The Murders of Phyllis Butto & Martha Read

In 1975, Austin, Texas, was experiencing rapid growth and cultural change, bringing new challenges for a police department already struggling with an increasing number of violent crimes that seemed to have no witnesses, no clear motives, and few promising leads. Investigators had a name for the troubling phenomenon: “faceless crime.”

On February 10, 1975, 21-year-old Phyllis Lee Callison Butto was found brutally stabbed to death inside the southwest Austin apartment she shared with her husband, an airman stationed at Bergstrom Air Force Base. The violence of the attack shocked even veteran investigators. Despite an intensive investigation, police struggled to establish a motive or identify a suspect.

Four and a half months later, on June 23, 25-year-old Martha Lynn Read disappeared while showing a vacant apartment to a prospective tenant at a nearby complex she managed. Her body was discovered a little more than an hour later. Like Phyllis, Martha had suffered a vicious knife attack that left investigators searching for answers.

The similarities between the murders were difficult to ignore. Both victims were young, married women who managed apartment complexes, both had husbands serving in the Air Force, and both were killed during the morning hours in southwest Austin.

As detectives pursued witness accounts, suspicious encounters involving other apartment managers, and possible connections between the crimes, the investigation grew increasingly complicated. What initially appeared to be two isolated acts of violence raised disturbing questions about whether someone was deliberately targeting women working in Austin's apartment communities.

Despite numerous leads, public appeals, and mounting investigative files, the murders of Phyllis Butto and Martha Read remained unsolved.

If you have any information about the 1975 murders of Phyllis Butto or Martha Read, please call the Austin Police homicide tip line at (512) 477-3588, the Homicide Unit at (512) 974-5210, or Capital Area Crime Stoppers at (512) 472-8477.

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