PONTOON BEACH, Ill. – Patrenia Butler-Turner was missing for nearly a decade when authorities announced a tragic breakthrough.

Police investigators had found her skeletal remains behind a storage facility off Highway 111 in Pontoon Beach, IL. The Madison County State’s Attorney charged 57-year-old Roger Dale Sutton with her murder.

Now, nearly two years later, Sutton is on trial for Butler-Turner’s murder. During opening statements at trial, FOX 2 learned the defendant’s own nephew is the one responsible for helping police and prosecutors solve the case.

Beyer testified that a Christmas commercial in 2022 motivated him to finally tell police that he saw his uncle strangle a woman to death during a crack cocaine-fueled night in 2013. He told jurors he’d been haunted every waking hour since, until he brought himself to walk into the Pontoon Beach Police Department to tell investigators where to find the body.

Police said they then found skeletal remains spread out in a wooded area behind the storage center. Criminal investigators report taking them to forensic anthropologist Dr. Lindsay Trammell, who identified them as Butler-Turner’s.

The victim’s family was prohibited by the courts from speaking publicly during the trial – as they may be required to testify. Butler-Turner’s two daughters were in attendance along with four other victim’s relatives. They each remained stoic during the emotional testimony from murder witness Beyers who testified that he remembered the victim on the phone before she was killed, saying, “Mama loves you.”

Beyers is out on bond charged with concealing a homicidal death.

Sutton’s defense attorney, during his opening statement, said he agrees with almost all of the state’s evidence except one allegation – the murder itself. Sutton’s defense is arguing that no one really knows how Butler-Turner died and that she could’ve died from a drug overdose.

The cold case murder trial is expected to continue all week.