A Life Cut Short | The Tragic Case of Pamela Butler

Transcript

Keith Nelson had a sick plan.

He knew he would be going back to prison and wanted to commit a big crime to end his time as a free man.

While Keith had told a co worker about this plan, this was chalked up to Keith just wanting to scare him.

Nobody knew that this plan would be enacted in one of the most disturbing manners right in front of everyone.

This is the tragic story of 10 year old Pamela Butler.

Born March 13, 1989 to Sherry West. Pamela Butler was one of three children.

Not much is known about Pamela's early life and her father was not in the picture.

Pamela lived with her family in Kansas City, Kansas and by all accounts they were an average American household.

The three children were all enrolled at the local school and Pamela was noted as being a good student.

She was kind, bright and intelligent and had the whole world ahead of her.

October 12, 1999 was an unremarkable day, no different from the rest to Pamela and her siblings.

Pamela spent the day at Fisk Elementary School before returning home.

Not one to waste a good day, Pamela asked her mother, Sherry, if she could go to the store to buy some cookies.

Sherry knew that her daughter was responsible and and entrusted her to go to the shop and come straight back.

Shortly before 5pm Pamela laced up her rollerblades and glided to the store.

Unbeknownst to Pamela, a man was waiting nearby.

As she rollerbladed back from the store, she noticed a white pickup truck parked near her home.

As she drew closer, she noticed the door was ajar and corrected her path so she could skate around it with ease.

But as she passed by, she felt a hand wrap around her waist.

In an instant, a man grabbed Pamela as she screamed for help.

Nearby, Pamela's sister, Penny Butler witnessed the kidnapping, screaming for her sister.

Time seemed to blur for Penny as she helplessly watched her sister being forced into a vehicle.

Before she could act, the white pickup truck driven by the strange man sped past their home.

In a final taunt to Pamela's family, he shouted, you'll never see her again.

The neighbors, who also witnessed the kidnapping of little Pamela, tried to Intervene. But it was too late.

One neighbor jumped in his car, following the pickup as it left 11th and Scott Streets. But the truck was too fast, managing to evade the good Samaritan.

Back home, Pamela's sister and other neighbors had managed to write down the license plate on scraps of paper.

Missouri plate 177 CE2.

This would become vital in tracking down the man responsible for one of Kansas most horrific crimes.

The once quiet 11th and Scott Streets, lined with residential homes, had become a hub of police activity.

Pamela's sister had called the police shortly after her kidnapping, as had many other witnesses.

Nearly an hour had passed and and police knew the white pickup could be anywhere, easily blending into the cityscape.

By now, the attacker had bought himself time driving Pamela to Grain Valley, just over the border in Missouri, a territory he was far more familiar with.

From here, he dragged Pamela, kicking and screaming, from the pickup and into a small patch of woods.

The man stripped Pamela of her clothing before sexually assaulting her.

Court records show the medical examiner found that Pamela's hymen had recently been broken.

After the brutal sexual assault, Pamela was strangled to death with a piece of electrical cord.

The assailant, Keith Nelson, knew that the hunt was on and he had to move quickly.

That evening, his pickup was seen in the parking lot of the Grain Valley Christian Church in Kansas City, Missouri.

The custodian, sensing something unusual, noted the license plate, MO177CE2 in Kansas. The police rushed to the Butler residence, gathering as many witness statements as possible.

Each account mentioned the Missouri license plate and an Afghan seen in the truck's front seat.

That evening, Sherry west and the Kansas City police addressed the community during the 10 o'clock news.

News of Pamela's kidnapping quickly spread through the community and residents began watching for the white pickup.

During the same news, the custodian of the Grain Valley Christian Church heard a Crucial Missouri plate, 177 CE2.

The same plate he had noted earlier.

Unknowingly, he had been in close quarters with a child murderer.

He immediately called the police with the information he had. But by the time they arrived, the truck was gone.

Pamela's abduction devastated Sherry and her family.

Sherry told police she couldn't imagine who would want to harm her daughter, noting that she had never had any conflicts and never felt their family was being watched or followed.

In 1999, crimes against children were becoming more prevalent, forcing society to confront this alarming reality.

The Amber Alert system, named after nine year old Amber Hagerman, was not enacted into law until the early 2000s.

Amber, like Pamela, was abducted by a stranger in 1996, leading her parents and advocacy groups to push for a national alert system for missing children.

Although specific criteria must be met for an Amber Alert to be issued, the system and advancements by the national center for Missing and Exploited Children have been instrumental in saving countless lives.

While there were no Amber Alerts in Pamela's case, her case was widely circulated thanks to cooperation from TV stations, radio broadcasters and newspapers at the time.

It is because of this circulation that Pamela's case progressed so fast.

On October 13, 1999, Kansas City Police Department in Missouri made a significant discovery.

The white pickup truck used in Pamela's abduction was found abandoned in Kansas City.

Although neither Pamela nor her assailant was located, police recovered several pieces of evidence from the vehicle.

Using the license plate and DMV records, police identified the truck as belonging to 25 year old Keith Nelson.

Officers brought dogs to the home of Nelson's mother in hopes of finding additional evidence.

It remains unclear whether she disclosed her son's whereabouts to authorities.

During the search of the home, police dogs trained with Pamela's scent alerted to an Afghan inside.

Witnesses had previously reported seeing the same Afghan in the white pickup truck used in Pamela's abduction.

The discovery Intense demand Hunt for Keith with both police and the public actively searching for him, residents scrutinized strangers wondering if they were in the presence of the suspect.

October 13th passed without any developments, but October 14th would bring a significant breakthrough in the case.

On October 14th, 1999, Kansas City Police received a tip from a civilian police employee who had spotted Keith Nelson hiding under a bridge.

Officers responded quickly, and a 2018 court document confirmed that their swift action led to his capture.

The civilian employee pursued Keith as he jumped into a river in an attempt to escape.

He was surrounded by workers who detained him until police arrived and made the arrest.

The chase was over, but Keith wasn't finished.

In an act of defiance, he yelled, I know where she is, but I'm not saying right now.

He was then placed into a police car and taken into custody.

Many in the community felt relieved that the suspect had been captured, but concern over Pamela's fate lingered.

On October 15, 1999, her body was discovered dumped in the woods behind the Grain Valley Christian Church, concealed under a pile of brush.

After murdering and disposing of Pamela's body, Keith Nelson went to his girlfriend's house and later to a local bar.

His girlfriend later told authorities that Nelson saw the news about Pamela's disappearance but appeared unfazed.

An autopsy revealed that Pamela had sustained multiple scrapes and abrasions to her mouth and head, as well as blunt force trauma.

The report concluded that she died from strangulation with a wire ligature still in place.

Semen was also found on Pamela's underwear.

The FBI confirmed that Keith Nelson had been the source.

Nelson was in police custody until a grand jury meeting could take place.

On October 21, 1999, a federal grand jury charged 25 year old Keith Nelson with several counts including kidnapping, unlawful interstate transport and traveling across state lines with the intent to engage in a sex act with a female under the age of 12, which resulted in her death.

Pamela's family was devastated by her murder and the community was outraged by the details of the crime.

Many called for Nelson to face the death penalty.

It took several years for Nelson to go to trial, and when he did, he pleaded guilty to the initial charges of kidnapping, an unlawful interstate transport.

After being indicted, Keith Nelson attempted to take his own life by ingesting prescription medication.

However, the attempt was thwarted and he survived.

Court documents later revealed that as part of a plea agreement, the second count of the indictment was dismissed.

During the trial, Nelson presented claims and expert testimony asserting that he had numerous mental health issues.

He testified that he had a difficult upbringing, describing his father as an alcoholic who abused his mother Nancy as as well as him and his siblings.

He also claimed he had been subjected to sexual abuse as a child at the hands of one of his mother's boyfriends.

Dr. Xavier Amador, a clinical and forensic psychologist, was just one of the many expert witnesses Nelson called to his defense.

Dr. Amador testified that in his opinion, following an evaluation of Nelson, he suffered frontal lobe dysfunction and his mental health was impaired by an unspecified disorder.

Dr. Amador also testified that during the kidnapping and murder of Pamela Butler, Nelson was severely mentally ill and in a dissociative state, meaning he was unable to appreciate the nature and quality or wrongfulness of his acts.

Dr. Amador was not alone in his analysis and several other forensic psychologists and neurologists came to the same conclusion.

Keith Nelson's defense desperately tried to paint him in a sympathetic light, painting him as a man with several mental illnesses and deformity who could not understand nor gauge the seriousness of his behavior.

What Nelson's defense didn't anticipate is the evidence brought forward by another victim of his.

During the case against Nelson, the state presented compelling evidence that his actions were premeditated.

Pamela may not have been his first target, as Nelson had already attacked another individual just days earlier on October 2, 1999. Nelson assaulted Michan Matson, a medical student in Kansas City, Missouri.

According to Matson's testimony, Nelson held a knife to her throat and attempted to drag her from her apartment to his white pickup.

He managed to handcuff her left hand while threatening her with a knife.

Nelson told Michelle Matson that he would cut her throat if she said anything, repeating, keep quiet you.

I'll kill you if you say anything.

Incredibly, Michonne Matson managed to push Nelson off her, but forgot she was still handcuffed.

Nelson grabbed the handcuff, pulling Michan along with it, repeating the phrase.

Michan reported to police that she dropped to her knees and went limp, hoping to escape Nelson's grasp.

She was then able to roll away from him.

Nelson, knowing he couldn't overpower Michan, ran for his truck, periodically looking back at her.

Michand then claimed that while running and looking back, Nelson called her a and said, if you look at me, I'll kill you. Don't look at me, better run, I'll kill you.

Michan managed to escape and reported the incident to the police.

At the time, little progress was made in the case and authorities had no way of knowing that her attacker, Keith Nelson, would strike again.

The state also called another witness, James Shannon Robinson, who had worked with Keith in construction.

Robinson told the court that on September 29, 1999, while at a job site, Nelson expressed a dark fantasy to him.

Nelson told Robinson that he wanted to kidnap a woman and take her to a remote location where he could torture, rape, electrocute and then kill her.

Nelson also mentioned that he wanted to bury the woman at a remote location.

Shaken by the conversation, Robinson chose to keep it to himself at the job site. Nelson further stated that he was headed back to prison and intended to commit a major crime, what he referred to as his criminal magnum opus.

Another piece of evidence that was entered into trial was the testimony of an acquaintance of Keith Nelson.

At 4pm on October 12, 1999, mere hours before Pamela was kidnapped, Nelson divulged his fantasy once more.

Nelson told his girlfriend that he knows where a 14 year old girl is and right now is the time to take her, kill her and rape her.

An hour later, Keith Nelson saw 10 year old Pamela skating home from the store and chose that moment to carry out his plan.

While waiting for his trial to begin, Nelson also told fellow inmates Edward Frazier about his twisted desires.

Fraser testified that during conversations between the two, Nelson often talked about wanting to kidnap women, tie them up and sexually assault them.

Nelson also told Frazier he wanted to watch his victim seven days a week before deciding to kidnap them.

During his testimony, Frazier added, I asked him what the kidnap room would consist of. He said there would be cotton on the floor, they wouldn't have a bed, they wouldn't have a shower. The only thing they would have is a commode and they would get their toilet paper outside of it.

He knew how to get belts and how to tie a person down to where he could actually put them in different positions where he could have sex with them.

He described it in detail, but when it came to murder, Fraser testified, Nelson did not go into detail about this aspect of his proposed crimes.

After two months of testimony and victim impact statements, the jury reached a decision.

On November 28, 2001, 27 year old Keith Duane Nelson was found guilty and the jury determined that the severity of his crimes warranted the death penalty.

In 2002, a judge finalized the verdict, sentencing Keith Nelson to death by lethal injection.

Nelson and his defense team filed appeals in 2003 and 2018, but both were rejected.

Keith Dwayne Nelson spent 21 years on death row at USP Terre Haute, a high security federal prison in Indiana that houses all federal death row inmates.

A day before his scheduled execution, it briefly seemed that Nelson might avoid his sentence.

A u. S. District court judge ruled on the eve of Nelson's first execution that using prescription drugs for the lethal injection was illegal as it violated federal law.

This technicality was resolved quickly and on August 28, 2020, one day after his original execution date, Keith Duwayne Nelson was executed by lethal injection.

When asked if he had any final words, Nelson remained silent, staring straight ahead.

Pamela's mother, Sherry west, found little comfort in his execution, stating that neither she nor her family experienced any relief throughout the process.

She also noted that at no point did Nelson show any remorse or regret for his actions.

Three years prior to Nelson's execution, Sherry west would once again experience the grief of losing a child.

In April 2017, Pamela's sister, Casey Easton lost her life at the hand of her boyfriend and Amencio Lansdowne, just a block away from where Pamela was kidnapped eight years earlier.

Casey Eaton was a mother of four children.

Sherry spoke at Lansdowne's sentencing hearing, saying, my heart was already broke from losing one daughter, but two?

I mean, now I feel like I'm ripped apart.

Lansdowne was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Prison In 2018, Nelson leaves behind a child whose identity is protected for safety reasons. His son was born shortly after Nelson's arrest for Pamela's kidnapping and murder in 1999.

Sherry west told KMBC in August 2020, a day after Keith Nelson's execution, to know that that was the last face she saw on this earth, and having to know how scared she was and what he was doing to her has literally eaten me up.