Going West: True Crime - Sabine Buehler // 362

Starting point is 00:00:00 What is going on, true crime fans? I'm your host Teez. And I'm your host, Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. Hello everybody. Hope you're having a good day today. Big things to Jess and Randy for recommending today's case. If anybody wants to recommend one, I know we say this a lot, but we still get a ton of recommendations over on social media and that is definitely not the place to do it. If you want to recommend something, you can email us going westpodcast at gmail.com. That is the best place to do it. That is where we'll see it. So thank you in advance for doing so we have a massive, massive list, but obviously doing two episodes

Starting point is 00:00:49 a week. We are, we're getting through them. And hope everybody is settling into the holiday season and cozying up, but let's get into today's case. All right guys, this is episode 362 of Going West, so let's get into it. In November of 2008, a 49-year-old resort motel owner went missing from a Florida island. When her car was pulled over two weeks later, the man driving it fled from police on foot, leading to a suspicious pursuit. After searching the car alongside her home, disturbing evidence was uncovered that led police to believe that she had been met with foul play. And years later, they'd learn who was behind it. This is The Story of Sabina Mussel was born on July 29, 1959 in Montabau, Germany, which is in between Cologne and Frankfurt.

Starting point is 00:02:55 In her 30s, she relocated to the United States, deciding to settle in sunny Florida, where she would remain for the rest of her life. Hosting came very naturally to Sabina, and her warm, friendly nature really lent itself well to the hospitality industry. So Sabina found work at both the Trade Winds Resort Hotel and the Tortuga Inn Beach Resort, nestled on picturesque Anamaria Island. Just off the west coast of Florida on the Gulf of Mexico, Annamaria Island is about an hour and a half southwest of Tampa, Florida.

Starting point is 00:03:30 Characterized by its white sugar sand and clear water, Annamaria Island sees hundreds of thousands of tourists each year, and it was there that Sabina found her people, a small community of year-round locals who love the warmth and nature that Florida has to offer. Sabina, who could make friends with anyone, quickly built an inner circle there. And this included her husband, Tom Bueller, whom Sabina met, fell in love with, and married within two weeks. Tom was described as kind and gentle and like Sabina worked in hospitality.

Starting point is 00:04:06 He was quite taken with her free-spirited nature so the two enjoyed a brief courtship like I said two weeks before deciding to tie the knot. Together, they pursued Sabina's ultimate dream of owning and operating a resort. So basically they purchased this rundown motel property called Haley's Motel which is situated on Gulf Drive. Just steps away from the water on both sides. Tom was super handy and he was kind of the brawn of the operation just fixing up this very dilapidated property in order to restore it to its former glory. But Sabina was the heart of the project and she poured her entire soul into curating and oasis for her guests.

Starting point is 00:04:48 She catered to every detail making the rooms artistic and homey, and then she even staged and filmed commercials to entice tourists to stay with them. So she put so much care into this passion project, just hoping that it would, you know, spring off to a big success. And I don't know if anybody's ever seen this movie, but there's a movie called Club Paradise

Starting point is 00:05:09 with Robin Williams from the 1980s. And this is very reminiscent. They kind of, you know, fix up this old, uh, island motel and they try to make it like a resort. So, love it. Very interesting. So, Sabina was becoming somewhat of a legend on the island, known for her hosting skills and generosity of spirit. She threw lavish, themed costume parties, and spared no cost or detail, especially in Halloween, which just proves that she was, you know, the source of so much fun. And these parties often garnered so much local attention that there was a waiting list to get in.

Starting point is 00:05:46 Sabina was also very active in local politics. Advocating for property tax relief, she was a member of the local chamber of commerce, and she was even a participant in the police department's missing child alert program. She brought her desire for change into how she conducted her business and took pride in hiring those whom she felt really deserved a chance. When Sabina's good friend and former coworker Nancy Ambrose was diagnosed with cancer, she was having trouble finding a job that would be flexible around her particular chemotherapy schedule. And without even thinking twice, Sabina put her on payroll. In Nancy remembered, quote, she was just amazing.

Starting point is 00:06:26 I mean, she was just one of those people that cared about everybody. Another local friend of Sabina's Ursula Stem claimed that she sometimes had a tendency of being too trusting. Saying, quote, she was very giving. People have a hard time inviting people into their homes nowadays.

Starting point is 00:06:42 She wasn't like that. She was a very homey person, trusting, loving, and welcoming. Sabina is remembered as a free spirit and was proudest of her endeavors as an artist, environmentalist, an entrepreneur. Keenley creative, she took up basket weaving and knitting as passive hobbies.

Starting point is 00:07:01 She was open-minded and cared deeply about everyone who crossed her path. Nancy, her friend, recalled quote, the thing about Sabina is that she did not know a stranger. Everyone was her friend. She thought she could help everyone. So in addition to hosting guests at Haley's, Sabina rescued dogs, cats, birds, and turtles. And as a result, her household pets included one dog, four cats, and ten birds, but most importantly, her beloved parrot, Jacques-Mo. Now in 2008, ahead of the impending recession, 49-year-old Sabina's once thriving business was now struggling.

Starting point is 00:07:42 She described to a friend having to leverage all of the assets that she and Tom had against the motel in an effort to keep it. Still, Sabina remained very positive, despite both her business and her marriage being in jeopardy. After 15 years together, and perhaps due in part to the financial pressure that they were under, Sabina and Tom decided to separate. However, they were both adamant that they would continue to maintain the motel together, as well as staying on the property, though they would take up separate residences. And their friends really applauded their ability to remain amicable business partners

Starting point is 00:08:17 and friends. They described their relationship mutually as, quote, a marriage of convenience. Nancy Ambrose remembers, quote, they were always still good friends, very good friends. I mean, they worked well together. That summer amid the couple split and the mounting debt of running this motel, Sabina managed to strike up a romance relationship with somebody else. Now Tom had also met someone, and both he and Sabina brought their new partners to live with them in their own bungalows on the property of Haley's motel. November 4, 2008, which was election night, was a very exciting time for Sabina, because

Starting point is 00:08:57 she was really excited to see how this election was going to play out, and she was planning to attend an election night party that evening. Sabina and her friend Nancy had plans to meet at this party, but when Nancy arrived, Sabina was nowhere to be found. So Nancy was puzzled by this, just knowing that she had been looking forward to election night all year. Tom didn't hear from her that evening either, and she failed to report to work the following day too.

Starting point is 00:09:25 Sabina wasn't in her apartment on the motel property, and she wasn't tending to her pet, so it just didn't make sense where she could be at this point. And although Tom claimed that he assumed that maybe she snuck away for a night or two with her new boyfriend, her friend said that it wasn't like Sabina to kind of skip out on her work responsibilities. And she certainly wouldn't have left her beloved pets behind because she loved them all so much. There was multiple of them, like she's not the type of person who's just gonna ditch and

Starting point is 00:09:54 go do whatever she wants without telling anybody or arranging somebody to take care of the pets or arranging for somebody, you know what I mean? So it was just really odd. And after 48 hours passed with no word from Sabina, her car turned up, but she hadn't been the one driving it. On November 6, 2008, police pulled over Sabina's white Pontiac Sunfire convertible in an area of South Brayden, 10, which is described by locals as CD. Just across the bridge from Annamaria Island at 2.30 in the morning, police flagged the

Starting point is 00:10:31 car for having a broken tail light. When they pulled the car over, the driver calmly exited the vehicle and walked away. So obviously this is looking very suspicious. You can't, you're being pulled over, you can't just walk away from the police officer, right? So when the person did that, the police pursued him on foot, and the man began to run. And police actually eventually lost track of him all together. So this is weird. A started out walking away from the car and police were like, uh, what? And then he takes off and then they just lose him? Yeah, they just lose them all together.

Starting point is 00:11:08 So they're like, who is this guy? What is going on, right? But luckily he was found a short while later and he was hiding under a truck parked on a side street. So this guy is obviously trying to evade police for whatever reason. Now this guy was 38 year old Robert Corona and he had been driving on a suspended license so he was arrested. When police ran the car's registration, they discovered that the car had been stolen

Starting point is 00:11:36 and the driver had a lengthy criminal history. When asked to explain why he had been driving a car that didn't belong to him, Robert claimed that he and the car's owner had been drinking, smoking, and doing drugs in a nearby dive bar called the gate or lounge. So Detective John Kenny, who questioned Robert, remembered, quote, Mr. Corona's original story is, I was doing crack cocaine with the owner of the car. Flag started going off shortly after. Detectives started getting involved as a missing person's case. When Sabina's loved ones were questioned if drug use was a possibility, the unanimous answer was a resounding no. Sabina was fit and a health nut and wasn't known to smoke, use drugs, or even drink.

Starting point is 00:12:22 Her friend Debbie scoffed, quote, she doesn't even drink coffee. But at this point, her friends and family weren't even aware that she was missing. Though Tom had found her absence mysterious and out of character for her, he didn't jump to the conclusion that Sabina had been met with foul play. Until the police showed up at the motel to talk to him, that's when he finally realized that something was very wrong. So police arrested Robert Corona for stealing Sabina's car and headed to Haley's motel to talk to Tom. Now, Tom admitted that he had not seen as estranged wife in days, but said that he assumed that she had been away with her new boyfriend Bill.

Starting point is 00:13:01 Tom said that Sabina told him that she was ending her six-month courtship with Bill and moving out of the apartment that they had been sharing for less than two months. And Tom was also shocked to hear that someone else had been driving her car. Sabina was very precious about it and didn't like anyone else driving it. When police discovered that she was involved in a relationship outside of her marriage and that no one had seen or heard from her for days, the possibility of foul play really increased here. That same day, again, which was November 6, 2008, Tom filed the Missing Persons report

Starting point is 00:13:37 for Sabina. With Tom continuing to claim ignorance, police tracked down Sabina's new boyfriend, William Comber III, also known as Bill. Now Bill said that Sabina had left the house at 10pm on election night to head to that party with Nancy, and that he hadn't seen or heard from her since. And although they were already living together, Sabina and Bill's courtship had been brief, and they had only moved in together about two months prior to her disappearance.

Starting point is 00:14:05 Yeah, so he is still very new to this picture, and actually Bill was a former employee of Tom and Sabina's because he worked for them as a handyman, so that is how they met. But in 2006, so a couple years later, he was actually sentenced to two years in prison for Orson after attempting to burn down the house of his then ex-girlfriend with her and her children inside. Okay, so now people are starting to get a picture of who Bill really is. Yeah, so while he was serving his sentence,

Starting point is 00:14:37 Bill kept in touch with the dealers, which means that they were aware that he was in prison because they were sending letters you know, letters and updates back and forth. And Sabina and Tom even went into the prison to visit him. While as Sabina and Tom's marriage kind of was coming to an end, she began exchanging letters with Bill a bit more frequently and even started sending him money. But Bill was pretty enticing to her.

Starting point is 00:15:05 I mean, he was a charming guy. He was pretty attractive. And he's 10 years younger than Sabina. But still, even though she was charmed by him, she's doing all this stuff for him. So her friends really worried about this, maybe, is Bill using Sabina. But then, of course, they also knew

Starting point is 00:15:23 that he was in prison for arson. So they're not happy about that either. They're kind of sketched out by this. So in 2002, prior to his Arsene charge, Bill had been arrested on domestic violence charges. So this is also something that her friends deeply worried about. But Sabina was so taken with him that upon his release

Starting point is 00:15:44 she took him under her wing. An aspiring artist, Bill dreamed of opening his own woodworking studio. And when he was released in October of 2008, Sabina helped him get his own workshop in which he could start his own business. And it was around this time that their relationship became romantic. Though Sabina and Tom were estranged at this point, Tom caught the pair in one of the Around this time that their relationship became romantic. Those Sabina and Tom were estranged at this point. Tom caught the pair in one of the motel rooms and was really, really angry with Sabina about

Starting point is 00:16:12 it. And according to Detective Kenny, quote, he said it wasn't a jealousy thing. It was a lack of respect. So it just didn't seem like anybody in her life was happy about how this was going, was happy that she was with Bill and felt like she was kind of going outside of her normal way of doing things to accommodate him. Yeah, and some people can be very manipulative, so it kind of feels like that's what Bill is doing here. So upon discovering Robert Corona driving Sabina's car, police announced, quote, we have no evidence of foul play, but there are some things that concern us. Obviously. So early suspicions fell on Robert, and Sabina's friends became concerned that she had been

Starting point is 00:16:59 the victim of a carjacking while she had been making her way to the election night celebration. She could be hurt and trouble or worse, she could be dead. And this concern was really raised because the car, her car, would present the first evidence that pointed to foul play. When Sabina's car was forensically processed, police discovered that a large chunk of the backseat had been cut out, even through the leather and the cushion below. Investigators sprayed the whole car with lumenol, and the backseat reacted, glowing in iridescent blue, confirming that blood was present.

Starting point is 00:17:41 With the worst fears of Sabina's loved ones coming true, police circled back to the most likely suspect, who again was Robert Corona, the guy that was driving her car, who was still being detained on charges of auto theft, resisting arrest, and driving on a suspended license. When detectives approached him, armed with the results of the search of Sabina's car, Robert kind of changed his tune. He claimed that he had never actually met Sabina and that he hadn't known that she was the owner of the car.

Starting point is 00:18:12 Now Robert explained that it was a simple crime of opportunity. He had seen the keys and the front seat parked behind the gator lounge and driven off with the car. He was also adamant that no one had put him up to it, and that he did not in fact know the owner of the vehicle. So at this point in the investigation, all signs seemed to point to Tom. Detectives wondered if perhaps he had been jealous that Sabina had moved on, and angry that he had caught her and Bill and Bed together.

Starting point is 00:18:42 Police noted that Tom seemed concerned about his wife, although he had not yet reported her missing until after investigators had to come knock on his door. So that doesn't look good either, because even though they are separated, they're still, they still own a business together, they're still friends, they still have a relationship, so they're like, why did it take you so long?

Starting point is 00:19:01 But so it does kind of make sense from his perspective, but it's really hard to say because maybe you know at this point He's he's just trying to give her space and not you know not concern himself with her because they had both moved on to different partners Right, and even though they're not officially divorced They're still not together so it's like he doesn't have to keep tabs on her and vice versa She's a free woman technically, so yeah, but I can understand if you know, she wasn't showing up to work where they both work for like three days. You'd be like, okay, well, where the fuck is she? I guess, but I don't know if that would be enough to warrant him making a missing

Starting point is 00:19:37 person's report agreed. So to remove a potential motive, Tom told detectives that he only stood to gain $100,000 in life insurance in the event of his wife's death. But investigators would soon learn that the figure was actually $300,000. So that doesn't look good because either he's lying and he's not telling the truth or he just really didn't know. Right.

Starting point is 00:20:02 But the suspicion surrounding Tom grew among those in the small island community. The possibility that Sabina had left on her own accord seemed very slim, but investigators did pursue a tip that came in about her potentially having flown through, like the Sarasota Braydenton Airport. However, when they scoured the surveillance footage, they found no sign of her, and her passport had not been scanned. But here's the fucking crazy part, people.

Starting point is 00:20:32 Twelve days after Sabina disappeared, her beloved motel was set ablaze. The leader surmised that the fire had been arson. So before that quick break, Heath let us know that just 12 days after Sabina disappeared. Hermotel was set on fire and it was determined to be an arson. Adding an arson investigation really complicated Sabina's missing persons case, because it seemed nearly impossible that the two events were unrelated, obviously. Now, the fire had originated next door in the living room of the apartment that Sabina and Bill shared together.

Starting point is 00:21:38 So this theory emerged that the fire was set to, you know, maybe cover up incriminating evidence and again, many suspected Tom. Despite the fact that he had also moved on in a new relationship and was living with another woman, the community still seemed to paint him as this scorned husband character who had taken revenge. And in theory, Tom did have a motive because he would receive, you know, a decent settlement from Sabina's life insurance payout, as well as total ownership of the motel. In the aftermath of Sabina's disappearance and with the news of the blood in her car

Starting point is 00:22:15 and the fire, Tom petitioned to have a death certificate issued for Sabina. Which I think looks really bad too. It does. It definitely does. But also, kind of one thought that came to my mind is, why would he want to burn down his own motel that he and Sabina put so much work into, unless he, you know, wanted to get some insurance money out of that as well? Right.

Starting point is 00:22:37 He's just trying to collect all the insurance payouts. But I do, it just is weird to me that it's still really early on after she went missing. Yes, there's blood in the car, so somebody could assume that she was potentially met with foul play, which is what they're thinking, but there's still no remains. It's not like a year or more has passed, and oh, we just don't know if we're ever going to find her. It's like, this is all happening right now, so why are you trying to rush so quickly to get a death certificate?

Starting point is 00:23:03 I mean, maybe he needed it so that he could make proper business decisions. You know, I don't know. Maybe there is some logistical reason, but it doesn't look good. No, it doesn't. So again, so he petitioned to have her death certificate issued, but he was denied and their insurance company informed him that five years would have to pass before he was able to collect this settlement. Despite his apparent motive, those who knew Tom Best on the island staunchly claimed that there was no way that he would have anything to do with Sabina's disappearance, regardless of the state of their relationship or their finances.

Starting point is 00:23:42 Among her friends, the culprit seemed super obvious. Her boyfriend, Bill Cumber of the Third. In a September 28 email that Sabina penned to a friend, which was a little over a month before she went missing, she wrote, quote, �We might be back in our old spot sooner than expected. Bill lost it last night and went in town to see his old buddies on 14th Street. He came back stinking like cigarettes and beer at 5 in the morning. I know it takes time to find new friends, but if he's going back to his old ways, it is just a matter of time that he will be back in jail.

Starting point is 00:24:18 She also described him as quote, a mean drunk, who is quote, jealous of everybody, insulting and very humiliating. Sabina explained that she had attempted to get her island friends on board with the new relationship by introducing them, but that it had backfired. She lamented that Bill couldn't rise to the occasion and couldn't understand why he was fumbling this second chance that he had been given after his release from prison. A friend of Sabina and Tom's name Susie said sadly, quote, she was coming out of a relationship with one of the kindest, best people I've known in my life.

Starting point is 00:24:54 She obviously must have been shocked to step into an abusive relationship. Two weeks after Sabina disappeared, they brought Bill in for questioning and he elaborated on the argument that he claimed to have had with Sabina shortly. They brought Bill in for questioning, and he elaborated on the argument that he claimed to have had with Sabina shortly before she went missing. Now, he insisted that Sabina had laid into him for smoking, and then left ahead to the election night party. And interestingly, please notice to blisters on the palms of Bill's hands, and questioned whether these could have been friction wounds from digging a hole to bury Sabina. But Bill swore that he had never been physical with her and wouldn't ever have been.

Starting point is 00:25:33 And obviously without Sabina to pay for their living quarters, Bill was forced to vacate their apartment, and Tom allowed police to conduct a thorough search of the space that the couple used to share. Inside the apartment, the smell of bleach hung in the air, and just like the car, a search with lumenol uncovered blood. Now Bill said that it was innocent, you know, the remnants of a cooking accident, but days later, the apartment burned. When Bill offered his DNA for comparison, it was recovered from the driver's seat of Sabina's car, which was odd because Tom swore that she would never let anyone else drive her car. Obviously, as we mentioned earlier, so as suspicions against Bill began to grow, investigators

Starting point is 00:26:19 continued their search of the charred remains of the couple's living quarters. Now they surmised that the fire had been started with Excelerant, which they later found on Bill's shoes. His prior arson charge made Bill seem even more likely to have been involved, but as they tried to nail him for Sabina's disappearance, Bill ended up fleeing. Which doesn't look good either, I think the arson angle is interesting as well, since we know he committed arson before, like he's not looking good in any way here. No, not at all.

Starting point is 00:26:51 So please were able to apprehend and arrest him, because he had been on probation due to his arson charge and leaving the county had been a parole violation. But Bill would just not admit to hurting Sabina, or being responsible for her disappearance, and was held purely due to violating the terms of his parole. So while police waited for a revelation from Bill, he remained very tight-lipped. Volunteers and investigators alike scoured the soft white sand of the beach, looking for disturbed earth, or remnants of digging. Meanwhile, detectives tracked down a bartender from the Gator Lounge, each, looking for disturbed earth or remnants of digging.

Starting point is 00:27:25 Meanwhile, detectives tracked down a bartender from the Gator lounge, who was able to confirm that Robert Corona had been there on the night of Sabina's supposed death, so he was convicted of car theft only. Now at this point, the investigation into Sabina's increasingly obvious murder was stagnant without a body to show for it. And thus, three long years passed with no answers for Sabina's friends and family. But then, in 2011, a neighbor of Sabina and Tom's named Ed Moss came across a purse in the brush near his beach house.

Starting point is 00:28:03 And it wasn't hidden at all. Like it very much stood out amongst the sand and the plant. So it's almost like it was put there to be found or it was put there very haphazardly or somebody had dropped it. Like it wasn't hidden away. So very confused by this, Ed reported it to the police and sure enough, Sabina's belongings were found inside.

Starting point is 00:28:27 So law enforcement finally felt like they had enough circumstantial evidence to charge Bill with the murder, though he maintained that he had nothing to do with Sabina's death, but now they know she didn't go off because there's no confirmed sightings of her, she doesn't have any of her purse or her belongings. There's no way that she would have just left, obviously. So knowing that something had to have happened to her, police were desperate to find her body and to link it back to Bill.

Starting point is 00:28:57 Yet even cadaver dogs and ground penetrating radar wouldn't reveal her location. But in 2012, Bill Cumber was officially charged with Sabina's murder. Though it wasn't until 2015, so three years later, that he actually admitted to killing her. And it was only when he was offered a plea deal in exchange for revealing where her body was hidden.

Starting point is 00:29:24 On October 15th, 2015, finally opening up to detectives, Bill explained that their dispute began when Sabina was expressing distaste at his smoking. In a recorded confession, Bill recalled, quote, she encountered me and smelled the cigarette smoke and we got in a little dispute about it. She said that she couldn't do this relationship anymore. Then Bill said that he lost control. When Sabina apparently decided that she wanted to leave him, he flew into a rage hitting her twice over the head.

Starting point is 00:30:02 She started bleeding and covered her face with her hands in fear, and Bill continued, quote, and I reached and grabbed her throat and started choking her till she wasn't moving. Bill said that he looked at her in shock after he killed her, remorseful and in disbelief, allegedly. He remembered, quote, I couldn't believe what I did. I stared down at her and it couldn't believe what I had done. I decided I didn't want to go back to prison, so I thought of a way to dispose of her. Bill then waited about an hour before wrapping her in a top sheet from their bed and then dragged her to her own car where he put her in the back seat and transported her to the beach to bury her.

Starting point is 00:30:47 He drove her car to South Brayden 10 and parked it near the Gator lounge, knowing that it would be stolen if he left the keys inside. And then he took the bus back to the couple's apartment. So this is interesting for Robert Corona because then this does go along with what he said. He was like, the keys were on the the seat. I just stole the car. Yeah. I mean, still a dumb, dumb thing

Starting point is 00:31:10 to do. Well, of course, but, but now this is clicking. Oh, that there's what happened. So as investigators suspected, Sabina had been buried on the beach just steps from Haley's motel. She was recovered under the sand near 81st Street in Holmes Beach, and Bill admitted that he had concealed her there hoping that she would be found, and that investigators would pin it on her estranged husband Tom, which it's one thing to murder somebody, which is horrible and unthinkable, another thing to burn down somebody's business, and then a whole other thing as well, to try to pin a murder on an innocent person

Starting point is 00:31:50 that everybody loves. Yeah, I think him trying to make himself the victim and say like, oh, I can't believe that I did this, I can't believe that I would have done something like this. It's just, you're just a piece of shit, and we all know it, because you covered your tracks, and you did all these other things like You're not remorseful. No, not at all

Starting point is 00:32:08 So Bill Cumber pled no contest to second-degree murder charges and was offered a 20-year sentence in exchange for telling the authorities where the body was And when he brought them to her body, he had the audacity to fall to his knees and cry and apologize to her. In the aftermath of Sabina's murder, Tom and his new partner Carol Goodfellow took over operations at the motel. A friend of Sabina's named Barbara Hines presented them with a portrait of Sabina and her beloved parrot, Jocomo, which was then proudly displayed at Haley's motel.

Starting point is 00:32:47 That sweet that they did that and they were able to, you know, fix up things from the fire and nothing was totally destroyed and then they hang a picture of her or a portrait of her it's so nice. Yeah, I completely agree, like Tom didn't have to do this, but, you know, out of respect and the fact that they, you know, had previously been married, I think it was a very sweet thing for him to do. A classy move. The woman who painted it, Barbara, had been Sabina's friend and Sabina in Tom's neighbor for years. When Barbara presented the portrait, she stated, quote, well, I'll say something. I just hope all the people who said awful things about Tom are sorry that they re-victimized

Starting point is 00:33:28 him. People are awful. In 2020, Bill conducted an exclusive interview with local news station Spectrum Bay News 9, where he gave people a look into the mind of a convicted murderer. In a letter that he wrote to the station agreeing to be interviewed, Bill wrote quote, what I did bothers me every single day of my rotten life. And though it came too little too late, Bill appeared contrite and genuinely remorseful for what he had done to Sabina.

Starting point is 00:33:59 When the reporter Kate McVeigh questioned him about the letter that he wrote them, asking what he meant by that statement, Bill responded glumly, quote, "'Yeah, I'm sorry. That sounds vulgar in a way. I'm sorry. If I could give her back, I would, but I can't.'" Kate continued to ask him point-blink if he sought to blame Tom Bueller for the crime, and Bill answered, quote, "'Yes, I was trying to pin it on him.

Starting point is 00:34:25 Yes, I blamed him for a lot. He then praised himself for leading investigators to her body, saying, quote, I believe if I wouldn't have done the right thing, I would still be out there. And to that, Kate countered, frankly, quote, I have to say this, the right thing would have been to not kill her. Yes, Kate. Thank God somebody said it. She continued quote, it's almost jarring to hear you say the right thing to do was to confess,

Starting point is 00:34:53 because you could have gotten away with it. And then Bill responded quote, look, I tried to explain to you that what happened happened. It just happened. I do not condone one I out of what I did. I suffer every day for it. Bill also admits that he got off more easily than he should have for the horror he inflicted on Sabina, saying, quote, I got a sweet deal. Yes, I did, which I shouldn't have got. I think there should have been maybe ten more years added on or something like that.

Starting point is 00:35:21 And then Kate fired back, quote, or life perhaps, some people say life for a life. Bill agreed, life for a life. According to Sabina's good friend Nancy Ambrose, one of the most tragic things about her untimely death was that she never got to see the outcome of the election that she was so invested in. Nancy recalled quote, I thought, oh, she'll never know. The saddest part of it was that she was just so excited about life.

Starting point is 00:35:51 She had so much to live for. Haley's motel remains on Anna Maria Island today, an ever-present episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode and on Friday we'll have an all new case for you guys to dive into. Head over to our social media accounts if you want to let us know your thoughts on this case and kind of make yourself a part of the conversation and see photos of beautiful Sabina and all the other victims that we talk about on this show. Our Instagram is at Going West Podcast, Twitter or X,

Starting point is 00:36:38 whatever it's called now, is at Going West Pod and then we're on Facebook, going West True Crime and we have a private discussion group you can join and that is the Going West discussion group. Also real quick before we let you guys go I just wanted to mention that I put out another song under my name, my artist name ghostly it's called Runner, I just released it, it's on Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music, it's everywhere. It's on YouTube, so go check out Runner. I'm really excited about it. There's a really great music video out for it too, starring Heath.

Starting point is 00:37:11 It is such a fun video, so check that out on YouTube, and the song is amazing. Runner, listen, we'll see you next time. Thank you guys so much. All right, guys, so for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger. Thank you. you

Going West: True Crime - Sabine Buehler // 362

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