Robbie Buttrey

ARLINGTON - Arizona police have arrested a man who might have the key to answers in the case of two teens who vanished six years ago.

Peggy Tiner said since her daughter Casey disappeared at the age of 16, she hasn't been able to stop buying presents for her over the years.

"Yeah, I just kept buying Christmas, more Christmas, birthdays," she said. "There are some stocking stuffers ... A little jewelry box, she liked little boxes."

Tiner's daughter left her Hood County home with her boyfriend TJ Steele in August of 2000.

Since then, rumors kept her believing her choirgirl daughter might return home alive.

"I was told they had moved into a trailer park in Stephenville," she said.

Then Tiner said she hear the couple had a baby, and she began buying presents for the possible grandchild as well.

"I was suicidal, except I knew if I did that I would never see my grandbaby," she said.

Then last December, some bones turned up in nearby Somervell County. In April, authorities confirmed they were the remains of Casey and TJ and ruled their deaths homicide. By then, the last person seen with them also vanished.

Investigators said they always considered Robbie Buttrey a person of extreme interest.

According to investigators, about the time Casey and TJ disappeared, Buttrey was picked up on Peak Road, which was not too far from where TJ's car was found with the keys still inside.

The car was never processed for blood or fingerprints and later caught fire.

A few days ago, Buttrey was arrested in Phoenix and held on an old misdemeanor assault charge from Arlington and was later transerred to a Fort Worth jail where he remains.

Tiner said while she doesn't want vengeance, she does want answers. However, she said she doesn't have much hope she'll get any.

In April, Tiney said she stopped buying gifts for Casey.

"I just kept buying because I figured she would come home," she said. "I figured when she came home we would sit down and have a big Christmas unwrapping party. I never saw this coming that's for sure."

Somervell County investigators said they would like to hear from anyone who might remember anything about the case.

E-mail jdouglas@wfaa.com