'Hiker' is charged with fraud

ST. GEORGE — A St. George man who police say fled to Australia after faking his own death is now in jail, nearly two months after dozens of volunteers spent days searching in vain for the missing hiker.

Bryan Butas, 35, was booked into Purgatory Correctional Facility on a second-degree felony insurance fraud charge. He appeared in 5th District Court on Friday for an initial appearance and remained jailed Saturday on $20,000 bail.

According to an affidavit of probable cause, Butas told friends on July 30 he was going hiking alone. When he didn't return to work on Aug. 1, dozens of volunteers began a fruitless search that lasted 10 days and cost the county about $8,000.

Butas' parents also arrived from their home in Brunswick, Ohio, to help in the search and were "embarrassed and shocked" to learn their son had merely run away from marital and financial difficulties, said Washington County Sheriff Kirk Smith.

Washington County Sheriff Sgt. Jake Adams said his investigation included tracing purchases Butas made, including a one-way airline ticket to Australia and a $250,000 life insurance policy that names his wife and three children as beneficiaries.

On Aug. 18, Adams said Butas' mother told him that her son had called home the evening of Aug. 11, several days after the search was officially called off. Butas asked his mother for money and an airline ticket home, which she sent.

Adams eventually conducted a telephone interview with Butas after he arrived at his parents' Ohio home. Butas was extradited from Ohio to Salt Lake City, where Washington County sheriff's deputies then picked him up and escorted him to St. George.

According to the affidavit, Adams said Butas told him that "he wanted to disappear and never be found," and that he had been under a great deal of stress and "got sick of it all."

Butas' wife, Pamela, obtained a protective order against her husband on Aug. 15 alleging domestic abuse.

Butas' plan, said Adams, was to drive one of his cars to Oak Grove, leave it there and then ride a mountain bike to another location where he had parked a different vehicle. Butas then hid in his house until that evening when he caught a late bus to Los Angeles, purchased a passport, and boarded the flight to Australia, Adams said.

"Bryan said he has struggled for a long time trying to care for his family financially and been unsuccessful," the affidavit states. "Bryan agreed with me (Adams) that the reason he put his car up in Oak Grove was so everyone would presume he was dead and his children could claim the life insurance policy."

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