After three years, no leads in case of missing New Madrid County woman

NEW MADRID COUNTY, Mo. -- Sunday marked three years since Teresa Butler was reported missing from her home on Eight Ditch Road at Risco, Mo., in New Madrid County. Last year on the anniversary of her disappearance, friends and family hung yellow ribbons throughout the area in hopes of renewing interest in the case and finding an answer to her disappearance.

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.

Despite having no significant developments in the case during 2008, New Madrid County Sheriff Terry Stevens said that the Teresa Butler case remains open.

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

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

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

Butler was 35 years old when she disappeared. She worked in the photo lab at Wal-Mart in Dexter, Mo. She was reported missing by her husband, Gary Dale Butler, around 10 a.m. Jan. 25, 2006.

He had just returned home from his job when he found his two children, then ages 2 and 4, unattended with no sign of his wife. Authorities were contacted, and Teresa Butler was reported missing. Gary Butler told authorities it was not like his wife to leave the children unattended.

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 few items missing, it was reported.

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.

In 2008, on the anniversary of Teresa Butler's disappearance, 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. Many web pages feature information about her disappearance, along with a 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 this year. She is 5 feet 7 inches and weighed around 110 pounds with dark hair at the time of her disappearance.