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EDWARDSVILLE — Many in the community felt as though they lost a friend when Matthew Butler died July 8, but Chuck Youchoff, a Glen Carbon resident, felt as though he lost a brother.
Butler, 50, was struck by a car while walking along the right edge of southbound Troy Road in front of Zips Car Wash, south of Third Avenue, in Edwardsville on June 30.
Anyone in immediate danger due to their own or another person’s mental illness crisis should call 911.
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: dial 988
Local resources include the Madison County Mental Health Board and 24-hour Mobile Crisis Response Team.
Madison County has two 24-hour crisis lines:
Northern portion of county: Centerstone of Illinois, Inc.: 618-465-4388
Southern portion of county: Chestnut Health Systems: 618-877-0316
Because he was homeless and spent a lot of time on the steps of the Madison County Courthouse in Edwardsville, Butler was a recognized part of the community to many.
To Youchoff, he was family.
Youchoff and Butler are biologically cousins; their mothers were sisters. Youchoff is six months older than Butler and they were raised together and referred to one another as brothers growing up.
When they were young boys, they collected thousands of baseball cards.
“Matthew was an incredible man,” Youchoff said.
According to Youchoff, he and Butler were polar opposites — he was the cynic while Butler always saw the silver lining in something.
Butler went from owning a law practice in southern California to sleeping on the steps of the Madison County Administration Building but that did not happen overnight, as Youchoff explained.
‘Harder way to go’
Butler was born in Centreville. His mother, Nanci, died in 2022. Youchoff said his aunt struggled with alcohol before she gave birth to Matt but “having Matt settled her down,” he said.
Matt’s father was never part of his life, while his mother soon earned a degree in cosmetology and she worked as a hairdresser. Later, Nanci got a job in Springfield, working for the state of Illinois.
Youchoff said that as Matt was growing up, his mom had enough money to pay the bills but not always enough for extras. Matt typically had hand-me-down clothes, some of which came from Youchoff, he said.
“Of the two of us, I was the spoiled one,” Youchoff said. “Matthew always had the harder way to go.”
In addition, Matthew was allergic to most additives and preservatives found in foods and beverages.
“He couldn’t eat anything,” Youchoff recalled, except for rice cakes and peanut butter when they were young. “Soda and candy would make him ill.”
As Matt grew older, he was well liked by his classmates. In a sympathy card note sent to the family after Matt’s death last month, a close friend, Mike Castelloe, wrote: “ I remember Matt fondly from high school where, in the midst of all the factions and drama, there wasn’t a person in the school he wouldn’t invite to his lunch table and extend his friendship.”
Matthew was someone who kept friends and Castelloe, Brett Booth and Brett Szudy stayed in touch even though they were all in different parts of the country as adults.
Life was hectic
Nanci loved her son very much and did whatever she could to protect him, Youchoff recalled. As Matt grew older, her fears of what the world could do to him caused her to become overprotective.
“She went a little overboard with religion,” Youchoff remembered. He said she found a group in Springfield called The Saints. He likened them to Southern Baptists in that they frowned on such activities as dancing and dating as they believed such things were inherently sinful or led a person on a path to sin.
Youchoff noted in recounting this story that he didn’t want to repudiate The Saints or paint them as religious extremists because they did good things, such as the men who served as substitute fathers for Matt as he grew older.
“They were a good organization, but my aunt took it too far. It always felt like Matt couldn’t be a kid,” he recalled. “Despite that he was involved and even led some Bible studies at the church but by the time Matt was 17, he and his mother began clashing. By then, he had his first car and his driver’s license and he wanted to spend time with a girlfriend.”
Youchoff said the solution Matt chose was to move out. He recounted Matt’s schedule during his senior year of high school:
• 5 – 6:30 a.m. — He delivered newspapers on three different routes.
• 6:30-7:30 a.m. — He was involved in a work-study cooperative program.
• 7:30 a.m. – noon — He was in classes at high school.
• Noon to 1 p.m. — He ate lunch with his girlfriend and/or a friend.
• 1 – 5 p.m. — He worked for the Illinois Department of Insurance.
• 6 – 9 p.m. — He worked as a bagger for Jewel-Osco.
• 9 – 11 p.m. — He did his homework.
After he graduated from high school, with scholarships from the Illinois Department of Insurance and the Rotary Club, Matt attended the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, where he earned a bachelor’s degree.
During his time in college, Matt became involved with the organization called Big Brothers and was a big brother to a young man named Antoine Lee. The last time Matt spoke of Lee, he had joined the Navy, Youchoff said.
Matt graduated in 2000 with his law degree from the University of San Diego in California. From 2000 to 2002, he worked as an attorney at Wayne Thomas and Associates, where he worked in construction litigation, general litigation and more.
Also, in 2002, he worked for CNA and Associates and Shewry and Van Dyke, LLP. From 2005 to 2013, he ascended to the partner level with Craig Nicholas for Nicholas and Butler. Finally, he owned his own law company, The Butler Firm in 2013 and 2014.
First psychotic break
Matt married in 1996 and they had his first child, Justin, in 2006. He then was divorced in 2009, later married and he and his second wife had his second son, Maxwell, who is 10.
Max was 4 years old when Matt had his first psychotic break in 2017, Youchoff said. A year earlier, Youchoff said, Matt underwent a surgical procedure to replace a heart valve.
After the psychotic break, Youchoff flew to California, where Matt spent seven to 10 days in a mental facility. Immediately after the psychotic episode, Youchoff said, his cousin became mute. He used hand gestures to communicate, which weren’t always successful.
During his time in the facility, medical staff were able to get him to speak again but the staff were unsure if this was a one-time occurrence or if it would repeat itself later.
Youchoff said he is not a medical professional but after talking to one of the doctors, he believes Matt had one of two possible diagnoses — vascular dementia connected to the cardiology issues or late-onset schizophrenia.
Matt left the facility with new fear — for his reputation. He did not want any of his personal information revealed so no one, including his clients, would learn he had been hospitalized for mental health reasons, Youchoff said.
While Youchoff said he understood that decision for professional reasons, he believes that it built a wall around Matt personally.
‘Paranoia had set in’
Youchoff returned to the Midwest but Matt’s mom, who had previously moved to California to be near her grandchildren, remained and provided updates to him and the rest of the family.
Six weeks later, Nanci reported that Matt was not acting himself and he was not taking care of his clients the way he normally did.
“Paranoia had set in,” Youchoff remembered. He said a key moment happened when Matt sent young Justin alone via taxicab to Justin’s maternal grandfather’s home. After that, both wives put measures in place to keep their sons safe, Youchoff said.
Matt’s second wife urged him, begged him and pleaded with him to get some professional help but Matt refused. Eventually she left him.
At that point, Youchoff said Matt was divorced with access to a fortune the family estimated to be around $5 million. Matt began traveling the country, stopping to see family, grade school classmates and college classmates. He even flew to Hawaii.
A pattern began to emerge after family members and certain classmates visited with Matt and noticed the changes in him.
Youchoff said at some point Matt started to believe that he had represented a member of a drug cartel. Youchoff said he and other family never had any proof that Matt ever represented such a person.
Matt started believing every Hispanic person he met was a cartel member and every African-American person he encountered was a drug user and thus part of what Matt referred to as “The Team.”
“He believed in this delusion so strongly that he was convinced that staying away from his ex-wives and sons actually protected them,” Youchoff said.
Traveling from place to place
Youchoff said he and other family members began getting reports from law enforcement officials and others about items they found after Matt stayed in a hotel or rented a car.
Once, it was a laptop computer he left behind. Youchoff said Matt deserted it because he believed it had been compromised by The Team. Matt continued renting vehicles, driving them and staying in hotels until he ran out of funds about three years ago, which left him in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
He somehow found a halfway house in the area and the staff there put Matt on Risperdal, a type of anti-psychotic medication that treats mental health conditions such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and some symptoms of autism.
“We talked [after that] and he was Matthew again,” Youchoff said.
He hoped the drug regimen could provide help to Matt, but it only lasted for 30 days. After that, it wore off and Butler was traveling again and his family had no idea where he was.
From the Steel City, Matt somehow found a way to Del Mar, California, a beach town north of San Diego. While he was in Del Mar, kind people tried again to help Matt. Kim Rockwell and a group of people in that area started a GoFundMe page and raised almost $2,000 for Matt and attempted to help him find lodging at reduced rates and meals where they could.
Again, Youchoff said Matt would accept assistance like free coffee, snacks or lunches from well-meaning people but when it came time to talk about getting medical help, his “paranoid lawyer mode” would engage.
Finally, Youchoff received a call from Matt that he had arrived in St. Louis, then Alton for about a week and then Glen Carbon, but he wouldn’t stay with Youchoff; he chose to stay in a gazebo near the covered bridge in Old Town, about two blocks from Youchoff’s home in Glen Carbon.
For approximately 18 months, Matt was homeless in Edwardsville and Glen Carbon.
Homelessness and frustration
Police told Youchoff that unless Matt threatened to hurt himself or other people, there was nothing they could do; dragging him to a facility would violate his rights.
It was frustrating for Youchoff.
“We have made an idol of the US Constitution,” he said. “Those who have attended church will recognize an idol as something that is put in the place of God. We have made rights more important than the people those rights are meant to protect.
“The connection to the almighty is his creation. The Constitution is not sacred. People are sacred. Matthew was sacred.”
However, Youchoff stressed he has nothing but praise for the way the police departments in Edwardsville and Glen Carbon dealt with Matt.
“They were fantastic,” Youchoff said. “Both groups have had mental health training.”
He said typically, the only time Matt had the police called on him was when he overstayed his welcome, for example at a local business.
Youchoff started taking classes via the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) in Collinsville to help understand what was happening to Matt. He said facilitators Mark and Kelly Jefferson were inspirational but there was nothing they were able to do that Matt would commit to following.
‘Safer on the streets’
Youchoff said approximately a year ago, Matt suffered a seizure. He was hospitalized for two weeks at Anderson Hospital in Maryville. During his stay, family came in from the area and again attempted to persuade him to seek help.
“We spoke with the doctors at the hospital and they agreed to try to discharge him to a mental health facility. While the hospital was aware of Matthew’s mental condition, only one available facility would accept him.”
However, Youchoff likened that health care site to a worse version of the facility depicted in the film, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”
“It was one of the worst places I have ever visited,” he said, recounting who and what he saw and heard during their brief visit that he termed “nightmarish.”
“The furniture was broken; the staff was non-existent; and patients were carrying each other down a hallway and urinating on the floor.
“Sadly, Matthew was safer on the streets of Edwardsville than in that place.” Youchoff said.
The family reached out to several agencies in the area to try to get help for Matt but three out of five social workers or 60% quit within a week.
“The mental health care system in the United States is completely broken,” Youchoff said.
Besides using the aforementioned gazebo, Matt began sleeping on the steps of the Madison County Administration Building.
Youchoff said many in the Edwardsville community assisted Matt, such as the owners of 222 Artisan Bakery, especially Kim, the owner; Sacred Grounds; and Panera Bread, all of which fed his cousin.
“We have heard from so many people in our area who interacted with Matthew and our family is so grateful for the kind hearts of the people who helped him in any way,” Youchoff said.
Final struggle
Matt was struck by a car in the early morning hours of June 30 while walking on the shoulder of Troy Road in Edwardsville.
He was airlifted to SLU Hospital and he remained there until July 8, when he died. He suffered from a brain bleed and later underwent a craniotomy to relieve pressure on his brain.
“After the craniotomy, the doctors told us he was in a precarious position, but we held on to hope that he would come out of it and we may have a second chance to ask his doctors to refer him to another mental facility that might actually be a real medical institution.
“Sadly, we never got there.”
The night that Matt died, Youchoff said he received calls from two different physicians, one at 11:30 p.m. and a second at midnight. The first doctor said Matt had gone into cardiac arrest and they had been able to bring him back with chest compressions and medicine.
Thirty minutes later, a different doctor called to tell Youchoff that Matt had gone into cardiac arrest again and they had brought him back, but his oxygen levels were very poor.
Youchoff was asked whether he knew if Butler would prefer quality of life or quantity of life.
At 12:15 a.m., a third call notified Youchoff that Matt had died.
He was buried July 13.
“It was hard for me to listen to people talk about Matthew who knew him for so short a period of time, but he clearly had an effect on them,” said Youchoff, recalling the funeral services. “He was always a positive person who didn’t complain and didn’t feel sorry for himself.
“My brother was an accomplished lawyer, husband, father and my best friend before mental illness overtook him. While I will always be grateful to any individuals who gave my brother food or drink, what he needed was institutionalization.
“What he needed was mandated mental health care. What he needed was a society that would not accept him dying in front of them.
“We should have offended his rights to save his life and we didn’t.”
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