01x01 - Where's Dad?

[bunniefuu]

[musical sting]

I'm going to do a
couple of videos,

and...

the apartment is in that
building over there.

Isn't that cool?
It's really nice.

You can come out here
and eat your lunch.

This is my new hood now.

[unsettling music]

♪ ♪

And you come into the kitchen,

and the kitchen is good,
good-sized kitchen.

Got a...

♪ ♪

If Charles did walk
out of this apartment,

where did he go?

The closest person
to us is missing.

I'm thinking that
someone just has him

and he's somewhere.

Like, where is he?

The first time that he ever
went to Anna's apartment

was the last time
he was seen alive.

I remember asking her, like,
"Why are you not freaking out?"

There were some red flags
that started to pop up.

They were extremely concerned.

They thought maybe
something terrible happened.

Charles Butler's final moments,

that's not a good way to go.

♪ ♪

[intriguing music]

narrator: Autumn 2012.

56-year-old Florida
businessman Charles Butler

has just moved back to his
hometown, New York City.

This is really nice.
I love this city.

He would always talk
about how New York City

is the greatest place on Earth.

I'm Molly Butler.

I'm Chuck Butler's
oldest daughter.

Originally, my dad
was from Queens.

He lived there till early 20s,

and he said that he went to
Florida to visit a friend

and ended up meeting my mom.

They fell in love
pretty quickly,

and they ended up
getting married

after a few years and
having the three of us.

Narrator: After Molly,
Charles and his wife, Kim,

welcome Margie and Maxwell.

As the family grows,
Charles's career takes off.

My dad was definitely
a businessman.

He owned a pizza shop,
and he was actually

the first pizza place
in Central Florida

to start delivery pizza.

Then he started doing insurance.

He opened up his own
insurance company.

He just... yeah,
great businessman.

Great with finances.
Very, very smart.

I'm Margie Bolton,

and I'm Charles Butler's
middle daughter.

We're in love with
architecture in New York City.

His heart was always
back in New York.

He was always a city boy
through and through for sure.

Narrator: While Charles'
business is growing, in 1997,

his personal life is upended

when he and his wife,
Kim, decide to divorce.

And then they just separated.

Like, they literally got
together to have us three kids.

Like, they just weren't
really meant to be together.

We would visit my dad
on Wednesday nights

and every other weekend.

He would always try to

just make the time that we
had the best that it could be.

[laughter]

He always made everything fun.

One of my favorite
memories of all time

was a New York vacation.

We were on the subway,

and my dad starts singing

"Always Look on the
Bright Side of Life,"

and he gets out
onto the street...

Ladies and gentlemen,

I don't want you to
feel sorry for me

even though I'm down and out!

We were younger at the time.

I remember my brother
was really embarrassed,

like, "Dad, stop!"

My heart is mush.

I'm Maxwell Butler.

I'm Charles Butler's son,
and the youngest of three.

Oh, my God.

It would be so
embarrassing for us,

but looking back on it,
it was just a good time.

♪ ♪

narrator: In 2012,

Charles encourages his
oldest daughter, Molly,

to follow her career ambitions.

My dad was all about
living your dreams.

Find out what you're
passionate about

and make that your business,

so I knew that I wanted to be
a New York City hairstylist.

That was my dream since
I was very, very young.

Narrator: Charles
gives Molly a push

by suggesting they
become roommates.

When I was 24, my dad and I

found an apartment
in New York City.

Okay. I'm on 78th.

And the deal was,
my dad would come up

for one weekend
out of every month.

Well, he was there 3
weeks out of every month.

Narrator: Charles's
part-time residence

in New York coincides

with another significant
turning point.

After he got
divorced from my mom,

he was never really open
to the idea of marriage,

but he said, "I wanted
to find my queen,"

so he started getting on a
bunch of dating websites.

He would always make
dating websites in New York

even though he lived in Florida.

Narrator: In the
spring, he connects

with a woman from
Brooklyn named Anna.

My first impression of
her was she's super cute.

I could totally see why
my dad was into her.

He was just smitten by her.

I had never seen my
dad like that before.

He was in puppy love.

Narrator: On September
15th, Charles comes to town

for one of his regular visits

with his daughter
and new girlfriend.

- On his way up, he gets
into his first-class seat,

and he's taking selfies
like, "I worked hard,

"and now I'm going
to go play hard,

"and I happened to get the
seat next to me is empty,

so I get the whole
row to myself."

He was just so excited about it.

He said, you know, "This
is the way the whole trip

is going to be, just
blessings everywhere."

narrator: Charles makes plans

to spend Monday night
with just Molly.

We just had the best
conversation about,

wow, we're living
in New York City,

and I'm a New York
City hairstylist,

and I was in a very, you know,
loving, healthy relationship,

and he was in a loving,
healthy relationship.

We were just reflecting
on all of it.

I didn't know at the
time it was going to be

my last conversation with
him, but looking back on it,

it was literally the
most perfect conversation

we could've had.

It was just awesome.

[tense music]

[exhales]

♪ ♪

narrator: The next day, Tuesday,

Charles has plans with
Anna for a special evening.

Tuesday, he had messaged
me, and he said,

"Hey, I'm actually going to go
out to Anna's house tonight.

"You know, we're going
to watch a movie.

I'm going to sleep out there."

She lived in Brighton
Beach, Brooklyn,

so this was a big deal.

He was going to her house
for the very first time.

Narrator: That night, Charles
fills Molly in on the date.

♪ ♪

- So he was messaging
me. "Oh, it's so sweet.

"I got a home-cooked meal for
the first time in forever.

I'm, you know,
having a good time."

He was like, "I got my
cantaloupe for the morning.

"You know, it's great.

"She's going to go to work,
and then I'll come back home,

and I'll meet you in the
city for lunch tomorrow."

I was trying to book one of
my flights back to Florida,

and for some reason, when
I was booking my flight,

my credit card wasn't
being accepted.

So I was asking him,

"Hey, can you buy my
flight to Florida?

I'll transfer you the money."

He said, "Yeah, absolutely.
Remind me in the morning."

♪ ♪

narrator: The next day, when
Molly doesn't hear from him,

she texts her dad
about the tickets.

♪ ♪

And he told me, "I'm sorry.
I wasn't feeling good.

I had a party."

And he called me "honey," which,

my dad had many
nicknames for me,

and honey was never one of them.

So it just... It didn't
really make sense,

so I was just like, "Okay,
like, please book it."

♪ ♪

When I left work that
day, I went home,

and my dad wasn't
home, and I was, like,

trying to call him
over and over and over,

and his phone was dead.

I didn't have her
number at this point.

I didn't know how
to get ahold of her,

but I also knew that she was

the last person
that he was with.

Narrator: The next day,
Molly's concern intensifies.

I started getting calls
from his employees

at the insurance
company down in Florida,

and they were asking me,

"We haven't been able to
get ahold of your dad.

What's going on?"

narrator: By Friday night,

three days since she's
heard from her dad,

Molly is desperate to
make contact with Anna.

I find a way to break
into my dad's iPad

and find Anna's e-mail,

so 7:00 in the
morning on Saturday,

I get an e-mail back
from her finally

and she said, "Hey, Molly.

"He left my house on Wednesday
morning and broke up with me,

and I haven't heard
from him since."

My dad was head-over-heels
in love with her.

He had told me that he was
already looking at rings,

so at this point, I
know something's up.

I e-mail her back, and I said,

"My dad is
officially missing."

We still hadn't heard from him,

and we were extremely concerned.

It was just as if
he just vanished.

♪ ♪

narrator: Investigators zero
in on Charles's final moments.

That was the last footage
that we had of Charles.

He just vanished the next day.

Narrator: And the focus falls
on a seemingly friendly face.

Have you had the locks
changed since this?

Since that, no.

But we didn't know what the
role was that she played.

♪ ♪

narrator: How does a man

who is completely content
with his life just go missing?

The only thing Charles
Butler's family knows

is that he went on a date
with his new girlfriend,

Anna, and then abruptly
ended their relationship.

I'm talking to her, and
I say, you know, like,

"What happened?
What was going on?"

She says, "We had
dinner on Tuesday night.

"Everything was great.
He spent the night.

On Wednesday, I went to work."

narrator: According
to Anna, that morning,

Charles stayed in
bed in her apartment.

She said, "In the morning,
we were texting each other,

"and then by the afternoon,

I was getting texts from him"...

"And then he just broke
up with me for no reason."

I said, "Oh, can I see
the text messages?"

And she goes, "No. I deleted
all of them already."

And I was like, "Wait, what?
Why did you delete the texts?"

And she said, "Well,
'cause he broke up with me

"and I was heartbroken.

"I didn't want anything
to remember him by,

so I deleted all the texts."

I remember asking her, like,
"Why are you not freaking out?"

♪ ♪

It just felt like she was
so disconnected from it,

and it just felt weird.

I could feel something was off,

and I couldn't figure
out what it was.

I said, "I'm gonna
call the cops.

You know, we need
to find my dad."

♪ ♪

Two cops showed up.

They basically just start
taking the information,

and I'm telling them every
detail that I can give them.

His phone was dead
for, like, three days,

and I show them
the text messages.

He was spelling things weird.

Certain people will say,
like, lowercase "ok,"

and that's how my
dad would say it,

but that was capital O,
period, capital K, period,

so just the way that he
was texting was weird.

It was very obvious
that it wasn't him.

I am Christopher Heath.

I'm the investigative
reporter at WFTV Channel 9

in Orlando, Florida.

We covered the disappearance
of Charles Butler.

NYPD comes in.
They look at it.

There's no evidence
of foul play.

There's no tracks

saying something
suspicious is happening

apart from the fact that
nobody's heard from him

and the cell phone text messages

are a little off-putting.

♪ ♪

New York City is a giant place,

and NYPD have a
lot on their plate.

They say, "We're not
throwing up roadblocks

"and shutting down, you know,
the boroughs till we find him

"because we just
don't have enough here

pointing us in that direction."

♪ ♪

They kind of were just like,
"A bunch of people in the city

"do this all the time.

"He's probably just
hanging out at the beach

trying to just, like,
get away from his life."

And I was trying
to tell them, like,

"No. Something is happening.

Like, this is not okay.
This is out of character."

♪ ♪

One of them, I
guess I had pulled

on his heartstrings just enough,

and he said, "Listen. I'm
going to put out a report.

"They're not going to
actively look for your dad,

"but I'm going to do what I can

"and figure something
out for you.

"There's not much
that we can do,

but I'm going to do what
I can do to help you."

narrator: Despite the
detective's assurances,

Molly's concern is rising.

And I started, like...

I started freaking
out at this point.

The closest person to
us is missing, like,

literally just vanished out
of our life with no answers.

Like, he doesn't
go off the radar.

Like, with his kids,
he doesn't ignore us.

He doesn't take a day or two,
no matter how much he parties.

When it comes to his kids,
like, he's always just there.

Something just
didn't feel right.

After a few days had passed,
my sisters told me that,

like, they still
hadn't heard from him

and that they were
extremely concerned

and that they thought maybe
something terrible happened.

Narrator: Feeling like
they have hit a dead end,

the Butler children resolve

to take matters into
their own hands.

We decided that we were
going to have to go the route

of a private investigator
at this point.

I'm Keith Freeman. I'm
a private investigator.

I had just come back to Florida

from a trip to Central America.

I was on my way home
when I got the call.

I literally turned my car
around and booked a flight

and went straight up
to New York that night.

♪ ♪

narrator: Five
days have passed

since anyone has
heard from Charles.

Freeman begins
downloading with Molly.

♪ ♪

And I'm telling him
all the details.

He's like, "Wow, you know,

"you did a lot of
the legwork for me.

Thank you."

One of the first things
that he had said to me,

like, "No more contact
with Anna whatsoever."

narrator: Freeman then
digs into the police theory

that Charles may have
willfully disappeared.

The first step is,
we check to determine

whether Charles had booked
a flight through his office,

to check his billing
records on his credit cards

and found nothing to
corroborate the fact

that he had made any
additional travel plans.

There was no activity
anywhere whatsoever.

We had all kept trying
to call his phone.

It was off. We
couldn't get through.

♪ ♪

narrator: With no evidence
to support that Charles left

on his own accord, Freeman
sets out to find him.

The first step is
to get as close

to where Charles was in
his last known location.

I was planning to go straight
to his girlfriend Anna's house,

which is where he was last seen

and where the children
last believed he was.

When our dad went missing,
the last that we had heard

was that he was with Anna, so
suspicions definitely arose.

♪ ♪

The first time that he ever
went back to her apartment

♪ ♪

narrator: The
private investigator

hired by the Butler family
is on his way to interview

the last person to
see Charles alive:

his girlfriend, Anna.

We went straight to
Anna's apartment.

We noticed a couple cameras

that were located in
the apartment building

and on the exterior of
the apartment building,

but we didn't know who
owned those cameras

and whether they
were operational.

Anna appeared to be worried

about what had
happened to Charles,

so she was more than
happy to talk to us.

She described the night

that she spent with
Charles as perfect.

According to Anna,
they were in love,

so she was extremely concerned
about what had happened to him

and where he might have gone.

No reason to think,
at that time,

that there was
anything untoward.

Narrator: But while
interacting with Anna,

something catches Freeman's eye.

When I entered the apartment,

one of the first things
I noticed in the hallway

on a shelf was a man's watch.

It didn't appear to be
Charles Butler's watch.

Narrator: Keith is struck
by how flashy the watch is,

which doesn't seem to fit
Charles's laid-back style.

Keith kept me updated
through the whole process,

and he had asked her,

and she said that it
was her ex's watch.

Narrator: Anna's
ex is a 46-year-old

Russian immigrant named
Mikhail Chernyaev.

I asked Anna about
her ex-husband.

They shared a child together,

but they had been
divorced for a long time,

and Mikhail had been
remarried, had another baby.

Mikhail had three
vehicles that he parked

in the courtyard behind
Anna's residence,

so they still maintained
enough of a relationship

for him to be able to
access the parking spaces

and use them for his work
and his personal cars.

♪ ♪

narrator: After visiting Anna,

Freeman reaches out
to the NYPD detectives

that offered Molly help.

They inform him that they too
have visited Anna's building.

They've discovered that
the security cameras there

were installed by a resident,

and they are working
to identify the owner

and secure the footage.

Keith kept kind of
running into these things

where he didn't have
access to stuff.

Only the cops did, and
since he wasn't a cop,

he wasn't able to do
some of the stuff,

so we kind of had this,
like, stop and go.

Narrator: Then
Molly gets a call

from a friend of her
father's in Florida.

She told me that a month
before he went missing,

Anna's ex-husband called
my dad from Anna's phone

and basically said,

"She's my woman.

Stay away from her."

It was just the one
threatening call,

and nobody really knew about it.

Based upon the fact that
Charles had received

what he believed was a
threatening phone call

from Anna's ex-husband,

I was definitely suspicious

that Mikhail was involved
in Chuck's disappearance.

♪ ♪

narrator: It's now two weeks

since the Butlers have
heard from their father,

and the weight of
the investigation

is taking a toll.

I've heard people
describe anxiety attacks,

but I had never suffered
from one up until this point.

And it would just take me out.

Like, I would get,
like, tunnel vision.

I would hyperventilate.
I'd be on my knees,

like, crying.

It was just literally,
like, survival mode.

The way I coped
was with alcohol,

and I completely numbed out,

and had I not met my now-husband

after my dad went missing, like,

I truly believe I
would be dead today.

Then on October 4th, 16 days
after Charles went missing,

the NYPD gains access to the
footage from Anna's building

and share the
material with Freeman.

Does this footage contain clues

about Charles Butler's
final moments?

♪ ♪

There was video footage
of Charles and Anna

entering the front entrance
of the apartment complex

at about 7:30 on
Tuesday evening.

They went shopping, came back,

a couple just entering
the building normally.

Narrator: At about 7:30
a.m. the following morning,

they spot something else.

We have video evidence of Anna

on her cell phone
outside the residence.

And she finally had
to go into work.

Freeman continues
watching the footage

from the rest of the day.

There is no video of Chuck

ever leaving the
apartment building

after Charles and Anna had
last entered her apartment.

That was the last footage
that we had of Charles.

We know he walked
into her apartment.

We know he is not
seen walking out.

What happened?

He just vanished the next day.

Narrator: The footage
does, however,

reveal a potential clue.

One of the video cameras
clearly showed Mikhail's car

being parked in the
early morning hours.

Narrator: Hours later,
after Anna leaves,

the van pulls out.

He was watching the apartment

and waiting for her to leave.

Narrator: Moments later,

a camera in the back
of Anna's building

reveals something else.

The video also captured
Mikhail himself

coming and going
in the courtyard

behind Anna's residence.

We were able to see
his work van leaving

and returning on two
occasions that morning.

Narrator: While footage
from behind the building

is obscured, Mikhail's
movements in the courtyard,

combined with the fact

that Charles never
walked out the front door

lead investigators to
a startling conclusion.

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.

Narrator: But days
later, disaster strikes.

A once-in-a-100-year
event swooped in.

Superstorm Sandy struck.

Narrator: The storm
submerges 250,000 vehicles,

including Chernyaev's.

Sandy washed away a
significant portion

of any evidence

that would've been
necessary to connect Mikhail

to Charles Butler's
disappearance.

♪ ♪

narrator: When
potential evidence

linking Mikhail Chernyaev to
the m*rder of Charles Butler

is destroyed in
Superstorm Sandy,

it's a crushing blow
to the investigation.

Superstorm Sandy was
devastating to New York

and people in New York.

It's really challenging
for the NYPD

to be able to follow
up on anything.

They were at a standstill on
the case for several months.

Narrator: Five months
into the investigation,

Freeman knows the likelihood
that Charles is alive is slim.

The words that Keith
had used, like,

"Your dad is not coming back.

"Like, he's
officially, like, gone.

"I still can't tell
you any answers,

but we do know that he's gone."

♪ ♪

In my teenage years, my dad
and I would just kind of

butt heads, I think.

Like, we didn't always
have the best relationship.

♪ ♪

I remember the last trip, he
made me get out of the car

and give him a hug, which...

was very unusual because...

we didn't do that a lot, but...

we hugged and told each
other we loved each other,

and that was the
last time I saw him.

♪ ♪

narrator: Mikhail Chernyaev is
still the NYPD's lead suspect,

but there's no evidence
to charge him with m*rder.

NYPD cared about this case,

but he was a missing person.

They didn't have any evidence

to really lead them
to anything else.

There's not the
physical evidence.

There's not a pool
of blood somewhere.

There's no body.

♪ ♪

narrator: In the face of
a stalled investigation,

Keith Freeman pitches an
idea to the Butler children.

We decided to talk to the media

in hopes of gaining
additional information

about what had
happened to Charles.

The private investigator
had gone, I think,

as far as he could and asked

if we'd be willing to
take a look at this case.

If Charles did walk
out of this apartment,

where did he go?

He didn't have a car
in New York City.

He would've either
had to take a taxi

or public transportation.

Where the trail,
for us, goes cold

is once he arrives
at Anna's apartment.

We needed to go see
some of these places.

We needed to try and get
an interview with Anna

since she was the last
one to see him alive.

She decides, yeah, she'd
like to talk to us.

Let's see if she'll shine

some light on these
last couple of hours.

We loved each other,

and we wanted to spend
our life together.

Charles and Anna went
to her apartment.

The next morning, Anna
says she gave Charles a key

to the apartment
and left for work.

That would be the last
time she or anyone else

who knew Charles Butler
would see him alive.

I gave him the key.
He closed upper lock.

So it means that he left.

Have you had the locks
changed since this?

Since that, no.

Why not get your locked changed?

But she hadn't. It hadn't
even crossed her mind.

Later on in the interview, I
ask about when she got back,

had he made the bed?

And she couldn't remember.

And just some of her
reactions were...

To me, there were some red
flags that started to pop up.

We knew Mikhail was a character
within this larger story.

♪ ♪

When I asked about Mikhail,
she seemed to dismiss the idea

that Mikhail was
somehow involved.

She said, "He's
not behind this."

narrator: As Christopher
Heath is reporting his story,

another news organization

reveals surprising information
about Anna and Mikhail.

We found out that she

basically started
dating her ex again.

That's when I like, really,
really got suspicious.

We didn't think that maybe she
was involved in what happened,

but she might have been involved

in, like, protecting
Mikhail from getting caught.

Narrator: Christopher
Heath's report

airs in late February of 2013.

The next day,

we had a different
response from the NYPD.

We had the involvement
of the state police.

We had the involvement

of senior detectives in
Brooklyn and Manhattan.

Narrator: With intrigue
swirling around Anna,

the NYPD turns to a specialist.

I'm Constantine Papadopoulos,

a detective with the New
York City Police Department,

assigned to investigate
the Charles Butler

missing-persons case.

We really wanted to
know, was Anna involved

in any way of Mr. Butler's
disappearance?

Or if she had prior knowledge
of it or any of that.

We wanted Anna polygraphed.

♪ ♪

narrator: Eight months after
Charles Butler disappeared,

an NYPD detective

is interrogating his
girlfriend, Anna.

I needed to find out

if she had any prior knowledge
of Mr. Butler's disappearance

of if she had any involvement
in his disappearance.

So when I spoke to Anna,

her demeanor was
very cooperative.

Anna told me she
wanted to find out

what happened to him as well.

I asked about her
ex-husband, Mikhail.

She met Mikhail in Russia.

They also have a son in common,

but they did have
their differences.

According to Anna, he was
a very jealous person,

questioned her a lot
about different things

even though they
were not together.

He was still jealous.

During my course of the
interview with Anna,

she didn't believe

Mikhail had something to
do with his disappearance,

but you don't know what's going
on in someone's head, you know?

♪ ♪

At the end of the polygraph,

she came up "no
deception indicated."

She had no involvement in
Charles Butler's disappearance,

so she was in the dark.

♪ ♪

narrator: With no additional
insight or evidence,

the investigation
is at a standstill,

but the following day,

the NYPD gets an unexpected call

from officials in
upstate New York.

There was a fisherman
whose boat had broken down

in an infrequently
traveled area.

The fisherman got out of his
boat near the shoreline...

And stumbled upon a body.

♪ ♪

When the body was
found upstate New York,

that DNA was
matched with the DNA

that the case
detective submitted.

Then they could ultimately say,
"Yes, this was Charles Butler

that was found by
the lost fisherman."

narrator: After 8 months,

Charles Butler has been found.

♪ ♪

Like, I remember
getting the phone call.

I was still in New York.

It was more, like,

brutal and gory than we
could've ever imagined.

I had to not only take the
information in for myself

but then immediately turn around

and tell my brother and sister.

♪ ♪

I don't know.

Looking back, it kind of feels
like that was almost, like...

I don't know if the
right word is "relief."

I remember it was a really
heavy night of drinking for me.

That's all I know.

That really sucks.

♪ ♪

narrator: For investigators,
the discovery of the body

is the first piece of
solid evidence in the case.

Charles is found under
suspicious circumstances,

so now the investigation
is going to change.

So at this point, a
detective calls me up

and asks if I could
polygraph Mikhail.

He voluntarily came, yes.
He was very cooperative.

He seemed enthusiastic to help.

He's a middle-aged man,

medium to large
build, brown hair,

balding a little bit.

Narrator: Without revealing

that Charles' body
has been found,

Papadopoulos begins his routine.

♪ ♪

Whenever you interview
or interrogate somebody

that's suspected of a
crime, it's a long process.

First off, with Mikhail, I
built some rapport with him.

We sat down.

We spoke about common
things... You know,

what he did for a living,
where is he from in Russia,

when did he come to
the United States.

You know, questions like that,
just try to build rapport

and see where his mindset is
at for the polygraph later on.

I asked Mikhail all
the regular questions

that any investigator
would ask him.

Do you know him? Have
you ever met him?

Mikhail denied that
he knew Charles.

He explained to me that he knew
that Anna was dating somebody,

but he didn't know who it was.

Narrator: Then Papadopoulos
suddenly produces a document,

a map of the exact area where
Charles's body was found.

The demeanor that he
had quickly changed.

He was very nervous.

♪ ♪

narrator: When confronted
with a map of the location

where Charles Butler's
body was discovered,

lead suspect Mikhail Chernyaev
begins changing his story.

I'm sure Mikhail thought
in his mind that, you know,

"Okay, as long as they
don't find Mr. Butler,

I'm going to be okay,"
but Mr. Butler was found,

and then everything came
crashing around Mikhail.

Narrator: Before the
polygraph begins,

Mikhail begins speaking
freely about Charles and Anna.

Upon questioning by the NYPD,

he confessed that he
was in love with Anna

and he was jealous over anybody

having a relationship
with her...

That in his mind, he
went to the apartment

to confront Charles
about the relationship.

♪ ♪

Mikhail said he walked
over to Anna's place

after he observed
her leaving for work,

approximately 7:30 a.m.

He knew that Charles
would be home.

Knocked on the door.

A confrontation ensued.

According to Mikhail,
he pushed his way

into the apartment.

Charles screamed at him.

Mikhail asked him to be
quiet, and when he didn't,

Mikhail punched him in the
face and knocked him down.

He said that Charles still
would not stop screaming.

♪ ♪

Mikhail took a knife from
the kitchen counter...

♪ ♪

stabbed Charles
and suffocated him.

Mikhail's explanation was that
he was possessed by a demon.

♪ ♪

We never got to the
polygraph examination

because during the
pre-test interview,

Mikhail confessed to
Mr. Butler's demise.

Mikhail told me that he
didn't want Anna to find out

that he had any
involvement in this...

♪ ♪

So he took Charles Butler's
body to a location upstate

where he used to go on
vacation, a secluded area,

and that's where he dumped
Charles Butler's body.

Charles Butler's final moments,
that's not a good way to go.

Narrator: Papadopoulos
then questions Mikhail

about the bizarre messages
that were sent to Anna

and the Butler children
after Charles was dead.

♪ ♪

Charles Butler's cell phone
had a lock feature on it,

so I asked Mikhail.

I go, "How did you use
Mr. Butler's cell phone?

Because you were
texting people."

Mikhail clearly
said, "It was easy.

I just took the SIM card
out and put it in my phone,

and I was able to
use the phone."

So I asked him, "Why
did you do this?"

to Mikhail, and he said,
"To trick everybody."

narrator: Mikhail is arrested

for the m*rder of
Charles Butler.

The following day,
investigators go in search

of additional evidence
to bolster their case.

♪ ♪

The NYPD Fluorocelled,

looking for blood samples,

and were able to find a
very small drop of blood

in the kitchen that
matched Charles Butler.

Narrator: Chernyaev
is indicted on charges

of second-degree m*rder.

Months later, he
recants his confession,

and the case moves to trial.

And again, the
woman at the center

of the deadly love triangle

becomes an object of curiosity.

She got asked to
testify for both sides.

You could tell, like, she was
in a really weird position.

I watched her face when they
showed his confession video,

and it was the first
time she ever heard it.

Like, it dawned on her...

It took a year and a half
for her to even connect it

in her own mind that he was
the one that k*lled my dad.

Like, he did it.

And what he was
telling her at the time

was that he was in
jail in place of her.

He told her that they
were trying to arrest her

for k*lling my dad,

and he's taking
the blame for her.

I feel like she
was innocent in it.

I feel like she was
innocent almost to a fault,

but that she was
tricked by him too.

Narrator: On
September 29th, 2016,

almost four years from
when Charles was k*lled,

there is a verdict.

A jury comes back and
finds him guilty of m*rder.

The judge handed down a sentence

of 25 years to life.

♪ ♪

With the trials behind us,

I felt like we were finally
able to create our own closure,

if you will.

The grieving
process is something

I still struggle with.

I'm grateful for the time
that we did have together

because he raised me to
be the man I am today.

Monday night, we had that
really awesome conversation.

I think that trip, he was the
most excited I had ever seen,

and I think part of
it was, of course,

he's coming back to
the city that he loves.

Saturday up and out in
the city, street festival.

How do you like this
neighborhood, huh?

And he was going
to see the woman

that he fell in love with

and get ready for a really
epic weekend in New York.

♪ ♪

The last time that
he had texted me,

I was supposed to go
get air in my tires.

He had texted me, like,

"Make sure you get
air in your tires."

My dad was my best
friend, and any question

that I ever asked was
never off the table.

What you couldn't see
in yourself, like,

my dad could see it in you.

He was our best friend.

He was my closest friend.
The bond was there.