Keith Anderson, 22, with his dog Nazareth, courtesy Families of Victims of Homicide and Missing Persons
Bob Anderson flew to German Valley, Ill., several years ago to attend the funeral of a man he had never met.
Anderson, then 71 years old, was hoping he would find the man’s son, David Russell Buttel, mourning at the funeral.
He wanted .
“We thought he would show up for his dad’s funeral,” Anderson said.
Buttel didn’t show, however, and the mystery of where Keith Anderson’s body lies continues.
In the years after the disappearance and suspected murder of their son Keith, Bob and his wife, Jo Ann, hired a private investigator and a psychic to track the elusive Buttel.
“He just totally disappeared. Everything is a dead end for us,” Anderson said. “We don’t know if he changed his name or if he is dead. Itap been a weird thing.”
Anderson clearly remembers the day in February 1984 that he got a call from Vernon “Spud” Weaver, who said Keith boarded a horse in his barn and that Keith’s truck was left idling near the barn with his German shepherd in the back, but there was no sign of Keith.
Bob Anderson knew something was very wrong.
His other son called the Grand County Sheriff’s Office. Deputies opened an investigation, Bob Anderson said.
They found Keith’s blood on some horse manure in the barn.
