His body wasn’t found. Now his brother-in-law is charged with murder.

An investigation into a missing person is now classified as a homicide, and Lexington police are looking for the man suspected of killing his brother-in-law.

Willow Cherry, 45, was indicted in August on a charge of evidence tampering, but a Fayette County grand jury returned a new indictment Tuesday charging Cherry with tampering and the murder of his brother-in-law, Peter Lian, 35. Lian is listed in a national database of missing persons.

Lian’s body has not been found, Lexington police confirmed Wednesday. Police said they are seeking the public’s help in finding Cherry, who was released from jail earlier this year.

Birdie Eaton, Lian’s wife, told police on Feb. 19 that she had not seen her husband since Feb. 16, according to a complaint filed in court. She told police that the last time she saw Lian, her brother Willow Cherry was “on top of him beating him,” the complaint said. The two had been in a verbal argument.

Eaton became frightened and left the Locust Hill apartment with her 3-year-old daughter and sister-in-law, Misty Cherry. They went to a pool house of the apartment complex.

Eaton returned to the apartment about 50 minutes later; she went inside but did not go in her husband’s bedroom, the complaint said. The door to the bedroom was closed, but Eaton told police “she heard her husband groaning/grunting and asking for help.”

Eaton again left the apartment and returned to the pool house. There, she spoke with the sister-in-law, Misty Cherry, who asked Eaton not to call the police because Willow Cherry would go to jail on an outstanding warrant.

Neither Eaton nor Misty Cherry called 911, the complaint said.

Eaton returned to the apartment and found the door to her husband’s bedroom still closed. Willow Cherry was in the living room and told his sister not to go in the bedroom. Cherry told her that Lian had left. Eaton said she was scared and did not question her brother further. She went to sleep in another room.

When Eaton awoke, she went into her husband’s room and saw some blood on the carpet. She left the apartment and went to her father’s house. After not hearing from her husband all weekend, Eaton contacted police on Feb. 19.

That day, detectives obtained a search warrant for the Locust Hill apartment. Detectives pulled the carpet in the bedroom where Eaton had seen blood.

“Underneath the carpet was substantially more blood than what appeared on the surface, indicating someone had cleaned up the surface blood,” the complaint says. “In the bathroom, detectives found some washcloths and a child’s pajamas that appeared to be saturated with blood.”

Detectives then went to speak with Willow Cherry’s stepfather, Whitney Eaton. He told police that he saw and spoke with Cherry on Feb. 17. Eaton saw Lian’s Ford Explorer in the driveway and asked Willow Cherry what he was doing with Lian’s vehicle. Cherry answered that “Peter had given it to him,” the complaint said.

Cherry then asked Whitney Eaton to “help him clean some blood from that vehicle.” Eaton refused. Cherry later told him that “Peter just wouldn’t stop fighting.”

Eaton also noticed that Cherry had Lian’s cellphone. Eaton took possession of the phone and asked Cherry to leave.

Detectives later found Lian’s Ford Explorer back at the Locust Hill location. They obtained a search warrant for the Explorer and found “a large amount of blood in the back storage portion of the SUV.”

Willow Cherry was arrested on the tampering charge in June. A $4,000 bond was posted for his release in July.

He is scheduled to be arraigned Oct. 5 on the new indictment.

Anyone with knowledge about Cherry’s whereabouts or with additional information about this case is asked to call police at (859) 258-3600.

This story was originally published September 26, 2018 at 1:39 PM.