SALT LAKE CITY -- It was less than a year ago that FOX 13 News introduced you to Clayton Butler; his wife of two weeks died while they were BASE jumping in Zion National Park in February. Now, FOX 13 News has learned Butler was killed in a paragliding accident.
Clayton Butler and Amber Bellows were well-known in extreme sports circles, with a big presence on YouTube.
Butler died after a paragliding accident that occurred recently in Oahu, Hawaii.
Clayton and his wife Amber were in the news almost a year ago after Amber, who was 28, fell to her death while BASE jumping. The activity is illegal in Zion National Park, and Butler was initially cited—though the U.S. Attorney’s Office later dismissed the citation.
After the accident, Butler told FOX 13 News he wanted to do something worthwhile in the aftermath.
“If I can do something for them to save their life, give them food and clean water, keep animals from being hurt or euthanized, that's where the money needs to go,” Butler said of his fundraising efforts.
Butler also spoke about the life he and his wife had together. He said their relationship revolved around the outdoors and thrill seeking. Butler met Amber Bellows four years before their wedding at a skydiving facility in Tooele.
“She was going there to do her first jump course, and I noticed her,” Clayton Butler said in March of last year.
They dated three years, and BASE jumping became a big part of their lives.They’d record those moments, including right after they married in late January of 2014. The couple jumped 27 stories from their hotel room at the MGM Signature in Las Vegas.
When FOX 13 News interviewed Butler last year, he showed us a tattoo of Amber’s initials and a teardrop on his finger--a tattoo that took the place of his wedding band.
His charity effort in Amber's honor raised more than $10,000.
