Two men have been charged with the killing of a St. Louis mother who went missing over a decade ago after going to the store for milk.
Her remains were discovered in December 2022. The uncle-nephew duo were brought into custody as law enforcement seeks justice for a woman who they believed was strangled, beaten, and then hidden in Pontoon Beach, Illinois, woods near Route 111.
Patrenia “Trina” Butler-Turner, was last seen alive on Jan. 17, 2013. By the time her remains were discovered nearly 10 years later, police could only identify her by DNA samples extracted from her skeleton.
On Thursday, Feb. 2, law enforcement identified 55-year-old Roger Sutton Jr. of Pontoon Beach, Illinois, and his nephew 32-year-old Nathan Beyer of Alton, Illinois, as the men who concealed the body of the 40-year-old woman.
Sutton Jr. is charged with two counts of first-degree murder, a Class M felony, and one count of concealing the homicidal death of Butler-Turner, which is a Class 3 felony. Alton was charged with concealment of a homicidal death and helping to hide the body, a Class 3 felony.
The last time anyone, outside of her murderers, saw the former housekeeper alive was when she hitched a ride in a red pickup truck in East St. Louis.
Officers have not revealed the relationship between the two men and the deceased. However, Madison County State Attorney Thomas Haine did share details about one of the men’s criminal history at a press conference on Thursday.
Sutton Jr., who was already imprisoned for a methamphetamine two-year sentence felony conviction, was looking to be paroled from the Centralia Correctional Center on Valentine’s Day. After this sentence, instead of getting out, he will be transferred over to the Madison County Jail and held on a $3 million bond.
Pontoon Beach Police Chief Chris Modrusic said, “We moved pretty quickly on this knowing he was about to get out of prison.”
Sutton was a career criminal with arrests…
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