Richard Casler

Richard Alan Casler, a 61-year-old White male, was a U.S. Air Force veteran and retired postal worker who had made his home in Wasilla, Alaska, since 1980. A proud landowner and boat owner, he loved the Alaskan outdoors and enjoyed fishing, hunting, and camping. In July 2015, he went on a camping trip with his friend, 42-year-old Lynn Marie Butler, also of Wasilla.

Over the July 4th weekend, the two were camped at a remote site on Valdez Creek Road near mile 79 of the Denali Highway. They had plans to go ATV riding with friends on the morning of July 2, 2015, but they never arrived at the meeting spot. When their friends went to check on them, they found the campsite disturbed and Casler’s truck missing. Later that day, they located his Ford F-150 abandoned, unlocked, and with the keys still inside. By 9 p.m., the friends returned to the campsite and made a grisly discovery: blood on the ground.

The pair was officially reported missing to Alaska State Troopers on July 3. Investigators arriving at the scene found evidence of a violent struggle involving gunfire. A ground and air search was launched, and two days later, on the afternoon of Sunday, July 5, troopers heard noises coming from a dilapidated trailer, also described as a storage container, in the area. Tactical teams were called in, and after attempts to make contact failed, they entered the trailer. Inside, they found the bodies of Richard Casler and Lynn Butler.

An autopsy later determined that Lynn Butler had died from multiple gunshot wounds. Richard Casler had also been shot multiple times and had suffered fatal blunt-force injuries. Both deaths were ruled homicides.

The investigation quickly focused on Lynn Butler’s estranged husband, 42-year-old Bruce Floyd Dowd Butler. The couple was in the middle of a divorce, and Lynn had filed for a restraining order against him earlier that year. According to court documents, witnesses told investigators about a decade-long history of domestic violence, including threats Bruce had made to kill Lynn if she ever left him.

For nearly two years, the case remained open. Investigators compiled evidence from cell phone records and witness statements. A break came when a friend of Bruce Butler’s told authorities that Butler had confessed to killing his wife. He had also allegedly made incriminating statements to another person about his involvement in the double murder.

On June 20, 2017, Bruce Floyd Dowd Butler was arrested without incident at his home in Wasilla. He was charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Lynn Butler and Richard Casler. As of his arrest and arraignment in June 2017, the case was proceeding through the court system.