When Pamela J. Butler’s family walked into her Northwest D.C. home nearly two years ago, they knew something wasn’t right.
They hadn’t been able to reach her for days, and she had missed a Valentine’s Day dinner with her boyfriend and mother.
When Butler’s family members got to the home, they found files on the floor, sheets removed from the bed and an open window in the normally spotless house of the 47-year-old Environmental Protection Agency systems analyst.
“I just felt like something was wrong,” her mother, Thelma Butler, said Tuesday.
No one has seen or heard from Pamela Butler since Feb. 12, 2009. Family members said they believe she is dead. But no one has been charged in the case, and D.C. police will only say her disappearance remains an active missing-person investigation.
The family plans to return to the home, 5821 Fourth St. NW, for a prayer vigil this weekend to commemorate the two-year anniversary of Pamela Butler’s disappearance. The vigil will take place at 3 p.m. Sunday.
“We want to bring some spotlight onto what happened,” her brother, Derrick Butler, said.
Pamela Butler was last seen at her home with her boyfriend, Jose Angel Rodriguez-Cruz. Her home’s video surveillance system showed the couple entering the house on the evening of Feb. 12, 2009, and Rodriguez-Cruz leaving about an hour later, according to Butler’s family. The surveillance tapes, which have been turned over to police, show he’s the only person who enters or leaves the house, the family members said.
Rodriguez-Cruz could not be reached for comment.
Thelma Butler said she found a note from Rodriguez-Cruz on her daughter’s computer table. The note asks, “Pam, where are you? I’ve been here looking for you,” she said.
Pamela Butler is described as black, 5 feet 3 inches tall and 120 pounds. She has brown hair and brown eyes. Anyone with information is asked to call the Metropolitan Police Department at 202-727-9099.
