Funeral services set for Butter Cafe co-founder who died of suspected drug overdose

Funeral services have been set for the co-founder of Butter Cafe restaurant in Dayton, who died Feb. 10 of what police suspect is a drug overdose.

Visitation for Sarah Beth Dudley will be held from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. today, Feb. 22, at the Ogle and Paul R. Young Funeral Home, 5086 College Corner Pike in Oxford, Ohio. A Mass of Christian Burial will be at 10 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 23, at St. Mary Catholic Church, 111 E. High St. in Oxford.

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Dudley graduated from Talawanda High School in 1997 and earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Business from Ohio State University.  Dudley and her friend Amy Beaver opened Butter Cafe at 1106 Brown St. in Dayton in 2010.

The Butter Cafe will be closed for business on Saturday to give employees and friends a chance to attend the funeral, and will return to normal operating hours on Sunday, the restaurant said on its Facebook page.

Dudley was found in a room above the restaurant the morning of Feb. 10, according to a Dayton police incident report. She was pronounced dead at the scene. A police report said seven capsules that contained an unknown substance were found in the office and were collected as potential evidence. A spokesperson for the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office said this morning that toxicology reports are still pending, and the cause of Dudley’s death has not been ruled.

Credit: HANDOUT

Credit: HANDOUT

A second person found unresponsive at the scene was identified as Dudley’s boyfriend David Duncan, 30, of Dayton, a former employee of Butter Cafe. Duncan was revived after medics gave him Narcan and was transported to Miami Valley Hospital, according to the police report. His condition was upgraded to serious in the days following the incident, and a hospital spokesperson said today Duncan is no longer a patient there.

The incident remains under Dayton Police investigation.

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