BUTTE — The husband of a 32-year-old Butte man who passed away suddenly in his sleep is speaking out after months of unanswered questions.
"I just want everybody to know that Caleb, Caleb was the best, happiest person and that’s not what people are remembering. Sorry. That’s not what people are remembering of him so that’s what I want people to remember," Doug Ingraham says.
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Ingraham married Caleb Boleman in 2023 on New Year’s Eve. The newlyweds were just a few months into their marriage when 32-year-old Caleb passed away in his sleep on August 10, 2024. Since that time Doug has been asking the county for information on Caleb’s death.
"I have never heard from the Silver-Bow County despite asking them directly after and again when this was all being worked up what is going on," says Ingraham.
Ingraham says he approached the county in October and November of 2024 but did not receive facts about Caleb’s death. Instead, he learned from a letter sent to county commissioners that a deputy coroner informed the Boleman family that a “smorgasbord” of drugs was found in Caleb’s system.
The coroner later told the Boleman family that that information was false and Caleb’s cause and manner of death could not be determined because of the decomposition of the body.
"I am the family, the next of kin and the aggrieved party in this but the family also has their stake in the fact that they have been traumatized as I have by this. However, the county of Silver Bow with anything, any responses to his death certificate, his cause of death, the circumstances of his body what was misinformed to the family," says Ingraham.
The Boleman family is seeking a settlement agreement for $750,000 and Butte-Silver Bow County is now asking county commissioners to appoint an interim coroner as Lori Durkin, an elected official, was placed on administrative leave.
"It does feel like the county of Silver Bow has willfully ignored and discriminated against my rights and Caleb’s rights and our right to privacy. It’s been just awful. It’s been retraumatizing over and over again. I keep thinking that we kind of have this put to rest and his memory—he was such a vibrant happy person, that this is not the way that I wanted him to be remembered."
