U. Of M. Grad. In Trouble
U. OF M. GRAD. IN TROUBLE
Over the Death of a Girl in Buffalo
HE IS A MARRIED MAN
And Formerly Resided on S. First Street in this City—He is Now a Detroit Dentist
Dr. Damon I. Butler, a Detroit dentist, who graduated from the dental department here in 1894, and who, while here, resided on S. First street, is in trouble, being connected with the death of Iva Belle Mattice, a Detroit young woman, who died in Buffalo, July 31.
Dr. Butler is a married man with a wife and three children, with whom, however he has not been living since last March, since which time he has been living with his mother. He was credited with being engaged to marry Miss Mattice and acknowledges that he intended to do so after he got a divorce from his wife. Miss Mattice was formerly a member of the Salvation Army in Detroit. She was 20 years old.
Butler and Miss Mattice met first in March last, when she went to his office for some dental work. It was said to have been a case of love at first sight. The doctor began calling on her and told her family, they claim, that he was a married man but had gotten a divorce. In the latter part of July the two went to Buffalo as part of a party of six, which included the doctor's brother and wife and his sister. The rest of the party did not stay in Buffalo long, but Butler and the girl, who had meantime been taken sick, remained at a boarding house whose keeper thought the girl was Mrs. Butler. According to the physician, Dr. Lothrop, who treated the girl, Butler called at his office on the evening of July 30 and asked Dr. Lothrop to see his wife who, he said, was subject to epileptic fits. The doctor found her dangerously ill and ordered her immediate removal to the General hospital, where she was registered on the hospital books as Mrs. Butler and Dr. Butler was recorded as her best friend. She was operated upon that night after midnight and died, according to the doctors, from the shock after the anesthetics.
Her body was brought to Detroit, where Butler had notified her family that she had died in "one of her fits," and buried at Butler's expense.
Now it is sought to have her body exhumed to investigate the cause of her death.
Butler has returned to his wife since the trouble came out and she defends him. When seen yesterday he claimed to be able to clear himself, that the young woman did not die of a criminal operation and that the statements printed about him were a tissue of lies.
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Ann Arbor Argus-Democrat