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ST. GEORGE, Utah (AP) -- A Utah man who was thought to be missing on a southern Utah hiking trip, but turned up halfway around the globe in Australia, was in jail Sunday on charges of insurance fraud.
Bryan Butas, 35, was booked into Purgatory Correctional Facility after failing to make $20,000 bail set by a judge at his arraignment Friday.
Butas was charged in August with a second-degree felony insurance fraud, a charge punishable by one to 15 years in prison if he's convicted.
Authorities allege the former Marine had applied for a $250,000 life-insurance policy that named his estranged wife, their two sons and a stepdaughter as beneficiaries.
According to an affidavit of probable cause, Butas told friends on July 30 he was going hiking alone in the Oak Grove area of Washington County. When he didn't return to work on Aug. 1, authorities and dozens of volunteers began a fruitless search that lasted 10 days, until sheriff's investigators traced him to Cairns, Queensland, in Australia.
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 the life insurance policy.
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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Information from: Deseret Morning News, http://www.deseretnews.com
(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
