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D A V I D.. B U T L E R

Former Houston Post copy editor David Butler was slain in Arlington, Va., on his way home from his job as assistant managing editor at the Washington, D.C. offices of Stars and Stripes early Saturday morning, July 15. Friends and colleagues from everywhere are devastated.

Below you'll find links to stories about the crime and full text where available. At right is information provided by Brenda Gunter on where to send memorials and his mother's address. At left is a link to a few remembrances and thoughts shared by Toasted Posties.
.................................... .

N E W S.. R E P O R T S

4.23.01 e-mail from patricia howard
david butler's wallet found
washington, d.c.:

hi all. apparently david's wallet was found saturday (4-21) as volunteers from a VFW post worked on their adopt-a-highway campaign along route 66 in arlington, just north of the murder site. details follow.
(p.s.: the copy i received did not have the map attached as mentioned.)

Subject: FW: Dave Butler update

-----Original Message----- From: Atkins, Chris
Sent: Sunday, April 22, 2001 9:31 AM
To: CSS Accounting; CSS ALL NPB; CSS EDITORIAL ALL; CSS Editors; CSS Features; CSS Graphics; CSS News; CSS Sports
Subject: Dave Butler update

Folks,

I left a message on Det. John Coale's machine at Arlington PD right after sending my last e-mail to you about the VFW finding Dave's wallet. He promptly returned my call, but said he'd been informed of the find late last night and hadn't yet been able to digest what limited information he'd been given at that time. He didn't have the VFW's e-mail to us, so I forwarded it to him.

Coale said police labs will use alternate light sources and/or chemical solutions to try for fingerprints on the contents of Dave's wallet. Everything that should be there apparently still was there, except for cash, which explains why no one used Dave's credit cards (you might remember that APD kept the cards active in hopes that someone would use one). Coale said the wallet was moldy from exposure to the elements but that the contents probably were not affected by that.

I also called the VFW to find out where they'd found the wallet. The post's Mr. Agresti said they'd found it across the street from Colony House (a furniture store at 1700 Lee Highway in Va.). That's just a few blocks from where the murder occurred and in the direction of the District. Mr. Agresti also mentioned that the veterans and auxiliary members were disappointed that they hadn't found the wallet when they cleaned up that same stretch of Lee Highway last fall.

I thanked him and his people on behalf of all of us at Stars and Stripes for their efforts.

I have attached a Yahoo! map to this e-mail to give you some bearing. If you can open it, you'll see a star where the wallet was found. Dave was murdered in a car lot in the lower left quadrant of the map.

When I get more information, I'll promptly pass that along to you. God willing, this new find will put Dave's murderers where they belong.

Chris

J.C. Atkins, European news desk chief, European & Pacific Stars and Stripes
529 14th Street, NW, Suite 350, Washington, DC 20045-1301

8.05.00 washington post
washington, d.c.:
Va. Editor's Death Still Baffles Police

By Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writer

Walking off the Metro train about 1:30 a.m., David Butler was more likely thinking about which news site on the Web to call up when he got to his Arlington apartment than any dangers he might face in the few familiar blocks it took to get home.

But in the darkness of a neighborhood that rarely sees violent street crime, Butler was beaten to death, police say. Now, three weeks after the killing, despite hundreds of interviews and the full-time attention of several detectives, even police are wondering why such a mild-mannered man would have died so violently in this affluent and safe community of movie theaters, condos and upscale restaurants.

What police do know is that Butler got off the train about 1:30 a.m. Saturday, July 15. Walking toward his apartment in Colonial Village, he crossed a dark used-car lot, was viciously attacked with a blunt weapon and was left for dead. Someone in the area heard loud voices.

That's it, said Arlington County Deputy Chief James Younger.

Since finding Butler's body, police have been working to define anything about the 15 minutes surrounding his death. Mostly, they've been coming up empty.

Younger said detectives have looked for evidence in bushes, under cars and in dumpsters. More than two dozen officers have canvassed the area twice since the slaying, speaking to hundreds of people. Forensic evidence -- including blood and possible trace substances -- has been sent to the state crime lab for analysis.

Dozens of leads have quickly dried up, and several tips about suspicious people in the area have led nowhere.

"We've been investigating all of our leads, but we just haven't come up with anything that was very useful," Younger said yesterday. "At this point, we're pursuing all possibilities."

Those possibilities, he said, are endless. Police are investigating whether Butler was killed during a botched robbery, but they're unsure what he was carrying and don't necessarily know what's missing.

Younger said it is possible that Butler was followed from the Courthouse Metro station or might have been involved in--or seen--some sort of a confrontation either on a train or after he got off.

Detectives are particularly interested in talking to anyone who was in the area that night and saw anything, whether it was suspicious or not, Younger said. Police want to talk to Metro riders who may have seen Butler on the train or in the station, and they want to talk to people who heard the shouts that ultimately summoned police.

"Sometimes persons or vehicles are noticed but aren't immediately noted as suspicious," Younger said. "Those observations might give us some key leads."

So far, police have not been able to find anyone who knows what the loud voices were saying. Police also want to know if there was one attacker or more.

Friends and colleagues describe Butler, an editor at the military newspaper Stars and Stripes, as the perfect victim: lacking street smarts, unassuming, unathletic, often preoccupied with work. Some said he might not have even thought twice about walking through the dark lot and likely wouldn't have been alarmed by people approaching him.

"Dave's the kind of guy who could walk by a gang of guys sitting on a corner and not have sensed the danger that he might have faced," said Pete Radowick, a former colleague at The Houston Post. "He was probably whistling along and never knew what hit him. It's not like he had enemies or was dealing drugs or hanging out with unsavory characters. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Police are investigating whether Butler's death is connected to other crimes in Northern Virginia, but nothing there has panned out. There have been no reports of gang activity in the area, but Younger said the possibility of gang involvement has not been ruled out.

"It is very frustrating because, not only from the standpoint of being able to close this case out, but certainly we have some empathy with the family, who want closure," Younger said. "There is certainly a concern in the community that the person who perpetrated this is still potentially in the area. It is frustrating, and we are very much concerned."

Thomas Kelsch, publisher of Stars and Stripes, said his newsroom is just now beginning to get back to normal. But, he said, Butler's death still hangs in the background, mostly as dormant fear.

"Almost all of us are taking the Metro in and out of the office every day and walking to our cars or our homes," Kelsch said. "While there is a tremendous grief factor, there is that element of fear: Could it happen again, and could it happen to us? There's a little bit of insecurity and unease as our staff leaves here at night."

Fear in the community has grown since late spring, when 8-year-old Kevin Shifflett was slain in daylight in Alexandria's Del Ray neighborhood, about five miles away. Both neighborhoods are decidedly middle-class and historically safe--police in both locations say that violent crimes between strangers are extremely rare.

To have two violent stranger killings within a few months is almost unheard of in the close-in Northern Virginia suburbs, police said.

Jim Beall, who attended Rice University with Butler and now lives in Del Ray, said he was shocked by Butler's death and quickly put it in the same class as Kevin's slaying.

"There's this random evil out there, and I don't know what else to call it," Beall said. "I think a lot of people have this impression of Northern Virginia as safe, but this can happen anywhere. You can say that the suburbs are safe. You'd like to think that these murders wouldn't--and you hope they won't--happen again. But there are bad people out there. It doesn't really matter where you live."

© 2000 The Washington Post Company

7.30.00 washington post
washington, d.c.:
NOTED WITH: A DULL ACHE

By Patricia Howard
Washington Post Staff Writer

Here's the thing: David Butler, God love him, dared to be dull. He was bespectacled, bookish, blunt. Slow to get the joke, especially when it was on him. Straight as an arrow, exasperatingly thorough, extremely earnest, smart, plain, pragmatic, wonkish. He was a stickler, a self-described curmudgeon.

He vacationed reluctantly. His mother recalled getting a serious little reminder from him, as a boy, that read: "Mom--don't forget to wake me at 8 for cartoons."

He was, in short, everything you want in the guy who edits your newspaper.

Fortunately for readers--and for his colleagues--that was what he lived to do.

I knew David from time spent with him around midnight or 1 a.m. at the Houston Post, waiting for final proofs. Someone's always got to hang around a newspaper until the wee hours in case you have to tear up the front page for a nuclear explosion or the death of a princess. I usually just wanted to go home, or maybe catch a drink before last call at the seedy Jockey Club nearby where Post copy editors retired after earlier deadlines to recap the night's events and insult one another.

David, ultimate newspaper geek, seemed content to remain at work, tidying up tedious last-minute details. We'd talk, about this or that. I found him extremely serious, a bit awkward socially, obviously intelligent. A San Antonio native, he had graduated from Houston's Rice University, the Harvard of the Southwest. He saw no point in trying to hide his intelligence, to jazz himself up, to go along to get along. I'm sure he often felt he didn't fit in, and I'm sure that knowledge at times caused him pain. But he stoutly, stubbornly, remained who he knew himself to be.

It's not that we didn't like him, but not everyone wants to talk Camus in the newsroom. Of course he was kidded. Of course he took it seriously. Even his mom kidded him. For his 30th birthday, she sent a strip-o-gram and a dozen pizzas to the newsroom. David, beet-red, kept his eyes on his computer as the stripper got down to her leopard-print bikini, amid whoops from the sports department. David, doggedly editing copy, looked up once, sideways, to ask, "Lester, what's the headline order on this story?"

During softball season, a Post team played the Houston Chronicle every Sunday before work. David, distinctly unathletic, went out every week and tried to play. The guys stuck him in right field, and nicknamed him "The Toy Cannon."

Afterward, when the guys wanted to have a beer and discuss sports or the new chick in features, David wanted Scotch and a nuanced discussion of the Open Records Act.

Newspapers--he was tirelessly devoted to them. Though I wondered if he wouldn't have liked to have had something else to be devoted to, too.

One Christmas Eve, 1989 I think, the newsroom was bustling as usual earlier in the evening but most everyone, anxious to get home to wives and husbands and kids and the tree, took off as soon as possible. By 2 a.m. Christmas Day there were three people left on the floor: me, the editor in chief and David. When I left, David was still at his computer.

Sometime in the last year or so, I ran into David on the Metro in Washington. It had been years, but he recognized me right away. After the Houston Post closed, he'd gone to Europe with the Stars and Stripes newspaper, and had recently moved here to work in the Washington bureau. He was nicely dressed, still serious, still talking newspapers. David and I were friends, but not great friends. I suspect many former Houston Post colleagues would say the same.

So I think we are all stunned by our reaction, and the depth of our sadness, at the news that our dear, dull, friend David was murdered, out of the blue--going home, as he had countless times before, from a long late night at a newspaper.

It's as if our breath has been taken away, and hasn't yet been given back to us. Maybe because we well know those strange small hours, our 5 p.m., our quitting time, the world's middle of the night. Maybe because, for all his erudition and intelligence, David was an innocent. Maybe because, though he seemed not to be a part of things, it turned out he was.

Maybe it was just the breathtaking horror at how a plain, upright man, who guided himself so strictly by his own code of honor, could be so swiftly obliterated by someone who knew neither honor nor humanity.

David had stayed late Friday, July 14, in downtown Washington for the 1 a.m. deadline for the newspaper's Pacific edition. Early Saturday morning he took the Metro home to the Court House stop four blocks from his condo.

From there, all that's known is that police received a complaint about loud voices and arrived about 1:45 a.m. to find a body in a used car sales lot, perhaps a block from David's front door. They also found his business card and contacted Stars and Stripes, where he had been due to work the next day, and where he never arrived.

He was 42. Whatever he walked into, I'm sure he never saw it coming. He had been beaten so badly it took until late Monday afternoon for police to identify him, through his fingerprints.

Now I sit on the Metro every night, on the same route David took, and I can't get my mind around the absolute weirdness of thinking of him sitting there, riding from station to station, unaware he had only eight minutes left to live . . . six minutes . . . four minutes . . .

I can see him in my mind's eye, that serious, bespectacled face in the odd bright greenish-yellow light of the subway car, perhaps looking out into the darkness, perhaps looking over another of the many newspapers he loved to read, going home, alone.

And each time the train approaches the Court House station, I think: David, don't get off the train. Just stay on the train.

Please, don't get off the train.

It's late. Just fall asleep. Sleep through your stop. Sleep till the train reaches its final stop for the night. Wake up. Feel sheepish. Realize, with irritation, that you'll have to pay for a cab back to Arlington. Tell the story on yourself, seriously, the next day at work. Get teased by other editors.

Let whoever it is waiting for you outside the station get tired of hanging around in the dark and take his misery elsewhere, instead of visiting it upon you.

I can see David picking up his briefcase, standing before the doors, expressionless, patient.

"Doors opening," says the disembodied Metro voice.

David. For God's sake. Stay on the train.

He steps off. The doors close.

© 2000 The Washington Post Company

7.00 wusatv9.com
washington, d.c.
(story no longer on site):
EDITOR'S DEATH MAY BE RELATED TO ROBBERIES

It has been a week and a half since an editor for the Stars and Stripes newspaper was found beaten to death along Wilson Boulevard in Arlington.

9 Eyewitness News Reporter Gary Reals reports that investigators are looking at the possibility that the murder of David Butler may be related to a number of robberies that took place recently near Key Bridge.

Three different unsuspecting victims have been robbed on the streets around Key Bridge and they described the assailants as young, Hispanic males. Police are now trying to find out if they were involved in the murder of Butler in Arlington.

The three muggings took place in May, and in one of the cases the robber was armed with a baseball bat. Butler was robbed and attacked with some kind of instrument, perhaps a baseball bat.

Butler was found in an Arlington parking lot. Investigators are beginning to follow up on this lead and can't say for sure where it will go.

7.20.00 washington post
washington, d.c.:
By Patricia Davis
Washington Post Staff Writer

When he moved into Colonial Village in Arlington almost two years ago, David Butler posted his curriculum vitae, including a picture of himself, on the wall above his mailbox.

Because he worked late into the night, his neighbors said, they rarely saw him. All they knew of him was what they had read in his CV: that he was an assistant managing editor for Stars and Stripes and had spent the previous three years with the newspaper in Germany.

There's a new posting on the wall above Butler's mailbox now. This one was written by Arlington police: "The Arlington County Police Department is investigating a suspicious death as a homicide that occurred on 7-15-2000 at aprox 1:45 a.m."

Police said Butler, 42, was slain while walking home from the Court House Metro station after work. Yesterday, investigators still were searching for a motive and were uncertain whether Butler had been robbed, Cpl. Justin McNaull said. The cause of his death remains under investigation, but sources said it appears that he was severely beaten. The only way police know for sure that it was the editor is through his fingerprints.

Such violent--and apparently random--street crime is rare in Northern Virginia, police say. Butler's slaying has left residents in the normally quiet neighborhood jittery and his colleagues and friends devastated.

"He was just so dedicated and conscientious," said Patricia Howard, a former colleague of Butler's at the Houston Post who now works for the Washington Post news service. "If it could happen to David Butler, it could happen to any one of us. He was going home after a long night at work."

McNaull said detectives do not believe there is any connection to a homicide that occurred two years ago in the apartment that Butler moved into--No. 285--a short time later. "Just a strange, sad coincidence," he said.

Andrea Cincotta, 52, was found dead Aug. 22, 1998, inside her unit. Her death was caused by asphyxiation, and no arrest has been made.

On the steps outside Butler's apartment complex, flowers have been left "for our fallen neighbor, David Butler." Colleagues and friends are planning to hold a private memorial service today for a man who lived for his job.

"His life was journalism," said Doug Clawson, managing editor of Stars and Stripes.

Butler's routine was to work late Friday nights in the office at the National Press Building and commute home on the Metro to the Court House stop in Arlington. Because Butler's body was found in a used-car lot, a block beyond the direct route home, his colleagues speculate that he may have been going to a nearby 7-Eleven to buy a newspaper.

A voracious reader, Butler was always buying newspapers or reading them on the Internet when he got home. Getting him to leave the office wasn't easy, and "Butler, go home!" was a familiar refrain.

"Had Metro not extended its hours, we'd still have David around," Clawson said. "If the last train was 3, David would have left at 2:55."

In a sense, colleagues say, Butler was Mr. Stars and Stripes, always protecting the integrity of the paper and finding ways to improve it.

Butler grew up in a military family, and his interest in journalism was sparked when his father, who was in the Air Force, was assigned to Torrejon, Spain, in the late 1960s, his mother, Jodie Gunckel, said in an article about her son's death in Stars and Stripes.

"Dave delivered Stars and Stripes door-to-door," Gunckel was quoted as saying. "That's when he first started getting interested in journalism. He was my only son, but even if I had 100 children, Dave would have stood out. No matter where he was or what he was doing, he always did it well."

Colleagues said Butler showed his affection for the newspaper--and them--primarily through his actions. He would frequently post articles of general interest around the newsroom. Although a diabetic, he kept the office candy jar filled with Starbursts, Hugs and Classic Caramels.

"It was just little things like that," Clawson said. "He kind of let his actions speak louder than words. To keep the candy jar full was his way of saying, 'Hey, you're all right.' "

The words and emotions flowed easily, however, when he was interviewing for the job with Stars and Stripes, Clawson said. To simulate deadline pressure, he was given 60 seconds to tell editors why he wanted the job.

Five seconds into it, "he broke down crying," Clawson said. "He said, 'I love this paper; it means everything to me.' "

He was hired immediately.

Joseph Gromelski, assistant managing editor for the paper's electronic edition, said Butler also loved sports, particularly the Houston Astros, from his home state of Texas.

Perhaps his closest friend, Charles Jones, a professor at Catholic University, said Butler was a very quiet person who kept to himself. Never married, he yearned for a family, and it was a source of frustration that it never seemed to work out for him, he said.

"I think he was painfully shy," said Jones, 43. "But once you got under the surface, he was extremely engaging, very witty."

Jones and Butler became fast friends on a base overseas when their fathers were in the Air Force. To their delight, they eventually ended up together in San Antonio and went to the same high school, where they became two of five National Merit Scholarship finalists. Butler, who went on to Rice University, continued to stay in touch with his friend.

The two got together for lunch recently, and Butler brought along copies of comic books they drew in junior high, "The Adventures of Captain Paramecium."

Butler's sense of humor is apparent on his desk at work, which is just the way he left it early Saturday morning. The unfinished Diet Dr Pepper is sitting on the right. The can of Spam--and whatever story is behind it--is perched on top of his computer. There's his little collection of aspirin bottles.

And posted at his workstation is the paper's mission statement, in a spot where he could see it every day:

"The mission of The Stars and Stripes is to publish an independent and unbiased newspaper of the highest quality that serves the U.S. military community overseas in peace and war."

© 2000 The Washington Post Company

7.18.00 stars and stripes
washington, d.c.:
David L. Butler, an editor at Stars and Stripes, was found dead over the weekend in a used car lot in Arlington, Va., just a few blocks from his apartment.

Butler’s bloodied body was found behind a car around 2 a.m. Saturday by a patrol officer investigating a report of loud voices near the dealership.

Arlington County police found no official identification on Butler, but they did discover one of his business cards, which led them to Stars and Stripes’ headquarters in downtown Washington, D.C., where he had worked for the past two years.

Butler’s death stunned co-workers.

"We’re devastated," said Deborah Absher, managing editor of the newspaper’s Pacific edition and Butler’s supervisor. "We’ve lost a friend, a colleague and a top-notch journalist. Dave loved this newspaper, and it’s better because of him."

Though an autopsy was done Monday, officials still were unsure of the cause of death, police spokesman Cpl. Justin McNaull said Tuesday. He confirmed, however, that Butler had been badly beaten.

"They still have to measure and take photos and what have you," McNaull said. "It can take days and sometimes can take weeks for a medical examiner to get the full diagnosis done."

Police have no clear motive for Butler’s killing and declined to say if investigators suspect that his wallet had been stolen during the slaying.

Butler, 42, an assistant managing editor for the newspaper’s Pacific edition, worked a late shift. He usually would take the subway home in the early morning hours and then walk the few blocks to his condominium.

Butler lived in a complex that McNaull described as "fairly affluent," with a low crime rate.

"The neighborhood where he lived is garden-style apartments, two- and three-story brick buildings built pre-World War II," McNaull said. "There are professionals living there, no drug dealers or stuff like that."

The sidewalk on Wilson Boulevard, where the killing took place, detours through the parking lot of EEE Auto Sales because of large raised-brick planters that block the walkway, McNaull said. There are no lights on the detoured section.

Butler, who was single and had no children, came to Stars and Stripes almost five years ago and spent his first three years with the paper as a copy editor at the European edition’s headquarters in Darmstadt, Germany.

"David was completely dedicated to Star and Stripes and its readers," said Bill Walker, editor of the paper’s European edition, who originally hired Butler. "He spent countless nights preparing news pages that showed the U.S. military doing its job all over the world. Our loss is tremendous, our sorrow deep and lasting."

At the Pentagon, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Kenneth H. Bacon opened Tuesday's press briefing by expressing "my condolences and the condolences of the [Department of Defense] to the family and friends of David Butler."

A San Antonio native, Butler joined the staff of the Washington newsroom about two years ago when the two overseas editions were consolidated in the United States. Colleagues at Stars and Stripes remembered him Tuesday as an intelligent, hard-working professional completely dedicated to his job.

"Dave was the epitome of a newspaper copy editor," said Thomas Kelsch, publisher of Stars and Stripes and former editor of the European edition.

"Nobody worked harder and longer," Kelsch said. "It was almost routine for me to call out, as I was leaving after a long day, ‘Butler, go home,’ at which he would smile and not budge from his work station. There is no chance we will find an adequate replacement for him."

Butler’s mother, Jodie Gunckel, said her son’s interest in journalism — and in Stars and Stripes — took root early, when her husband, who was in the Air Force, was assigned to Torrejon, Spain, in the late 1960s.

"Dave delivered Stars and Stripes door to door," Gunckel, a resident of the San Antonio area, said. "That’s when he first started getting interested in journalism. He was my only son, but even if I had a hundred children, Dave would have stood out. No matter where he was or what he was doing, he always did it well."

Butler later had a bicycle route for the San Antonio Light and worked on the staff of his high school newspaper. After graduating from Rice University, he held various reporting and editing jobs for several regional newspapers and magazines in his native Texas, including the Houston Post.

Gunckel described her son as precocious from an early age but not a show-off, a low-key man with a dry wit and a very deep sense of integrity.

"When he was young, that sometimes got him in trouble with other kids, because he always stuck so strongly to doing the right thing," she said.

"He loved the news business," Gunckel said. "His job always came first. He was just a very special person."

The family is making funeral arrangements in San Antonio. Plans also are being made for a memorial service in Washington.

7.18.00 washington post
washington, d.c.:
Arlington, Va., police said yesterday that the man found dead in a used-car lot early Saturday has been identified as David L. Butler, 42, an editor at the Stars and Stripes newspaper.

Police confirmed the man's identity through fingerprints, a spokesman said. An autopsy was conducted, but the cause of death remains under investigation, he said. Detectives have not determined a motive in the slaying. "We're still not sure why it happened, and we're looking for any help we can get from the public," said Cpl. Justin McNaull, the police spokesman.

A patrol officer, investigating a report of loud voices in the used-car lot about 1:55 a.m., found Butler's body lying behind a car in the EEE Auto Sales lot in the 1800 block of Wilson Boulevard. The lot is about two blocks east of the Court House Metro station and a few blocks from the editor's home.

Colleagues said Butler, an Arlington resident, usually worked late on Friday nights and took the Metro to the Court House stop, then walked to his apartment. Yesterday's revelation confirmed the worst fears of his colleagues in the National Press Building, where Butler was an assistant managing editor of the Pacific edition of the newspaper, which serves the military.

"We're all devastated," said David B. Offer, executive editor of Stars and Stripes. "We've lost a colleague and a friend who we liked and respected."

7.18.00 the journal online
arlington county, virginia:
The man found dead early Saturday morning in a Rosslyn-area used car lot has been identified as David Butler, an editor at Stars and Stripes newspaper, Arlington County police confirmed yesterday.

Police discovered Butler's body in the EEE Auto Sales parking lot at 1800 Wilson Blvd. after they were called to the area about 1:45 a.m. to investigate a report of loud voices.

Butler, 42, worked as an assistant managing editor for the Pacific edition of Stars and Stripes, which serves U.S. military and Defense Department employees overseas.

He worked the night shift, typically from 4 p.m. to 1 a.m., and customarily rode Metrorail home from the newspaper's National Press Building office in Washington, D.C., co-workers said yesterday. Butler lived in Colonial Village, near the Courthouse Metrorail station. The parking lot where Butler's body was found is between the station and his home.

``He kept newspaper hours," said Doug Clawson, managing editor of the newspaper's European edition. ``He worked until the bitter end, and caught the last train on the Metro."

Butler, who lived alone, was unmarried and had no children, fellow employees said. His relatives live in Texas.

While outgoing at the office, they said, he kept details of his personal life to himself.

``He was very dedicated to his job," David B. Offer, Stars and Stripes executive editor, said. ``He was outgoing and concurred with the people he worked with. The newsroom was a pretty somber place today."

Butler joined the newspaper five years ago at its European office in Darmstadt, Germany, before moving to the Washington office two years ago. Prior to that, he worked as a sports copy editor for the Houston Post.

Police yesterday released little additional information about what took place at the used car lot. They are offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.

Police have not officially established a cause of death, although an autopsy was performed yesterday. Butler's body was badly injured and bloodied, police said. They declined to discuss the nature or extent of his injuries.

``We're not sure what happened to him," Cpl. Justin McNaull, a police department spokesman, said. ``We have not identified a motive for this."

Police spent yesterday interviewing Stars and Stripes editors. They first came to the paper Saturday but did not confirm Butler's identify until today.

Police have made automated telephone calls to neighborhood residents informing them of the homicide and asking them to notify investigators if they have information about Butler's death. McNaull said police received some calls yesterday, but he declined to say whether they had provided any leads.

The area where the homicide took place is near restaurants, bars and businesses and is typically busy but safe, police said. Mid- to upper-scale apartments are located nearby.

The death was Arlington's second homicide within the week and third this year.

7.18.00 san antonio express-news
san antonio, texas:
David Butler, a Stars and Stripes newspaper editor and San Antonio native found dead in Arlington, Va., over the weekend, will be remembered as a well-regarded and respected journalist, colleagues said Tuesday.

"He wasn't a soldier. He was a journalist ... helping us present the news of the nation, of the world, and of the military," said David B. Offer, executive editor of Stars and Stripes, where Butler had worked since 1995.

Butler, 42, a former sports copy editor for the Houston Post, lived in the Colonial Village area of Arlington, a suburb of Washington, D.C. The cause of death remains under investigation, said Arlington police, who suspect foul play.

Butler's body was found in an auto sales lot early Saturday a few blocks from his apartment and about two blocks east of a subway station. Co-workers said Butler, an assistant managing editor for the newspaper's Pacific edition, worked a late shift.

Offer said Butler usually would take the subway home, and he apparently was accosted while walking between the train stop and his condominium, though police Tuesday did not confirm that information.

"He was well-regarded and respected in the newsroom.

"You can imagine our newsroom is a pretty somber place," Offer said Tuesday.

A longtime copy editor on the Post sports desk until the newspaper closed in 1995, Butler was born in San Antonio and attended MacArthur High School, where he was editor of the school paper.

Butler also attended Rice University in Houston and was editor of the college newspaper there.

"He never married," Butler's mother, Jodi "Jo Ann" Gunckel said. "He was married to his paper. That was his first love."

Gunckel, of San Antonio, described her only son as a "very astute, very sharp" man with a sense of humor that "could drive you nuts."

Recalling a conversation with one of Butler's colleagues, Gunckel remarked how difficult it is to lose an only son.

"(The colleague) said even if you had 100 people, David would have been a special person among those," she said.

Funeral services will be at 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Pius X Church. Visitation is scheduled for 6 to 8 p.m. Friday at Sunset Memorial Park & Funeral Home.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

7.19.00 houston chronicle
houston, texas:
Funeral services will be held in San Antonio on Saturday for a former sports copy editor at The Houston Post who was found dead in a used car lot in Arlington, Va.

David Butler, a Rice University graduate, was 42.

A longtime copy editor at the Post until the newspaper folded in 1995, Butler was working as an assistant managing editor for Stars and Stripes, a daily military paper based in Washington, D.C.

"He cared a lot about what he was doing," said David B. Offer, Stars and Stripes' executive editor. "He was dedicated to his job."

Visitation service will be held from 6-8 p.m. Friday at the Sunset Funeral Home, 1701 Austin Highway in San Antonio, Butler's hometown. The funeral will be 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Pius X Church, 3909 Wurzbach.

"He was a great newspaper man. He loved being in the trenches in the newsroom," said Pete Radowick, communication manager for the city of Houston's Convention and Entertainment Facilities department. Radowick said he started at the Post as a sports copy editor shortly after Butler and was trained by Butler to operate the computer.

"We worked together side by side for 11 years. Every newsroom needs someone like Dave Butler on their staff," Radowick said. "The public is well-served by people like him."

Police in Virginia were investigating a report of loud voices in the used car lot about 1:55 a.m. Saturday. They found Butler's body lying behind a car in the lot, which is a few blocks from Butler's home, according to newspaper reports.

Offer said Butler worked nights and took the Metro train home.

An autopsy was conducted, but the cause of death has not been released, Offer said. Arlington authorities suspect foul play.

Butler is survived by his mother, Jodi Gunckel; his stepfather, Larry Gunckel; and his sister, Cathy Barnes.

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M I S C

FUNDS: The David Butler Scholarship Fund is being set up at his alma mater, Rice University. Contributions may be sent to his mother at the address that follows.

From an Arlington, Va., police news release: Friends of David L. Butler are establishing The David Butler Reward Fund for information leading to the arrest and indictment of his killer.

The fund will open with $1,000 donated by friends; pledges for other amounts are coming from David's friends around the country. Donations may be made out to The David Butler Reward Fund and sent to:

The David Butler
Reward Fund
Suite 2063
National Press Building
Washington, D.C. 20045

-- Brenda Gunter