for eight years. Once he got out, though, he returned to Utah. Court records show that he violated the terms of his release at least once after being released from prison, but was given leniency in July 2019. Images homicide investigators found of Adam over the years showed him with his array of distinct head, face, and neck tattoos, which showcased things like skulls, cannabis, and profanity. As bad of a dude as law enforcement could see that Adam was, though,
20:51 Speaker 00 they didn't have enough probable cause to issue an arrest warrant against him for James and Michelle's murders. So instead, they got a warrant charging him with possession of a stolen vehicle, since, thanks to the Eagle Crossing surveillance images, they could definitively place Adam in the butler's truck in the days after they were killed. That warrant didn't really mean a whole lot, though, until authorities could find him. And unfortunately, all signs pointed to him and his female passenger lying low in Mexico, out of reach of Claybird County officials. So on November 5th, in a move that I think was pretty brilliant, investigators strategically leaked to the Associated Press Adam's photo and the bulletin about him being wanted for felony theft charges. Now, the story in the AP,
21:36 Speaker 00 which distributes wire copies internationally, was bound to end up with news services in Mexico. So the goal was to get Mexican news outlets to publish the information about Adam so that locals could report where he was hiding. While authorities waited to see what would come from that effort, investigators got in touch with law enforcement in Utah and Adam's family members to figure out the last time any of them had heard from him. But his family all said the same thing: He'd gone radio silent. They did, however, provide the name of the woman who'd been traveling with him: Amanda Novaire. Amanda was 32 years old, and after meeting Adam online in February 2019,
22:17 Speaker 00 had legally married him in late August 2019 after divorcing a prior partner. One of her friends told producers for Oxygen that she was a transplant who'd moved from California to Utah with her brother. When her mother died, she'd developed a substance use disorder. And like I said, she'd been married at least once prior to meeting Adam Williams, and after they got together, things quickly spiraled out of control for her. Her friend who spoke with Oxygen said that by the time she and Adam got married, she was having a hard time caring for her children from her previous relationship. And her and Adam's shared substance use, plus his quick temper and violent nature, were difficult to manage. Amanda herself had a short criminal record for offenses related to domestic violence and intoxication.
23:02 Speaker 00 But there was nothing in her background that was as serious or violent as the kinds of crimes Adam had committed. Right after the pair got married, they quickly left Utah because there was an outstanding warrant against Adam for several counts of sexual assault, which court records state stemmed from an incident in April 2019. Additional coverage by the Corpus Christi Collar Times went into a bit more detail about this situation and explained that Adam stood accused of nine charges in separate crimes, many of which were felonies and some even involved a victim who was a minor. But when he failed to show up in court for some of those on October 1, 2019, a warrant for his arrest was issued seven days later, on October 8. On top of these horrific allegations,
23:45 Speaker 00 he was also wanted for a slew of other violent crimes, including assault. And those stemmed from an incident that occurred in early August 2019. He would later admit to authorities that he had previously been affiliated with the sect of the Aryan Brotherhood gang in California. So yeah, not a stand-up guy by any means. Anyway, several days into the manhunt for him and Amanda in late October and early November 2019, investigators got a call that really kicked the investigation into high gear. By November 6th, Amanda's friend, the same one who would later speak with producers for Oxygen, called the Texas Department of Public Safety to report that he'd been in contact with Amanda.
24:28 Speaker 00 Friend told authorities that Amanda had called him from Mexico and stated that she knew Adam and her were all over the news and were wanted in relation to what had happened to Michelle and James in Texas. According to what the friend told investigators, Amanda expressed that she wanted to turn herself in because she was concerned she might end up dead if she didn't. Her friend told officials that Amanda indicated she and Adam were hiding out at an RV park in Jalisco, Mexico. After the friend gave investigators Amanda's phone information, it only took a few hours for them to track her device to the RV park and begin coordinating an extraction plan. According to investigative reports and what Clayburg County officials told producers
25:09 Speaker 00 for Oxygen, authorities had also learned from another tipster that Adam had attempted to sell the butler's travel trailer to someone in the RV park, and that individual had contacted investigators to let them know they thought Adam might be the wanted fugitive from Texas. Alexandria Rodriguez reported that by the end of the day on November 6th, a team of officers converged on Amanda and Adam's location in Mexico and took them into custody. In the butler's RV with them was Amanda's three-year-old daughter from a prior relationship, who quickly went into the care of a family member. Amanda and Adam were briefly detained in a Mexican jail before being extradited back to Texas via the FBI and Texas Rangers.
25:51 Speaker 00 In an effort to make sure things went as planned, Clayburg County dispatched several deputies to the FBI's Houston Field Office to transport the couple back to Clayburg County's jurisdiction. The sheriff told Oxygen that during that time, Adam made an interesting admission to him. The sheriff said Adam stated, quote, "You guys are good. I was going to go down to South America, and you guys would have never found me there." End quote. Something else that I think speaks to Adam's intention to stay on the run in hopes of not being found was the fact that at the time of his arrest, it was clear he'd recently shaved his head, which somewhat altered his appearance. Unfortunately, though, for him, he couldn't do much to hide his obvious face, neck, and head tattoos that were very unique and identifiable.
26:37 Speaker 00 Shortly after arresting the pair, investigators finally got the chance to sit down with each defendant separately, but not much came from their chat with Adam because he refused to cooperate altogether. In interview footage of law enforcement's first sit-down with him, they make him aware that their investigation into James and Michelle's deaths is a capital murder investigation. And right away, Adam took note of that. He was not interested in saying anything if his life was on the line potentially. So he quickly shut down the conversation and asked for an attorney. Amanda chose a different path, though, one that would prove to weigh in her favor.
27:19 Speaker 04 One day last year, detectives knocked on the door of a multimillion-dollar mansion in Los Angeles County. Inside, they found a strange scene. A dining area converted into classrooms with children and toddlers seated at rows of desks. The couple that lived there had 21 kids.
27:40 Speaker 01 It's a house that looks like a castle, but it's under investigation for being a possible factory, a baby factory.
27:47 Speaker 04 Where had these children come from? Almost all of them were born through surrogates. But those surrogates had been deceived.
27:55 Speaker 02 Me and my coworker, we named her the surrogate pimp.
27:57 Speaker 05 That's the one time that we called the cops because she was screaming. And then he pulled out a gun.
28:02 Speaker 03 I started crying. I was like, what the heck did I just get myself into?
28:08 Speaker 04 I'm Eva Kaufman. "The Journey" is a new series from In the Dark and The New Yorker. Find it now in the In the Dark feed, wherever you get your podcasts.
28:24 Speaker 00 Amanda decided to willingly speak one-on-one with a Texas Ranger for several hours about her relationship with Adam Williams and everything that she remembered leading up to the murders of Michelle and James Butler. Portions of that videotaped interview are available on YouTube. During her conversation with the Texas Ranger, Amanda revealed that shortly after she and Adam got together, he'd traded a van she owned for an old pickup truck and camping RV. When they fled Utah in late August, early September 2019, they pit stopped in Spokane, Washington for a little bit at one of Adam's uncle's houses. But eventually, the men got into an argument, and the uncle asked Adam to leave. After that, they traveled to Texas to live in their camper on Padre Island National Seashore
29:07 Speaker 00 because she'd read online that it was free to camp there for up to two weeks. Eventually, though, they were asked to leave the beach after staying too long, but they couldn't because their truck's engine was giving them a lot of problems. Tensions between the couple mounted because of that, and eventually Amanda said she took her daughter and went on a long walk to get some space from Adam. During that walk, Amanda said she'd encountered a person who asked if she was OK, and she told them she wasn't and wanted to be taken to a women's shelter. But the person who stopped her indicated they couldn't take her at that time. So she and her daughter eventually returned to where Adam was. As far as the murder weapon, Amanda told investigators that not long after she and
29:49 Speaker 00 Adam arrived in Texas in mid-September, they went to a public gun show, and because he couldn't legally purchase a gun as a convicted felon, he'd asked her to buy a 9mm pistol for him. Amanda agreed to her husband's request, but they hit a bit of a snag once they were inside the exhibit hall. Nearly all the vendors at the show declined to sell a gun to her because she had an out-of-state ID. But there was one seller who'd made an exception and agreed to sell Amanda a 9mm pistol and accompanying ammunition. According to her interview with the Texas Ranger, she claimed the only reason Adam gave her as to why he wanted a gun was in case the law caught up to them and he had to shoot his way out of being captured again. In mid-October, right before the murders,
30:34 Speaker 00 she said that Adam had come up to her one day claiming he'd found them a new truck and trailer. She was confused by what he meant, but didn't ask any questions. Not long after that, he'd instructed her to drop him off at the beach after dark and follow him to where he said their new truck and camper were. She suspected that he was planning to steal the vehicles and admitted that she had a really bad feeling as she watched him walk away. But she didn't do anything to stop him. For a little while, she watched from a distance as he removed some items from the newer-looking RV, dragged what looked like two heavy objects across the sand and up into the dunes, and then made several more trips back and forth from the dunes. After that, she saw him hook up the new RV to a silver Chevy pickup and drive off.
31:19 Speaker 00 She followed him in their old truck and camper, and they eventually met up at a local laundromat. After parking, Amanda said Adam showed her inside their new RV, and she noticed that things were tossed all over the place. The bedding in the bedroom was missing, and there was a cat inside, which immediately ran out. But she said that after taking a look around, they removed a bunch of stuff from the RV and discarded it in a dumpster at the laundromat, and even put some items of clothing that weren't theirs into machines at the store. They left their old truck and trailer behind and headed out of the area. Amanda told investigators that after she and Adam left Padre Island, they traveled to another part of Texas, and then Mexico.
31:59 Speaker 00 But here's the thing. After their arrest, and after Amanda says all of this, neither she nor Adam were facing murder charges. Authorities had only charged her with suspicion of felony theft, and Adam was only facing charges for felony theft of service and assault on a peace officer. Investigators still had a lot more investigating to do to prove that they were involved in Michelle and James's murders. Over the course of several weeks, the sheriff's office and Texas Department of Public Safety worked with the FBI to process and search the butler's RV, which had remained undisturbed in Mexico. Inside, tucked into the ceiling of the trailer, investigators located a 9mm handgun and accompanying ammunition.
32:43 Speaker 00 Eventual ballistics testing confirmed that it was the gun used in the murders. Additional forensic analysis of the RV turned up bloodstains that came back as a match for Michelle's DNA. There was also a bullet lodged in the wall above the sink in the kitchen, and an additional wood panel that appeared to have a bullet hole in it, too. So with all this new information in hand, investigators concluded that at least one of the murders had taken place inside the butler's RV. And perhaps the other murder had occurred possibly somewhere else, close to where the victims had stayed at Padre Island National Seashore. In mid-January 2020, almost three months after Adam and Amanda were arrested, Michelle and James's families held a celebration of life service for them in Camden, New Hampshire.
33:28 Speaker 00 Their remains had been cremated prior to that date, but loved ones still wanted to have a gathering to honor their memories and lives. More than a week after that, on January 23rd, the District Attorney of Claiberg County filed new charges against Amanda and Adam. In addition to felony theft, they were both now accused of tampering with evidence and possession of a firearm. Murder charges, though, were still not introduced. It was gonna take a few more months for authorities to fully build their case, but in late October 2020, a grand jury in Claiberg County reviewed everything that had been gathered and indicted Amanda and Adam for capital murder. Eight months later, in June 2021, the District Attorney's Office announced that it would
34:11 Speaker 00 be seeking the death penalty against Adam, but only life in prison without parole for Amanda. Additional indictments against the pair for robbery soon followed, and with the walls closing in quickly, Adam was the first to take a plea deal to avoid going to trial and possibly receiving capital punishment. According to court records and news coverage, on November 10th, 2021, he pleaded guilty to theft, unlawful use of a firearm by a felon, capital murder, and tampering with evidence. A judge sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole. At the sentencing, prosecutors read a statement that Deborah, James's sister, wrote. The news coverage from that time only includes a few short sentences from that statement,
34:56 Speaker 00 but court records I requested included the entire two-page letter. Because I believe these words are important for all of us to hear, I'm gonna read a few portions verbatim.
35:07 Speaker 00 In October 2019, our lives changed in ways that most people never have to experience. Before this tragic event, we went about our daily lives with happiness in our eyes and hearts, a spring in our steps. We all loved the tales that James and Michelle would share along their adventures. Our brother spent 21 years in the Navy, serving our country and traveling around the world during his many tours. After he retired, his biggest dream was to be able to travel around the United States, to all the great tourist spots and beyond, living the American dream. He used to say, "I traveled the world, but never my home country." It would have been grand if he had been able to live that dream safely and to enjoy a lot more of it.
35:50 Speaker 00 After fighting for America all those years, he should have been able to enjoy so much more without being in danger. He brought the love of his life on these travels because he thought it would be safe. Our lives have a huge hole where they belong. Many of us have been going through therapy to figure out how to live without them now. Our lives are forever changed, and we need to find a way to still be happy somehow. They were such a big part of how we lived, that without them, every holiday, every special event, just seems less happy without them. If there's anything, anything at all, that those responsible for taking them away from us can learn, I hope that they learn that life is precious, and that there are so many more lives affected by these heinous actions.
36:34 Speaker 00 They have destroyed so much more than they will ever know. They have taken away the simple joys out of complete family units and circles of friends. End quote. As a part of my research for this episode, I got in touch with Deborah online, and she told me that what happened to her brother remains an extremely difficult and emotional event in her life. She was happy to know that I wanted to cover the case on this podcast, and stated that she's always thankful when someone wants to share their story, in the hopes that other people can travel and camp with confidence and safety. A quick side note, because I know some of you are probably wondering, investigators never found any of James and Michelle's cats at the crime scene. Initially, it was assumed that they were all taken along with the couple's travel trailer.
37:18 Speaker 00 I don't believe that the one cat that Amanda claimed ran out of the butler's RV after she and Adam stole it was ever found. It's unclear, unfortunately, what exactly happened to the other two cats that Michelle and James owned. A few months after Adam pleaded guilty, Amanda did too. Because she didn't have as extensive of a criminal record as Adam and was not believed to be the person who actually shot Michelle and James. She was given a more lenient sentence of 20 years for the murders and 10 years for each additional felony of unlawful possession of a firearm, tampering with evidence, and theft. Her sentences were ordered to run concurrently, and she was given credit for time served since her arrest.
37:59 Speaker 00 So, the maximum amount of time she will ever serve in prison for this crime is about 20 years, maybe slightly less. She'll be eligible for parole in 2039, when she's in her early 50s. According to court records, the outstanding cases against Adam in Utah, which was why he was on the run in the first place, were eventually dropped. Amanda's friend, who interviewed with Oxygen, said that throughout Amanda's relationship with Adam, she'd expressed the desire to leave him but was too afraid to actually go through with it. She would often call her friend whenever Adam wasn't around to express how she wanted out. She also told the Texas Ranger who interviewed her that Adam was controlling, jealous, and violent towards her, especially when he consumed alcohol.
38:44 Speaker 00 As horrible and possibly true as those claims are, though, there's still no excuse for failing to report what Amanda claimed her husband had done. And she'll have to live with that for the rest of her life. In the aftermath of what happened to James and Michelle, their friends, who'd set up the Facebook page for tips when they were just missing people, changed the page's name to "Remembering James and Michelle Butler." There are beautiful tributes and posts to the beloved couple going back several years on that site, so if you find yourself wanting to learn more about them, I encourage you to give that page a visit. I've linked directly to it in the show notes and on the blog post for this episode.
39:27 Speaker 00 Park Predators is an AudioChuck production. You can view a list of all the source material for this episode on our website, parkpredators.com. And you can also follow Park Predators on Instagram, @parkpredators.
39:46 Speaker 00 I think Chuck would approve.
39:52 Speaker 00 In the dark, even the most familiar trail can feel like it leads somewhere else. Every rustle becomes a warning, every shadow a doorway. In Full Body Chills, those doorways open into worlds pulled straight from your nightmares. This spooky season classic returns with chilling new tales, immersive sound, and no promise that you'll find your way back. So step off the familiar path if you dare. Listen to new episodes of Full Body Chills every week wherever you get your podcasts.
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