‘Come get you next.’ Connecticut man threatened friend of missing teens, feds say (2025)

Officials discovered a Connecticut man had thousands of child porn images when he was investigated in connection with a threatening phone call made to a friend of two missing teens states away, federal prosecutors said.

Gregory Butts, 54, is now heading to prison in connection with the images, according to prosecutors. He was sentenced to 20 years behind bars and 15 years of supervised release after pleading guilty to possession of child pornography, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut said in an April 23 news release.

McClatchy News reached out to his attorney April 24 and was awaiting a comment. In a sentencing memo, the attorney wrote that Butts has taken responsibility for his actions.

Officials found the child pornography after an investigation was launched into a threatening call made to a person involved with the search for two missing teens in Colorado, prosecutors said.

Loved ones asked for the public’s help after the teens went missing in November 2020, sharing a phone number to call with information, prosecutors said.

Butts “called the number and spoke to a female friend of the” teens, telling her “that he was with the missing juveniles and had had sexual contact with them,” according to prosecutors.

He threatened to hurt the teens if the friend recorded the call or got in touch with police, and he said he’d return the teens if the friend engaged in sexual activity with him, prosecutors said.

Butts said things were “going to turn ugly” if the friend made a recording and that, if she didn’t listen “and tell me what I want,” he would “come get you next,” prosecutors said.

The friend recorded anyway, according to prosecutors.

Soon after, the teens came back unhurt and without having been kidnapped, prosecutors said.

Butts blocked his number when he made the call, but investigators tracked it to a “lightly-populated area in Sprague, Connecticut” where Butts lived, and a probation officer identified Butts’ voice, prosecutors said.

Butts “was on probation following a state conviction for illegal sexual contact with a minor” and was registered as a sex offender, prosecutors said.

Officials took a computer, phones and other items from Butts’ home and another home where he’d been staying, and “forensic analysis of the seized items revealed more than 10,000 images and videos of child pornography, and downloaded conversations Butts had with minors” via social media, prosecutors said.

“In the chats,” prosecutors said, “Butts engaged in sexually explicit conversations, made numerous threats, and demanded, and sometimes received, sexually explicit photos.”

Sprague is about a 40-mile drive southeast from Hartford.