Ashton Butler, a 26-year-old Black father of three from Detroit, was reported missing at the end of March 2017. Family members launched a search that ended in early April when the owner of a rental property on Ethel Street noticed an unfamiliar car in the garage and found Butler’s body in the trunk. The Wayne County Medical Examiner identified him and determined the cause of death to be a gunshot wound; police treated the death as suspicious and investigated it as a homicide.

Family described Butler as a devoted father who would not have voluntarily disappeared. No information about suspects or arrests has been made public in the years since, and the investigation appears to have stalled.

If anyone knew Ashton, saw him in late March 2017, or has information about the vehicle or the garage on Ethel Street, please come forward with what you know.