By james art EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. (First Alert 4) – A Madison County jury convicted a man Thursday in the unsolved murder of a woman who disappeared in 2013.
Roger Dale Sutton, 57, was found guilty of first-degree murder and concealment of a murderous death in the death of Patrenia “Trina” Butler-Turner, 40.
Butler-Turner was last seen getting into a red pickup truck on January 17, 2013. The case came to light in December 2022 when Sutton’s nephew walked into the Pontoon Beach Police Department and reported witnessing how his uncle had killed a woman nearly 10 years earlier and helped dispose of her body. The nephew led investigators to a wooded area in Ponton Beach behind Sutton’s former apartment, where a skull and other skeletal remains were found.
At Sutton’s trial, the nephew testified that he felt guilty after seeing television commercials showing family gatherings during the holidays. He then drove to the police station, parked nearby and prayed for 20 minutes before going inside. He also said Sutton punched Butler-Turner for no apparent reason, then choked her while she screamed for help.
The jury rejected the defense’s argument that Sutton panicked and hid Butler-Turner’s body after she died of an overdose in her apartment.
Sutton will be sentenced at a later date. A conviction for first-degree murder is punishable by up to 60 years in prison, and concealing a murderous death is punishable by up to seven years in prison.
Charges of concealing a murderous death are pending against the nephew, Nathan Beyer.
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