SANDSTON, Va (WRIC) – Sunday marks 24 years since a brutal cold case murder in Henrico County.
Marshall Ray Butler, 16, was found beaten and stabbed to death back in 1991. He would’ve turned 40 this year.
“He always kissed me goodbye and everything and he turned away and I said ‘aren’t you forgetting something?’ And he just winked at me,” remembers Marie Butler Austin, his mother.
It was August 23, 1991–the last time Marie Butler Austin saw her son alive. Sunday, on the anniversary of his brutal death, she brings 24 roses to his grave at Washington Memorial Cemetery in Sandston.
“I have my faith. If I didn’t have that, I wouldn’t be able to make it. And I know he had faith, and I know where he is,” said Marie Butler Austin.
According to Henrico investigators, Marshall was driving a white 1979 pick-up truck his mom had just bought him. He stopped by his mom’s beauty salon in Sandston, and then went to his girlfriend’s house in Highland Springs around 3 p.m.
“She {the girlfriend} looked out the door and saw the truck in the driveway and there was a passenger, there was a black male passenger on the right side and she asked him who that was and he said it was a hitchhiker, which she thought to be unusual,” said Det. Joe Schihl with the Henrico Police Department.
Just a few hours later–fire crews responded to a car fire off Mechanicsville Turnpike. It was Marshall’s pick-up. His body was inside.
“In the right passenger side, on the floorboard, crouched over the seat,” said Det. Schihl.
Marshall was brutally beaten and stabbed 29 times.
“It’s a personal killing, a knife stabbing incident is usually someone that you have knowledge of, or knows who you are. It’s an overkill situation,” said Det. Schihl.
Detectives believe it may have drug related. Friends at the time told police Marshall had gotten into crack cocaine, which had quickly become a popular drug in Richmond at the time.
“I had no idea,” said his mother.
Marie just wants police to find whoever killed her only child. He was a talented musician and a class clown.
“He knows that I’ll never give up,” said Marie Butler Austin.
Det. Schihl says they’ve identified fingerprints taken off the truck, and a witness recently came forward saying they saw a black man running from the truck across the interstate.
But they still need more clues. If you have any information, you can call investigator Joe Schihl at 501-5304.
Anonymous tips can be made through Crime Stoppers of Metro Richmond by calling 780-1000, submitting them online at crimestoppersrichmond virginia.com or texting “iTip” plus your tip to 274637 (CRIMES).
