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Tuesday, September 5, 1989 / University Daily Kansan
Live Seafood (Lobster, Crab, etc.)
Chinese Pastries (Cruller, Bean Milk, etc.) will be served every weekend. Starting September 2nd.
Tel. (913) 843-3666
Open daily 11:30 am-9:30 pm
2907 W. 6th st. (across from Dillon's on 6th)
Butler
to be near her flance. The engagement later was broken 'Upwardly mobile'
Continued from p. 1
Joan started immediately in her profession. Less than a week after graduating from KU, she started selling advertising for Multi-Media Cablevision in Wichita. She wanted to design advertising campaigns, not sell them, but she took the job so she would have an income. Ralph Butler said.
About five months later, Joan left the Multi-Media job to work for the Stephan Advertising Agency in Wichita
Joan stayed at the Stephan Agency for about a year, then took a job back at Valentine-Radford.
While in Kansas City, Joan became intrigued with the Country Club Plaza. One evening she walked into the Better Cheddar, a Plaza store whose products include health foods, and applied for a job. Joan worked there two nights a week to supplement her work at the agency.
As 1898 began, Joan made another career move and went to Montague-Sherry, a Kansas City, Mo., advertising agency.
"Joan was a very updowfly mobile young person," Ralph Butler said.
Missing
As Joan moved from job to job and became more involved in life in Kansas City; she met new people.
"She didn't know strangers," Ralph Butler said. "She'd strike up a conversation with anyone."
But her family and friends said she never mentioned knowing Richard Grissom Jr.
Joan spent Saturday evening, June 17, with friends at Eyes, a bar in Kansas City, Mo. Later that night, she went to a friend's Country Club Plaza apartment and left about 4 a.m. Sunday.
One of Joan's co-workers called Ralph Butler in Wichita on Monday, June 19, to see if he knew where Joan was. She usually was the first person in the office and had coffee brewed when everyone else showed up. But that morning she wasn't there. Coworkers called her apartment but reached only her answering machine.
Then she disappeared.
Ralph Butler immediately called the apartment owners and the police. He kept a record of all the people he called and later transferred each name to an index card. His card file now is more than an inch thick.
One of Joan's co-workers drove by her apartment. He knocked but could not raise anybody, Ralph Butler said. But he found by the door a telephone book he knew had been delivered the day before. He thought it was strange that a State Farm flyer hung on the doorkob was caught in the door.
Family investigates
The Butlers drove to Kansas City the next day and met with Overland Park Police, who initially thought Joan was a runaway, Ralph Butler said.
"Something has happened to this girl," Ralph Butler told the police. "Get on it right now."
Joan was driving a rental car because hers had been wrecked. The police reported the car as "missing, attempt to locate," Ralph Butler said. That meant police were not actively looking for the car, but if it were stopped for any violation and its tag number reported, it would be flagged.
"That's not good enough." Ralph Butler said he told the police. "You guys have to get after this."
The Butlers launched their own investigation. They contacted the rental car company on Tuesday and told them to report the car as missing, but the company declined, saying the car had to be missing for 10 days.
Ralph Butler said the police became determined after that. He spent the rest of the day driving around Kansas City, hoping to spot Jean's car in a parking lot.
On Wednesday, the Butlers contacted Joan's bank. They discovered that someone had used Joan's bank card to withdraw $300 on each of the last three days.
"You call the Overland Park police right this minute," Jada Butler said she told the bank's vice president. "There's something foul going on."
"In 10 days, somebody could drive that car into the ocean," Jada Butler said.
10,000 flyers announcing she was missing. They later paid for public service announcements and billboards bearing Joan's picture.
By the Friday after Joan disappeared, her employers had printed
Joan's friends started a reward,
and 146 people initially contributed.
The reward now applies to all three
of the missing girls and has reached
$18,000.
"And those people only knew her six months," Jada Butler said of Joan's co-workers. "That's what gets you. That's what makes us feel good. She was known."
That weekend, Joan's family and friends distributed posters at Kansas City truck stops, downtown, on the corner of Westport in Westport and at shopping centers.
The Butlers soon stepped back and let police handle the investigation. But Jada Butler stayed in Kansas City for two weeks and Ralph Butler stayed for five.
Joan's rental car was spotted June 25 in Lawrence at the Trailridge Apartments, 2500 W. Sixth St. Lawrence police responded and found a man, later identified as Richard Grissom Jr., getting out of it, said Chris Mulvenon, Lawrence police spokesman. Grissom told the officer that he had identification in an apartment, and the two started to go inside. But Grissom slammed the apartment door in the officer's face and escaped through a window.
"As soon as he escaped in Lawrence, the police were very confident that they would get Grissom." Ralph Butler said. "But they didn't hold out the same optimism about finding the girls."
Both predictions have proved correct.
Grissom was captured July 7 at the Dallas-Ft. Worth International Airport. He is being held in the Dallas Police Department and is fighting extradition to Kansas.
Jada Butler said she felt no strong animosity toward Grissom.
"I've never really felt anything bad," she said. "The only thing I want is to know Joan is returned. One time I was having a bad day, and I thought if I could just visit with him—if he could just see in my eyes—if I could just say, 'I want her.' Just tell me.'
"I just want to put her to rest. She's entitled to that. She's gone, and I feel
he should tell us, if we can't find her. I pray to God he will tell us."
Police have investigated several reports about the location of the girls' bodies, but none has been found.
And that means hope to Ralph Butler.
"When I'm by myself, I think about Joan, and I mentally visit with Joan. I don't talk to her out loud, but I mentally communicate with her.
"Because there have been no bodies, to me that's still an indication there's a possible miracle out there. Until somebody brings proof positive that these girls are dead, I can hope all I want to that they may be alive. I have thought all along that there's still this possibility.
"It makes me feel better just believing that maybe she's out there."
Coping with a nightmare
Support has flooded the Butler home since Joan's disappearance. A basket holds hundreds of cards from friends, acquaintances and strangers who wish them well.
The Buttlers have started attending Mass daily and find comfort in the hundreds of people, including many of our church parishes, who pray daily for the family.
Jada Butler recently returned to her work as a florist, and people have stopped in just to give her a hug. But she has not yet re-entered the social stream.
"I'm just not ready to have fun yet," she said.
"I try to do something for Joan every day, even if it's nothing more than just saying a prayer for her," Ralph Butler said.
Joan's possessions are stored at the Butlers' home.
"We haven't gone through Joan's stuff," Ralph Butler said. "It's just too heartbreaking to go through the stuff now.
“It's a nightmare, and it has changed our lives to the degree that we will never get over it.”
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Sizzlin' in September KANSAS vs. LOUISVILLE
109
Jayhawks
Cardinals
Saturday, Sept 9th 1:00 p.m. Memorial Stadium Game sponsored by the KU Bookstores, Kansas and Burge Unions
Pre-Game Tailgate Party
South end of the stadium, beginning at 10:30
- Music & Fun provided by Q 104's Randy Miller
- and Mary Glen Lassiter
- FREE Bum Steer BBQ Chicken
- FREE Diet Sunkist
- Giveaways
- Airline tickets- 2 FREE airline tickets to
- B-Office of the provincial
- Limousine ride to and from the next
- home game
- Football tickets
- AND MORE
For Tickets Call 864-3141 You'll Go WILD Over This Year's HAWKS!!!!
Special Thanks To Corporate Sponsors: The KU Bookstores, The Kansas and Burge Unions, KLZR-KLWN, Mainline Printing and Pizza Hut.