Body of missing Seminole County businessman Charles Butler found in New York~ Mikhail Chernyaev Arrested For His Murder

Posted: 6:31 p.m. Friday, May 24, 2013

NEW YORK — 9 Investigates first reported in February on the disappearance of Lake Mary businessman Charles Butler. He vanished in September while on a trip to New York City.

On Friday, detectives confirmed to Channel 9 that they found Butler's body.

Butler's family first came to Channel 9 saying they weren't getting any help from the New York City Police Department.

9 Investigates' Christopher Heath flew to New York to search for answers.

Earlier this week, three New York detectives arrived at the Channel 9 newsroom to watch an interview Heath did with the last person to see Charles Butler alive.

A police source told Heath that detectives have a person of interest in the case, although no arrest has been made.

It has been nine months since Butler went to New York and vanished. His family in central Florida has closure and is waiting for police to find the killer.

Anna Lioznov was the last person seen with Butler. This is what she told Heath in February when he interviewed her in her Brooklyn apartment.

"I looked for the normal American man, so we found each other," said Lioznov.

She said Charles Butler was the man she loved.

On Friday, law enforcement officials confirmed his body was found 90 miles from Lioznov's apartment, in upstate New York.

On Thursday three homicide detectives from NYPD were at Channel 9 to watching what Lioznov told Heath in his interview with her. They took notes on her ex-husband, who lives across the street from her in New York. A police source told us he is a person of interest.

"He's very manipulative guy, maybe, right? He's very controlling, maybe. But he's the best dad in the world," Lioznov said while talking about her ex-husband in the interview with Heath.

But she also said, "I know what he can do and what he cannot do; he would never hurt nobody."

"You're hoping for so long, and then you get news like this," said Molly Butler, daughter of Charles Butler.

Molly Butler learned Friday that police have identified her father's body.

She said she's numb to the idea that there is also a killer out there.

"It might be a relief, but at the same time, I don't really want to know that there are people like that out there," said Butler.

Late Friday, Heath confirmed that New York authorities discovered the body of Charles Butler in October, but the NYPD didn't officially identify the body until Friday. Heath was told Butler was identified with a thumbprint.  Why it took so long to make that connection is unknown.

Police have not revealed the cause of death.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Photos: Missing Seminole County man

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

PDF: Charles Butler legal documents

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Posted: 10:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013

SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. — 9 Investigates has spent several weeks probing the unexplained disappearance of a successful Seminole County businessman.

Five months ago, Charles Butler, a 56-year-old insurance company owner from Lake Mary, walked into his girlfriend's apartment in New York City -- and simply vanished.

Now, Butler's family is convinced he's dead -- so convinced they've hired a private investigator to look into the case and filed legal documents in Seminole County to protect Butler's assets.

And yet, as Channel 9's Christopher Heath learned, New York police will only say Butler is missing. And his girlfriend in New York doesn't seem to know much about the last day he was seen alive last September.

Heath traveled to New York twice to find out more about Butler's disappearance and what authorities there are doing there to answer his family's many questions.

Before Butler disappeared, he seemed to be having fun in the big city.

Some of the last images of Butler are iPhone videos he shot of himself.

They show how much he loved New York.

In one video, Butler sings happily, "Manhattan… Manhattan… the city that never sleeps."

Butler, the owner of a successful central Florida insurance company, split time between raising his kids in Lake Mary, and running his business. But with his kids grown, he was ready to return to the city of his birth.

"He called this home; he absolutely loved it," said his daughter, Molly Butler.

The hundreds of pictures his daughter still has show just how much Butler treasured New York City. But he had another love too – a new woman in his life.

"We loved each other and wanted to spend our lives together," explained Anna Lioznov, Butler's girlfriend from Brooklyn.

They had a whirlwind romance and by all indications, Butler was in love with Lioznov and was busy rediscovering New York.

"OK, Saturday afternoon in the city, that's what I'm talking about," Butler said in one of his cellphone videos.

He and Lioznov would travel to Florida. She would meet his friends and his children. By late September, they'd make plans for a long weekend in California's wine country. But Butler would never make that flight.

"It just happened so quick, it's … like one day he just doesn't come back," Molly Butler told Heath.

Somewhere in Brooklyn, Charles Butler disappeared.

An apartment building in Brooklyn's Brighton Beach is, by all indications, the last place Butler was ever seen by anyone he knew. Police know he entered the apartment building in mid-September. They also know he has not been seen alive since then.

Heath has a number of unanswered questions: Where did Butler go? Why did it take NYPD so long to question anyone in this case? Why was so much forensic evidence possibly destroyed? And why, after so much time, is this still just a missing person's case?

"They believe that he may be deceased," Butler's family attorney Frank Nisi told Judge Donna McIntosh in a Seminole County courtroom late last month.

Court documents meant to protect Butler's assets indicate Butler may have been "the victim of foul play" and even "the victim of a homicide." Those documents include a signed affidavit from a private investigator.

Monday, Heath talks at length with Lioznov. They discuss what she has to say about Butler's final few hours. And Heath examines the bizarre text messages Butler's two daughters received the day after their father vanished.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Posted: 5:25 p.m. Monday, Feb. 25, 2013

9 Investigates has learned there are still no suspects or persons of interest connected to the disappearance of a Seminole County businessman and father of three, a man who disappeared in New York City five months ago.

For the New York Police Department, the disappearance of 56-year-old Charles Butler, an insurance company owner from Lake Mary, remains a missing person's case, Channel 9's Christopher Heath has learned.

Heath has been working on the Butler case for several weeks and has traveled to New York City twice to help Butler's family get some answers. He also had an in-depth interview with Butler's girlfriend, a Brooklyn woman who likely was one of the last people to ever see Butler.

9 Investigates found a series of inconsistencies, including bizarre text messages and an alarming lack of physical evidence linked to the case.

What remains are many videos and photos of Butler enjoying his life.

Butler's own videos shot on his cellphone show a man in love with New York City. In one video, he's standing across the street from the iconic Bloomingdale's department store. He pans toward the building and says, "I'm up here on 16th and Third Avenue and look what I found: everybody loves Bloomies!"

Butler had found just about everything he wanted out of life, except a woman with whom he could share the city he now called home, at least part of the time. But soon enough, the city provided for him again.

New York is where he met his girlfriend, Anna Lioznov.

"I looked for the normal American man," Liznov told Heath, laughing. "So, we found each other."

Lioznov met Butler online. Their conversations led to dates and things quickly became serious. By mid-September, Butler left central Florida for New York. His first stop there was to see his daughter, Molly, in Manhattan.

"I saw him Monday. We had a little conversation," Molly Butler told Heath. "He said, 'I'm going to sleep at Anna's house, but we'll do lunch Wednesday.' Everything was fine. I got no bad feeling from her."

Charles Butler and Lioznov took the subway out to Brooklyn. They bought a bottle of wine and a cantaloupe in the Brighton Beach section of the borough. Then they went to her apartment.

The next morning, Lioznov gave Butler a key to her apartment and left for work. That was the last time anyone who knew Charles Butler ever saw him.

"I gave him the key and he closed the upper lock, so it means he left," said Lioznov, who spoke with Heath during a lengthy interview inside her apartment.

"Have you had the locks changed since this?" Heath asked.

"Since this, no," Lioznov said.

If Charles Butler did leave the apartment, where did he go? He didn't have a car in New York. He would have had to take public transportation or a taxi. Both have cameras and so far, New York police have found no video of him anywhere outside the apartment.

Almost immediately, Butler's daughter suspected something bad had happened to her father. Normally, they were in regular contact by phone and text.

"I knew that something bad had happened," Molly Butler told Heath.

Records show a missing person's report filed with NYPD on Sept. 22. The report indicates Butler was last seen at the Brighton Beach apartment the evening of Sept. 19.

After calling police and hospitals, Molly Butler suddenly received a text from her father's phone, a text she says "was not" from her father.

"It was broken up English and abbreviations that he used and he called me 'honey,'" she said, explaining he never called her "honey."

Molly Butler still has the texts. Lioznov said she also received texts that day while at work, but she said she deleted those messages.

None of Charles Butler's credit cards have been used. His cellphone has never been found, nor has any trace of his body.

New York police questioned Lioznov twice about Butler's disappearance. Once they interrogated her for hours after 9 Investigates started looking into the case. She said detectives asked her about that evening and about her ex-husband.

They also placed a missing person's flyer on her building, although that same flyer could not be found in the missing person's section of NYPD's website.

To this day, however, NYPD still classifies this as a missing person's case. But Molly and other members of the Butler family have said their goodbyes, and they recently held a memorial service for her father in Seminole County.

And late last month, the family attended a hearing in Seminole County during which Charles Butler's assets were transferred so that they could be protected.

"They believe he may be deceased and be the victim of foul play," family attorney Frank Nisi told a circuit judge in Seminole County late last month.

A sworn affidavit submitted to the court and signed by a private investigator working for the family states, "Evidence uncovered during the course of our investigation indicates Mr. Butler may be the victim of a homicide."

While Charles Butler may appear to be dead on paper, that may be as close as his family will ever get to closure, unless someone walks into NYPD and confesses or turns over new details.

During Channel 9's interview, Lioznov told Heath that surveillance video shows she and Charles Butler entering her apartment building that night in September, but the video never shows Butler leaving.

The apartment building, which has a court yard with parking in the back, has other exits not covered by cameras. The surveillance video that shows the couple entering was turned over to NYPD.

In addition, potential evidence also could have been lost when the apartment building was damaged during Superstorm Sandy.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Posted: 8:34 p.m. Monday, May 27, 2013

SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. — Channel 9 has uncovered new details about why prosecutors think a New York man murdered a Lake Mary businessman.

Charles Butler's accused killer is still in a New York jail Monday.

WFTV broke the news Friday that Butler's body was found in upstate New York, and the prime suspect, Mikhail Chernyaev, was arrested over the weekend.

The body of Butler was found in October, but not identified until last week.

Prosecutors claim Butler was killed in his girlfriend's apartment.

Chernyaev, 46, showed little emotion has he faced a judge in King County, N.Y., for the first time since his arrest on second-degree murder charges. He said nothing as he learned he will remain in a New York jail until Tuesday when the court assigns him an attorney.

The King County prosecutor's office maintains Chernyaev was upset that Lake Mary businessman Butler was dating his ex-wife, Anna Lioznov, the mother of his son.

The prosecutors said Chernyaev entered Lioznov's apartment in mid-September, stabbed Butler in the back and strangled him.

The office said Chernyaev drove Butler's body 90 miles to Port Jervis, N.Y., and dumped his body in the Delaware River.

In February, Lioznov said she saw Chernyaev on her building's video surveillance coming and going the day Butler vanished.

She said she didn't think it was unusual because Chernyaev kept his cars at her building and it was common for him to come and go.

"I saw my neighbors, I saw my ex-husband," Lioznov said.

Lioznov said he was a construction worker and had to go back and forth.

Last week, three New York City homicide detectives were in the WFTV newsroom to review raw video from this story.

Channel 9 handed over the interview with Lioznov in its entirety, and just 48 hours later investigators made an arrest.

Butler was no stranger to New York City. The central Florida businessman and father of three had made the trip dozens of times, but his trip in September to see his new girlfriend would be his last.

Christina Eldert worked for Butler. She said she was there the day Butler got a phone call from Chernyaev, the man being held on charges of killing Butler and dumping his body.

"I think he was listening to his heart more than his sense," Eldert said.

"I remember the look on his face when I told him that this was some psycho stuff and there was a little fear on his face," Eldert said.

In a separate interview with Eyewitness News in her Brooklyn apartment, Lioznov verified the phone call from Chernyaev to Butler.

"'It's temporary, it's temporary, and she's going to come back to me because I loved her and I will love her,'" Lioznov said Chernyaev told Butler.

Not long after that call, while Lioznov was at work, New York prosecutors said Chernyaev entered Lioznov's apartment, killed Butler, and then dumped his body in the Delaware River.

WFTV is working to find out why it took so long to identify the body, and if that delay may have allowed evidence to slip away.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]