Dark Downeast - The Disappearance of Wilfred "Butch" King III (Vermont)

Episode Date: October 9, 2025

After spending an early Friday evening hunting in the woods behind his home in Vermont, Wilfred “Butch” King III left his home on two crutches, driving off into the fall night never to be seen alive again. Despite years of investigation, what happened on the night of October 24, 1980 remains a mystery. There are many people, from investigators to family, who say they have strong theories about who is behind Butch’s disappearance, yet decades later, police have never even been close to proving those theories right.If you know anything about the disappearance of Wilfred “Butch” King III, please contact Essex Police at [phone].View source material and photos for this episode at: darkdowneast.com/wilfredbutchkingiiiDark Downeast is an Audiochuck and Kylie Media production hosted by Kylie Low.Follow @darkdowneast on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTokTo suggest a case visit darkdowneast.com/submit-case Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

After spending an early Friday evening hunting in the woods behind his home in Vermont, Wilfrid Butch King III left his home on two crutches, driving off into the fall night never to be seen alive again. Despite years and years of investigation, what happened on the night of October 24, 1980, remains a mystery. There are many people, from investigators to family, who say they have. have strong theories about who is behind Butch's disappearance. Yet decades later, police have never even been close to proving those theories right. I'm Kylie Lowe, and this is the case of Wilfred Butch King III. On Darkdown East.

There was nothing significant about the day. of October 24th, 1980 for Wilfred Butch King III before he went missing, except for the fact that he was waiting for a phone call. According to reporting by Leslie Corrin for the Burlington Free Press, Butch's parents, who lived next door to him, did not know who their son was expecting a call from. All they knew was that this call was important enough that Butch said he could not leave home until he received it.

Butch stayed nearby and hunted in the acres of woods behind his family property. Butch especially enjoyed hunting for squirrels, which are extra challenging to catch with a rifle. He was out there, following the fast-moving rodents in 40-something-degree windy fall weather for much of the afternoon. By the time he came inside and cleaned up, the call he'd been waiting for came through. He didn't leave the house immediately. Butch finished dinner, and then about two weeks. hours after the call, which came in around 5 p.m., he told his parents he was going out to meet up with some friends. He left the house alone, around 7 p.m., and got into his four-wheel drive

1979 blue-and-white Chevrolet Blazer, an old-school truck decked out with a yellow plow and trailer hitch, plus a yellow light on the roof. He drove away from the home that he'd built at 114 Jericho Road in Essex Junction, Vermont, for the last time. The only sign of him the next day came when two hunters found his crutches covered in blood in a field off middle road in Colchester. He needed those metal crutches to walk since recovering from being hit by a car two years earlier. Later, when police went to search the field, they also uncovered one of Butch's boots.

At the time, Colchester police officer Clayton Wood said they were treating the situation as a missing person's investigation, but were not ruling out foul play. He said that the longer he stayed missing, the more likely foul play was involved. As of this year, 2025, Butch King has been missing for 45 years. Butch was born on April 22, 1943. He grew up in Essex Junction, Vermont. the second of Lillian and Wilfred King Jr.'s six children. Butch's parents had started a paving business together, King Paving Co. in 1957, which they operated

out of their home at 118, Jericho Road. The house sat on more than 10 acres of land with plenty of room to store the paving equipment. Butch didn't finish high school, and instead he started working for the small but successful family paving business. When paving work slowed down during the winter months, he also worked as a carpenter. When he was 19 years old, Bush's parents carved off a two-acre plot from their land for Butch, and he used his carpenter skills to build himself a four-bedroom, one-bath, two-story home, just 250 feet away from his parents' house. At 23 years old, Butch married 20-year-old Diane Irish on June 25, 1966. She was a cosmetologist at the time.

The following year, they welcomed their first child, Joey King. Then came a daughter in 1970 and another son in 1971. Butch was raising his children with his wife and running the family business with his parents. From the outside, they seemed like a very close-knit, happy family. But their home life changed drastically after a devastating accident. On April 18, 1978, Bush was hit crossing the street outside. his house, which sat right along Vermont Route 15, when a 41-year-old woman traveling westbound hit Butch with her car, throwing him up onto the windshield before he rolled down the vehicle's

side. The collision damaged the windshield and hood, but the driver walked away unscathed. Meanwhile, 34-year-old Butch was in critical condition. Doctors at the Medical Center Hospital in Burlington told Butch's father that his son did not have much of a chance of surviving the injuries, let alone the resulting pneumonia while he was still in the hospital. And if he did survive, he may never be able to walk again and would likely be in a vegetative state. For the first few weeks, Butch lay in a coma, but he eventually, miraculously, woke up. Still, he was bedridden for eight months after that. Despite the doctor's predictions, though, Butch's determination and daily practice allowed him to get around on his own again, first with a wheelchair, and then

by walking with two crutches. In August of 1978, four months following the accident, Diane took out a section in the Burlington Free Press to thank the doctors, nurses, and staff for taking very good care of her husband. And a few months later, in December of 1978, the couple brought a lawsuit against the driver who hit Butch. Butch sought $135,000 for his injuries, While Diane asked for $100,000 for herself because, as it is detailed in the lawsuit, she was deprived of love, affection, comfort, aid, support, service, and consortium. The couple's relationship suffered in the accident's aftermath. In interrogatories for the lawsuit which they both signed,

they said how the accident had changed their lifestyles. Both said that the other had also changed in, quote, personality, attitude, manners, state of mind, and emotional state, end quote. Diane also told the Burlington Free Press that Butch was like a totally different person after the accident, that he got depressed and his personality changed. Their case against the driver was still pending in mid-1980 when Butch filed for divorce from Diane. She filed a counterclaim against it and moved out of the family home. Their two youngest children went with Diane, while their oldest, Joey, stayed with his father. Diane and Butch finally reached an agreement in their

divorce case in September of 1980, giving Butch custody of Joey and Diane custody of their daughter and other son, with visitation rights granted on both sides. The agreement also gave Butch the family home that he built next to his parents on Jericho Road, where he ran the family business. When the agreement was approved, it would give him and Joey official legal rights over the home. The arrangement was still pending a final hearing in December of 1980, but that hearing would never take place because within weeks of the initial divorce agreement, Butch vanished.

Butch's parents, Wilfred Jr., and Lillian told Mike Donahue of the Burlington Free Press that they already feared for Butch's safety before he disappeared. They explained that he had been receiving what they believed to be threats from multiple other people, and if those threats turned into something violent and physical, Butch was restricted by his crutches and stature. He was five feet, four inches tall and 130 pounds. Because of the threats that Butch was receiving, his parents didn't want him to go out alone at all. So he'd usually bring his oldest son Joey out with him. On the night of October 24, 1980, when Butch was heading out, Lillian once again insisted Joey joined his father

wherever he was going, but the teenager refused. It's unknown who called Butch that night, but when he left the house, he told his parents that he was going to meet up with one of his friends. His parents understood this to be one of three possible individuals. However, according to Essex Police Detective Sergeant Robert Riando, all three of those friends said they never saw him that night. Butch had left in his truck that night, and with his disappearance, the truck was also reported missing. Butch's Chevy Blazer finally surfaced three weeks later. It was found around 10 p.m. on November 14, 1980, near a gravel pit off West Oak Hill Road in Williston. It was hunting season in Vermont, and so unsurprisingly, this piece of evidence was also

discovered by a hunter scouting the area on a Friday night. Now, side note for those who don't know their way around Chittenden County because we're working with a few town names here, Butch's home in Essex Junction, the location of his crutches in Colchester, and his truck in Williston are all within a 15 to 25-minute drive from each other. Sergeant Yando said police were unable to determine exactly how long the truck had sat in that spot, but they estimated that it had been there a while. According to Essex Police Chief at the time, John Terry, a woman who lived nearby the gravel pit told officers she'd seen the truck before, in the same area it was found, two days after Butch disappeared, and she said there was a man

inside. The next day, Essex Police combed the area near the truck for any sign of Butch or clues of his disappearance, but didn't find anything significant. Police, of course, contacted Butch's estranged wife, Diane King, early on in the investigation, but she insisted she had no idea what happened to him. She did, however, feel confident enough to move back into Butch's home within weeks of his disappearance. A lot of things about the situation didn't add up for Butch's parents or the police. According to Sergeant Yando, Essex police believed there was an indication of foul play here. Nothing they'd learned in the investigation so far. showed that Butch would have or could have disappeared on his own.

Within the first year of the investigation, investigators traced numerous leads and interviewed dozens of people. At least six of those were brought into court for sworn testimony during inquests. Police also conducted five land searches. Meanwhile, Butch's parents were convinced that he'd been murdered and felt frustrated as a year passed with no answers. They began to believe that whoever was responsible for their son's strange and unexplained disappearance would never get caught. Sergeant Yando attributed the lack of progress in Butch's case to Diane. Her blatant lack of cooperation with police was a frustrating roadblock in the investigation.

Not only was she not talking, the two children that lived with her refused to talk to police at her direction as well. Sergeant Yando told the Burlington Free Press that Diane refused to take a lie detector test, despite telling a reporter she would take one if police wanted her to. Diane and her attorney would later say they no longer saw a need for her to submit to a polygraph test. While continuing to refuse to cooperate with police about her estranged husband's mysterious disappearance, Diane also continued to pursue damages from the woman who hit Butch with her car. In February of 1981, Diane's lawyer, James Murdoch, wrote the Chittenden County Court Clerk Frank

Fee to ask to continue the lawsuit against the driver for the term, or until Essex Police or the state's attorney could determine whether Butch was still alive. This wasn't her only attempt to cash in on Butch while he was missing. Diane actually went as far as to liquidate the King family paving company he'd taken over, all while she continued to live in Butch's home, right next door to his parents. Butch's mother and father were reportedly not impressed with the company Diane was inviting over and even moving into the home their son built with his own two hands.

According to Butch's parents and corroborated by police, some of Butch's property was being damaged and destroyed while Diane stayed in the home. This upset her oldest son, Joey. When his mother moved back into the home he once shared with his father, Joey moved out and into his grandparents' house next door. When Joey became aware of his dad's things being used, damaged, and sold in his absence,

Joey decided to take some of the items he saw as valuable for safekeeping at his grandparents' place. That was part of the reason why Diane King ultimately decided to sue her teenage son a year after his father disappeared. According to court records, Diane wanted to recover motorcycles, snowmobiles, paving equipment, a boat and trailer from Butch's father, Wilfred Jr., her father-in-law, that had been removed from the property. Judge Ernest W. Gibson III told her that in order to get custody of the property that was temporarily awarded to Butch during the divorce proceedings, Diane would have to sue her son. But instead, she started with filing a suit against her father-in-law over the

property because it had been moved to his house. Now, Diane didn't just want Butch's stuff back. She also wanted the whole house that had been temporarily awarded to Butch in September of 1980 during the divorce agreement that was never finalized. As part of the court proceedings, both Joey and Diane testified that multiple items belonging to Butch were damaged. Motorcycles and a freezer were vandalized, along with equipment from the paving company, a rubber boat was also damaged. In court, Joey went on to say that his mother asked him once not to call the police about her quote, friends, aka men that have been described as her boyfriends. According to Diane, two men were responsible for the damaged property, a guy named Arnold Parent, who was

living with her at the time, and a friend named John. John admitted to stealing a fish finder in a tackle box, but was apparently never prosecuted for that. Arnold's parent wasn't just living with Diane at Butch's house in a roommate situation. He was described as one of Diane's boyfriends at the time. In 1980, when she moved back into the home, Arnold was only 19 years old. Diane was 34. Diane and Arnold's relationship was volatile. In court, Diane said that Arnold Parent was convicted of smashing her car windows.

He reportedly went to jail for several months following that incident. Diane would go on to say that she actually started to fear Arnold and his friend John. The men apparently had access to guns and often had them in their possession around her. By the time they went to court, Arnold had moved out and Diane had moved a new boyfriend into the home, a man named Calvin Mickey Clark. When her father-in-law's attorney Alan Bruce questioned her, Diane made sure to clarify that Mickey had not damaged any of the property. Still, Joey said he was worried that items left in the house or cars like rifles, handguns, bow and arrows, a lawnmower, and a cabinet, would be sold off by his mother.

That's why he and a friend removed them. On the stand, Joey pointed out that his grandfather, the one being sued, was not involved in moving any property over to his house. Diane admitted to selling the paving business equipment for $11,000 and said the money was turned over to her attorney. Diane denied that she planned to sell any of the items at the house or that a male friend of hers was using Butch's stuff, though she did admit that Mickey the new living boyfriend had used Butch's snowmobile and a snowmobile outfit. Mike Donahue reports for the free press that while testifying,

Joey's voice cracked as he said that the items he took for safekeeping would go back to his father, whenever or if ever he came home. Diane watched as her son, just a young teenager, struggled and got emotional on the stand. She then turned to her lawyer, Thomas J. Donovan, and said under her breath, sick. Superior Court Judge Ernest W. Gibson dismissed the case against Bush's father, Wilford, Jr., saying there was no evidence he was involved in the removal of the property. After leaving court that day, Diane's attorney said he expected to refile the case.

This time, with Joey and his grandfather, both named as defendants. And so, Joey King was added to the suit. The updated lawsuit was filed, then delayed in Chittenden County Superior Court in February 1982. While the parties and family members awaited further court proceedings, a new discovery brought temporary hope for answers in Butch's disappearance. Essex Police had received information that Butch may have been buried in the Intervale. According to the University of Vermont, the Intervale is an 870-acre floodplain

that flows through the towns of Burlington, Winooski, and Colchester. Now, Lieutenant Yandau said that investigators got this information from two secret court inquests, as well as tips from phone calls to police and the Champlain Valley Crime Stoppers tip line. On August 3rd, 1982, New York State Trooper Ralph Suffolk brought two of his specially trained dogs to Vermont to investigate the intervale. Ralph and his dogs had been highly successful in other searches

and the hope was that these expert pups could bring some answers for the King family too. The specialized canines were able to uncover roughly two dozen bones while sniffing around in the intervale. Upon initial examination, state chief medical examiner Dr. Eleanor McQuillan believed they were animal bones, but needed to do more tests to confirm. The dogs were also brought to the gravel pit where Butch's truck was found in Williston. They found part of a pair of glasses at the scene that were of particular interest,

and investigators intended to send those out for further analysis. However, there hasn't been any further public information about these classes since their discovery. While investigators already knew some of the bones collected were animal bones, the medical examiner officially confirmed that they were all animal bones, and they did not belong to Butch King. Back in the courtroom, a ruling was finally made in the lawsuit Diane filed against her son and father-in-law on November 22nd, 1982. Superior Court Judge Alden T. Brian ruled that Butch's father, not Diane, should be responsible for his property until he is found, or his death is established by authorities. He did afford Diane a riding lawnmower and chainsaw, but all the other disputed property would go to Wilfred

Jr. That included rifles, a gun cabinet, boat and motor, bow and arrows, three motorcycles, and two guitars. The order by Judge Bryan would remain in effect until further order, or until Butch was found or declared dead. According to Vermont law at the time, another five years without Butch would have to pass before anyone could petition to have him declared dead. The legal battle between Diane and Butch's father and her own son, paired with her refusal to cooperate with the investigation into Butch's disappearance, cast tremendous suspicion

over her intentions and possible involvement. According to Mike Donahue's reporting, Attorney Norman Blaze, who was a former Chief Deputy State's attorney appointed by the court to represent the children, he reportedly told the judge during a conference in chambers that authorities knew who was responsible

for Butch's disappearance, but could not prove it. In the months after the court proceedings and decision over Butch's property, police had received another tip that sparked a new search effort. On May 6, 1983, investigators arrived at an old well on a property on Cobble Hill Road in Milton. According to Chief Irwin Beam,

Milton Police received a report that tenants renting the property had found a leather belt and a piece of checkered clothing. Interestingly, the owner of the property in question was the brother of the one and only Calvin Mickey Clark, who Diane was dating and living with in Butch's house on Jericho Road after he disappeared. The items were of significant interest to investigators on Butch's case because Butch was reportedly wearing a checkered shirt the last time he was seen alive. Following a search warrant application,

State's attorney Kevin Bradley joined Milton and Essex Police for the dig at the side of the well. Unfortunately, the effort did not produce any further information regarding Butch's disappearance. And after further review and examination, the fabric of that checkered piece of clothing wasn't a match. It was a different pattern than what Butch was wearing on the night he vanished. Bush's body has never been recovered. Beyond the bloodied crutches, there's been no sign of his physical presence anywhere after he drove off that night in October of 1980. By December of 1987, when the required amount of time had passed since his disappearance per Vermont law, Diane filed to have Butch declared dead.

In February of 1988, Diane petitions the Chittenden County Superior Court to declare Butch dead so she could become the sole owner of record over the home he'd built on Jericho Road. It appears she intended to sell it. In the suit, a then-forty one, one-year-old Diane stated that she believed the facts and circumstances of Butch's disappearance indicate he is dead. Diane sought sole possession of the land and house on Jericho Road because without that, as the suit notes, she could not sell it. If she couldn't sell the house, it would become a hardship and could deteriorate. But her son, Joey, then 20 years old, filed suit against his mom in an attempt to prevent her from benefiting from his father's

disappearance and presumed death. Joey and his attorney asked the judge to delay action on his mother's request to have his father declared dead. Burlington attorney Joffrey W. Crawford filed papers in Chittenden County Superior Court on Joey's behalf that stated he believed Diane, quote, took part, end quote, in his dad's murder, based on information and personal belief. The attorney representing Joey also requested that after depositions and interrogatories, the court could schedule an evidentiary hearing on Diane's quote, participation in her husband's apparent murder and disappearance, end quote. Within the month, Diane petitioned the court to dismiss her request to have her husband declared dead and gain sole ownership of the home. After she withdrew,

Joey immediately filed his own case to resolve the ownership issue. while he continued to live with his grandparents. His mother remained in his father's home. Joey asked the court to use the property to establish a constructive trust fund for him and his siblings that could be supervised by the probate court. In May of 1988, Diane requested to have the lawsuit Joey brought against her thrown out,

based on her argument that the Superior Court did not have jurisdiction over the case and that the district court, which handles criminal cases, would be the property or forum. Judge James Morse rejected the claim in Chittenden County Superior Court. By bringing the case to civil court, Joey bore less burden of proof than is required for a jury to convict in a criminal case. For criminal trials, a jury needs to believe the person did it beyond a reasonable doubt, while a civil case only needs to find a preponderance of the evidence

against the person being sued. In court, Joey's attorney reiterated that Joey believes, believed his mother was responsible for and helped murder his father and therefore should not benefit financially from his death. According to court documents, Joey asked the court to declare his father dead and to find his mother had procured his death. A search of vital record shows that Butch was pronounced dead on January 5, 1994. His immediate cause of death is listed as undetermined, presumed dead. Ultimately, Joey gained ownership of the home. He got married and had three children who he raised there

right next door to his loving grandparents. He is now 58 years old. Diane ended up marrying Calvin Mickey Clark on February 6, 2006. He was the final boyfriend she moved into Butch's home. Diane could not be reached for comment at the time of this episode's original recording. In the past and via various media outlets,

she has consistently denied any involvement in her estranged husband's disappearance. As of 1988, eight years after her estranged husband went missing, Lieutenant Yando said Diane had not cooperated with police at any point of the investigation. He went on to say he hopes they can solve it without her cooperation

because she's made clear they won't get. According to Lieutenant Gary Taylor, a patrol officer at the time of the disappearance, Essex Police have spent thousands of hours on the case, but no arrests were ever made, and they were not any closer to making one. The case remains unsolved today. Though they have yet to receive justice, Butch's family has held on to and honored his memory. They've created a Facebook page in his honor and have posted about his case in recent years. Butch's mother wrote on the page,

My heart still wants to know what happened to Butch. Dark Down East reporter Jackie O'Brien reached out to multiple members of Butch's immediate family, including his three children and siblings. While there was hope and interest in having Butch's case solved, the family members she spoke with directly

wanted to maintain their privacy and did not wish to be interviewed for the podcast. It might seem like there's an obvious answer, or at least an obvious trail to follow in order to figure out what happened in Butch's case. As for Butch's parents, they have been adamant that what happened to Butch is clear. The couple told the Burlington Free Press they believed Diane King hired someone to kill Butch so she could have the estate. They said, this is corroborated by the fact that Diane moved back into Butch's home when he disappeared and was hanging out with

bad company, referring to the multiple boyfriends she moved in and out of the home. According to them, two of the boyfriends even harassed Butch's parents while living in their missing son's home and using his things. The only evidence against Diane is circumstantial. The things she had to gain and her persistence to make those things, particularly the house, hers alone. But there is no hard evidence that Diane murdered Butch or had him murdered.

Police have never located his body or a murder weapon. No one has been charged with any crime as it relates to his disappearance. According to a Burlington Free Press interview with Butch's parents from 2000, the children have stayed close with them and with each other. Joey reportedly rebuilt his relationship

with his mother following the lawsuits. When Butch and Diane's daughter got married in July of 1995, everyone was in attendance, including Diane and grandparents. However, Butch's parents told the Burlington Free Press they did not speak to Diane at the wedding.

But on a table at the reception was a picture of Butch, alongside a poem written by Butch's daughter that read, quote, Dear Dad, the music is playing, the procession has begun and here we are, Dad, your two sons walking your daughter down the aisle as one, end quote. Despite never finding his body to bury beneath it, Butch's parents erected a gravestone in Williston's East Cemetery in memory of their lost son.

There are two squirrels on the stone because Butch loved squirrel hunting. There's also a picture of a man walking into the sunset, holding the hand of a little boy. Lillian told the free press that the family likes to visit the grave and bring flowers.

It's important to her that Butch's name is somewhere, so he at least can be remembered as a person. Butch's name also lives on through the family business, which has been renamed to Wilfridge's King Paving, in reference to Butch and his father's family name. It's still a small family business, according to the Better Business Bureau, and there are only four employees.

Butch's mom, Lillian, was one of those employees up until a few years ago, taking the company phone calls from her kitchen landline well into her 90s. 25 years ago, she told the Burlington Free Press that she hoped Butch's case would be solved before she and her husband died. quote, I could die with a free heart, it wouldn't be so heavy, end quote. Dark Down East reporter Jackie O'Brien spoke to Lillian's granddaughter-in-law as part of our reporting for this case. She said that Lillian is now a hundred years old and has some confusion that makes holding a conversation difficult. Still, she said it would be amazing to give Lillian peace of mind before she passes away

by getting answers about what happened to Butch. Lillian has said that the most heartbreaking part over the years had been the not knowing what happened to her child or how much he suffered Bucge's father Wilfred King Jr. passed away on December 11th, 2006 with no answers of his son's fate. On May 10th, 2012, Lillian posted on the Facebook page that the family created dedicated to Butch.

She wrote, quote, 32 years have passed. my husband has passed still no word on my son end quote if you know anything about the disappearance of wilfrid butch king the third please contact essex police at 802-878-8331 Thank you for listening to Dark Down East. You can find all source material for this case at darkdowneast.com. Be sure to follow the show on Instagram at Darkdowneast. This platform is for the families and friends who have lost their loved ones and for those who are still searching for answers.

I'm not about to let those names or their stories get lost with time. I'm Kylie Lowe, and this is Dark Down East. Dark Down East is a production of Kylie Media and Audio Check. I think Chuck would approve.