Rotten Mango - #14- The Dairy Farm Serial Killer

Episode Date: September 10, 2020

3 girls from a dairy farm in Ohio go to Florida for their first ever vacation. It was going to be the trip of their dreams. Disney World. Beaches. Boat Rides. They documented everything on their camera.  Then they were found floating attached to concrete blocks in Tampa Bay. They had been dead for days. The investigators follow their entire itinerary to catch a potential serial killer on the loose.  To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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See, here's the thing. Today I decided that I was going to suddenly spurn to the moment of being in a talking mood and talking about something, a crime that has been living rent-free in my brain at approximately midnight. So welcome. This is midnight Stephanie, keeping my fiance up all night with some spooky stories. Oh, good. Like this, just, I don't know if I should do this all the time, but I feel like I should fill my podcast at midnight

because there's just like this very spooky vibes going on in this room. And the fact that I just said vibes just killed it all, I'm sorry. Hi, welcome to the Rotten Mango. My name name is Stephanie Sue and we're here with my fiance. Whatever, he's an important, I am the main character. I'm just kidding. I'm the side hoe. He's the side hoe. So please, we just let him have a microphone today. It's okay. I'm just

kidding. So today's story is going to be very interesting because I just want to take you guys into my brain really quick. I feel like I like to envision my brain as just an apartment complex and I only have a certain number of units and I only allow certain numbers of units to live in my mind rent free and this has taken a unit in my brain for quite some time and I feel like the only way to get rid of it is just talk about it. Like it's just been pestering me. It's just been, it's just something that I think about like randomly.

I'll look at a carton of milk. I will look at eggs and I will think about this case. I know. Really? Mm-hmm. Almost all the time that I look at eggs recently and and milk. Yeah. Now that I think about it, eggs don't really apply, but I still

look at eggs for some reason and think about this case because I have no idea what there is. Okay. Yeah, so it's really interesting. Now originally this week was supposed to be about the night stalker Richard Ramirez, a serial killer in Los Angeles. And I was really excited to talk about it, but something, something inside my soul was like, no, you need to talk about this one. And that's exactly what we're doing. So welcome to the Roger story. Now, this is about a serial killer, but it's not a, it's not going to be like the serial killers that we've talked about where I focus primarily on the serial killer's childhood, because not because I care more about them,

but just because I feel like when it comes to somebody who just kills people for fun Because they're so messed up you just need to know where that comes from and I personally find it a little bit Fascinating I find you know learning all of the steps of their life and how they became who they were to be fascinating But this one is about a serial killer and we're primarily focusing on the victim's story because I mean, it's just gonna mess with you. If you don't like crying yourself to bed tonight, do not listen to this because it's infuriating and it's so sad and you just want to say, give these people a nice vacation.

This is a vacation gone wrong story and I know the minute that I say that everyone's gonna be like, oh behoo, I've never had a vacation in my life. You know blah, blah, blah, blah, but trust me when I tell you about the Roger family, you're gonna cry. Should I give you even like a hint? No. Okay, so just go straight into the story. So this is about the Rogers. Now they have a 300 acre plot of land in Ohio and their farmers. So they are a farm farming community It's a very very small town and Joanne who goes by Joe So I'm just gonna call our Joe for the rest of this because she literally was never called Joanne everyone since Middle school has called her Joe Joe is the mom how is the dad and they were actually high school sweethearts

They met in Ohio and they got married and they moved on to Hal who's the dad, his farm. And it's a dairy farm so they have over 80 cows that they have to milk twice a day and they have two daughters. Michelle who is 17 years old and Christy who is 14 years old. Now this 300 acre farm, these were the only people working on that farm for quite some time. I mean, I think they had a couple of people coming in and out to help with everything going on, but genuinely it was just a family run business. And I know the minute that I said 300,000 or not 300,000, I'm so sorry.

300,000 acre. 300 acre, I mean, it sounds like they're just rolling in it because that's a lot of land, right? But they were such hardworking people, So they would wake up every single day before the sun even rose, before the sun rose. And before the sun rises, they have to milk all 80 of their cows. And then they have to tend to their 300 acre lot

that needs constant attention because they have to, you know, plan, they have to harvest, they have to do all of these things. And then by 3 p.m., they have to milk 80 cows again. They get milk twice a day, and then they have to go home, that's on the farm, and they have to do all of their home chores, like they're cleaning their food, their homework, etc., etc., and milking cows, I didn't know this. Okay, so when I first researched this

part, I'm like, you know, it's a hard day's at work, but everybody works hard, right? Like everybody's got a job, everybody works hard, except for YouTubers, fuck them. I'm just kidding. You know, everyone's got a job, right? But this, this is, wow, if you have never worked on a farm, which I have, and this is gonna be just eye opening information. So in order to milk the cows, that the way they did it, is they had to get eye level with the others, and they had to check like a number of things. They're inside of this big just concrete box like they don't do it outside like those little movies in the plot T-shirts with little bucket and you just squeeze the other. There's like a lot of technology that goes into it these days. There's a concrete box you have to heard the cows like you have to send them one way after you're done

uttering them or like milking them because then you have to separate the different cows, right? And they said it's really difficult because I mean the whole time these cows, they're not necessarily enjoying the process They're probably moving at you non-stop and they're probably just a little bit upset when you rub a peppermint oil on them Because they don't like that and then they just shart everywhere like they're like shart. Yeah, they're like fuck you I'm just gonna poop right now. And so as you're milking these cows, you're just gonna be completely covered in cow manure. Like you're by the time that they got out in the morning,

by the time the sun risen after their first milking, they were already covered in cow poop. Goddamn. Yeah, yeah. And so then they would look out into the vast 300 acre land and it's I mean when I say it like that It sounds beautiful like pee and ease daisies, Instagram pictures, but it's really just brown They said you know, so you're just looking into brown because like when crops grow they're they're not like Most lush green

There was lots of corn so it's mainly brown and they would think about all the stuff that they have to do. And then they would go to sleep and they would have to do it all over again the next morning without any exceptions. I mean the dad, how he was such a hard worker, so he would go two to three days a time without sleep because he cannot miss harvest. Like during the busy seasons, when time is of the essence, like he has to plant all this shit, like he will literally just stay awake for three days. And the mom Joe, she was actually known to be the hardest worker of them all. Like the dad was known to say she could work me under the table. I don't know what that means at first I thought it was very sexual. I was like, oh, I could work someone under the table, you know what I mean? But no, it just like means that she worked super hard. So, the mom Joe, she was a hard worker.

She even worked a midnight shift at a local warehouse. She was a forklift driver, and she did that so that their house could meet the income requirement required for health insurance. So they just were non-stop working, and that's what the parents were known as. They were described as a super hard working family, high school, sweethearts, and they were really proud of their farms. They did make a decent living, but how was really obsessed with the fact that he was proud of his farm? He said, you never should take a cow's milk.

You should care for them until they give it to you, plain and simple. And Joe worked hard. She was outgoing and she could really talk to anyone. How I always said that, listen, my Joe, my wife, she is my personality because I'm shy and I don't really talk to people and she does. She never knew a stranger, meaning if she just met you, you would be her best friend in two seconds. Okay, so she's super outgoing.

Yeah, super outgoing, which is fascinating because Joe actually lived an incredibly sheltered life. So she grew up on a farm of her own with her parents and by the time that she was right out of high school, fresh out of high school, she became pregnant with Michelle. And she got married to Hal while she was pregnant with Michelle and her parents were so disappointed

in her for some reason, they were like, listen, we're gonna have a church wedding because that's what got intended, but you're not gonna wear a wedding dress and you cannot invite any of your friends So they had a super low key wedding and then afterwards afterwards I mean after wood yeah, but afterwards

Their honeymoon was just like this short little weekend and nearby Fort Wayne Which really isn't like a destination city and they stayed at a hospitality in. They just really didn't have anything luxurious in their life, all they knew was work, but Joe kind of make it work. I mean, she was super outgoing, like she would just sing, she would dance, and she would bring how out of his shell, and she would continue to write him all these love notes even later on in their marriage, so it genuinely didn't seem like there was such trouble in paradise. Yes, they were so stressed from work, but at the same time, I mean,

they had these two beautiful daughters. And when I say beautiful, let me explain the daughters loved the farm. They loved the animals. They loved being around the animals. They gave each cow. They had 80 cows. They gave each and every single cow a different name. So normally with farms are given numbers, right?

But they gave every single cow a different name, and they weren't like counting by one, like, cacao, you know, and like cacao, you know. They were all so different, they were like April, grandma, crazy, like they all had their different personalities in each cow, and the girls would name the name after the personality And they would know automatically which cow was which right and Christie the youngest daughter she was actually hell's favorite daughter

Which I feel like it tends to be maybe like a thing with dads and like the youngest daughter right and the youngest daughter And Christie was a cheerleader so she would gather all the cows around in the field, and she would start doing her cheers in front of them as of the cows are their audience. And how I always said, okay, like she's a good cheerleader because no cow is running away right now. So she must be doing something right. Like they loved the dogs, right? Not the dogs.

This is all over the place. Mango's literally sitting right there, and I looked at her while I was finishing my sentence, and Mango's the name of my dog, by the way, and this podcast. And she's pretty rotten. Yeah, both the podcast and the dog are rotten, so. So it sounds like paradise. I mean, it sounds like farmland paradise. It sounds like what everyone on TikTok is like guys.

Alliance overrated. I'm gonna go live on a farm one day. And this is the life I'm gonna have. Like it genuinely sounds just beautiful, right? But it wasn't. So there was a man by the name of John Rogers. Now, John Rogers was very close to the family, as you guys can tell, by the last name,

he's part of the family. He's house younger brother and he's his business partner. So he actually owns 50% of the farm and it was passed on by their parents, right? So the two brothers, they're living on this 300 acre plot land and John, he's unmarried, he doesn't have kids. So he lives in this little trailer that's right beside the house.

Now, trouble really really started happening because I mean, he just was always known for being a little bit weird. People always said that he constantly talked about going on secret missions. He was like, yeah, I'm going to go on a secret mission for the CIA next week. And everyone's like, you don't work for the CIA. And then he was like, oh yeah, you don't. I meant the secret service.

And they're like, you don't work for the secret service. But they never really understood how weird and how scary he actually was because one day, their sheriff deputy would actually show up to the farm to arrest him for rape. Now Roger's ex-girlfriend was staying with him in the trailer, so they were dating for quite some time and then they eventually broke up and they ended up just sharing the space. She was like, listen, I still need a place to live. They made this made this arrangement. She was going to live in this trailer and one day she came home at night and she was attacked right outside the trailer, dragged into the trailer by a man wearing a mask. She was then handcuffed, blindfolded, and threatened with a knife. And then she was raped, while

somebody said that they were going to record it. So she went to the police and she was like, listen, I think there's recording of me. I was just raped in my trailer that I live in with my ex-boyfriend and guess what, detectives? The voice told me as they were threatening me. I think the voice was my ex-boyfriend. Like he didn't even try to hide his voice. He wasn't like, hey baby, he's like,

come on, go to. Wait, there's multiple people? No, it's just one. She came home with like the man in the mask. But it sounded just like her ex-boyfriend that she lives in this trailer with. So she's like, I mean, his own place. Yeah. So she was like, this is a little bit weird, right? And so she tells the detectives, like, I think it was my ex-boyfriend that I live with that raped me because when he was talking, it sounded

just like my ex-boyfriend, like, am I crazy? And so the police get a search warrant and they search John's trailer and sure enough, they find footage of the rape. So they take him to jail and this was already really, really tough for the Rogers because think about it. I mean, this man is your brother, it's your brother and law, it's your uncle. And he lived on this plot of land with you. You worked with him every single day. It was intense. And so then the detectives call Hall and Joe and they say, hey, listen, you need to come down the station. We need to talk to you for a second. And they said, okay, like is it about John? Like, what's wrong?

So they rushed to the police station. This is after John is in the jail, right? And they sit the parents down and they say, we think that Michelle has been assaulted. What? And they say, what? What do you mean? What? He's in jail. So along with the video of him raping his ex-girlfriend, we saw pictures

of Michelle and she was blindfolded and naked in a lot of them. And we also found audio tapes of a girl and she was pleading and screaming to be left alone. And we felt as if the voice was a match to when we had talked to Michelle. And so they said, if it's okay with you, could we bring Michelle in to question her? And they said, okay. So they bring in Michelle and she confirmed it. I mean, she said that he raped her repeatedly for the past two years.

The harassment started when she was just 14 years old. So any time that her parents were really busy or were out of town for the weekend, going to different areas to work on other things, right? He would come to the house, tie her hands, and then rape her, and then threaten to kill her if she told anyone. Now, this was gonna cause a lot of heartbreak

for the parents because I can just, I mean, first of all, I really don't understand how how was handling it because I don't know the process of like this horrendous thing just happened to your kid that no parent wants to experience, but also imagine if that person inflicting this harm is your brother that you've known your entire life and you've loved. I mean, it just doesn't make sense. And so there was so much parental guilt. I mean, they did realize after the fact that, like, you know, Michelle did seem really

irritable. Whenever we left them alone in the milking room together, like, she just never wanted to be in there. And we always talked about it and we said their personalities are just so different, like, they just don't like each other. But now we realize it's because she was deathly afraid of John and he was raping her. And so then John, he finds out that everybody knows and he's like, oh my god, I'm being framed. Like, you guys don't understand. This is all a setup. It's just like this massive, massive setup.

And for some reason, both of John and Hal's mom, so like Michelle's grandma, her name is Irene and she's a bitch. She tells everyone that Michelle's lying so everyone in this farm town I mean, it's a small-knit community. They're all talking about it And they're like did you hear about John like a salty Michelle blah blah blah and the grandma's going around all these like neighborhood bars And she's like oh my granddaughter's a little liar And so she's like nope. She's lying. I mean, it's all a setup I don't know what's wrong with her. You know teenagers these days, they lie about everything.

She was just saying some of the crazy and stuff. So Hal ends up cutting off his entire relationship with his mom. So that's like another, again, it's not about Hal. It's about Michelle. But just to imagine the heartbreak that Hal's going through, you cut off your brother, this happened to your daughter.

You don't have to, you don't even know how to process that. And then now you have to cut off your mom, like, and I'm sure there's so much guilt involved. So then John gets charged for the first crime of raping his ex girlfriend and he gets seven to 25 years in prison for the rape. And he just was never going to be charged with Michelle's crime. She just never wanted to testify. She just wasn't into it. She just wanted to move on. She didn't want to talk to her parents about it. She didn't want to talk to counselors about it.

She didn't want to testify. I mean, she said, listen, if you ever forced me to testify, I'm gonna move. Like I'm gonna run away. Okay. She was just so traumatized. And so her charges were dropped, but thankfully, he still got a prison sentence.

And afterwards, it was intense. So how get super depressed? He just doesn't really know how to process it. He doesn't really know how to handle this. He would spend lots of days in the trailer, like just couldn't leave and couldn't look at Michelle. Because he didn't know how to even, you know, talk to her. Yeah. And Michelle, at first, she was really upset, but she was really strong.

She was like, listen, I'm going to freaking move on. So she ends up dating a guy by the name of Jeff that she's known since she was in seventh grade. And he even gave her his high school class ring as like proof that they were, you know, a solid couple that's what you do in high school. And it was going really, really well. And Christie, she was growing up, like knowing all of this. She knew exactly what happened to her sister. She knew what her uncle did.

She knew that it could have happened to her and she still grew up really just well acclimated. She was a happy person. She is a cheerleader. She's amazing at most activities. She was known as, people describe her as like a fireball. Like they don't really know how to explain it just like bubbly, but also fireball. Yeah. So for like Michelle, the parents and everybody else, she was very reserved. And so she was almost respected. But with

Christie, she just, I mean, she was only like three years younger, but she just felt so much younger. Like she just was so crazy bubbly and just so, she was like this little good girl, you know, she want to do everything correctly and just wanted to do everything with like that cheerleading spirit. Now, before I really get into the nitty-gritty of this crime, I just have a really quick question to ask every single one of you. Is there something right now in your life that's interfering with your happiness or maybe preventing you from achieving your goals? Maybe you're a little bit scared. Listen, I was so scared to start this podcast.

I almost didn't. For the longest time, people were requesting it. I was like, I just can't do it. No one's gonna even care. I mean, nobody does, but that's besides the point. I'm just kidding. I just was so nervous. And one of the things that really helped me get through

that stage was better help. And I feel like I've talked about better help starting like years ago. And it really just is such an easy way to get professional counseling. And it's done completely online. And I feel really secure with it. I mean, I know it's done securely.

So I have a lot of confidence in this. And the way that it works is that better help will assess all of your needs and match you with your own licensed therapist and you can actually start communicating with this therapist in under 48 hours. This is not a crisis line, it's not a self-help line, but it's actually a professional counseling done online. It's available worldwide, so if you guys are maybe English speakers and you guys live out of the country, especially during times like this, you're like, listen, I've got some thoughts I want to talk to someone about it.

This is perfect for you, and you can send a message to your therapist at any time, and you'll get a timely and thoughtful response. You could also schedule weekly video or phone sessions, which is amazing, because you never really have to wait in like that uncomfortable waiting room with, oh my gosh, like, what if someone I know walks in and they're like, oh, like, it's your marriage, okay, and you're like, you know what, it's fine. Becky, okay. Me going on a tangent. And it's really, really easy and free to change counselors because, listen, when I went to in-person therapy, there would be so many times where I know that this person

is reputable. They're amazing, but they just don't work with me. We just don't click. And better help is actually a lot more affordable than traditional offline counseling. And they also have financial aid available, which is amazing. But don't take it from me. We just don't click and BetterHelp is actually a lot more affordable than traditional offline counseling and they also have financial aid available which is amazing but don't take it from me you can actually read their thousands of testimonials on their website. You guys actually get 10% off your first month at betterhelp.com slash rotten. BetterHELP.com slash rotten. Now let's get back to the farm bits okay because every single day is no exemptions. You have to freaking work, right? So finally Michelle and Christie at 17 years old and 14 year old, they finally get a vacation. The dad,

the mom was like, listen, a lot has been going on, okay? Like this has been a shit show for the past years. We've been dealing with a John Rogers situation. We've been dealing with all of our years. We've been dealing with a John Rogers situation. We've been dealing with all of our neighbors. We've been dealing with like this stigma of like something's going down in this house. And we finally feel like we've somewhat recovered. So why don't we take a massive vacation to Florida? They have literally 17 and 14 and they have never taken a vacation in their entire freaking

lives, which is absolutely nuts, right? The most that they got if they were lucky was a few days at a local county fair. Like, that's it. That was like the extent of like a vacation. So, somebody else is taking care of the farm? Um, no, not exactly. So, the dad had, he wasn't able to go. So, it was really intense. He just felt like there was no way that he could leave the farm at all ever, and he had to hold it down, especially because that year there was the spring rains. There was something messed up about the spring rains. They were a little bit late, so then there was a little bit of the raining a little bit later than it should have, so then he couldn't plant soybeans and corn and wheat.

And then he had to plant them immediately. Otherwise, he would miss the harvest. Immediately otherwise you would miss the harvest. I mean, it's really complex. So it was like goddamn and so Everyone's like that's not that complex But I just you know, I'm just imagining the 300 acres that needs to be planted It sounds very complex and so he was like listen you guys have a good time You know you guys prepared for this. I'm excited for you guys I mean just have the best time of your life right right? And so Joe decides to take the two girls and they're going to drive all the way to Florida. This was their first time going to Florida. Like they were so excited and it was a full week. So the girls were planning this for months,

for months. They were talking about, okay, here's what we're going to do. We're going to be excited. We're going to go to the beach. Oh my gosh, they have Disney World. We're gonna go to Sea World. And also this is like in back in the 90s, so we didn't know Sea World was evil. So please don't come for them. So they were like, we're gonna go to Sea World. We're gonna see Mickey Mouse.

They were just getting so freaking excited. They were like, I heard the sun is like golden over there. I heard it's like pink and yellow and blue and just insane. And they're so freaking happy. So Joe she ends up working her overnight shift the day before she has to go. They get back into the car and they make that drive and Joe has a tendency to speed so they got there relatively quickly. They went straight through Ohio, through Kentucky, through Tennessee, and they stopped in Georgia for the night. Which I'm from Georgia, and I used to vacation in Florida all the time, so I feel their excitement of like that road trip of like, yes!

And so they bring this Nikon camera, and this was the one camera that they had, and they were gonna document everything with it. And this will later become very heart-breaking, because a lot of investigators would eventually spend countless hours studying every single picture that was ever taken on this icon and it would just burn into their memories. So they make it to Jacksonville

after they're stopped in Georgia and they go to the Jacksonville Zoo and that's when they just start taking so many pictures they were like look at that fucking giraffe okay take a picture of that giraffe so they're taking so many pictures then they go to Silver Springs. Silver Springs is very interesting because apparently there's something there that has a lot of notoriety I've never really seen pictures of it I've never even heard of it really but there's glass bottom boats there. So it's like tiny little boats and the bottoms are glass and you hop on and they just like

row, row, row the boat and you get to see all of the little things underneath. Yeah. They were cool. Yeah, and they were so excited. They were like, less than it's vacation, we do what we want. And this was shocking for a lot of people because all three of them don't know how to swim. Like the two girls, they could not swim with any water that was taller than their head. So there must have been some level of fear, but we're also assuming that when you're on vacation, you have no fear when you're that age, right? And they've only been on a boat a handful of times. Keep their son mind.

They've only been on a boat a handful of times. Okay. Okay. And mom, Joe, she couldn't swim at all. I mean, she was genuinely terrified of the beach. Like, she was so scared of swimming. And they went on this boat and all these pictures show them having such a good time. And then later, they're getting excited because they're like, we're going to go to SeaWorld, Epcot, MGM studios, like all this shit. And so then finally, they drive after Silver Springs Springs they drive to Rocky Point where they stay at the

Days in at Rocky Point Michelle called her boyfriend Jeff. It was his birthday So she had already arranged a bunch of people to bring in flowers to the gas station that he works at She just wanted to embarrass him. She was like listen this tough high school jock Suddenly it's gonna get roses delivered on his birthday like they're gonna make fun of him And so she talked to him He was like babe like I told you not to And it was really really cute and so then after that there we have the last picture of Michelle That was ever taken so she ends up calling her boyfriend and then she's kind of crouching in the motel room with this blue bikini top and

These white shorts. She's wearing these sandals and she has this like peach colored, I want to say like a blouse right, that she's holding. And so we don't know if she's in the process of changing into it or changing into something else. And she looked like her hair was wet from whether showering or maybe she went swimming, she was sunburned, and she wasn't really smiling in the picture. I mean, it just looked like she had somewhere to be. It looked like she was in transition, like she was literally like digging through her bag, looking for something to wear, and someone was like, look here, right?

And they took a picture. And that would be one of the last pictures we ever see of Michelle. Okay. Because that day, that day would be their last day. because that day, that day would be their last day. This happened after the phone call, which you made. So she makes that phone call to Jeff. This picture gets taken and there was a lot of talk.

I mean, they talk to how they talk to Jeff about, you know, maybe we're thinking about going to Bush Gardens today, which is a sort of an amusement park. And the reason that we don't think that they went is because they don't have any credit card records of them going. They don't have any pictures of them there. They don't have any souvenirs. And they were getting pictures and souvenirs everywhere they went. And it just seems like they didn't go for whatever reason. And they were seen having dinner at the motel by a witness who was also a motel

visitor. He saw them having dinner. They seemed like they were having having dinner at the motel by a witness who was also a motel visitor He saw them having dinner. They seemed like they were having a great time. They weren't in danger They didn't look scared of anything or anyone. They were in very good spirits laughing and Then the last picture that we have from this night con camera Mm-hmm. Was a picture of the sunset from the motel From their room. Yes, okay, and then they left that camera in their room. And then they got into a car. And Joe was holding an address.

It was written on a brochure. And it was an address. And she drove in their car all the way to that address. And then was never seen again. So that address was leading her from the motel to the boat ramp. Bo ramp? Yeah. Which one? There were a bunch of boats nearby. This is the one that was maybe like I want to say

five miles away from the motel. Is it a place that they've been or never been? No, never been. And the direction said on the brochure. It said let me find this three real quick So was this the night or the morning are they are they going there as a vacation spot or so the sun was setting So it was about to be nighttime. We don't really know why they were going. We don't know who they were seeing So they went at night. Yeah, but we know that this wasn't part of their itinerary This wasn't something that they had planned in Ohio. They didn't know anyone. They weren't renting a boat at the boat ramp. They are at the dock. They didn't know anyone who had a boat. They didn't know anyone in Florida.

Yeah, yeah. So this was a completely happened during the trip type of situation. And that was a Thursday. She gets in the car with her two kids with an address on a piece of paper and they drive away. And they won't be seen alive ever again. I mean, I'm telling you, it lives rent-free in my brain. So then Sunday, this was the Thursday. Now Sunday, she was expected to be back in Ohio. She was actually expected to be back in Ohio on Saturday

But you know how I was like I'm just gonna give them some leniency like you know It's fine. They're probably having such a good time They're probably you know stopping by all these places and taking pictures on their way up Maybe and he felt it was a little bit weird by the time it was Sunday night And they still hadn't gotten home because Joe had worked scheduled tomorrow on Monday Michelle had summer school tomorrow on Monday. I mean, this was just incredibly unlike them. Like, Joe was known for being timely.

And I feel like I say that in so much crime. And I'm like, they were known for never being late, right? Yeah. But Joe genuinely was. Like, she was, she was a workaholic. Like, she stuck by her word. Like, she would work all day on the farm. And she would never be a minute late to her warehouse shift like it just wouldn't happen so it just was so

odd so he's freaking out a little bit but he's like you know what have some piece how like maybe they just got too excited on their first vacation maybe they have an explanation maybe it's okay right meanwhile in Tampa, Florida, a lot of other things were happening. So there was this sailboat called Amber Waves, and on June 4th, which was around Sunday night, they saw something floating in the water, and they were like, hey, get closer, like what is that? And so they get closer in their boat, and that's when they see a female laying face down in the water, floating. She was naked from the waist down.

She had her hands tied behind her back. She had her feet bound. And there was this thin yellow rope around her neck. So they immediately radio the Coast Guard. They're like, holy short. We found a body. We don't know what to do. I'm freaking out, guys.

Please come help, right? So the Coast Guard, they're very, very quick to get there, but they weren't quick to get the body out because they realize that once they get there, that the rope on the neck is attached to something heavy, that's trying to kind of hold the body down, right? So they're like, listen, we don't want to move this key crucial piece of evidence

because obviously this is not an accident, this is not a suicide attempt, this is murder. Like there's really no way around it. So they record the exact coordinates of where they are at sea and they cut the line and they bring her back onto the boat and as that Coast Guard boat is going back to the shore, they get another call while they're still in water that they found another body. while they're still in water that they found another body. So the Coast Guard heads right over there and it was again two people on a sailboat who saw a body floating and it was in the same manner. Naked from the waist down, hands tied behind the back, feet tied, and a thin yellow rope around the neck. So then they rescue and as they're rescuing that's well when I say rescue I mean recovering the body. As they're recovering the second body they

get another call. And they said listen we found another body. So they go and they find the exact same situation with the third body and they bring all three bodies back and it had been multiple days since they had been out and see. So they were already in the decomposition phase. They were incredibly bloated. It was difficult. It took a week to identify these people. Like they were like, we don't know who these people are. And we can't put their pictures out onto the news because you just don't do that once you've hit like the decomp phase or like when when anyone's dead really and what they could tell was that they were Caucasian and they were fairly young and that was about it.

So when they start examining the bodies they realize that all of them have duct tape on their mouths. That was also something consistent. All of the bodies we can assume were attached to concrete blocks that made them sink around the neck So that someone had tied this thin yellow rope around the neck and then tied it to this massive Cinder block and then thrown them overboard So how did they come back up still attached? Yeah, still attached so I guess they just maybe the rope was too long But also I think that they really underestimated what happens when you hit like the bloating phase of decomposition.

And that's why bodies tend to float to the surface a lot. Right. And the first thing is the police and all these investigators, they're like, first of all, sexual assault must have happened because they're nude from the waist down, but it had been way too long for them being out in the water that they couldn't get any DNA. They also couldn't get solid 1,000% proof that sexual assault happened, but we can only assume because it just doesn't make sense, right? There was no bullet holes, there was no knife marks, there was no anything of that sort. So the police

believed that they were probably bound, gagged, and then thrown alive to drown. There was no ideas on the bodies, and the bodies did not match any local missing persons reports. Now they're panicking. They need to catch the killer. I mean, this is, they don't even know who these people are. That's just gonna make things worse. First of all, you don't have the plethora of evidence

as you would if you walked into a scene in someone's house. You already know the person, you know the victim, you know you walked into a scene in someone's house. You already know the person, you know the victim, you know you have all of these blood splatter marks, you've got all of these DNA, all of these possible fingerprints, you know, shoe marks, ABC and D, right? You have all of that, but when you are thrown into the water, you really don't have anything. You can't even get solid evidence that there was sexual assault. So they're panicking to try to ID the three victims and to catch the killer because at this point, I mean, this person could become a serial killer. This is three victims already, right?

So it was just a lot of panic and Tampa. Now back home in Ohio, there was even more panic because how's panicking? He's like, what do I do? Where are my wife and kids? It has been days. I haven't heard a single thing from them So he starts calling everyone and anyone he starts reporting them missing to the local police department to the Ohio highway patrol Everything he starts thinking you know, what if they were robbed and they were left with nothing like what if they stole their car

Their credit card their cash and everything and now no one will give them a phone to call me, you know No one will let them call me What if it's that and then he was thinking oh my gosh on their way back They got they got into a car accident and they're off on the side of the highway somewhere I know and I've seen their car yet Yeah, but there's no way he thought of something like this though, right? No, and then the third was like maybe they're alive But somehow like got trapped somewhere and he was like, you know what?

I can't do this. I can't sit here and just wait. So he goes to the bank and he withdraws $7,000 and he withdrew this money because he wanted to hire a pilot to drive them in a tiny little plane, like not a private jet, but like, you know, one of those tiny two-seater planes. It kind of almost like a helicopter to drive from Ohio to Florida over the highways that the kids would have taken to see if there was a car accident. $7,000 for like that 1,000 mile stretch. So he's like I'm gonna hire a pilot and

they're just gonna fly me down there and I need to see if there's a car on the side of the highway. Like if there's an accident something must have happened if that's really the only thing that makes sense to him. And as you're searching for this pilot, as you're searching for someone to do this trip with him, a lot of things are happening in Tampa. So in Tampa, a bunch of the maids at the day in, they open the door to room 251 and they're like, listen, it has been left unopened. Like we haven't been coming in here to clean. It's a little bit suspicious. We don't know what's going on, we haven't been coming anywhere to clean. It's a little bit suspicious. We don't know what's going on, right? And so they walk into it and everything's just everywhere.

Like, it looked like someone just left in the middle of the day and it didn't look like someone had packed up ready to go. Okay. So by this point, it was time for them to have checked out. That's why they were like, hey, go in a room, to 51 and find out what's going on. So they go in, the beds are unslept in, the shower has been unused, all their personal

belongings are all over the place. It really didn't seem like someone came in, packed up and just left without paying or ABC and D, they just thought it was so suspicious. It looks like they went missing, it looks like they just stopped coming in the middle of the day and then never came back. And then they started asking around, all the employees were like, no, I haven't seen them in days. Like, that's a little bit weird.

So they were like, what day was that? When was that? So this was about like a week after. Oh, wow. A week after, they're like, I mean, they should have, you know, like, we don't know what's going on. We don't even know what to do with this room right now, because they were supposed to have been checked out a while back.

And they're like, it's just so messy in here. In the sense of like, not messy that they're untidy, but messy in the sense like it didn't seem like they collected their belongings before they left. And so they call the police and they say, we don't know if this is of any importance, but hey, we've got these people, we think that they're missing. I mean, I don't know if this bothers you. And so the police are like, we're going to be right over there. So they go up, they show up at the motel, they'll seal the entire room off. They seal off room 251 and they were able to get

fingerprints off of their toothpaste bottle and match it from the fingerprints of the victims. Oh wow. And that's when they realized these victims are Joe, Michelle, and Christy Rogers. And this was a week. This was a week. And they were confused because none of this makes sense. Why would anyone kill three just a family from Ohio like that has never been a Florida. Doesn't know anyone in Florida. Doesn't have a lot of money. You know, it's not like there's no sign of a robbery. There's no, I mean, the car was there completely fine too. Yeah. or was there completely fine too? Yeah. It just was so strange. So they were able to contact the Sheriff's Department

in Ohio, where Hal lives. And Hal is actually one of really good friends with the sheriff. They went to high school together. So the sheriff came over personally and broke the news to Hal. And Hal said it was almost like an explosion went off afterwards because the minute after

he told me almost immediately he was just getting bombarded with calls from friends of the girls, from family members, from family friends, from news reporters, journalists were showing up at his house. Like, he did not even get a second to understand or process what was happening before this just bomb exploded in front of him. And he said that the only thing that made sense to do was as all of these people were calling him nonstop as all of this was sinking in was that he kept working while he was crying. He milked the cows while he was crying. And he

just wanted to ask somebody why all of them? And he didn't know what to do. I mean, he didn't really have any help around the farm, so he just kept milking and crying. Yeah, yeah, it was really bad. So they find the car that was parked and it was relatively undisturbed near the boat dock, right? And inside of it, they find the note that was crumbled that had directions from the motel to the boat ramp. right? And inside of it they find the note that was crumbled that had directions from the motel to the boat ramp and it says turn right west on 60 like go about two and a half miles and on the right side before you hit the bridge that's it and then it says blue and white. Blue and white. What says blue and white?

Like just handwriting blue and white. So the police are assuming that it has to do with the colors of the boat. So they're thinking okay maybe it's a blue and white so the police are assuming that it has to do with the colors of the boat so they're thinking okay maybe it's a blue and white boat right so they're like trying to dig into this they're like trying to figure out why why would they go to this dog they don't have a boat they don't have friends who have a boat and it's not really a place where you can get boat rentals I mean none of this is making sense for them and that's when they find out about Michelle and John they were working with Ohio police department and they were like listen we need to tell find out about Michelle and John. They were working with Ohio police department and they were like listen

We need to tell you something about Michelle Especially when you brought up the fact that Michelle was assaulted before she was murdered She was actually assaulted by her uncle and he is in prison right now So they're like okay, so he was in prison at the time of the murder and they're like yes He's still in prison and the police are still like listen. I just don't think still in prison. And the police were still like, listen, I just don't think that we can put it past somebody who would assault to their own underachnese

to not try to organize something that happened to our outside of bars. What? Like maybe he had gotten somebody to be like, you're gonna kill her in Florida, you know? Okay. Maybe it was that, maybe he was upset with the family. Like, I don't know, what could it be?

So two police officers, they end up going to Ohio to detectives. And that's when they're just, I mean, it just was a shit show in Ohio. So they're getting ready for the funeral and the grave digger. So Zion Lutheran Church is the church that everybody went to, including the Rogers. And the grave digger was just a local man. He would go in, he was a buff dude, Like he would go in and he would dig you a grave in five minutes.

So the church constantly called him to dig graves. Like usually it's like, hey, old Mr. Johnson died. You know, he's 86, we got to dig a grave. So he'd go in and dig that grave. And this time he gets the call and they said it's for the Rogers. And they said, dude, I can't do it. Like I've known them my whole life. There's no way I can dig graves for this family right now.

Oh my God. So they had to find a bunch of other people to dig this grave. And when they went to the funeral, I mean, it was so sad. So how he stayed till the end. And as each of his daughter's friends was walking out, you know how most coffins have flowers on them? He grabbed those flowers and gave one to each of their friends, just gave them a flower.

And then once everybody had left the church, he said he wanted to be alone before they were buried. Right? And so someone stood outside the door because there was about 12 news trucks lined up. And someone stood outside the door to stand guard so that no one would walk in while he was just alone with his family.

And then he went home. He took off his suit and he said he didn't know what else to do. So he just fed the cows. I don't know why that's so sad. Oh my God. I don't know why that's so sad. I'm like, don't tell me he fed the cows. Yeah. And so the investigation

in Tampa, I mean, nothing was coming from it. They were just were so stressed out. The cause of death officially was asphyxiation, but they don't know if they exphyxiaated from the rope around their neck, like they were, you know, strangled by that rope, or whether it was from the drowning. And they had been in the water for about three or four days, so it had just, most of the evidence was completely moot. It was gone. The motel, the car, it was free of any fingerprints, of any DNA evidence, of anything like that. There just was none of it in either of those places. And the police really just had to keep asking themselves how many people are involved. What is the motive? Like was it just assault?

Like would someone really kill three young people just to assault them? Like it just, it's possible, it's been done before, but we don't really wanna believe that that's what happened because that just seems so, you just get so angry. And so their theory is that this is not a novice killer. I mean, this is a very sadistic killer.

They must have been befriended. So they must have seen these three people walking around in this person. And was like, hey, let me be your friend. Let me hop up in my boat. Let me take you on a little boat ride. And they were like, ooh, boat ride. So they get onto the boat.

I mean, it just doesn't make sense, right? I thought they went back. They went to Ohio to investigate John. Yeah, I mean, he was in prison and they said it was highly unlikely. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, sorry, sorry. And so they were like, I mean, it just feels like the biggest theory would be that it was just some sort of sadistic killer who was like, look at those tourists.

Let me give them a boat ride in Florida and then just befriend them and then try to kill them. I mean, and was successful. I mean, it doesn't make any sense, right? So they're really, really just trying to focus on, yes. So you're seeing somebody saw them, picking friends with them, gay them a car, say, hey, come to my boat.

So that would explain like the directions. Yeah. And that would also explain, I mean, this had nothing to do with their itinerary. They don't know people, so there's no personal motive. So it seems like the motive was either to kill someone as a serial killer or to assault and then it ended up with murders. So they put together a task force to handle this and they try to locate, I mean, they do a lot on this one, they try to locate the concrete blocks that were used

to sew a specific manufacturer, maybe a specific building site nearby. They also try to figure out anyone in the area in Tampa Bay that has white and blue boats. And they had a question about like 600 people, I believe, that had, I'm also like, wow, 600 people have boats. Like, wow, okay, sorry. They even expanded their search into Georgia. They gave that a $5,000 reward.

They were like, if you have any freaking information, Please let us know. They ended up getting 800 tips, which is a whole shit 10 of tips. And one of them was a really promising lead. So it said, hey, listen, there's a man and he's got a white and blue boat parked outside of his house. He's my neighbor and he's creepy and someone had actually seen this same person offer a boat ride to a couple at the same dock. So they were like holy shit. Like maybe he's just going around offering boat rides where he's going to kill people. So they go.

They drive up to his house, Skr Skr, the police arrives. And they're ready to question him. And already their alarm bells are going off because he looks so suspicious. He's sweating bullets. He looks uncomfortable and sure enough in his driveway. They see that white and blue boat docks and it's sitting on top of a bunch of concrete little blocks that look just like the ones, just like the ones where that was tied around the girl's necks, right? He had already been arrested before in the past for burglary for grand theft for aggravated assault with the deadly weapon

So he sounds like scum like he doesn't sound like just the best citizen that has ever walked the face of Florida All right, and so they're like listen. I mean this is this is creepy They also see inside that boat that he has the same thin little yellow wires that we're around same thin little yellow wires that were around the girls' backs. They were like, this is the dude and he's acting all suspicious. So they're like, let's get him ready, let's arrest him and he's like, officers. Can I talk to you in private? And now on a side note, I want to talk to you guys in private really quick. I want to talk to you about a video that I recently did with whipped coffee, with Tegona,

whipped coffee. Do you remember that video, honey? Do you remember it in its full glory, the amount of times that we had a clean art kitchen? Yes. All these food trends that are going on right now, the jalapeno tockies that sent me to the restroom for like five days straight, the whipped coffee that made our kitchen just so disgusting. Listen, I don't know what I was thinking when I was so ambitious with all of that prep and I don't even want to think about food prep anymore. Like that's literally the last thing on my mind.

Which is why I've been keeping it super easy with daily harvest. Not cooking has never felt so good nor has it tasted so good. It's so delicious. The way that daily harvest works is it delivers delicious food straight to your door And it's built on organic fruits and vegetables So it's completely meat-free, but that doesn't mean that it's protein-free because I need my protein It's full of protein. It's full of all these organic yummy's and it's just gonna fill you up and make you feel like you're making good choices It only takes a couple minutes to prep You never really have to question if the food that you're eating today is going to be good for you or if

you're going to get like that little afternoon slump after lunch. You're never going to do that because they don't use any preservatives, no added sugar or artificial ingredients, and the best part is they actually work directly with the farms to freeze ingredients at peak ripeness, so it really locks in the nutrients and the taste of it all. You can choose breakfast, they've got smoothies, we've been loving like anything with S.I.E in it recently, we're a little bit late to the game, they've got this delicious mango and kale smoothie, they've got these oat bowls with just raspberries on top of this like warm gooey oats in the morning,

they've got chia bowls and my favorite right now is harvest bowls. There's one that's lentil and tomato bolognese and I can't even explain to you how delicious that is and it's so easy to prep and they also have flatbreads. If you're in for that, the best part is everything stays inside your freezer until you're ready to eat and you just take it out, takes a couple minutes and it really helps us reduce food waste.

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without any prep. Keep it simple at dailyharvest.com. And if you guys actually use the promo code rotten, you get $25 off your first box. That's promo code rotten to get $25 off your first box at dailyharvest.com. Thank you daily harvest for sponsoring today's video. He really wanted to say that part. He was like, I'll say it. I was like, I'll say it.

I was like, okay, how does it feel, honey? Now that you said it, responsible, responds, eat responsibly. So he's like, officers, I need to talk to you in private. So they're like, okay, what can you say to us? You guilty little mother forker. You already look so guilty. So he says, listen, I can't say this in front of my wife, but I actually have a really good alibi for that day because I took my girlfriend out to eat and we were at like a bunch of restaurants, we were on a different side of town obviously because I don't want my wife to see. We weren't even in Tampa Bay that day. And so they check on his alibi and sure enough, he freaking wasn't. And I mean, he passed the polygraph, it was a complete dead end.

They were like this is the most promising lead that we have and it was an other dead end. I mean they just were losing their minds. They're just getting so frustrated. So then that's when the police are like maybe, maybe we're a little bit too quick. Maybe we were a little bit too fast or too fast in Ohio. Maybe we need to go back and think about John one more time

because it is a little bit suspicious. And what about how, you know, we never really questioned how. We just kind of assumed that he wasn't guilty, right? So they go and they talk to John. Now, what they knew about John was that nobody would be surprised if he had actually planned the murder of his family members. Like nobody would have like just dropped to the floor Just shook fainting. I need my fainting couch

But people felt like it was really unlikely because he didn't even know about the plans of them going to Florida The one he went to prison was way before they had plans to go to Florida and nobody really talked to him He never made any phone calls to anyone in Florida or any long-distance phone calls from jail He never had money coming in or out. It just didn't make any sense. Now on the other hand, though, how seemed a little bit suspicious because he had actually posted John's $10,000 bond. Prior to all of this. So when John before his trial for the rape of his ex girlfriend, he was allowed on bail if he had the money and how posted the $10,000 bond.

And it was really the talk of the town. Everyone was like, this is a little bit strange. Like this is the person who assaulted and raped your little daughter and this is also your brother. Like why would you ever pay that? And when the police asked about it, he said the word, like his word is all he has. And before he found out about what happened to Michelle, he only knew about the rape of the ex-girlfriend

and he was so upset with his brother, obviously, about that. But he had promised to pay the bond. The... The bail. He promised to pay it. And then he found out about Michelle. And then that's when he was like, no, I'm not going to pay this. But then he was like, wait, maybe I can get something out of it. So he went to John and he said, I will only pay your bond, your bail, if you promise

to sell half of the farm because I can't work with you. So he wants to take over. Yeah. And so he said, okay. So he basically spent 10 grand to took, yeah, to purchase the farm from the brother. But like the police were like, I don't know. Still so special is because you know, this is your daughter's rapist. This does make any sense. And so he said, this is my word. This is what I said. And this is what I got out of it.

And then the police go back and they go, well, listen, we checked your bank account. And here's what's very interesting, right? Is that you had a $7,000 with draw almost immediately after the murders happened almost immediately after the bodies were found before you allegedly You know Didn't even know that they had been murdered. Who did you give that $7,000 to was that someone in Florida? Maybe that you had hired to kill your family Yeah, and he said no I got that $7,000 because my family was missing and I wanted to fly a plane a tiny little plane Get a pilot to fly from Ohio on the highway to see if there had been any accidents. Did he fly?

No, he never flew and so the police He's got the money and so the police believed him and as they're walking out they turned around and they said you know We never really asked so what happened to that $7,000? Yeah, and he said oh He asked, so what happened to that $7,000? Yeah. And he said, oh, follow me. And they followed him to his truck where they found $6,000. And they said, what about the rest? And he pulled out his wallet and he had $1,000 inside.

So they were like, damn it. Like, not that they wanted it to be, you know, the husband. But they were like, it really doesn't seem like anyone's guilty over here. It genuinely seems like there's no suspects in Ohio. It must have happened in Florida. I mean, it doesn't make any sense. So now they're freaking out because it's so random.

And that's what's scary about crimes. When crimes are random, the chances of it getting solved are so slim. Like, why would you do this? So it's getting so difficult, the case starts going cold and the team, the task force that's dedicated to this case of the Roger family, goes from 20 investigators to four and then to two. As the case is going cold in Tampa, I mean, this just wreaked havoc in Ohio. So the investigators are in and out of Ohio and when you have such a small town like that,

when you have such a tight-knit community like that and you have three people of the same family, just go on vacation to Florida, like not even out of the country because maybe that sounds a little bit better, like well we don't know what happens out of the country, right? But if I can Florida really, die like that in such a horrific manner. So Jeff, Michelle's boyfriend, he was so angry that he couldn't even drive past the church they were buried at. He couldn't. He always took long roads to avoid that grave site. He just couldn't find it inside of him to go. He was so angry when any of his friends left his eyesight.

Like, he just was so crazy. He drove himself crazy, making sure he knew what his friends were doing at all times because he couldn't bear to lose another friend. He would be mad if anyone was talking to someone that they didn't know. And Jim, who's Joe's sister, so one of the victims, the mom, her brother is Jim. And he said that afterwards he started getting just insane nightmares and he would just be so angry that one time his wife saw him and he was in the middle of the night went to the barn he got this empty soda can and just

hurled it at the barn wall just over and over and over again and nothing could make him stop. His wife's name is Colleen, so this is the aunt to Michelle and Christie. Yeah. And she, she was wrecked. I mean, she recently was also raped. They went on vacation to South Carolina, her and Jim, and she was at a beach and she was raped. Oh my gosh, what is going on?

And because this happened to her, and then it happened to her family, she just hated the world. I mean, she didn't know what to say. She felt like, people always say good things happen to good people. That's all bullshit. Like, the world is cruel, and it's unpredictable, and it just will fuck you over.

Like, there's nothing good about this world, is how she felt. And then how he was deteriorating, he couldn't even bare to sleep in the bed that he shared with his wife, Joe. He hated being inside of that house to the point where his friends would tell the police later that he would knock on their doors in the middle of the night. Well, it would be like 7pm, okay.

That's light for them. He would knock on the door at 7pm, they would open it up and they had a routine. They don't even say a word. He just plops down on the sofa next to them. They watch some TV together and he falls asleep sitting up on that sofa. They put a blanket on top of him and by the time morning came around,

he had already left to go milk his cows. And he wouldn't say a single word. He just would sleep at his friend's places and then just go home. The crazy thing is, outside of his friends, everyone thought how did it? All of the other towns people, they thought how did it? The people that weren't close to how Michelle Joe or Christie,

they thought how did it? Because no one in Ohio could believe that something this random happens. Are you kidding me? They're just like, it just doesn't happen. There's no way that the world works like that. You're talking about three random farmers from Ohio. Why would anyone try to kill them in Florida?

Right? So the police are freaking out. Ohio's in havoc. Like, it's just everything's falling apart until the police finally get a lead. One of the officers was able to link another report that they had from a Canadian woman about a rape, and they were like, listen, it looked so so familiar to this case this happened in a beach that was not too far away from Tampa Bay and look at the report so the report says that a 24 year old Canadian woman who was visiting from Canada with her and her girlfriend

they were on vacation her name was Judy so Judy she came to Florida with her friend and they were just trying to have some fun when a man approached them at a 7-Eleven and he was really nice, like he was in his mid-30s, he said that his name was Dave and he owned some aluminum company and they struck up a conversation and he just was like, listen, you want to come on my boat? Like I've got a boat, it'll be so fun and she was like, you know what? That does sound fun. So she's like getting ready for the boat ride. Her friend is suddenly last minute, like I don't really want to go like maybe you go alone like he seems cute. Like is this like a thing you guys are gonna do and she's like no definitely

not but he's nice and also I don't have his number so I can't like call him to cancel. So I guess I'll just go by myself and I'll be back right. So she goes on to the very first boat ride together and it was super fun it was just the two of them and he was at the end of it. When he was dropping her off, he was like, listen, I want to take you and your friend on a sunset cruise. Okay. So sunset time. I take you guys on the boat. We'll see the sunset. It'll just be, I mean, you've never seen anything like a Florida sunset. Where are you from? Like Toronto? She's like, yeah, I've never seen a Florida sunset. So he's like, yeah, so you and your friend can take pictures. That'll be fun. And so she's like, that will be fun. Thank you for inviting me. So she goes back to her friend and she's like, listen,

we're gonna go on a sunset cruise. It's gonna be so much fun. And her friend is like, I don't want to go. And so she's like, God, okay, well, I'll just go alone again. It's because the first boat ride was so amazing. I mean, he was very, just a good conversationalist. He was very polite. There was nothing creepy about him. He didn't try to like, you know, touch her hand or like hold her hand or anything like that.

He was just amazing. So she's like, great. So she goes alone. And when he approaches her and sees that she's alone, he seems irritable. He seems annoyed. And so she's like, okay, that's a little bit weird, but maybe today was just a bad day for him. So she gets onto the boat, they make it out, and all the way out into the ocean, which is so far from the shore. He starts trying to hug her, and she says no. And then he starts trying to kiss her.

And then she says no. I mean how many times does she have to fucking say no? And then he says listen, I can either put duct tape on your mouth or we can do this the easy way. And she says, I will report you for rape like you're not going to get away with it. And he says, okay, well, it's sex really worth losing your life over because you can either have sex right now or I'm going to jump you, like throw you off the boat. I mean, she would probably drown and die. And so she tries screaming, no one's around. And he says,

you think anyone can hear you? And so she freaks out and he says, she says, please don't do this. Now she's trying to just like target as humanity. She's like, I'm a virgin. Like, please don't, like, I've never done anything like this. Like, please don't do this to me. And that kind of got him more excited. She said. And so he raped her. And then afterwards, he almost in a taunting way apologized for taking something that she'll never get back. And then he brings her back to shore, and he throws up on the side of the boat. And at first when she saw this, she felt like maybe he's throwing up out of her morse. Like maybe this is his first time doing this, and he's so disgusted by himself that he threw up, right?

But now the police and her thinking he probably threw up because the only reason she lived was that she had a friend that wasn't on the boat. Oh, so he's afraid that she... If she doesn't show back up, she's gonna tell the police, you know, she remembers seeing him at the 7-Eleven. She knows exactly what he looks like, you know, all of these things.

Yeah, I see. So she just, he just lets her go, and it seems like he was really mad about it. What the fuck, but the fact that he still did it. Yeah, now they're tying two and two together. They actually was, they were able to contact the 24-year-old in Canada, and she was able to re-verify all of the information she had already provided and now the place

are like listen this is insane because we are talking about this person wants multiple people on board it seems like this is not an accident that happened with the Rogers it seems like he intentionally wants multiple people on the boat he uses duct tape he targets tourists you have someone from Canada. You have people from Ohio, right? He offers them a boat, right? He's really nice. He sees them somewhere that's not near his boat. So then he has a different time that he's going to meet you, etc, etc. It's a shame that the police didn't try to catch that dude until. Yeah, until he kills people. Yeah. Yeah. Love that. those people. Yeah.

Yeah. Love that. So then they get the 24-year-old Canadian Judy and they ask her for a sketch. So she works with a police sketch artist and they were able to get this little picture of the guy and they released it into Tampa Bay, to the media, to the press. And they were flooded with tips. They got 400 tips, like within almost immediately, I think. And almost all of them were more dead ends.

So within a year, it just was cold. Like nobody was really talking about it much. It just wasn't going well. So they put a new detective on it by the name of Glenn. Now, he was a novice. Like he really hadn't been working homicide for quite some time. So people thought like there's no way that this cold case that's been around for a year is going to get solved by this new but he

thought like maybe it would benefit him because that's why they call it beginners luck with homicide a lot of the times when you're new becoming a detective allegedly I've never been a detective but from Reddit and stuff they say that you actually ask a lot of stupid questions and sometimes those stupid questions produce answers. But then when you become a seasoned detective you're like that's a dumb question. I'm not gonna ask them that right. And so you don't get those answers produced. So he was like you know maybe it'll be like my beginners luck on this.

So he starts trying to figure out like what's going on. He's trying to piece it together and he wants to work from the beginning. So he's trying to resort everything that they went through. Now meanwhile he's doing that, there was a Tampa Bay resident who was about to be scared for her life. Her name is Joanne Steffi and I'm gonna call her Steffi for the rest of this video because I don't want it to get confused with Joanne Rogers, right? One of the victims. So Steffi, she says, wait a minute, I saw that sketch online, right? That looks like my neighbor. So she starts freaking out and she starts telling her friends, wait, does this look like my neighbor? And they're like, kind of looks like your neighbor. I mean,

I haven't really seen your neighbor that get up close. Is that your neighbor? And she's like, man, I can't stop thinking about it. So as she's driving to work, as she's driving home, go into the grocery stores, she keeps thinking about this freaking neighbor. I mean, he's married, he's got a daughter. So there's no way it could be him, right? I mean, how can you do something like that as a dad? And oh my God, wait, didn't he recently have a boat that he just sold? I think it was blue and white. Okay, no, this is crazy. Like that's crazy. Like, okay, I'm being a Karen, you know?

She's like a Steffi calm down. You're being a Karen, it's not your freaking neighbor. Even though we do only live like a few miles away from that boat ramp. No, no, no. Stop thinking about it. No, but he is a little bit weird. He is a little bit weird. He is a little bit weird.

There's something about him. I know that he's trying to be so helpful and friendly, which is the way that he looks at people who's just uncomfortable. So like all the words that he says are so nice and like friendly and like outgoing, but his eyes, like he's just kind of creepy. No, no, no, okay, like that's stupid.

I'm being stupid, stuffy. She's no, okay, like that's stupid. I'm being stupid, stuffy. She's like, okay, I gotta calm down. She tells her friends a little bit more and they're like, listen, I don't think yeah. I mean, if you're really talking about someone that's that dangerous and he's your neighbor, like do you really wanna be the person that, like was a Karen and ratted out your neighbor?

Well, they didn't say that at the time, but you get it. Like, do you really wanna be a Karen and rattle your neighbor? And like, it's probably not your neighbor. And now you're going to have this awkward. Oh, sorry. I thought you were a murderer. You know, interaction every single day. Do you really want that?

And so she was like, you're right. I don't. I don't. I don't. But did you see this sketch? Yeah. It does kind of look like him. So then she takes this accounting class at Tampa College,

Stephanie, right? And that's when she has this accounting class at Tampa College, Stuffy, right? And that's when she has this brilliant idea because she actually knows a police officer who takes the same accounting class as her. So she's like, I'm gonna go up to him in the middle of accounting class and tell him about this name, about my neighbor. And I'm gonna be like, keep it off the record,

boo boo, like don't tell them nothing, just say that you came across it, blah, blah, blah, blah, just look into it. Right, and so she walks up Tim in the counting class, like it's a drug deal and she's like, hey, so you gotta tell him to do a trick, right? And so he's like, oh cool. Now here's the crazy thing! The tip either never got reported by this deputy, or it got completely disregarded by the team working on the case, this deputy or it got completely disregarded by the team working on the case or it got lost in the craziness because the actually the police department that was working on the Rogers case they had a massive increase in homicides that year so they were swam like

that was the busiest they've ever been trying to solve all these cases so it just that tip never went through this you know, stuffies tip of this neighbor, sold the boat, blah, blah, blah, blah, never got to the police. Yeah, but the she never officially put into information. Yeah, yeah. It's like, hey, don't forget to do this. That's true, and I'm sure all the police had so many people coming up to them be like, hey, you know that fucking neighbor that I hate? Like, I think, yeah.

So either way, it's a little bit frustrating to know that, you know, it could have been solved a little bit quicker. So none of them gets this report by Steffi. And she just thinks maybe it wasn't him. Like maybe the police looked into it and was like, okay, this is obviously not the dude. She's not going to be the one to call the police and be like, hey, about that neighbor, you know, so, this is obviously not the dude. She's not going to be the one to call the police and be like, hey, about that neighbor,

you know? Yeah. So that's when it gets really intense. Now the investigative team that's working on it, his name is Glenn. He just starts amping up the investigation. He ends up going Europe to go to the Scotland yard, which is a very, very fancy investigative firm. I mean, they're like a police department and they were doing

this new thing called the Homes, which is this database and it's supposed to help you gather information and they wanted to sell it to a lot of police departments in the US. So they had multiple officers come from multiple precincts, right? So he went, he checked it out, he felt like it'd be perfect for the case. So he comes back and he's like, wow, we're going to use this new database to help us with gathering information, blah, blah, blah. And then he goes back to Ohio another time to just get more information on Ohio. And then the investigative team working on this, they go to Quantico. Fucking Quantico.

Okay. Yeah, like the show. Just kidding. Like, okay, so FBI has all of their training in Quantico, Virginia. And so he goes to Quantico, and a lot of police officers go there not to be recruited by the FBI or to join the FBI or to get trained, but there's a bunch of profilers, FBI profilers, who just are stationed in Quantico, and police detectives will go to Quantico, present them everything, and these trainees will make a profile for them.

Very cool. Right, so they go to Quantico and the profiler say, listen, we think that this person is either already a serial killer or is on their way to become a serial killer. They are probably relatively affluent, not saying that they make their money in legal ways, but they have enough money to get a boat Okay, they are probably gonna be somewhat respected

You know, they're not gonna be like what you exactly picture like scum scum, you know like someone walks by and you're like That dude looks scummy, you know, he's not gonna be like that like he's not gonna be yelling at his wife in public Probably like he's gonna be like a family man from the outside perspective He's probably gonna have above average intelligence Extremely strong social skills, which is why he's capable of you know talking to these women and I thought all of that was very Beginner level right, but they were like listen, but here's the scary part So there's a reason that he duct tapes the mouths, because obviously he doesn't want to hear them scream.

But there's a reason that he doesn't duct tape the eyes, because a lot of killers will cover the entire victim's face. And when they don't, it's because they like to see the fear in the eyes. So that was a big motive for him. This is also not his first time, because it requires a lot of planning to get three victims all at once and not get cut. And now that he's gotten away with it for the past year, he's probably building confidence. He's probably going to try to kill again, but he is the type of person that will learn from his mistakes.

So he's not going to do the same MO. He's going to conceal the body's better because the only thing that could tie him to the murders are the bodies. And he knows that. So he's going to try to are the bodies and he knows that. So he's going to try to hide the bodies a lot better. And then the FBI tells the police team, you need to use the media. That's pretty cool. Yeah.

But they're able to. He says this one will be a hard one to find because he looks pretty regular. He's probably got some sort of regular life with a regular job with a regular family. he's not gonna be some alarming figure in a community that everyone's gonna call up and be like, I know they kill her right He's gonna be pretty much well-liked So like you need to use the media. You need to have more eyes on this case because it's just not gonna cut it So he was like, okay, shit So they go back to Tampa and immediately after they get back from Quantico, someone from Tampa had written a journal investigative journalism piece on how they said, remember those murders that

happened in Tampa a year ago? Well, it's probably the husband and Ohio who did it. What the fuck? What the fork? So then this was alarming for the detectives because first of all, I mean that is a poor dude. Like they've met how on multiple occasions and they're like, we really don't think that it's how and that it's really depressing to be framed for your entire family's murder.

When you weren't even in the same state because you were busy milking your cows like you had so much work to do that you didn't even go on vacation with them. And so the detectives are upset about that. But the main thing that they're upset about is the fact that once this gets out and if the public believes this, they're not going to be on the lookout. They think this is completely solved. They shouldn't be concerned that there's a potential serial killer on the loose. They shouldn't be concerned that they need to help solve this case for the betterment of their community. None of that. They're just going to be like, oh, yeah, another husband kills their family. What,

whoop, do you do? What's new, right? So they bring in how and they make him take a polygraph and he passed with flying colors. I hope how soos that person. Yeah. No, seriously, that's really disgusting. Yeah. Especially because I don't think they even try to like talk to how. Yeah. Yeah. And so the police have a massive press conference and they're like, first of all, it's not freaking how. And you guys need to start looking at how like a victim. He is a victim in this story as well. OK, thank you very much.

And they also looked straight, dead pan into the camera, and said to the killer, we're going gonna hunt him down until we find him. And so then that's when Stephanie sees this. And she's like, well, obviously the police look really into it. So they must have questioned my neighbor. Was that work? Was that church?

Was getting some groceries? Because they're actively looking for the killer. So why wouldn't they follow my lead, right? So she thinks her lead has been processed and she said, well, maybe, maybe I should follow up with the police one more time, right? Yeah. But there would be no point

because my neighbors have moved. They up and moved. We have no idea where they are. They stopped paying for their house, so the house became foreclosed and no neighbor has seen them for months. What? They just up and disappear.

They never said goodbye. We never really even saw the moving trucks. What's-what is about that? She thought it was weird. Yeah. Yeah. And then, and then she was like, well maybe, I mean, okay, just a speculation, but there was a lot of talk recently around the neighborhood that this case was gonna be featured on unsolved mysteries

Yeah, I know that one president's gonna be like the Netflix show. It was actually not a Netflix show I believe it was it was like a TV show in the 90s. It's almost like Like a date line right now. Okay. Yeah, so it was gonna be featured on unsolved mysteries and Okay. Yeah, so it was gonna be featured on Unsolved Mysteries and she was just like, okay, this is so strange. So she starts talking to our sister and she's like, I mean, I did tell the deputy in my accounting class and now it's gonna be on Unsolved Mysteries and then they moved. I mean more people are talking about the case and then they move you like, you don't think that's weird? And she's like, well, I mean, I do remember seeing your neighbor. I think you should report it again. So her sister kind of encourages her to report it again.

So this time she calls the police station because, I mean, he's no longer her neighbor, so she has less to worry about. So she calls the police station and she says, listen, you need to look into this name. You need to look into this name. His name, my neighbor's name is Oba Chandler. Okay. Right. And I say, okay, cool. Thanka Chandler. Okay. Right. Let's say, okay, cool. Thank you so much.

Yeah. Did they even care? I mean, they were getting so many tips. And this is the crazy thing. I mean, I don't even wanted to get into the nitty gritty of it all, but the police station, there was a whole battle within that station too, because the minute that unsolved mystery said that they were going to take up this case, there was so many other police detectives who were mad at the

detectives working this case. Because they were like, see, you're just milking a case and not trying to do as much work as us because we're working on like 25,000 different cases. And you've got this one ass cold case that you're working on, and you're just trying to do it so you can get a book deal, like start your own podcast or some shit, I don't know, like they were just so mad. Like they were like, you're working on and you're just trying to do it so you can get a book deal. Like start your own podcast or some shit, I don't know. Like they were just so mad. Like they were like, you're really just trying to milk it for what it's worth

and they were like, no, we're not. And then also on top of that, they were spending a lot of money, a lot of resources on this case. So the police station were like, listen, we've got so many more homicides that we need to solve. And the community is like turning on us because we're not solving these homicides. And you guys are spending so long on a case that we just don't think is gonna be solved. And so the detectives, they knew that the longer they had media attention, that's really the only way

to get cases solved, they said these days, which I mean, I'm really proud and hopeful that maybe like I can be a little bit of a contributor, but apparently they said like podcasts and all these like Media forms of keeping crimes in the spotlight is really good because that gives police pressure So once that pressure is lifted That's when you don't really know if they're gonna continue Very fucking true. So if every week journalists and all these like podcasters are like where the fuck is this going?

They can't be like a week close the case because we'd be like what? Yeah, you know, so they said we have to keep press as long as we keep press will have enough money to fund the investigation So they were doing some crazy shit. They got some Company to donate a billboard and they put up the pictures of the Roger family up on that billboard and stuff. I mean, they were doing a lot of interesting stuff. And Joanne was just not Joanne, Stephanie. Joanne, Stephanie was in disbelief the whole time because she was like, are they really putting up a fucking billboard? Like, I think they should look into my neighbor too. You know, like, they're so busy putting up all these billboards that they're not looking into my tip.

Like, I called them so many times and they said, hold on, like, J.S.B. patient, we're working down the tip line diligently and she's like, work on the tip line, not putting up a billboard, like she was getting frustrated because she didn't understand the aspect that they needed to do this to keep the money flowing, right?

And all of that, J.S. So then she starts faxing them with another neighbor. They start faxing them like kind of passive aggressive letters. Like in case you were wondering, we were still, you know. And finally, one of them kind of stuck with one of the clerks at the police department. She was like, okay, this is a really mean worded letter that we just got faxed. Like, maybe I'll look into it for the police officers.

And she sees Oba Chandler, who has a criminal record, looks so similar to the sketch. So then when they were having their investigative team do a sit-down conference of like a brainstorm workout, right, she was in there and she's not a police officer. She was like a secretary, right? And the police officers are like, any ideas, anybody, any ideas.

And she was like, I kind of have an idea. And they were like, OK, what is it? And she was like, I think of have an idea. And they were like, okay, what is it? And she was like, I think it's this dude. And she holds up the two pictures, and everyone's like, that looks the fucking same. Seriously. Yeah. It was like, that looks like the same guy.

What's his name? And she was like, well, I got a facts from their neighbors. Like, saying that this guy's name is Oba Chandler, but he recently moved away. And so they're name is Oba Chandler, but he recently moved away. And so they're like, Oba Chandler, run him through the database. So they start digging and they find out that he has been in trouble since he has been a boy.

Like he's been a professional con man, his entire life. He's also had a massive history of violence against women. He has eight different children with seven different baby mamas. Wow. Yeah, he's busy. He's busy. Okay. And he would make all these fake identities to con people. Sometimes he'd be an aluminum contractor. Do you guys remember that? He told the 24-year-old Canadian that he owned an aluminum company, that he would be an aluminum contractor, that he was an X-ray technician, that he was an apartment manager, like he just made all these fake identities.

They look into Oba's childhood, and they find out that he grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio. About 100 miles away from where the Rogers lived. Now, I know, I know, I was thinking the same thing, but there's actually no connection. Like, they don't know each other, they're not a family friend, this was not a motivated murder or anything like that, right?

And at 10 years old, his dad ends up dying by hanging himself in the basement. And this was very bad for Oba. I don't know if he loved his dad, or if he didn't like his dad, but for whatever reason, when the funeral came around, and you know how after they put the coffin into the ground,

they have to put dirt over the coffin. Well, as they were doing that, like he constantly kept trying to jump back down onto the coffin while it was already buried. And people were trying to cover up the coffin. Like he would jump. The police thought it was weird. And so then by 14 years old,

he started stealing a bunch of cars. By the time he was 18, starting from 14, he had already been arrested over 20 times. In four years, that's insane. And so then as an adult, it just starts getting worse. Like he starts dealing counterfeit money. He starts burglarizing people, kidnapping people. He had armed robbery. It was bad. One of his arrest, he was masturbating while he was watching through a neighbor's window of a woman. He was being a while he was watching through a neighbor's window of a woman.

He was being a peeping Tom. And then another arrest was that he stole 21 wigs from a beauty parlor. He was just like, these wigs look cool. I'm going to steal them. So he stole them. I don't know if he resold them or if he just wanted them. I don't know. I think there's other more valuable things to steal if he's

trying to sell them. Yeah, that is true. And during the rape and the murder, he owned a boat that was blue and white. And he had moved when talk about the Rogers murder being on unsolved mysteries came up. So it just seemed that's what triggered it. Yeah. So it just seemed like the timing out of it all. Like maybe he could have gotten a new job, but the police are just so it just seemed like the timing of it all like maybe he could have gotten a new job But the police are just saying it just sounds so suspicious Yeah, so then he had moved to the east coast of Florida near Daytona Beach Yeah, which is crazy because I used to I used to vacation in Daytona Beach all the time and then we would drive down to Orlando Which was like a 50 minute drive and we would go to Disney World

Yeah, that's what I grew up doing. So Daytona is a quiet town. So now they're under surveillance every single day by the police department. And again, this was costing a lot of money. They had, I think, seven different police officers watching him. Does he know? No, that's why it cost so much money. They were using civilian cars and they would have six people tailing him at all times. Uh-huh. So that he wouldn't catch on because they were scared he was going to flee.

And next they brought in, they actually went to Toronto. So the police officers that go to Toronto while he's being surveilled by other police officers, they know all about his background, but it's just not enough. So they go to Canada and they see the Canadian victim. And I had been three years now since her rape and she is recently married, she's a social worker and she was able to just she remembered every single detail still three years later, every single thing. And they gave her a bunch of photos and it was a photo lineup right?

And she was almost immediately able to identify him. And they said, okay, can you please sign your name and the date on that photo? And she said, okay. And they kept talking after she had signed. And she said, I'm sorry, can we just flip the picture over real quick? And the district attorney, one of the DAs,

went to Toronto with the police officers, because what they had to do is they had to see if this woman was credible. They had to see if they had enough to make her testify. Would the jury believe this? Is this something worth pursuing? And they felt like it was. So I mean, she just was,

she just was as credible as a witness gets, really. They decided to arrest him. Now, this was a huge debacle, because I mean, I don't even wanna get into it, but apparently what happened was that he was trying to skip town for a second. They thought that he was going on vacation or maybe he was going to murder somebody else

or maybe he was going to like a hideaway. They wanted to figure out where he was headed because it was out of his routine and the police were like where the fork is going. And so they were following him all the way to the Georgia border from Daytona Beach, which I know to be like a six hour drive, okay? So they were like, let's just follow him. They had multiple civilian cars following him non-stop.

They had helicopters in the air trying to make sure that they don't lose track, but then near the Georgia border, a thunderstorm hit and everybody lost track of him. Like every single person. Shit. Yeah, because they didn't know the roads. I mean, it was raining so hard he made multiple pit stops. They just could not track him. Okay.

They lose him completely and they're like, what the fork? Is he running away? while they're deciding to yeah Fuck and then they went back to their office They surveilled his house and for a week they thought he would never come back Uh-huh, but he finally came home. I don't know what he did in Georgia Seems like he just went for a little getaway by himself, right? And he comes back and they arrest him in his driveway. And he was incredibly calm.

And he asked, what are you arresting me for officers? And they said, for sexual battery. And that's it. They didn't tell him about the martyrs. They didn't tell him about all the rapes they knew about. And he said, OK. So then they take him to the FBI office in Daytona Beach. Not the police office.

No, to the FBI office in Daytona Beach. Uh-huh, not the police office. No, to the FBI office. Uh-huh. And the original plan was to get him to talk, was to get him to confess to all of this, because that would make it so much easier. I mean, once you have a confession, I mean, there's really no going back. After you say, hey, I murdered someone and they play that in front of the jury, like, there's really no going back, right? But he just was experienced.

I mean, he's been getting in trouble since he was 14 years old. He was like, nah, dude, I want my freaking lawyer and I want them now. So he didn't say a single word. So they said, okay, take him out of the FBI office. If he's not going to say anything and bring him to jail because they don't really have like an FBI holding cell for him that they wanted to keep him in they wanted him to go to a jail so they were like taking a jail so they get into the car and that's when he starts saying some crazy shit okay he obviously did not know what he was in

trouble for like he genuinely thought that he was just arrested for a sexual battery like maybe he had masturbated outside someone's window again because he was like hey so, so, you know, I like to sell used cars in the place where like, okay, fucking cool, we didn't ask, right? And in the car, he's like, you know, I could probably give you some crazy information if you let me go, like he's trying to make a deal.

Right, right. And the cops are like, oh, what kind of information? He's like, well, I know this guy. And he's illegally turning back a domators, you know? So like on used cars, you know, how the mileage is like 6,000, I can bring it to him and he'll change it back to like 3,000 and all makes so much money reselling it because they think it only has 3,000 miles. This guy is fucking crazy. And the police are sitting there thinking to themselves, this fucker has no fucking idea what he's just been arrested for,

that he genuinely thinks that we arrested him for a small little charge, which by the way, like sexual battery for someone turning down a dominer, like really are we gonna compare those two right now, but like you get it, right? Like are you kidding? He's so seasoned. Yeah. He is so seasoned. And so they're like, oh my fucking god.

And then they were like, um, we're good, thanks. And so then he was like, by the way, guys, like, I know that I'm like strapped up in this car, but can you not handcuff my arms behind my back? Like it twists my arm. Can you at least do it in front of me, like, on my stomach? And the police, all they're thinking about is how all three women were found with their hands tied behind their backs. So they look at him and they say, no, the handcuffs are staying exactly where we put them.

He finally finds out what he's arrested for, all of the rapes and shit. When I say n-shit, I'm just really mad. There was a lot of charges okay and so then the bond was set at one million dollars and the price was really worried I mean everyone was really worried because it's one thing to prove that you had met someone it's another thing to prove that they were on your boat and then you killed them and then you raped them without solid solid evidence right And so everyone was worried. I mean, how? We'll talk about how later.

There's a lot with how I'm so sad. But the police, they had something. The police had crystal and Rick Mays. So crystal is actually Oba's daughter, one of his eight kids. And she had a terrible relationship with her dad and she said, listen, he drove to Ohio one day and he told me that he had to run from Florida because he murdered and raped some woman. And apparently her husband Rick, Rick Mays, heard the same thing.

So they went to the police and they were like, listen, my dad is talking about how he murdered people. I mean, I don't even know what to to do about this information like did he murder people? Like what do we do like we're scared and so the police were like great You can testify against your own father Perfect and so then the judge was like yes This is enough information that I need so the judge has a grand jury Which means this is before the trial

This is literally letting a jury know should we even press charges on this person? And they said, yes, we need to press charges. So they said, perfect. We're gonna press charges on him and the trial is gonna be in two years. What? Yeah. So two years.

What's taking so long? Yeah, it takes a long time. Which is really shitty because when you have a lot of innocent people side note He's not innocent in my eyes and in the jury's eyes, but we get it Anyways, but it sucks when you have a lot of innocent people because they just stay in prison till trial And sometimes they don't have money to get out So that's why most of them plead guilty side note continuing on so the trial was in two years

Okay, and they're like we need more evidence, right? Because here's the thing. Oba treated his daughter really horrendously, so the defense attorney could just be like, well, you hate your dad. This could be the perfect reason that you testify, and it was even more insane, because Oba actually tried to frame his daughter and his daughter's husband for a drug deal.

So like, there's a lot of bad blood. Like, this is not the most credible witness that has ever existed in the history of the world. Now what the police did find that was fascinating was that they actually found phone records to his house of him calling from a boat. Now the way that they found this out was because when you use a boat phone and I don't know if it's like this still to the stay or if it was just back in the day, because I don't have a boat. And what you would do is you'd use your boat phone

and you would dial a number, but it would take you to this boat service toll. That'd be like, hello, like who are you trying to reach? And then you give them the number, and then you give them your name and the boat that you're calling from, and then they will call. So it's like a mediator.

It's almost like you're making an international call kind of, right? But you're on a boat. So apparently he made a bunch of boat calls from his boat called Gypsy One. Yeah. Those is boat name. And he told the operator his name was Oba and he called his wife, who was at home. And this coincided with the times of the first rape of Judy that he was on the boat.

So we can now pinpoint that he was on his boat when Judy was raped. We can also pinpoint that he was on his boat the night that the Rogers were raped and murdered. Because he made a call on the boat. Yeah, so he can't say, I wasn't even on my boat, I was at home, you know, because now they can pinpoint you were on your boat. Yes. And now they just have to prove they were on the boat with him, right? And so he's like listen, I just called to talk to my wife, Deborah. And then Deborah was questioned and she just pled the fifth to fucking everything. She's like, I plead the fifth. I don't forget now, right? And the police don't think that he told Deborah what he's doing. Like, they don't think that he called

and was like, yeah, I'm raping some people right now. Like, hold on, baby, you know? They think that he was calling to be like, oh, like, honey, I'm so sorry. I'm late. Like, I think I'm going to be a couple hours later tonight. Like, something's going on, you know, like as an excuse, it seemed more of like that. So maybe she felt like she had to protect him because she didn't think that he was guilty because later on she ends up switching sides, right? She just, yeah, she gets real mad. So then September 1994 is the trial.

The murder took place in 1989, right? The trial happens and Oba, he ends up coming into the courtroom and he looks just, I mean, I don't even know the way that people describe him is mildly curious slightly bored like that was the expression Like not Not really intrigued not really entertained or fascinated just like Let's see where this goes, but also kind of bored about it. Like that's how he looked. And like bizarrely, okay, like bizarrely cheerful,

like bizarrely like, hey, how you guys doing? Yeah, I'm a little bored, but whatever. What, like that? That was his attitude. I mean, it was crazy. So then the opening statements happened and I believe there was eight women on that jury. So, it's a tough case you're gonna fight right now.

Yeah. So there was a lot of women on the jury, and it just, it was, it was a sh-sh-sh-sh. The prosecutors opened up with their statements. They were like, by the end of this, you're gonna know exactly what happened. The defense attorney was like, oh, by the end of this,

you're gonna actually hear from Oba himself and how he couldn't have done this. And everyone's like, oh by the end of this, you're gonna actually hear from Oba himself and how he couldn't have done this. And everyone's like, this is insane. Like normally murder people who are on trial for murder never testify. So this was gonna be a shit show. So he's gonna testify even though it wasn't for self-defense, like that is unheard of almost.

And how can you trust this person to not mess up on the stand? I mean, there's a reason, there's a reason that people convicted of murder or on trial for it. Don't testify Yeah, right? So everyone's just like what the fork is gonna happen So then the trial starts and it was intense the prosecutors brought 20 witnesses a day They brought in you know the the daughter of Oba to talk about it They also brought in a bunch of people who were in prison with Oba for the past couple of years while they were waiting trial And they said listen, I was Oba's

Selmaid and he told me some crazy shit and they're like, what kind of crazy shit did they tell you? And he's like, well, he would always brag about how he had a boat and he would take these women out to see And he would just look at them and be like, hey, what are you gonna do? Fuck or swim? And he would just look at them and be like, hey, what are you gonna do? Fuck or swim? Okay, one also one thing. Yeah, like you really can't trust yourself made there. Yeah Like what are any of the thinking? I know And then you have another cellmate that was like, oh yeah, he was bragging to me about how he raped a foreign woman Because she was Canadian Like a woman from another country. Yeah.

And then he talked about how that Canadian woman was only alive because her friend was waiting on her. And he looked at me after he said that and said, you know, because dead people can't talk. Like he wanted to kill her, but he couldn't. Because he wants to kill her, because dead people can't talk. What the fork? I wonder if it has killed more people.

That's what people suspect. I mean, there's no way. So later we find another link, but that's it. But there must be more. So then Judy ends up testifying, which this is insane, okay? Who is Judy? She's the Canadian woman who is raped. If you guys follow true crime cases, you know how rare this is.

Because he was being tried for the Rogers case. And it's nearly impossible for you to bring in other people that are related to different cases. Like most of the time, you can't even bring up the fact that they ABC and D in a past life like in 10 years ago. Does that make sense? Like you can never bring in anything that is not directly related to the case So they fought tooth and nail the prosecutors fought tooth and nail To make sure that Judy was allowed to testify and the judge allowed it because it showed a consistent pattern Pattern of behavior. So then, you know, Judy testified and it was just heartbreaking.

She went into great detail. She said that Oba pretended to be concerned about the two girls at the 7-11 because he was like, this is a high crime area. Like you guys shouldn't be here by yourself. Like make sure to go back to your hotel before it gets dark. Like really just making him trust him, making him feel like, this is a high crime area. Like you guys shouldn't be here by yourself. Like make sure to go back to your hotel before it gets dark. Like really just making him trust him, making him feel like, well, this is like a really nice person, right?

And she tells the jury everything that happened that I've already told you, right? And almost immediately afterwards, almost every single female juror ran out of there to cry. And the crazy thing is in the jury room, like where they have the private room to themselves in the back, they are not allowed to talk about the case with each other,

but they all sat there and they all cried and they all knew. Like they just knew. Like those words when you hear it as a woman, you're like, you know, like you're trying to comfort the other woman, but like you can't talk to them, so you're like, fucking, I feel what you feel right now. Like we all feel this. So they all went and cried.

So then Oba Chandler testifies, and he's like, oh my gosh, listen, let me tell you something. So Oba, he's the entire time. He just looks slightly happy, slightly bored. And he goes up to testify and he looks slightly happy and slightly bored. Like, there's no inkling of like, I cannot believe that I am being framed for something like this, you know, because that's what he claims he is.

He's like, I did not do this. He said that he met the Roger family at a gas station and they were like, listen we're a little bit lost I think we took a wrong exit somewhere. Do you know where the daisin is? And he gave them directions and then he never saw them again. Like he wrote the directions down on a little brochure gave it to them and then never saw them again. That's what he claims. And then the night that they were murdered yes he was on his boat but was he on the boat with the rogers? No, he went to go fishing on his boat alone. The boat record show that he was on that boat all night and came back in the morning, which is crazy because like, why would you do that? Nobody really

sleeps on their boat and it's not like he had a mega yacht that had like just 25 bedrooms, you know, live in the life. And so they were like like why did you sleep on your boat that night and he was like well that's the crazy thing you know my boat wasn't working so the fuel hose that has all of the gas that's connected to it started leaking and I was scared to just drive back to shore at like 40 gallons of fuel was just leaking all into the ocean you know I tried to fix it up the fuel leak with the fuel pipe. I duct taped it. That's why I duct taped on my boat.

I duct taped it. It's just, it's insane. That night was crazy. And obviously this was his testimony when the defense attorney was questioning him. And the next day, it would be time for the prosecutor to question him. So the prosecutor starts asking him questions. Now the prosecutor had something up his sleeve because he studied

the boat. He found out the new owners of the Gypsy One and studied the fuck out of that boat before this trial. Oh shit, okay. And the interesting thing that he found out, well first he didn't get into it because he wanted to fuck him up a little bit. So he starts asking him the same things that were asked last time. So how did the fuel leak? Okay, so how many gallons of fuel? So what you did, what duct tape?

Okay, that's what you said. Right, I remember. And then he starts asking about Judy. He was like, what happened with Judy? And he said, I don't know. And he said, are you pleading the fifth right now? Uh-huh Yeah, I guess I'm pleading the fifth then and he says you do know

So are you not saying anything because you're afraid to incriminate yourself And he said no And he says then you can't plead the fifth. Because pleading the fifth means that you only withhold information because you are scared to incriminate yourself. Is that why you're withholding information? Because you're scared to incriminate yourself. Do you have incriminating information, sir? I thought I was pleading the fifth.

You just stay silent, no? So he's kind of mind-fucking-the-dude can you do that yeah the judge was all for it I mean because technically the fifth was made for that reason yeah yeah so that you don't incriminate yourself but normally people don't really go after you like this when you plead the fifth they're just like you little fucker yeah yeah but he was like nah and so he's going after him and he's getting a little bit upset and annoyed and the jury's looking at him like, oh my god, he did plead the fit, didn't he? And he's like, fuck this prosecutor.

And they're just looking at it each other and he goes, you know what's interesting? Where did you say the fuel was leaking from? And he was like, from the fuel pipe, from? And he was like from the fuel pipe, from the front of the boat or the back of the boat. The back? Well, that's weird because your boat's fuel pipe is in the front. And he's like, well, I can't really remember

stuff like that. It's been so long. And then, but you know what's more interesting? Is the fact that your fuel lines are directed upwards, so technically there would be no feasible way for there to be leakage in the water, like you explained two seconds ago. What does that mean?

Like they've talked to boat mechanics. Like it would go into the air, the fuel, the way that his boat is designed, if there was a leak. Oh, there's no way. There's no way, and they said also, and if you had tried to put gas on it, or the duct tape on it, the duct tape would have melted off, but you said the duct tape worked, but there's no way. But also, there's no evidence of you calling the coastal guard for help or anything like that, which you claimed you did two seconds ago.

Yeah. And he's like, well, I don't really remember. And he's like, put you remember two seconds ago, a different story and he's like, well, I don't really remember. That's the moment. Is that even a lie? There you fucked up. Also on top of that side, note his fuel pipes on his boat, that model. That's the moment. Is that even a lie? Then you fucked up.

Also on top of that side note, his fuel pipes on his boat, that model had a siphon so that it really couldn't leak. It would be nearly impossible for it to leak. A lot of other things would happen before it started leaking. And none of those happened. And it never leaked.

So they were like, you little fucker. So then the case closed, and it was time for the jury to decide what was going to happen. It took them about five minutes. Wow. And they came back and with shaky hands, one of the female jurors read guilty on all three counts of murder. And he was sentenced to death via the electric chair. Was his reaction captured? He was just kind of sad looking, but not overly sad, not emotionally sad. Just like mild sad.

Like mild. He's a very mild reactionist. So he was mildly sad. And the judge said incredible words, because let me get the quote. I mean, I am going to butcher it. Okay, this is what she said in quotes. Yeah.

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 of the boat, was lifted up and thrown overboard. Imagine the tear. Oba 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. And she ordered him, and the judge ordered him to die via electric chair, and said may God have mercy upon your soul.

I think those words really put in perspective that he raped as the loved ones watched and couldn't do anything about it. And I don't think that there's anything scarier. And then they watched as he threw them overboard to their death. He was executed in November of 15th of 2011. And his last words were kiss my rosy red ass. What the fuck? Yeah. 2014, they were able to access a bunch of old cases

from the 90s. And one of the cases that they had submitted was a young girl from Coral Springs, who was murdered after she was raped. And this happened November 27th of 1990. And they found the DNA they saved it and in 2014 they retested the DNA and it matched with Opa. So they realized that that was another victim so that's four. They're not really sure if that's it. I mean it sounds like there's got to be so

many more. Because he was so ballsy, he has a way of doing things. So within the Coral Springs murder, what he did was he followed this woman and he stalked her outside of work every single day. And he understood her routine, her schedule, and one day he waited outside of her work and he had his car there. And her, all of her tires were slashed.

So she's like, what the heck? And she's like panicking and he's like, Oh, do you need help? And pretended to be that nice civilian just willing to help randomly. And she had never seen him before. She didn't know he was a creep. She was just like, Oh my God, imagine my luck. Like there's just this nice person who was willing to ruin their afternoon helping me with my stupid tires, you know. Let's talk about how. Yeah.

So then the case was closed and how attempted to commit suicide. He got on a motorcycle and... This is right after the case was closed. It was during the trial. He got on a motorcycle or a little bit before, well, sometime. He got on a motorcycle and he drove on an empty road, a deserted road as fast as he could.

And then he let go of the handlebars, and he was just ready. And then about a mile or two later, he doesn't really remember what happened, but he was just laying on the pavement and he was alive. He didn't crash, he didn't fall off and like a super dangerous way. He genuinely doesn't know what happened. He can't remember. Yeah, but he was looking up at the sky and he was laying on the pavement and he was alive. Wow. And he was like, I think Joe was like, you crazy bitch. Like, you're not dying. So he took it as a sign. He was like, I definitely think that his family was like, you're not going, nope dad.

Cause he was young. I think he was in his 30s when they all died. So he's still on his farm, still making his cows. He hired a bunch of people, so he's not milking his cows alone. Yeah. He's in a relationship now. Last heard apparently he is still talking about his kids and his wife in Presentance he kept their rooms the way that it was for a really long time That was today's case. I mean, I do you see why this case lives in my mind rent-free?

And like every time I see milk and I'm like, fuck in hell. Like I just get so sad. Yeah. You know at one point, he just couldn't believe that those were his family, how? That he almost wanted to do something so crazy, that like from the outside perspective, if he had done this, we would totally think

that he's guilty for some reason. But he was driving himself crazy. He's like, there's no way that those, that that's my family. There's no way that they just died, right? That he wanted to go and dig them up from the grave because he needed to confirm again. Because he was like, no, I was in too much shock that I didn't process. I don't even remember. But I don't think it was that. That's true.

Yeah. So we like wanted to go back to the grave and take the map up. But then he said if he had done that, he thought about it. He even went to the grave in the middle of the night with a shovel. And he was like, I can't do this because the minute I do this, I'm going to be sent to an institution and I'm going to lose my farm. And that's the only thing that's connecting me to my family.

And for the longest time, they also had to return the car that was in Florida that they had taken on their road trip, and they returned it to Ohio, and he couldn't even look at it. So he would give it to his friends just to park in their driveway because he didn't wanna look at it.

And then finally, he became okay with it and found comfort in it. And so a lot of the times, when he couldn't find himself being able to fall asleep in the house, he would sleep in the driveway in that car. Let me know what your thoughts are on this one. I hope you guys enjoyed this week's podcast, thank you so much, better help and daily harvest for partnering with me on this week's episode.

It really is very helpful for a podcast. I hope you guys enjoyed, I'll see you guys hopefully in a couple days for a baking a mystery series and I'll see you guys then bye. Bye.