Naman Shrestha
In April 2019, an 11-year-old girl named McKenna Butcher suddenly vanished, making the world of her loved ones, especially her father, turn upside down. When the authorities got involved in her search, they ensured to follow every other lead they could get in order to locate the young girl and bring her to safety. As the investigation progressed, several dark family truths were uncovered, allowing the detectives to zero in on the alleged abductor. The entire case is covered in detail in the inaugural episode of the third season of Fox’s ‘America’s Most Wanted,’ which also features exclusive interviews with the loved ones of the missing girl and the officials involved in the investigation.
McKenna Butcher Was Raised by a Single Mother
McKenna Diane Butcher was born on November 14, 2007, to Jennifer Lea Settle and Michael Butcher. Just eight months into the birth of their beloved daughter, the couple parted ways. Moreover, the mother relocated to another state with McKenna. Growing up without the company of her father, she was showered with love and care by Jennifer, who instilled core values in her such as kindness, honesty and hard work. However, at the age of 11, she was reportedly abducted from a census-designated place called Taylors in South Carolina on April 25, 2019. Immediately, the authorities launched an extensive search in order to find the young girl and get her to safety and nab the abductor responsible for her disappearance.
McKenna Butcher Went Missing After Her Father Won Her Full Custody
At the time of McKenna Butcher’s sudden disappearance, her parents, Jennifer Lea Settle and Michael Butcher, were in the middle of a custody trial over her. As a matter of fact, right after the family court granted the latter full custody of McKenna and Jennifer was stripped of her parental rights, she went missing. From the get-go, the girl’s mother, Jennifer, was suspected of being responsible for the kidnapping and fleeing with her. Not long after, she was charged with custodial interference, and an arrest warrant was issued for her. A couple of months after the abduction, in late June, Jennifer was also charged with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.
Following McKenna’s disappearance, her father, Michael Butcher, claimed that she was first taken away from her by Jennifer when their daughter was just eight months old. “She was brought up to believe her name was McKenna Settle and knew nothing of myself – her father Michael Butcher,” he stated. Somehow, when he managed to locate them in Greenville, South Carolina, Jennifer allegedly stopped picking up his calls and minimized his communication with his daughter.
According to him, not only would she rip up cards and send back the presents he would send for McKenna, but she also regularly moved to different states in order to keep the father and daughter apart. He allegedly fought for visitation rights for the following four years. Jennifer’s sister, Kimberly Settle, also elaborated on the same in an interview with Fox Carolina. She revealed, “If he was ever going to visit McKenna, he had to live in the same state that she was living in. And she just laughed and said, I’ll just keep moving. If he ever tries to see her, I will take her and we will leave the country. And my family even will never hear from us again.”
McKenna Butcher’s Alleged Abductor Still Remains at Large
In February 2021, a new revelation surfaced about Jennifer Settle. Reports suggested that when she visited her family in Maryland, she allegedly told her loved ones about her plans to disappear with McKenna. During a conversation with Fox News in March 2021, the distraught father, Michael, was asked what he would tell his daughter if given the chance. He said he would try to make her understand that “you have been actually led to believe that your father is not the person that you believe him to be. I’ve always tried to have a relationship with you. You need a father. You have a loving father and always have had a loving father. It’s just that you were never allowed to know me.”
In another interview with Fox Carolina in October 2024, Michael talked about how his ex-partner, Jennifer, changed right after McKenna was born. “She was very protective. I picked (McKenna) up once and she very quickly made her way towards me and took her off me, and I thought, that’s not good,” he said. Around that time, one of the officials, Lieutenant Shawnee Peeples, was of the opinion that the fugitive could have gotten in touch with the women in the Greenville County community in 2019 and asked for their help in staying under the radar with her daughter by giving misleading information about the entire situation.
Shawnee added, “We think somebody locally may have given her names of a relative or friend in another state, in another country, to help her hide for this long. We believe the key to finding McKenna is right here in Greenville. Not that she’s physically here, but somebody here in Greenville, Greenville County, Spartanburg, Anderson. Someone who knew her mother knows exactly where they were, where they are, and they helped them take her. And it’s time for her to come back home.” As McKenna remains missing along with Jennifer Settle, the police are still moving heaven and earth to find even a hint of where the latter might be hiding with her daughter.
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