Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Parents Murdered Disabled Son After Requesting Donations For Cremation: Sheriff

Episode Date: May 16, 2024

Mercedes Caho and her husband, Josh Butcher, have been charged with the August 2022 murder of their son, Brayden Butcher. The Pima County Sheriff says detectives were called to investigate after the hospital found the circumstances surrounding the eight-year-old’s death suspicious. Following a lengthy investigation, a grand jury indicted Butcher and Caho on charges of first-degree murder and felony child abuse. Law&Crime’s Angenette Levy digs into what’s known about Brayden and this case in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.Get 50% off of confidential background reports at https://www.truthfinder.com/lccrimefix and access information about almost anyone!Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest:Mike Alcazar  https://twitter.com/MichaelJAlcazar?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5EauthorCRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoAudio Editing - Brad MaybeGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@LawandCrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. A couple now charged with the murder of their disabled son nearly two years after he died. I have the disturbing details of the death of little Brayden Butcher. Thanks for joining me for Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Brayden Butcher was just eight years old when Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Braden Butcher was just

eight years old when his parents took him to a hospital in Tucson, Arizona with injuries. This was in August of 2022. Sheriff's deputies in Pima County say they were called to the hospital on August 12th of that year to investigate Braden's death. The sheriff's office says the circumstances were suspicious. Braden Butcher was just eight years old, and his parents had identified him on a GoFundMe page as having autism and scoliosis and also rheumatoid arthritis. Braden's mother, Mercedes Cahill, wrote that Braden loved Star Wars, particularly Darth Vader. About Braden's death, she wrote, My son, Braden Butcher, who was only eight years old, unexpectedly passed away.

My son was a warrior till his last breaths. I was his 24-7 caretaker. My job was just being a stay-at-home mom, making sure he was happy and loved. He had autism since he was one and a half, also followed with scoliosis in his back and rheumatoid arthritis. He was, and still in heaven, the happiest little man pain-free. He will always bring light and happiness into mine and his father, Josh Butcher's, and his two sisters' lives. Kehoe wrote that she was trying to raise money for funeral expenses. Anything will help me and my husband with expenses for cremation and services for his funeral. We don't ask for anything unless your heart is moved to help me and my husband through this hard process, being able to put our son

peacefully to rest. It's not clear whether a cremation ever took place, but sheriff's officials in announcing the murder and child abuse charges filed against Mercedes Cahill and Braden's dad, Josh Butcher, said it was determined that blunt force trauma to the head and upper body caused Braden's death. The Pima County Sheriff said the charges were the result of, quote, numerous interviews that were conducted, search warrants were executed, and medical records scrutinized. Kehoe and Butcher were indicted by a grand jury, but they are not in custody. Photos on her Facebook page show that she talked about autism. She used a frame on a photo

of her with her dog, but there really aren't any photos of Brayden on that social media account. I want to take a quick break from telling you about the awful, awful death of Brayden on that social media account. I want to take a quick break from telling you about the awful, awful death of Brayden Butcher to tell you about something that can help you learn more about the people in your life. It's a great website and it's called truthfinder.com. Truthfinder is one of the world's largest public record search services. Truthfinder has just one goal, and that is to help you and me learn the truth about the people that we meet. Here's how it works. Log on to truthfinder.com and simply put in a name. Within minutes and sometimes even seconds, you will get reports that include phone

numbers, addresses, friends, family, criminal records, and much more. It will also show you sex offender statuses for people who live in your neighborhood. The cases that I cover make it clear that you have to do everything you can to keep you and your loved ones safe. So right now, Crime Fix viewers and listeners can get 50% off of confidential background reports at truthfinder.com. Just log on to truthfinder.com slash lccrimefix and start accessing information about almost anybody. With me to discuss this disturbing case is somebody who's been involved in law enforcement for many, many years.

He is Mike Alcazar, a retired NYPD detective and also an adjunct professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. So welcome to Crime Fix. Thanks for coming on, Mike. Your first thoughts on this case. It's interesting to me that Braden was taken to the hospital and sadly passed away in August of 2022. Yet it takes until May now currently for his parents to be charged with murder. So this was a lengthy investigation. Yeah, that was the first thing that stood out to me, that how long it took a couple of years for

them to be charged with the murder of their child. So I was just wondering what took so long. What was the evidence they had? And what did the medical examiner find. So it was interesting to find that it took forever, pretty much. It seemed like a lifetime for them to be charged. One thing that I found really interesting and that really kind of piqued my interest in reading about this case, and law enforcement's really not saying much, they went through a grand jury to indict the parents in this case. So this is not a case where they filed a complaint, an affidavit full of details about the investigation. They went through the grand jury process. So there's very limited information and limited details about the case out there.

But the parents were raising money on the GoFundMe and talking about how he had scoliosis, he had rheumatoid arthritis, he had autism. These are all things that are issues with children, but they don't result in death. Rheumatoid arthritis does not routinely kill children, neither does scoliosis or having autism. And yet these things are discussed in the GoFundMe as ailments with which this child was afflicted. No mention of how the child died. Did that raise any alarm bells for you? Yeah, I think it seemed like an attempt to draw sympathy for the family and i guess to raise money uh for the child's funeral for his um cremation so yeah it's it seemed a little sociopathic it seemed a little

pandering uh to push their agenda to push their cause and i'm sure i'm not the only one that was suspect of the the wording of of of that. I mean, it's just with no mention of how it's just that he died unexpectedly. I mean, eight-year-olds don't typically just die unexpectedly unless maybe there's something, an outside force causing the death or an illness, a sudden illness, something like that. Another thing that I found interesting, and it could be just very coincidental because obviously the parents here are innocent until proven guilty. They are facing charges, which are just allegations at this point in time, but they wanted to cremate Brayden. And we know what happens once you cremate somebody. If there's a cremation, you can't really examine the body any further.

But the police had already been called. So the police were called the day that Braden died to the hospital. But cremation would destroy any evidence of a possible crime? Yeah, I would think that the medical examiner already did an autopsy. They already examined the body. I'm not sure if they're going to hire any other experts, if they were planning to hire any experts to examine the body. But you're right. It's a good point. Once the body is cremated, that's it. They can no longer revisit. They can no longer look for any more evidence. So it's definitely a suspect, for sure. Law enforcement, while they have been tight-lipped about this case, they did mention that they, over subsequent months and many, many months, did numerous

interviews. They executed search warrants. They went through medical records and scrutinized those medical records and then came to the conclusion that Braden died from blunt force trauma to the head and upper body. You know, blunt force trauma injuries, you know, I don't know if that was suspected when he arrived at the hospital, but there was something suspicious enough about Braden's passing that prompted people at the hospital to call law enforcement. So we're talking about they're saying scrutinizing medical records. through his entire medical history and maybe went through everything they could find to see if maybe there was a history of abuse because they are not only facing these murder charges, but they are also facing four felony counts of felony child abuse. Yeah, it's the responsibility of the hospital, the nurses, to report anything to the police that's suspicious.

And for them to go back in the child's history, they're definitely, I would think, they're definitely investigating, has he been there before? Have they brought him there before? What other injuries have been reported? What was prior diagnosis? I think they're trying to establish perhaps a case of abuse if that's where they're going. So, yeah, it's definitely part of the investigation to look at the victim's medical history. You know, they're talking about executing search warrants. We don't know exactly which warrants or which, you know, if this was for premises or phones. But a lot of times in these investigations,

you're going to see electronic evidence being a big part of the investigation. I'm assuming that the investigators went through this case, you know, with a fine-tooth comb. We're talking about an eight-year-old boy who shows up at the hospital with his parents, passes away. We're talking blunt force trauma to the head and upper body, torso, I'm thinking, and head. And then you would think that maybe they are going through everything to see what was going on in the life of this child. I mean, he has older siblings, two older sisters, and then, or he has two siblings, two sisters. And then I'm assuming they go through everything to see what was going on with this family to really paint a picture or build a picture of what was

happening. Yeah, absolutely. They might have to establish some form of a crime scene if they suspect it happened at the household. What could have caused this blunt force trauma. As far as their electronic search, as we've seen lately in many cases, people do incredibly stupid Google searches. So that could prove to yield some interesting information. What did they search on the internet perhaps that might lead them to believe that something fishy was happening regarding the injury to the child. One thing that I thought was kind of interesting, and I went back and looked at an older Facebook account of Mercedes Cahos, and she has pictures of her daughters on there. But I don't see any photos of Brayden. And I found that to be kind

of unusual. She talks about in her GoFundMe that she stayed at home. She was a stay-at-home mom, the only caregiver for him, because she wanted to make sure he was happy and had a good life and things like that. But we really don't see any signs of him on her social media. That to me, could that be telling? Absolutely. That's interesting. I'm sure it's a daunting task to take care of a child with special needs. And I'm sure the investigators will look into her mindset. How did she feel about caring for this child? Did she care for this child? Was she overwhelmed? And perhaps that's why limited posts on social media. So not only we look at the victimology, we look at the family and their history. Any prior, if any,, and interviewed the children to find out how this child was cared for, what was the atmosphere in the household, in the neighborhood.

We will certainly keep an eye on the case and try to get some more information about how Braden died, or at least the theory behind how he passed away. It's interesting that it took this long for charges to be filed. They are innocent until proven guilty, Mercedes Cahill and her husband. So thank you so much, Mike Alcazar, for coming on. We appreciate it. You're very welcome. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.