Utah man once missing charged with insurance fraud

ST. GEORGE — An arrest warrant has been issued for a St. George man who told friends he was going hiking alone and then fled to Australia in a scheme to collect on a life insurance policy.

A probable cause statement filed Monday in 5th District Court states that Bryan Butas, 35, plotted to obtain a $250,000 life insurance policy before faking his own disappearance.

Washington County Attorney Brock Belnap said Butas, who is in Ohio where his parents live, is charged with insurance fraud, a second-degree felony.

According to an affidavit of probable cause, Butas told friends on July 30 he was going hiking in the Oak Grove area of Washington County. When he didn't return to work on Aug. 1, dozens of volunteers began a fruitless search-and-rescue effort that lasted 10 days.

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 martial and financial difficulties, Washington County Sheriff Kirk Smith said.

Washington County Sheriff Sgt. Jake Adams said his investigation included tracing an application Butas made for a passport, his purchase of a one-way airline ticket to Australia and the life insurance policy that names his wife and children as beneficiaries.

On Aug. 18, Adams said Butas' mother called him to say her son had called home the evening of Aug. 11, several days after the search was officially called off for the missing man. 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.

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 alleging domestic abuse on Aug. 15. The couple has three children.

Butas' plan, Adams said, was to drive a car to Oak Grove, leave it 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, picked up a passport and boarded the flight to Australia.

"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."

Butas has since checked himself into a Veterans Administration Hospital located in Brecksville, Ohio, according to Adams.

Plans are under way for Butas to return to Utah, he added.

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