Kleberg County Sheriff
Adam Curtis Williams has been identified as the man who was seen driving James and Michelle Butler’s RV and truck over the border into Mexico. The Butlers were last seen on October 15 and their bodies were found on November 1. An arrest warrant was issued for Williams for felony theft, but he already had a long history of crime and convictions in Utah. He had just been released from federal prison on a supervised release in December 2018, and he was later caught in Mexico after the arrest warrant was issued. Here is what you need to know.
1. Adam Curtis Williams Drove the Butlers’ Truck & RV Across the Border & Was Later Caught in Mexico
Kleberg County Sheriff
Adam Curtis Williams, 33, was identified in an arrest warrant as the man who was seen driving the Butlers’ truck and RV across the Mexican border. A photo of him distributed by law enforcement was taken from a surveillance video that caught him driving across the border.
He was wanted for felony theft and quickly apprehended in Mexico once his photo was released.
Williams was born on February 19, 1986, according to the Kleberg County Sheriff’s Office’s wanted poster. In a press conference, police said he has a scar below his left eye that may or may not be covered by makeup. His bond will be set at $1 million, District Attorney John Hubert said during a November 5 press conference.
The couple was traveling in a truck and RV, both with New Hampshire license plates. The truck is a four-door pickup: 2018 Silver Chevrolet 2500 with the license plate 3738968. The truck was town a white Cedar Creek RV with license plate T533534. These next two photos show what the RV and truck look like.
District Attorney John Hubert said during the second press conference that they crossed into Mexico on October 21 at Eagle Pass.
Williams was apprehended in Mexico and booked into Kleberg County Jail at 10 p.m. on Wednesday, November 6. He was booked on not just suspicion of felony theft, as the warrant stated, but also assault on a peace officer, USA Today noted.
A post from 2011, last updated in 2013, lists some of Williams’ identifying tattoos. The listed tattoos include a pitbull, skulls, and faces on the abdomen; skulls on the left ankle; demons on the right ankle; a pitbull, lady skulls, flames, and chain link alien (“Adub”) on the left arm; a money bag, “don’t tell” and “Williams” on the back; coi fish on the left breast; a demon, a girl, and skulls on the right leg; Elmer Fudd on the left buttocks; Bugs Bunny and “Get Out of There You Rascally Rabbit” on the right buttocks; pot leafs on the left calf; brass knuckles on the neck; a skull and “Mulisha” on the head; “bad luck” on the right hand.
2. Adam Curtis Williams Was Arrested Before in Utah & Had Just Been Given Supervised Release in December 2018.
Williams has had previous arrests. The Weber County Sheriff’s Office posted a mugshot of Williams for an arrest in Utah.
Weber County Sheriff\’s Office
He’s listed as being 6’1″ and 220 pounds with blonde hair and hazel eyes. Another report indicates that he was also arrested on June 4, 2018 by the U.S. Marshal Service.
A 2010 story by KSL notes that an Adam C. Williams was arrested then in Utah after a long investigation led to a drug bust. He and Melissa Bauer were arrested after being found with two pounds of marijuana, more than $3,200 in cash, four stolen guns, more than a thousand hydrocodone pills, and drug equipment. He was 24 at the time of the arrest, HJ News reported. A search warrant was executed on his residence after a three months-long investigation. Williams faced four counts of possession to distribute, three counts of firearm possession by a restricted person, and two counts of possession of a stolen firearm. At the time, he was registered with probation services.
According to court documents, at the time of his 2010 arrest, he possessed a Phoenix Arms .22 caliber handgun, a 9 mm Springfield XD handgun, and an AK-47. He was charged with possession with intent to distribute marijuana. He pleaded guilty to Counts II and III of his charges, which included possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking offense. He said he possessed the firearms for his protection while selling drugs, according to court documents, and the firearms had been moved previously across state lines. He was sentenced to 100 months, followed by 60 months of supervised release. Here is a screenshot of part of his plea.
District of Utah, Northern Division
In 2005, he had been convicted of theft.
Williams also had a prison incident in 2016 where he was caught with a shank, according to court records. He was given six months that ran consecutively.
Williams was just given a supervised release from federal prison in December 2018, according to court records.
In May he was found with heroin, which violated his supervised release.
US District Court
He was not sent back to prison, but had extra conditions added to his supervised release, according to a July 2019 court document, which said his previous special conditions were reimposed and he could not possess alcohol or frequent any businesses with alcohol.
3. Additional Allegations Were Listed Against Him in August 2019, Including Rape
While he was on supervised release, a petition was filed alleging that he violated his supervised release in July. The allegations for August 4 included possession of alcohol, assault or domestic violence, assault by a prisoner, and resisting arrest. The court documents also noted that he was alleged to have committed rape, forcible sexual abuse, and forcible sodomy on April 18, 2019.
Screenshots of the documents are below.
U.S. District Court
U.S. District Court
U.S. District Court
Williams was supposed to appear on Monday in Logan’s 1st District Court, the Standard-Examiner reported, but he missed his court appearance. He was also wanted for failing to appear based on charges of aggravated assault and assault by a prisoner. He did not appear for that hearing on October 8 either.
4. Amanda Noverr, Also from Utah, Was With Him, Along with Noverr’s 3-Year-Old Child
Kleberg County Sheriff
Although the man was driving the truck, a woman was seated beside him but could not be seen clearly in the photo. The woman, listed as a person of interest, was later identified as Amanda Noverr. Kleberg County Sheriff’s Office confirmed the spelling of her last name with Heavy.
Police later said that the couple had Noverr’s 3-year-old daughter with them when they crossed the border.
Noverr is 32 and also from Utah, according to public records. She previously went by Amanda Barker when she was married to Joshua Paul Barker, according to public records. They declared bankruptcy in 2017.
According to her LinkedIn, she previously worked as a sales associate at Midwest Center until 2011 and as a boxer for Schreiber from 2008 to 2010. She was convicted of public intoxication and misdemeanor assault in Logan County, Utah in 2012.
Here’s the full press conference.
Quickly after the photo was released, people on Facebook began talking about having seen the man. One man wrote on Monday that he believed he saw the man in the photo on North Beach on October 5 and talked to him. He said he had reached out to Kleberg County because the man had a trailer in a bad state of disrepair. It’s not known if that is the same person in the photo.
Amanda Noverr was later apprehended in Mexico and is being transported back to Houston on a charge of felony theft. She will also have a $1 million bond.
Before she and her daughter were found, her daughter’s sister posted on Facebook that her little sister was missing and the family was looking for her. She later updated her post to let people know that her sister was found safe and was going to be returned to her family. She confirmed in her posts that she was speaking about Noverr’s daughter.
5. The Butlers’ Bodies Were Found in a Shallow Grave Near Where They Had Been Camping
On Sunday night October 27, a female’s remains were found in a shallow grave near where the couple was last seen, the Caller Times reported. They were found by an official who was following up on a cell phone pinging in the area south of Bob Hall Pier near Mile Marker 263, near Padre Balli Park, KRIS-TV reported.
During the press conference on Monday, officials said that the officer was investigating the area, trying to get GPS coordinates, when he saw what appeared to be remains in the sand. That was how the grave was found. The site was secured because it was at night and they returned the next morning. That was when they discovered a male body too. Lt. David Mendoza, who is leading the investigation, said animals had been digging up the grave and that’s why the bodies were found.
When asked how they died, Mendoza said on Monday that they weren’t commenting on it because it was an important part of their investigation.
There were three cats in the RV with them and it’s not known what happened to the cats. The cats are pictured in the photo above.
Officials said during the press conference that the Butlers were last seen alive on October 15 and moved out of the Balli RV Park on the 15th. The park office said they were gone from the site at 12 p.m. Then later on October 15, Michelle Butler said they arrived at their new home and planned to be there a couple of weeks.
Here is the timeline of when James and Michelle Butler were last seen, according to the Finding Michelle & James Butler Facebook Page:
- October 14: Checking out of Padre Balli Campground (officials said this was October 15.)
- October 15: Last Facebook post was setting up on Burners Beach near Corpus Christi, Texas
- October 15: Michelle last spoke to her son.
- October 16: Last known text.
- October 17: Missed a scheduled Facetime with their granddaughter to see her open a package they sent from Flour Bluff.
- October 19: Camper last seen on Burners Beach without their truck.
- October 21: RV and truck were gone. GPS devices could not detect their vehicles.
An update on the “Finding Michell & James Butler” Facebook page read: “On-star has been contacted daily. First we started off with them talking into there truck for 15 minutes each time, never a response back. After we filed them missing we were able to gps ping the vechile. As of the 24th it says ‘out of servic.’ To this date it still reads that. I have asked them if the service was payed for which it was.. if not I was going to pay for it to further assist location. Kleburg County is doing everything in there power to locate our loved ones. They are looking into bank accounts, phone records, campgrounds, hospitals, beaches etc. They have gotten it on all Texas new stations as well. Back home we have put it in WMUR news as well.”
Mendoza said James Butler was a friendly and generous person. He said people who don’t know each other often meet up at that part of the beach and hang out.
A sign outside the Butlers’ home in Rumney, New Hampshire reads: “Because Nice Matters.”
“Because nice matters”
Sign outside James and Michelle Butler’s Rumney, NH home. James’ sister says the two were so happy, funny and kind @boston25
Shortly after the Butlers disappeared, Joanna Trevino Garza shared a story on Facebook saying that she believed she and her husband saw James Butler on October 22 in Calallen, about 38 miles from where they were last seen, and stopped and prayed with him. But the RV and truck were filmed crossing the border on October 21. When asked about that and if it showed the sighting was wrong, Hubert said he wouldn’t comment on the person seen at Walmart because it’s specific to an ongoing investigation.
The couple is from Rumney, New Hampshire, WMUR reported. Prior to their disappearance, they had talked to relatives almost every day. They had been traveling in Texas for a while. James Butler shared this photo from the road in Texas in June 2019.
He was a 21-year-Navy veteran, his sister told KIII-TV, and had always dreamed of traveling the world.
The Butlers’ family believed the couple was heading to Fort Lauderdale in Florida for a part-time job and they were supposed to arrive on November 20. James Butler’s sister, Deborah van Loon, told KRZTV 10 that the couple was part of a Work to Camp program where they work jobs around the country. They were going to sell Christmas trees in Florida for a month starting November 20, and they were supposed to be at Burners Beach in Corpus Christi for about two weeks.
A GoFundMe has been set up to help the family of James and Michelle Butler. You can donate to it here. An update on the GoFundMe reads: “Thank you all so very very much. We are making plans slowly and these funds will help to get James and Michelle home and for services and to help get his children here for services. Your support is unbelievably gracious and the comfort it brings is much more than you know.”
If you have any information, please call the Kleberg County Sheriff’s Office at 361-595-8500.