Medical Examiner identifies body found in trunk as Ashton Butler

The Medical Examiner has confirmed that a body found shot to death in a car in southwest Detroit is Ashton Butler.

The Wayne County Medical Examiner confirmed what family members had already believed: that Ashton Butler was the man found in the trunk of the car.

The father of three lived in the neighborhood his entire life and went missing over the weekend. On Wednesday afternoon, police were called to the home on Ethel Street. A man who owned a rental property was checking on it when he spotted a car that should not have been there. When he investigated, he made the gruesome discovery.

"He checked out the vehicle and found a body of a black male in the trunk of the vehicle,” said Cmdr. Whitney Walton, 4th Precinct, said on Wednesday.

Butler's family was confident that it was him.

"The car has been found and I'm almost positive that it's him," said Melanie Gurly Brown, Butler's girlfriend.

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