Casefile True Crime - Case 232: Jo, Michelle & Christe Rogers

Episode Date: November 19, 2022

For Jo Rogers and her two teenage daughters, Michelle and Christe, a trip to Florida seemed like a dream come true. In May 1989, the trio left their dairy farm in Willshire, Ohio and set out on their first ever interstate holiday.  --- Narration – Anonymous Host Research & writing – Jessica Forsayeth Creative direction – Milly Raso Production and music – Mike Migas Music – Andrew D.B. Joslyn Sign up for Casefile Premium: Apple Premium Spotify Premium Patreon For all credits and sources please visit casefilepodcast.com/case-232-jo-michelle-christe-rogers

Is it me or do you have a good ear? Maybe it's just an impression, but the song likes to relax the sound of people who talk to you about super captivating topics for hours. It sounds good, because I have something really interesting for you. The first mobility service by subscription to the country offered by the mobile audience. Yes, of course. At Star, you can subscribe to your 5G forfeiture without being attached. Mobile audience.

To you, the difference. Or on our website. Life in the waterfront city of Tampa, Florida was peaceful for 47-year-old Joanne Steffie. Her bungalow-style house backed onto a man-made canal that granted access to the sparkling blue waters of Tampa Bay. Small boats headed to and from the harbor pudded past Joanne's home, creating a relaxing coastal-like environment. Florida's warmth and sunshine added to the appealing atmosphere. In December 1988, a house for sale two doors down from Joanne's was purchased by a couple with a young daughter. In a street where residents knew one another and rarely moved, the new neighbors caused a stir.

While the woman and child were rarely seen, the man of the house was seemingly always outside. He was big and burly with a friendly and chatty disposition. He encouraged people to call him Obi after Obi-Wan Kenobi, a mentor-type character from the popular sci-fi film Star Wars. With his laid-back attitude, casual attire and blue and white powerboat, Obi fit right in. In time, the novelty of his family's arrival died down and they blended into the neighborhood. There was just one problem. Obi gave Joanne Steffie the creeps. She found his banter superficial and fake and he had a tendency to appear out of nowhere and insert himself into private conversations.

Joanne had also developed a hunch that he was hiding something. She aired her suspicions to another neighbor, but they considered Obi harmless. Nevertheless, Joanne took to avoiding Obi whenever possible. On a late Saturday night in early 1990, Joanne was in her kitchen when she glanced outside. A large figure was loitering in the glow of a streetlight close to Joanne's front door. It was Obi. He looked to be staring intently at Joanne's house. Joanne turned off the lights to give the impression she was going to bed, then positioned herself by a window.

She peered out. Obi remained put, his attention transfixed on Joanne's home. Five minutes ticked by before he finally moved as if awoken from a spell. He called out something and a little white dog ran up to his feet. Obi then wandered off in the direction of his home. Joanne's house was in the middle of the street. The Rogers family worked hard on their dairy farm in the small village of Wilshire, Ohio. 37-year-old patriarch Hal Rogers maintained the 300-acre property full-time.

Hal's 36-year-old wife Joanne, better known as Jo, helped out. Jo also worked nights as a forklift operator. Even the couple's two teenage daughters chipped in. 17-year-old Michelle and 14-year-old Christy Rogers juggled their schoolwork with farm chores. When it came time for the family to take a much needed break, they excitedly began planning a trip to Florida. The southern coast, with its hundreds of miles of beaches and festive atmosphere, offered a welcome change to the Rogers inland rural lifestyle. Importantly, Florida was the home of the Disney World theme park and resort.

While Hal and Jo had been on a few interstate trips throughout their long relationship, visiting Florida would mark the first time Michelle and Christy had left Ohio. Michelle eagerly crossed off each passing day on her calendar until her long-awaited holiday finally commenced on Friday, May 26, 1989. Hal wished he could go to Florida, but his farm needed constant upkeep, so he decided to stay home. At 1.30pm, he bid Jo, Michelle and Christy farewell. The women piled into the family car, a two-door blue ultimobile Calais. Jo drove down the dirt driveway headed for Interstate 75.

The highway would take them over 1,000 miles south through the streets of Kentucky, Tennessee and Georgia before reaching Florida. The trio would do back on Sunday June 4 at the latest as Jo had to work on Monday night. Days into their trip, Hal received a postcard from Florida's Central City, Orlando. It contained a message penned by Jo that read, Leaving for Disney World for three nights, weather is hot and humidity is very high. Kids having a great time dragging me everywhere. Better go, have to get Christy out of bed. Love you, take care.

Don't work too hard. When Sunday June 4 arrived, Hal expected the ultimobile to pull up at any moment. Yet, the day wore on with no sign of his family. When Jo and the girls hadn't returned by nightfall, Hal began ringing around to see if someone else had heard from them. He discovered that Michelle had called her boyfriend three days earlier on Thursday June 1. The 10 minute call took place at around a lunchtime and had originated from a hotel room in the city of Tampa. Michelle had gushed to her boyfriend about how much fun she was having. The only bad thing she had to say was that she and Christy wanted to go into the ocean,

but their mother wouldn't let them because they couldn't swim. Hal Rogers went to bed that night concerned, but told himself that Jo and the girls had probably just extended their holiday for another night. Perhaps they had found an interesting place to stay on the way home. Hal was certain they would reunite on Monday. Meanwhile, in Tampa, police were working diligently into the night following a disturbing discovery. Earlier that day, the Coast Guard had received a frantic radio call from a man on a sailboat in Tampa Bay. He had sighted something floating in the water and had moved in for a closer look. It was the lifeless body of a woman.

Attempts to lift the body out of the water were hampered by a heavy object that was attached to the woman's neck via a thin yellow rope. After struggling to retrieve the body for 30 minutes, the Coast Guard had no choice but to cut the rope. The weight that anchored the body sank to the depths, allowing responders to lift the woman's body out with ease. She was naked from the waist down. Her ankles and wrists were hog-tired with rope. Duct tape had been placed over her mouth. Realizing the gravity of the situation, the Coast Guard alerted the police who organized to meet them at the shore. Within minutes of having retrieved this body, the Coast Guard received another emergency call.

A second body had been spotted by a boat off four miles away. It was another woman. She was also partially naked, hog-tired, and gagged with duct tape. The victim had managed to free one of her hands and looked to have tried to remove the tape covering her mouth. There was also a thin yellow rope around her neck. It was tied to a heavy cinder block that responders were able to recover with the body. Just as the Coast Guard was travelling back to shore to meet with police, a third woman's body was found in the bay, two miles from the second. The victims presented the same way, making it clear that their murders were connected.

They had been in the water for about two days, which had expedited decomposition and washed away key evidence. The fact that all three were found naked from the waist down indicated that the crime was sexually motivated. Title analysis confirmed the women had entered the water from a boat, as they wouldn't have reached deep water in their condition from a bridge or the shoreline. The cinder blocks tied to their necks were a deliberate act to weigh their bodies down. None of the bodies had knife or bullet wounds or anything else to indicate a violent cause of death. This led a medical examiner to assume that they had entered the water while still alive. It could not be ascertained if the women had died from strangulation or drowning. Their official cause of death was listed as asphyxia.

No identification was found with the victims. Their fingerprints were taken, but they didn't match any on record. Scouring Tampa Bay for evidence came up dry. When speaking to the press, authorities were up front. They had no motive, no suspects, and no leads. No one matching the victims' descriptions had been reported missing in the area recently. This led police to believe that the women were from elsewhere. Florida was a tourist hotspot, especially in the warmer months.

A memo was sent to local hotel owners to be on the lookout for any female guests who had failed to check out. Four days after the bodies were discovered, a housekeeper was going about her workday. She was employed at the Days Inn, a hotel in the Bayside Tampa neighborhood of Rocky Point. She entered Room 251. The two double beds within were neatly made. Makeup and toiletries were on the bathroom counter, and clothing was scattered on the dark teal carpet. The hotel room had appeared exactly the same for the previous four days. The housekeeper informed her manager.

The guests assigned to Room 251 hadn't checked out yet. Their booking was under the name Rogers and applied to Joe Rogers and her two daughters, Michelle and Christie. They had checked into the room at midday on Thursday June 1 and hadn't been seen since. Homicide detectives were informed and arrived at the hotel room where they recovered Joe, Michelle and Christie's fingerprints. They were cross-checked with the three bodies found in nearby Tampa Bay. The missing women's dental records were also obtained to facilitate an ID check. There was absolutely no doubt. The three murdered women were Joe, Michelle and Christie Rogers. There were no signs of a struggle in the Rogers hotel room or anything else distinctly criminal.

A role of camera film was taken into evidence and developed. The second last photo depicted Michelle Rogers sitting on the hotel room's floor. Although sunburned and weary, she did not appear distressed. The photo was taken the day the group had checked in. The final photo was taken from the hotel room's balcony of the sun sitting over Tampa Bay. This meant the three women had been in their hotel room at dusk on Thursday June 1. It was unknown where they had gone from there. Notably, the Rogers Blue Oldsmobile wasn't in the hotel parking lot.

The search for the car encompassed the nearby perimeter of Tampa Bay given its significance. It was soon discovered in a parking spot at a boat landing closest to the days in. There was nothing to suggest anything amiss had occurred in relation to the vehicle and only Joe, Michelle and Christie's fingerprints were found in and around it. The Oldsmobile contained a book of semi-complete crossword puzzles, a half-eaten chocolate bar, two decks of playing cards and a brochure with directions to the days in scribbled on it. There was also a piece of paper in the front that featured Joe Rogers handwriting. She had jotted down the directions to the boat ramp where her car was found and the words,

blue with white. Curiously, a blue and white-colored powerboat was sighted in the car park of the days in on the very day Joe and the girls went missing. The witness recalled the boat was being towed by a dark-colored car. This looked to be a promising lead. However, blue and white were common boat colors. Without anything to help detectives narrow in on this potential clue, it hit a dead end. In the initial stages of their investigation, detectives received close to 1,000 tips.

All were looked into, but none led to the killer or killers. One detective told the Cincinnati Post a newspaper that they were putting all their effort into the case because, quote, Everyone's been shocked by this, even among cops. You've got a whole family wiped out, practically. Back in Ohio, how Rogers was at a loss. Joe, Michelle and Christie were missing. He had initially convinced himself that they were held up sightseeing.

But once Joe skipped work, how knew something was wrong. He phoned the local police and highway patrol to inform them of the situation. At one stage, he was asked by police to provide his wife and children's dental records. He agreed, though wasn't quite sure why they were needed. By Friday, June 9, it had been 14 days since Hal had seen Joe and the girls. That day, an unfamiliar car rolled down his driveway. A man got out. He said he worked for a newspaper, then asked Hal for a comment on the drowning murders of Joe, Michelle and Christie.

It was the first Hal had heard of it. He spent the day carrying out his farm work in shock, not knowing what else to do. He blamed himself for what happened, believing that if he had gone on the Florida trip, then his wife and daughters would still be alive. A joint funeral service was held for Joe, Michelle and Christie Rogers. Over 300 Wilshire locals attended, a significant crowd considering the population wasn't much higher. Joe was remembered as a hard-working woman. Michelle was intelligent and modest. Christie was bubbly and sociable. As the Wilshire community grieved, homicide detectives arrived in town.

They had come to suspect that the answers they sought weren't in Florida, but closer to home. Just over a year before Joe, Michelle and Christie Rogers were killed, an 18-year-old woman presented to the emergency department of a hospital outside of Wilshire. For the sake of clarity, case file will refer to this woman as Zoe. Zoe was in a terrified state. She reported that she had been raped at Knife Point on the Rogers Dairy Farm. Zoe identified her attacker as her roommate, 31-year-old John Rogers. He co-owned the dairy business with his brother Hal. John and Zoe had been residing together in a trailer on site.

As detailed in the Tampa Bay Times newspaper, John Rogers was known locally for being strange. He was an ex-marine with a muscular build and intimidating presence. He talked about missions he had allegedly undertaken for the Secret Service and Central Intelligence Agency, better known as the CIA. The content of these stories was enough to compel locals to keep their distance. Zoe lived with John out of necessity. She desperately needed a place to stay. Police arrived at the Rogers Farm to question John about Zoe's assault. As they spoke to John in his trailer, a detective noticed a briefcase on the floor of the living room area. John said the briefcase contained paperwork. He was asked to open it.

John fiddled with the briefcase lock for a moment before saying that he had forgotten its combination. He was then handed a screwdriver and told to use it. The briefcase actually contained a videotape, five photographs and a cassette tape. The videotape featured footage of John sexually assaulting Zoe. The photographs depicted a different teenager altogether. She was naked, blindfolded and bound. The cassette tape was a recording of this young woman screaming for John Rogers to leave her alone. Detectives identified this second victim as John's niece, Michelle Rogers. Most of us have clothes we've loved for years, but it's harder than ever to find clothing that stands the test of time.

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Michelle protected her younger sister Christie by making sure she was never alone with their uncle. John was arrested in mid-February 1988 and was released on bail pending trial. Hal Rogers had put up the money that secured his brother's freedom, even though Hal's daughter was one of John's victims. Hal later explained that he had once given his word to John that he would get him out of jail no matter what. And Hal never broke promises. He did, however, make John sell his share of the dairy farm and told him never to come near his family again. The following year, John Rogers pleaded no contest for the rape of Zoe. To spare Michelle Rogers from having to testify, the charges pertaining to her assault were dropped.

John ultimately received a 7-25 year sentence. A month after the trial, Michelle went to Florida with her mother and sister. It was hoped the change of scenery would help her move forward. She was resilient and determined to reclaim her life. John Rogers had been to Florida. He visited the state for a six-week holiday while on bail for his sex crimes. He went to many of the same locations that Joe, Michelle and Christie would come to visit a year later. John was in prison at the time of the triple homicide, leading detectives to wonder.

Had he made good on his previous threats to Michelle? Could he have made connections in Florida and organized a hit? Rumors were also circulating that John was involved in a drug and pornography ring. Apparently, Joe was aware, providing another motive why John would target the Rogers women. Yet, there was no way John could have known that Joe, Michelle or Christie were in Florida. He had no visitors in prison or correspondence with the outside world. John wasn't the only Rogers family member that raised suspicions. Gossip in Wilshire spotlighted Hal Rogers due to his perceived odd behavior in the aftermath of the murders of his wife and daughters.

He didn't cry at their funeral and had taken to wearing tinted glasses. A feeling had arisen within the community that Hal was hiding something. Detectives checked Hal's bank records and discovered that he had withdrawn $7000 shortly after his family had gone missing. Hal explained that he had intended to use the money to drive to Florida and commence a search. He said he preferred to carry cash and that he kept the $7000 in his truck's glove compartment. Hal still had the money. But detectives were open to the possibility that it might have been intended as payment to someone involved in the murders. While Hal Rogers was enduring the suspicions of his local community, those who knew him well couldn't believe he was being considered a suspect.

The loss of his entire family had left him a shell of a man who buried himself in farm work as a distraction. Hal willingly took part in a polygraph test. While the results couldn't be used in any legal capacity, they led police to believe he absolutely wasn't involved in the murders. They came to view Hal as another victim in the case. The Rogers case was featured in the Florida Department of Law Enforcement Bulletin. The monthly publication was sent to police departments across the state. It detailed unsolved crimes to facilitate the sharing of information to help it generate leads. One Florida-based police officer was going through his paperwork four months after the killings when he came across the latest bulletin.

He was aware of the Rogers case due to its notoriety, but it was another unsolved crime that caught his eye. For the sake of clarity, case file will refer to the woman involved as Lucy. 24-year-old Lucy was originally from Ontario in Canada. She was visiting Florida on holiday in May 1989, two weeks before Joe, Michelle and Christie's trip. On the night of Sunday the 14th, Lucy had dinner with a female friend. The pair then walked to a nearby convenience store. It was around 9.30pm, and as the two women walked through the car park, they passed a relatively tall and heavy-set man. Despite having an imposing presence, he struck up a friendly conversation that put Lucy and her friend at ease.

He introduced himself as Dave Posner. Dave warned the women to be careful, saying the crime rate in the area was high. He offered them a ride, so they wouldn't have to walk the dark and dangerous streets alone. Lucy and her friend accepted and got into Dave's dark-colored vehicle. It was a pleasant drive. At one stage, Lucy spoke of wanting to go fishing while in Florida. Dave told her that he had a powerboat and would be happy to take her out in Tampa Bay. Certain her friend would join them, Lucy made plans for the three of them to meet again the following day at 2pm.

However, Lucy's friend didn't want to go. She couldn't explain why exactly, but Dave gave her the creeps. Undeterred, Lucy went without her. She met Dave as planned, and the two headed out in his blue and white boat. The water was rough in the bay, so they didn't venture far. Dave appeared disappointed that Lucy's friend didn't join them, but was otherwise upbeat. He made easy conversation, talking about his family and mentioning his job as an aluminium salesman. Four hours after they had set off, Dave dropped Lucy back off at the pier.

It was 6.30pm and the pair were about to go their separate ways when Dave had an idea. He said Tampa Bay was more beautiful at sunset and offered to take Lucy and her friend out on the water in an hour's time to experience it. Lucy walked back to where she was staying and let her friend know, but her friend still refused to be around creepy Dave. When Lucy returned to the pier alone, Dave became irritated and almost angry. He collected himself and helped Lucy back on his boat. As darkness fell, Dave steered his boat out to deeper waters. Other vessels disappeared from view and Lucy felt scared. She asked Dave to take her back to shore.

He refused and ordered her to sit on his lap. Lucy screamed. Dave responded bluntly. Do you think anyone will hear you? He then threatened to duct tape Lucy's mouth shut if she didn't stop. When he made his intentions to rape Lucy clear, she refused to give in. Is it really worth losing your life over? he asked. After raping Lucy, Dave vomited over the side of his boat.

He then drove back to land, stopping every so often to vomit some more. When the boat reached shallow water, Lucy jumped out. Dave told her to watch her step, then drove away. Lucy reported the assault and helped facilitate a composite sketch of her assailant. The image depicted a boarding and weathered man in his late 30s with blue eyes, short reddish-brown hair and a mustache. Dave Posner managed to elude police, resulting in the publication of Lucy's case in the Florida Department of Law Enforcement Bulletin. Reading about Lucy's ordeal alongside the Rogers murders led one officer to notice the similarities between the two cases. A dark-colored vehicle was mentioned, as was a blue and white powerboat, duct tape, sexual assault.

All the women were tourists and had their clothing from the waist down removed. It was believed Joe and her daughters were lured into a boat in a manner similar to that of Lucy, hence why their car was at the ramp. A behavior analysis of the Rogers killer conducted by the FBI aligned with Dave Posner. They had described the killer as intelligent with good social skills. He was adept at making people feel at ease while presenting himself as a regular and hard-working, law-abiding citizen. His crimes would come as a surprise to those who knew him. Due to the killer's familiarity with the area and the fact he owned a boat, he most certainly lived in Tampa. The FBI believed Joe, Michelle and Christie were not his first victims and that he would strike again.

Locating Dave Posner became a high priority. Detectives weighed up the risk of tracking Dave down versus the chance he'd flee if he knew they were coming for him. The crimes were too significant to take a reserved approach, so officers decided to circulate the composite sketch of Dave in local newspapers in the hopes someone would recognize him. Saturday, November 4, 1989, was five months to the day Joe, Michelle and Christie Rogers left for their fateful trip to Florida. Tampa resident Joanne Steffi was sitting at her kitchen table reading the paper. The Rogers case was being spotlighted once again as a composite sketch of a possible suspect was now available. Joanne read about the case but had to set the paper aside upon realizing she was running late for an appointment. As she drove along her street, Joanne passed the home belonging to her creepy neighbor, locally known as Obi.

It suddenly dawned on her. Obi resembled the suspect sketch in the Rogers homicide case. She also drove a dark colored car and owned a blue and white power boat. Joanne clipped the suspect sketch out of the paper and showed it to her friend and fellow neighbor, a woman named Moselle. Moselle warned Joanne not to implicate Obi unless Joanne was absolutely certain of her theory. Joanne agreed and took the clipping home where she stuck it to her fridge. It remained there until early the following year when Joanne happened to spot Obi watching her house from the street one night. Scared of what Obi might have been capable of, Joanne spoke to a deputy sheriff who said he would look into it.

Joanne passed with no news, leading Joanne to assume authorities had investigated Obi and cleared him of any involvement in the Rogers case. Two years passed without any breakthroughs. In October 1991, a Florida-based police sergeant named Glenn Moore joined the team investigating the Rogers case. It was hoped a fresh pair of eyes might uncover something previously missed. Moore and the team went over all the information they had. Their attention soon turned to a brochure that was found in the Rogers family car. It was for Clearwater Beach, a popular coastal resort about 15 miles from Tampa. The brochure was found to have originated from a tourist stop near the Georgia-Florida border.

Anyone linked to the brochure and distribution had already been questioned and cleared. The brochure featured handwritten directions to the Rogers Tampa-based hotel. Whoever scrawled them had a very distinct writing style. They put capital letters among the lower case and their letter Y had a uniquely long tail. This peaked Sergeant Moore's interest. The handwriting did not match Jo's, Michelle's or Christie's. Sergeant Moore pondered the likelihood that Joanne and the girls got lost en route to the days in and had asked someone for directions. The brochure was checked for prints revealing a partial palm print that didn't belong to any of the three Rogers women.

Sergeant Moore came up with a novel idea. He had the handwriting from the brochure printed in newspapers and posted on billboards in the Tampa area. It was accompanied with the message. Who wrote these directions? You may know who killed the Rogers family. A $25,000 reward was also on offer as an added incentive. Joanne Steffie saw the handwriting sample in the local paper and took it to her friend, Moselle. Moselle had been listening to Joanne's worries about their neighbour, Obie, for some time.

Obie was an aluminium salesman who had previously provided Moselle with a quote for work she wanted done to her front porch. He had written out an estimate and given her a carbon copy. Moselle searched for hours and eventually found the estimate buried among paperwork. She and Joanne compared it to the sample in the newspaper article. It was an exact match. Joanne mailed and faxed it to the local police headquarters. She then waited to hear on the news that Obie, whose real name was Oba Chandler, had been arrested in relation to the Rogers triple homicide. She heard nothing.

Joanne made several follow-up calls to find out if the police could analyse the handwriting samples she had sent. She was told that the case investigators were making their way through a large amount of leads and that hers would be examined in time. June passed and by late July, Joanne was still awaiting contact from authorities. Frustrated by their lack of action, Moselle's adult daughter faxed the handwriting samples through to police again. Her accompanying message read, Here is another copy of Oba Chandler's handwriting. Many of us are convinced that his handwriting is the one published in the papers. We feel so strongly that they are one and the same that due to your lack of response, we were tempted to pursue this with a handwriting expert of our own.

Following this, investigators were willing to take on the concerns of Joanne's Steffi and her neighbours. Within three days, a handwriting expert confirmed that the directions on the Clearwater Beach brochure were indeed penned by Oba Chandler. It was such a close match, it was regarded as unmistakable. While this only proved that Chandler had given the Rogers women directions, it established that he had direct contact with them in the lead-up to their murders. And he knew where they were staying. Yet, by the time police closed in on Oba Chandler, they were too late. He was long gone. Oba Chandler was born in Ohio, the only son in a family of five children.

His father was a strict disciplinarian who took his own life. The death marked a turning point in 10-year-old Oba Chandler. The once quiet and intelligent boy became disruptive. This carried on into his adult years, during which Chandler served short stints in jail for armed robbery, drug dealing and counterfeiting. While committing a home invasion, Chandler forced the female resident to undress before restraining her to a bed. On another occasion, he bound a woman's hands and feet and covered her mouth in duct tape. By May 1988, Chandler was in the midst of his third marriage. He had eight children with multiple women.

Chandler purchased a small bungalow-style home in Tampa. His blue and white powerboat was docked at the pier connected to his property and he parked his dark-colored Jeep Cherokee in the driveway. Oba Chandler worked hard to build a good rapport with his neighbors. Then, in June 1990, he surprised them all by suddenly moving away without telling anyone. It was a year into the Rogers Homicide Investigation and shortly after a composite sketch of the suspect was widely publicised. The investigation into Oba Chandler was given the codename The Tin Man, in reference to Chandler's work as an aluminium salesman. Detectives flew to Ontario in Canada where they spoke with Lucy, the woman who was raped aboard a boat by Dave Posner in May 1989. Upon viewing a photo lineup, Lucy pointed out Oba Chandler as being Dave Posner.

The friend who had been travelling with Lucy at the time made the same identification. Chandler's resemblance to the composite sketch of Lucy's rapist was uncanny. Oba Chandler was tracked almost 300 miles from Tampa. He had resettled on the other side of the state in the seaside city of Daytona Beach. On Thursday, September 24, 1992, Chandler was visiting pawn shops trying to offload $750,000 worth of jewellery he had stolen. When he pulled into a gas station, officers swooped and he was placed under arrest for sexual battery. Word of his arrest spread, along with rumours that he was involved in the murders of Joe, Michelle and Christie Rogers. The news left his current neighbours in Daytona Beach stunned.

He seemed like a normal guy, one neighbour told the Tampa Times newspaper. With Oba Chandler behind bars, detectives worked to see if they could implicate him in the Rogers triple homicide. They were able to recover Chandler's old blue and white powerboat, which he had sold three months after the murders. So much time had passed, nothing of significance was uncovered. Yet, one of Chandler's sisters recalled him collecting newspaper clippings about the Rogers case. When she confronted him about it, he allegedly confessed to the killings, before saying, I'm just bullshitting. On another occasion, Chandler allegedly told one of his daughters that he couldn't go back to Florida because, quote,

the police are looking for me because I killed some women. Chandler had also allegedly confessed to his son-in-law, saying he threw at least one woman overboard. The evidence against Oba Chandler was circumstantial, though it was enough for a grand jury to indict him to stand trial for the murders of Joe, Michelle and Christie Rogers in addition to his crimes against Lucy. Chandler rented her not guilty plea. The trial commenced in September 1994. Oba Chandler appeared in court wearing a casual shirt and khaki pants and flashing a broad smile. He was impassive throughout proceedings, but would become jovial with his defense team during breaks.

The prosecution relied on similar fact evidence in the rape case of Canadian tourist Lucy to show that both crimes were linked. The assistant state attorney argued that the boat was the perfect place for Chandler to commit his crimes, saying, It could be committed in darkness and without the possibility of escape. Chandler's defense team put forth that acts between their client and Lucy were consensual. While they admitted that things got out of hand in that instance, they stressed that this didn't mean their client was a triple murderer. He didn't do it. It's that simple they maintained. They painted Chandler as a helpful man who had only offered the Rogers women directions. That simple act of kindness had now spiralled into wild and baseless accusations.

Three men who spent time remanded with Oba Chandler were called to testify. One said that Chandler had told him the only reason he hadn't killed the Canadian tourist was because her friend back on shore would recognize him. Another testified that Chandler had told him that his biggest mistake was leaving the note in the car. Chandler had allegedly told another inmate that the last words he spoke to the Rogers women before throwing them overboard was to, quote, Swim for it. When it was looking likely that the jury would not find in Oba Chandler's favor, the defense threw a curveball. They argued that the sexual battery charge should be dropped as Lucy couldn't pinpoint exactly where the alleged rape had taken place. If it occurred more than nine nautical miles off the coast, it was outside of US jurisdiction.

This meant the prosecution would also lose their similar fact evidence tying Lucy's case to the Rogers. In response, the prosecution reiterated key details in Lucy's statement. Specifically, she saw people on the shore and heard a bell ringing from the mainland. This meant Chandler's boat must have been only around a mile offshore. The defense then sought to implicate John Rogers in the murders, given his previous sex offences against his niece Michelle Rogers. The defense floated the long since disregarded hitman theory to explain how John could pull off the crimes. This prompted the judge to respond, You are not getting into John Rogers. John Rogers is a red herring. That is a moot issue.

The executive assistant state attorney labelled the hitman theory as idiotic. Ober Chandler took the stand in his own defense. But when asked about his involvement in the rape of Lucy, he pleaded the fifth. The right to avoid answering questions in court when the answers may self incriminate. He then snapped that it had nothing to do with Rogers' case. Records showed that Chandler had made three phone calls from his boat between 1 and 2 am the night of the murders. He made another two shortly before 10 am. Chandler testified that he had been out fishing and wound up stranded overnight because his boat's fuel tank sprung a leak and emptied.

He flagged down a Coast Guard vessel the following morning, but they were unable to assist as they were en route to an urgent job. Another boat eventually towed Chandler to shore. A member of the Tampa Bay Coast Guard told the court that none of their vessels were in the bay at the time Chandler asserted. Logbooks confirmed that they hadn't been called to any jobs that morning. Furthermore, a marine patrol expert established that Chandler's boat couldn't have leaked all of its fuel. An anti-siphon valve prevented this from happening. When the prosecution asked if he had killed the Rogers family, Chandler responded, I have never killed no one in my whole life. It's ludicrous. It's ridiculous.

The jury only needed five minutes to reach their unanimous verdict. For the first degree murders of Joe, Michelle and Christie Rogers, Ober Chandler was found guilty. Given this result, the lesser sexual battery charge against him was dropped. During sentencing, the presiding judge said, One victim was first, two watched. Imagine the fear. One victim was second, one watched. Imagine the horror. Finally, the last victim, who had seen the other two disappear over the side, was lifted up and thrown overboard. Imagine the terror.

Ober Chandler, you have not only forfeited your right to live among us, but under the laws of the state of Florida, you have forfeited your right to live at all. May God have mercy on your soul. Ober Chandler was sentenced to death. A juror later told the Tampa Bay Times, He had a smirk. I just wanted to walk over there and slap it off his face. During his 17 years on death row, Ober Chandler never expressed remorse for his crimes. No one visited him in prison and attempts to appeal his verdict failed. He was put to death by lethal injection in November 2011.

He was 64 years old. In late 1990, 20-year-old Ivalice Berrios Begaris was working at a sports store in the city of Coral Springs, Florida. On the evening of Monday, November 26, Ivalice finished a shift and left the mall where her store was located with several of her coworkers. It was just after 10pm when the group farewelled each other in the parking lot. Ivalice then headed off to her car alone. When Ivalice failed to return home, her husband headed to the shopping mall. He spotted Ivalice's car in the nearly empty lot. She was nowhere to be found. The two tires on the passenger side of Ivalice's car were found to have been slashed.

Three hours later, Ivalice's body was found lying naked under the letterbox of a residential house approximately two and a half miles from the mall. She had been strangled to death. Her wrists and ankles featured a ligature marks and there was brown packing tape stuck in her hair. An extensive investigation failed to uncover Ivalice's killer and her case went cold. Ivalice's body had been swabbed for traces of foreign DNA, but it took 23 years before forensic testing had reached the point where anything significant could be uncovered from the samples. In 2013, cold case detectives had the swabs reexamined using advanced techniques. DNA was lifted from traces of semen. They matched an existing profile on the state's criminal database.

Ivalice Berrios Begaris's killer was over Chandler. At the time of Ivalice's murder, Chandler lived less than two miles from the mall where she worked. Chandler abruptly moved away days after the slain. He was in such a haste he left all his furniture behind. One of the detectives fronting Ivalice's cold case told CBS News, It was a case that people were very afraid of and now finding out years later who the suspect was. They had every right to be afraid. By the time over Chandler was identified as Ivalice's killer, he had been dead for three years.

If not for Chandler's execution, authorities have said that he would have been charged with Ivalice's murder. Ivalice Berrios Begaris was murdered one and a half years after Joe, Michelle and Christie Rogers. He had indeed struck again. Hal Rogers struggled in the years following his family's murders. As detailed in the Pulitzer Prize winning article Angels and Demons by Thomas Franch, Hal couldn't bring himself to clear his home of Joe, Michelle and Christie's belongings. He kept their rooms the same as when they had left for Florida. For a time he lived in denial, often speaking about his wife and daughters in present tense while believing they would come home at any time.

At one point Hal drove to the cemetery with a shovel intending to dig up their graves, just so he could confirm they were really in there. He reached the cemetery, only to turn around and head straight back home. A year after the murders, Hal rode his motorbike to a long flat stretch of highway with no traffic. He accelerated until the speedometer reached 100 miles an hour. He then closed his eyes and took his hands off the handlebars. When Hal reopened his eyes, he was lying on the side of the road with his motorbike on the ground nearby. Hal was uninjured.

He took this as a sign that Joe, Michelle and Christie were watching over him and weren't ready for him to join them. Hal dusted himself off, got back on his bike and rode home.