Charles Butler’s Missing: Man To Man Struggles Gets Out Of Hand

Charles Butler’s missing case led detectives to a brutal murder and a “demon” jealous ex.

Charles Butler was a divorced father of three. Butler, 56, began a relationship with a woman, Anna Lioznov, who lived in Brooklyn.

On Tuesday, September 18, 2012, he went to spend the night with Anna in Brighton Beach. Unfortunately, Charles Butler was never seen alive again.

In a show called “Final Moment,” aired on at 7/6c on Oxygen on Sunday, April 3, 2022, his children painfully recalled the story of their missing father. 

The story behind Charles Butler’s missing

On the evening of September 18, 2012, his daughter, Molly, texted Butler to arrange a flight because she had a credit card issue. 

The next day she found her dad had not followed her through, so she texted him again. The reply by his father sounded fishy. 

According to Molly, “He called me ‘honey.’ My dad had many nicknames for me, and ‘honey’ was never one of them.”

Molly’s concern got stronger when she discovered that her father was not showing up at the insurance office where he worked.

Molly stated that she reported her farthing missing to NYPD and spoke to officers, who were unconvinced that he had disappeared. 

His children hired a private detective Keith Freeman after five days of his missing. After digging deeply, Freeman found out that Lioznoz had an ex-husband, Mikhail Chernyaev, who was jealous of Charles. 

Meanwhile, Butler’s friend from Florida called Molly and told her that his dad had gotten an emergency call from Chernyaev a month before disappearing.

Molly told in Final Moments about the call, “Butler basically said, ‘She’s my woman. Stay away from her.” The threatening call raised suspicion about Mikhail Chernyaev’s involvement in Butler’s missing. 

On October 4, NYPD obtained the CCTV footage in which Butler was never seen leaving his girlfriend’s house. 

The plot twist was built when NYPD discovered that Chernyaev was pulling up his car near the apartment building after Lioznov left on Wednesday morning.

Freeman said, “The NYPD believed that Charles had met with foul play and that Mikhail assaulted Charles, and the last time that he left in that van, Charles’ body was in the van, The NYPD was seeking search warrants on vehicles specifically that were in the courtyard.”

Pieces of the puzzle started to fall into place, but Superstorm Sandy interfered with the investigation, which affected New York City in late October 2012.

A reporter, Christopher Heath, was investigating the story at Freeman’s request, and another news outlet reported Lioznov was dating her ex-husband again. Butler’s children suspected she might be trying to shield Chernyaev from getting caught.

NYPD did a polygraph test on Butler’s girlfriend, and the results showed that she was lying when she stated she believed Mikhail had nothing to do with the disappearance.

On October 15, 2012, Charles’ decomposing body was discovered by a fisherman in upstate New York. Police identified the body in May 2013.

Lioznov’s ex-husband was brought in for an interview. The suspect was calm until the detective told him the area where Butler’s body was found. 

According to the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office, while being interviewed by the NYPD, Chernyaev confessed that he was in love with Anna and jealous of his relationship with her. Hence, he went to the apartment to confront Charles, but the confrontation turned violent.

He grabbed a knife from the kitchen and then stabbed, suffocated, and strangled him. He also confessed to putting the SIM card from the Butler’s cell into his own to send messages to cover Charles.

On September 29, 2016, Lioznov testified for the prosecution and the defense, but her ex-husband was found guilty and was sentenced to 25 years life in prison. 

Charles Butler’s obituary details were not shared by his children.