Going West: True Crime - The Tampa Bay Murders // 131

Episode Date: July 28, 2021

In the late spring of 1989, a woman and her two daughters left their farm in Ohio for a girls trip down in Florida that was supposed to be filled with laughter and adventure. But when 3 bodies turned up in the Tampa Bay a couple weeks after they left, their family feared for the worst. Investigators fought hard to figure out what had happened to this poor family, and who the monster behind it was. And eventually, they received an important tip about a suspicious neighbor… This is the story of Joan, Michelle, and Christie Rogers. Also known as the Tampa Bay Murders and the Rogers Family Murders. PATREON BONUS EPISODES patreon.com/goingwestpodcast CASE SOURCES https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/Joan,_Michelle,_and_Christe_Rogers https://projects.tampabay.com/projects/classics/angels-and-demons/chapter-2-haunted/ https://www.tampabay.com/narratives/2019/06/05/from-2011-theres-never-going-to-be-justice-hal-rogers-watches-his-familys-killer-meet-his-fate/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/322478418 http://www.clarkprosecutor.org/html/death/US/chandler1275.htm https://forensictales.com/the-rogers-family-murders/ https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-xpm-1993-09-26-9309221029-story.html https://www.talkmurderwithme.com/blog/2020/11/27/oba-chandler-rogers-family https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/14143204/michelle-lee-rogers https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/14143195/joan-mae-rogers https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/14143213/christe-eugenia-rogers Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on True Crime fans, I'm your host Heath, and I'm your other host Daphne, and you're listening to Going West. Thank you so much everybody for tuning in to Going West today. I had briefly heard about this case before, but diving into it has been such a horrifying journey that I can't believe it took me this long to discover it and really research it. And I'm sure someone has suggested it at some point, so if you did, know that we love you and appreciate the suggestion and sorry we missed it. Yeah, and I actually had heard of this case, but I've never got to dive into the detail,

so I'm really excited to talk to you guys about this case today. This is one of those cases where I had heard the name, and so I feel like, oh, I know that case, but then I really didn't know it. And now I'm like, whoa, it's insane. Also, little life update for you guys. Daphne and I are moving yet again Yet again, I always move in we've only really moved twice during this show But I feel like everyone's like you're moving again like as if we move a lot Yeah, we move like once a year to a different state. Yeah, yeah This time we're headed to Idaho. We see Idaho. Here we come. Yeah, so anyways guys

Also, patreon you guys got to go check that out. We've got tons of full length ad free bonus episodes for you guys to binge Huge library get on over there join the community listen to some going west Yeah, a lot of people don't know this but but if you join, you get all of the whole catalog. So you get to listen to everything. And then as they come out, you get to listen to those. So there's over, I think there's 43. I always forget exactly how many, I think it's 43. Yeah.

We'll link to add free bonus episodes about cases, usually in different countries. We do international cases. So check it out, patreon.com slash going west podcast. Yeah, imagine having 43 extra going west episode. In the hang. It doesn't want that. Exactly.

All right, guys, without further ado, this is episode 131 of Going West, so let's get into it. In the late spring of 1989, a woman and her two daughters left their farm in Ohio for a girls trip down in Florida that was supposed to be filled with laughter and adventure. But when three bodies turned up in the Tampa Bay a couple weeks after they left, their family feared for the worst. Investigators fought hard to figure out what had happened to this poor family and who

the monster behind it was. And eventually, they received an important tip about a suspicious neighbor. This is the story of Joan, Michelle, and Christy Rogers, also known as the Tampa Bay Murders. known as the Tampa Bay Murders. Joan May Etsler, who went by Joe, was born on November 12, 1952 to parents Virginia and Wilhelm Ezzler in Van Wurt, Ohio, which is a small farming town in northwestern Ohio, very close to the border of Indiana, and is home to the first county library in the United States.

When Joan was born, the population was around 10,000 and it remains almost the exact same number today. And her parents were born there as well and their parents lived there, but they were born in Germany. And all the siblings were there so they had lots of family in this area, which I'm sure was nice since Joan only had one sibling, a brother named James.

Joan was absolutely beautiful and was always known as a very social and outgoing young lady, so it was easy for her to attract a lot of people in her life, both friends and male accompaniments, and that's why during her high school years, she began dating a local boy her same age, named Hal Rogers. Hal was definitely more shy and introverted than she was, but she kind of helped break his shell open a bit, like when she would pull him out to the dance floor to make him dance to country music with her, so they just complimented each other well. And they really loved each other, and knew that they were perfect together, so right after

their high school graduation in 1971, Hal and Joan got married, and Joan quickly became pregnant with their first daughter, who's named Michelle, who was born on February 22, 1972. And then, about two and a half years later, they welcomed a second daughter, Christy, on October 6, 1974. During this time, Joan and Hal were living in Wilshire, Ohio, which is a very small, less than 400 people living there small, farming village in Van Wert County, just about 20 minutes southwest of Van Wert with the state of Indiana just under a mile west of them. As you can probably imagine, it's an incredibly tight-knit and safe community

where you kind of just trust your neighbors and everyone helps each other out. Right there in Wilshire, the Rogers family owned and operated a dairy farm and growing up both Michelle and Kristi helped with the business as well. Both having come from working class families, Joan and Hal put so much work into their farm to ensure everything ran as smooth as possible so that they could support their girls, but it wasn't fully enough. So Joan had to work nights for a company called Patens Northern, and they're basically a distribution center for various beauty and even health products, so she worked the assembly line and drove the fork lift.

So as you can tell, they were both very hard workers and Joan had a particularly tough time balancing being a mom, a farmer, and having a night job. But as I mentioned before, she had such an overall good attitude towards life, so she tried to stay positive and appreciate what she did have in her life. She celebrated her little rituals, which included milking the cows each morning with her loving husband, taking Michelle and Kristi to school, and then enjoying some late breakfast in town with Hal. She also tried to go out to dinner with Hal whenever they could manage to, and they'd

pick one of the few local spots to kind of unwind and just enjoy each other's company. But the girls didn't mind helping out around the farm because they loved animals, so they found joy in their work too. Michelle and Little Christie were very different though. Michelle was much more reserved and quiet, kind of like her father, howl, and she was definitely more of a tomboy. In 1989, when she was 17, she really liked

going to parties and hanging out with her close friends, or hanging out with her new boyfriend, Jeff Feesby. Meanwhile, 14-year-old Christie was kind of looked at as the golden child. She was silly and bubbly and had a ton of friends, and she was a cheerleader at her high school and was considered very popular and extremely likable. But both girls were special in their own ways and were deeply loved by their parents and family. But something terrible was happening behind the scenes. So Hal's brother, John Rogers,

lived on their property in his trailer, and he also worked on the farm. Now John didn't have the best reputation around town, because people just thought that he was a bit odd. He wore army fatigues a lot, which are basically just the casual camouflage uniforms that are worn by military personnel, and he would often talk about all the missions he supposedly did in the CIA and the Secret Service, and the stories always kind of seemed like they were out there and people didn't really believe them to

be true. So going back in the story a couple years, in August of 1997, John was facing charges for the rape of his ex-girlfriend. He and this woman had been living together in his trailer and dating, but they eventually broke up, but she continued to live in this trailer and dating, but they eventually broke up. But she continued to live in the trailer until she could find somewhere else to live. And during this time, she returned to John's trailer one night, as usual, when suddenly she was attacked by a masked man, who blindfolded and handcuffed her inside the trailer.

She was completely terrified and continued to scream out for help. And this is when the man began to speak and threaten her with a knife before raping her. She recognized this voice clearly as John's and as soon as she got away, she reported the incident to police. When police obtained a search warrant for John's trailer, they discovered a videotape inside that showed the entire attack against his girlfriend. So it turns out he had filmed the whole thing. But things would take an even darker turn when police found numerous photos and audio tapes

and more sexual assaults. And this time they were of his own niece, his brother-house eldest daughter, Michelle. The photo included Michelle nude and blindfolded, and the audio tapes proved to be her voice. John Rogers had been sexually assaulting her since she was around 14, and this was discovered when she was around 15 and a half. This discovery tore the family apart because Hal and Joan were just absolutely horrified that he could do something so disgusting and horrific in general, but to their daughter. So according

to Michelle, John told her numerous times that if she ever spoke up about what he did to her, he would kill her. And for those wondering how this happened on the property without Joan or Hal knowing, it's because John would typically attack her while they were away for business-related trips. And this is really disturbing, so as sad as it is, Irene Rogers, who is John in Hal's mother and Hal's mother and Michelle's grandmother, actually sided with John.

She told people around town that Michelle made the whole thing up, and that John didn't do anything. And mind you, there is photographic proof and audio. There were multiple sexual assaults against Michelle, yet she still protected her son. How was so horrified by that that he quickly cut his own mother out of his life based on the things that she spread around town, which I would do too. I'm glad he did this because I feel like sometimes people just try to sweep things under the rug and it's like this is a huge deal.

This can't just be forgiven. Like the fact that he said, wow you to his mom like claps to him. Kind of makes yeah it makes a lot of sense. So howl actually felt a lot of guilt over this because he loved his daughters dearly and he just couldn't believe that one of them had suffered something so unthinkable at the hands of his own brother. Of course John Rogers denied the attacks on both Michelle and his ex-girlfriend, but since the evidence was so damning, he was sentenced to 7 to 25 years in prison for the rape of his ex-girlfriend. But he wasn't sentenced or charged in Michelle's case, because understandably she dropped the

charges since she didn't want to have to testify. I mean it's so sad that this horrible, horrible man was in sentence for longer without Michelle's case going to trial, but I can only imagine how hard it would have been on her if she testified, because she was just 16 at the time that she would have, and the town is already so small and everyone was talking, but she so badly wanted to return to normal life and try to put those awful memories behind her and not let it kind of claim her. So it's all just really devastating. As Houset family tried to move on from this, things got progressively more difficult for Joan. So not only did she have to worry for her daughter safety more than ever, but as the next couple years went on, she continued to lose sleep over working on the farm and just had

so much stress in her life. She lost a ton of weight and it really affected her appearance and almost made her look ill. And we did post a more recent photo of her on our social media so you guys can see. She just looks a little bit gond and it was just her mental health really just took a nose dive because of all the stress. So poor Joan was just 36 years old but in the photo from around this time she looks a lot older. She just had so much going on and not enough time to relax or spend time for herself so Joan decided it was time to take a little vacation with her daughters and have a girls trip while Hal held down the fort at home.

This would essentially be their first real vacation together, and Michelle, Kristi, and Joan decided to drive down to Florida and visit SeaWorld, Disney, the Jacksonville Zoo, and much, much more. So although it wouldn't necessarily be the most relaxing trip, it was still a much needed getaway and they were all incredibly excited. On Friday, May 26, 1989, 36-year-old Joan, 17-year-old Michelle, and 14-year-old Christy, hopped in their 1986 light-blue-olds-mobile around noon and drove through Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, and then finally stopped in the state of Georgia after about 8 hours or so of driving.

Since the spring sun was beginning to set, they decided to stop in a motel for the night and rest up as this was about halfway to their destination. After getting a good night's sleep in North Georgia, in the trio continued south for another seven or so hours until they finally reached Jacksonville, Florida, which is right on the coast in northeast Florida. While in Jacksonville, they headed to the zoo as we mentioned they had planned to do, and they then continued down the state of Florida doing all the sightseeing that they desired. A couple days later on May 29, 1989, Joan wrote the following postcard to her husband, Hal, from Silver Springs, Florida.

Stayed the night at the tightestville, leaving for SeaWorld, then Disney World tonight for three nights. Whether it's hot and humidity is very high, 98%. Kids have in a great time dragging me everywhere. Scene Silver Springs went on a glass bottom boat ride. Better go, have to get Christy out of bed. Love ya, take care, don't work too hard. After three nights at Disney World on Thursday June 1, the trio left Orlando at around 9 a.m. and made the hour and a half

drive southwest to Tampa where they plan to get a motel and go to Bush Gardens, which is an African-themed animal theme park with lots of roller coasters. So Jillne was definitely being a trooper here going from theme park to theme park to make the girls happy, but happy they were. And I mean like you said before this is like their first vacation that they've really gone on together and you know Joan hasn't taken a vacation in many many years she's just been working a rass off so understandably she is being a trooper for the fam. Yeah and understandably they have all this stuff packed into a really short amount of time

because they're like, let's do everything we can. Exactly. But three days later, tourists would come across something horrifying. June 4, 1989, was another hot day, and many tourists and locals were enjoying the breeze and the sun on sailboats in the Tampa Bay. One of the sailboats in particular hosted multiple tourists, and as it glided across the shimmering turquoise water, some of the people on board took note at an object moving with the light waves. As the boat pulled closer, they all knew exactly what they were looking at, a body. The tourists couldn't believe what they were seeing. Was this really a body?

The Coast Guard and a rescue boat headed that way to see for themselves, and when they arrived, they pulled the body into the rescue boat and confirmed that it was a female, half nude with her hands tied behind her back and her ankles bound. Another rope was tied around her neck and it was attached to a 30-pound block of concrete. This rope had to be cut before the body could be placed in a body bag, and the team didn't see anything else in the water so they began heading back to shore when they received a call on the radio regarding a second body in the bay.

This one was two miles north of where the first one had been found, so the team turned around and headed straight for this other area when they got yet another call. A third body had surfaced just about 200 yards from the second body. The conditions of the second in the third victim were the same as the first. They all had a 30 pound concrete block tied to rope that was around their necks and all their hands had been tied behind their backs with their ankles bound as well, all with the same yellow robe. All their mouths were covered in duct tape.

They were nude from the waist down, and all found floating face down. All three bodies were female, and as you can imagine, this was an incredibly shocking and devastating find. None of the bodies had any identification on them, but investigators could tell that they were all pretty young, especially two of them. They had no idea where to even begin, but the medical examiner's findings would help start the path. They determined that the bodies had been in the water for about three to five days, but sadly, since the water was quite warm, the decomposition process was much quicker than

if they had been put in cold water. But the good thing about this is that it produced the gases that allowed the bodies to float to the surface in the first place. Still, investigators had no idea who these three people were, and they really wouldn't be able to find out unless someone came forward, they could connect them to a missing persons report. Since there were so many tourists coming and going at this time, this proved to be more difficult than they'd hoped. But four days later, on June 8th, a maid at the Days in Motel in Tampa, where Joan,

Christy and Michelle were staying, told the manager that it appeared the group in Room 251 hadn't been in their room for days. Their beds were untouched, the towels were fresh, and all the belongings were in the same place they had been since they first checked in seven days earlier. Now this wasn't some like small bed and breakfast, but it also wasn't a massive hotel either. It was an average size motel, yet even during busy tourist times, it could seem strange not to see or hear from guests at all when they were staying for multiple days, and that's when the manager realized that he hadn't seen Joan or her daughters since they checked

in one week prior. Everyone in this area knew about the three bodies in the bay because it made such huge headlines locally and the word was beginning to spread throughout the country. So when the manager made the connection, he decided to phone the police. That day, investigators arrived to the days in Motel and learned that the Rogers girls were visiting from Wilshire, Ohio and hadn't been seen in days. Investigators felt strongly about this being a match, so they got a hold of Hal Rogers and briefly explained the nature of their call while asking for his wife and daughter's

dental records. Inside their motel room was lots of souvenirs from the trip as you can imagine, and open suitcases. There was also a camera in the room and investigators wondered if it would have any clues, so they had the role developed. And there were a couple of photos that appeared to have been taken inside that very motel room, and we included those pictures on our social media accounts. very motel room, and we included those pictures on our social media accounts. One was of Michelle, curly-haired and crouching down to her luggage, sporting a blue bikini top and white shorts. The next photo was the view from their room's balcony, which was the Tampa Bay, and obviously

a few palm trees. When Hal received a call from investigators, he was hoping it would be Joan, because he hadn't heard from them in over a week, but had just received their postcard a few days prior. They were scheduled to arrive home around June 3rd, so Hal really began to worry with each passing day, so he reported the missing to the local police on June 4th. But he really just hoped the girls were, you know, out having fun and would update him on the travels when they got a chance.

So when he heard a detective on the other line on June 8th, his entire world shattered. He hoped and prayed that it wasn't true, but sure enough, the dental records he supplied matched the bodies found in the bay. Another absolutely horrifying part to this realization was learning how his family died, by either drowning or asphyxiation due to the strangulation from the ropes tied to their necks. An assistant medical examiner had performed their autopsies the day they were found and determined that there was water in their lungs, meaning they were alive when they were thrown into the water. Due to them all being nude from the waist down, sexual assault seemed very likely, but any evidence that would confirm this or the identity of the killer for that matter had

been washed away. In the beginning of the investigation, Hal told investigators, I wouldn't be surprised if John could have something to do with it, but to put it bluntly, I think it would be a very remote possibility. Well, as we know, Hal's brother John was in prison when the murders occurred, but before his sentencing, he actually visited the Tampa Bay area. He stayed for several weeks at a family's trailer just a few miles from where the murders took place.

And since John was a known enemy, if you will, investigators wanted to at least make sure that there was no chance that John had arranged for someone else to kill Joan and her daughters during their vacation. They just wanted to be able to rule that out before carrying on. So they went to visit John at the Ohio prison that he had been sentenced to and asked him some questions. Ultimately, they determined that there wasn't any evidence that he even knew that they were going on vacation since he was in prison. And the only visitor that he received in the months leading up to the murders was one visit by his mother in April. No packages had been sent to him in the recent weeks, and the only people he spoke with

on the phone were his parents, and even that was pretty rare. Also other inmates told police that John was a loner and didn't have many friends inside, so it's not like he was a head honcho who had connections to arrange a triple homicide. So investigators ruled him out as a possibility. With that, investigators set their sights on someone else in the Rogers family who had shown some strange behavior before the murders. Hal Rogers. Investigators found it strange that he hadn't reported his wife and daughters missing earlier than he did. He reported the missing one day after they were supposed to return home, but they felt he more likely would have done so sooner, having not heard from them since late May. On top of this, they didn't feel Hal had the right reaction to the news about his family.

They felt he was cold and unemotional, but as we know, Hal was a more introverted person and he had a bit of a tough exterior. Also everyone reacts to bad news differently, right? Well, there was more to this suspicion than just his reactions. In the spring of 1988, so about one year earlier, his brother John was arrested for the rape of his ex-girlfriend, as we know. And how actually arranged for his brother's bond, the same brother who sexually assaulted his daughter, Michelle? The bond was set at $10,000, and how himself posted it. Even so, John ended up returning to prison and serving time for the charge after being

found guilty. But why the hell did howl do this? Another strange discovery was that in early June, so after Joan and the girls were killed, but before he got the call from the investigators, howl withdrew $7,000 in cash from his account at a local bank. An investigators wondered why on earth he would do this. Did he hire a hitman? What was the money for?

So they went to question Howl and realized that all their suspicions against him were pretty much one big misunderstanding, because he had a fairly logical answer for everything. Howl seemed numb and completely overtaken with grief when they visited him on the farm. One of their first questions was about him posting John's bond, and his response was pretty simple. Hall said that John had begged him to post his bail after his arrest for raping his ex-girlfriend,

telling how that none of it was true. It being his brother and how hoping he was telling him the truth, Hall agreed to post it, but shortly after this conversation, the news came out that John had been sexually assaulting Michelle, yet Hall still felt he needed to keep his word because he was a man of his word. Also, he told investigators that he wanted to support Michelle and what had happened to her, but he wanted to keep peace between himself, his brother, and his parents as well. Of course, after he posted the bail

and John was temporarily released, the evidence became much more clear, and it tore his family in half anyway. But how made it clear to John that he needed to stay away from Michelle forever and sell his half of the farm? And as for the $7,000 that he withdrew, how explain that after reporting his family missing, he was in complete agony for every day that followed.

So he decided to take out a load of cash and travel down to Florida to personally search for the girls. At this time, Hal didn't have a credit card because he didn't believe in them, so he needed the physical cash to take with him. With these somewhat reasonable answers, investigators took suspicion off of him, but they still looked into his alibi to be sure. And it was concluded that he had visited a restaurant for breakfast and or dinner, every day his family was gone, and numerous people witnessed this, and they also confirmed it.

And also right before the investigators left, they asked how what he did with the $7,000, and he showed them to his truck where he kept $6,000 in a bank bag in the glove compartment ready to head to Florida and the other $1,000 was in his pocket. So he hadn't spent any of it, it was still there and this really seemed to prove that his story about taking the money down to Florida to look for his family was true. He just hadn't done it yet. Yeah, I mean, it's definitely an odd way to store your money $6,000 in a bank bag inside your glove compartment.

But he did live on a farm, so maybe he really wasn't worried about it. Yeah, I think he was just like, I'm keeping this in the car on my property in my very small town where nothing really bad happens and I'm gonna go look for my family. I think he was just waiting a few days and then he got that call and obviously then he knew that they were dead, so he couldn't go down there go look for my family. I think he was just waiting a few days and then he got that call and obviously then

he knew that they were dead so he couldn't go down there and look for him. Yeah, the confirmation was there. So next, investigators sought out the Rogers's old mobile down in Tampa and quickly discovered at at a public boat launch just a mile from the days in Motel next to the Courtney Campbell Parkway. And inside the car, they found the biggest clue in this entire case. There were two sets of directions inside the vehicle,

one on a brochure for Clearwater Beach in Clearwater, Florida, and then another on some days in stationery. The days in stationery hinted that this was taken from their room, in Tampa, and used for directions to their next and final destination. And on the daisins stationary, it said, Turn Right, West on 60, 2.5 mile, on right side alt before bridge, blue with white. After comparing this note to all three of the ladies handwriting, it was determined to have been Jones, but the handwriting on the Clearwater brochure didn't match any of theirs at all, and it read, Courtney Campbell Causeway, Route 60, days in.

With these two simple sets of directions, investigators came up with a theory that Joan, Christie, and Michelle had potentially gotten lost on their way to the days in, and that they had to ask someone for directions. This would explain why directions to the days in were written in someone else's handwriting. And like Daphne said, the other set of directions seemed to have been written after the ladies had arrived at the days in. Considering the directions seemed to be taking them to the water, and the blue and white seemed to be describing a boat, investigators wondered if this was a set of directions to go on to someone someone's boat where they eventually met their demise. And that maybe the person who had given them

the directions to the days in had arranged to take them on their boat, but they still didn't know who this person was. While the investigation continued, a funeral was held for Joan, Michelle, and Christie. And it was a devastating event for their small community back in Ohio.

Howe wore Joan's favorite shirt of his, a raspberry-colored shirt since howe always said he wasn't afraid to wear pink, under a gray pinstripe suit that Joan had given him. Howe requested a teddy bear be placed in both of his daughter's caskets, and at the start of the service, how almost lost it completely? He was sat up at the front, but his mother was put right beside him, and this obviously enraged him. This was the woman who called Michelle a liar regarding the allegations against her son

John, and here she was, front row at the funeral. How'd just tried to keep it together and get through the ceremony, which was unbelievably hard enough without the presence of his mother? Michelle's boyfriend couldn't bring himself to attend the funeral because he was seething with rage over what had happened to her. He suddenly became incredibly protective of everyone he knew and had a hard time coping after the events. Jones' brother James suffered from horrible nightmares after the murders and so did his

wife. The entire family and everyone close to the Rogers were haunted by this and suddenly terrified of life itself. And of course, Hal had likely the hardest time of all. News crews constantly showed up at the farm and he couldn't even bring himself to sleep in He and Jones' bed or go into the girls' rooms. He actually slept on friends' couches for many, many months following the murders. And this whole family is terrified, understandably, like they're from this, you know, small area in Ohio, and they're just like, you know, our family went on vacation and something so terrible happened.

It's almost like, well, could this happen to anyone on any vacation? And because their community is so small, they essentially live in the safe little bubble where everything's pretty good obviously we know that the whole John incident happened so it's not all good there for sure, but things like this hadn't happened in that community so you know understandably they're all like and they don't know who it is who the killer is so that makes everyone even more scared. About four months after the murders occurred, in October of 1989, the first break in the case came. The lead detective on the case, a man named Jim Capel, had noticed a case that seemed like it could be similar to the Rogers case.

On May 15th, so just two weeks before the Rogers disappeared, a 24-year-old Canadian woman named Judy had been vacationing in Western Florida, and Pinellas County to be exact, which is right next to Tampa, when she was raped. She had met a man who took her out on his boat and sexually assaulted her. In this sounded very similar to the theory investigators had regarding the Rogers case, and that's when Jim noticed the description of the man's boat, light blue with white interior. Detective Capel wanted every detail he could regarding this case, so he flew up to Canada

with another detective in question Judy. She explained that she and her friend had been on vacation when they stopped at a 7-Eleven, which is a convenience store one night. A man in a dark colored vehicle that appeared to be similar to a Jeep or Ford Bronco with tinted windows and Florida plates was in the parking lot and he struck up a conversation with them. The man appeared to be in its mid-30s was was white, around 5'10 and 180 lbs, and had blondish reddish hair. The women both felt he seemed very nice and polite, and offered to take them out on his boat the

following afternoon. He even gave his name, which the women remembered to be either Dave Posner or Dave Posno, and he told them he owned an aluminum company and lived in Braydenton, which is just south down the bay where they were at this time. The next day, Judy's friends stated that she didn't want to go, so Judy went and met this man alone. He took her into the golf and they cruised further out as they chatted and had a nice time together. Then he returned her to shore and explained that Judy and her friend should come out that

night for a sunset cruise and bring their cameras because it would be such a beautiful ride. But once again, her friend didn't want to go, so Judy went alone. The man was still being nice but appeared irritated that her friend didn't want to go, so Judy went alone. The man was still being nice, but appeared irritated that her friend didn't join. So they went out on the water anyway, and Judy, who brought her camera, took a photo of the man and enjoyed the ride. But soon after, she noticed they seemed to be getting really far out there, even though the sun had already set. And suddenly, the man's whole personality seemed to change. He went from sweet and talkative to aggressive and

pushy. He couldn't stop touching and hugging her and telling her how pretty she was and how much he wanted to have sex with her. She tried to push him off and tell him that she wasn't interested, but he pressed on. That's when Judy started screaming, and the man's response was, what are you doing? Nobody's gonna hear you. What are you gonna do, jump out of the boat? Is sex something worth losing your life over? And after he raped her, he told her to rinse herself off while he ripped out the film from her camera and threw it into the

bay. As they headed back to shore, the man apologized to her and threw up several times off the boat. She told the man that she planned to report him, and he asked her to wait until he told his old mother first so she didn't have a heart attack when police came to the door. When they got to shore, he let her out of the boat and she was off. Investigators wondered if this man was the same one who killed the Rogers, because he didn't seem to be worried about having more than one person on his boat during an assault, and maybe after letting the 24-year-old go, he decided not to make the mistake of letting his next rape victim live. So they asked Judy to help them come up with a composite sketch,

since it seemed clear the man used a fake name, because they couldn't find any Dave Posner or Posno in the area, especially one who owned an aluminum company or lived in Braydenton. So they released a composite along with a description of the man, his boat, his car, and his handwriting in the newspapers, on TV, and on flyers. This brought in over 400 tips to police, but none of them proved to bring in any answers. That December, how drove down to Florida himself before Christmas to do his own digging and and see things from his girl's perspective.

But ultimately, it was just a heartbreaking trip that didn't bring anything. The following spring, investigators were approaching the one-year anniversary of the Rogers murders, when a new sergeant named Glenn Moore joined the team. He wasn't well-versed in solving murders, but he had a lot of ideas for the investigation. They started looking at the directions again and noticed a strange pattern. It was kind of a mixture of capital letters and lowercase, so it was pretty specific, but still none of the tips that they were receiving were leading them to the man's identity. Two more years passed until they decided to place five billboards throughout Tampa that

said, who wrote these directions? You may know who killed the Rogers family, $25,000 reward. And this is when the tip came in. A woman named Joanne Steffi saw the billboard and called investigators saying that she felt confident that the man that they were looking for was her neighbor, a 43 year old married man with a young daughter who worked as an aluminum contractor, drove a dark blue Jeep Cherokee, and who had recently sold his white and blue boat. His name was Oba Chandler. His house was just a couple lots down from

hers at the time, and his house was actually on a canal that led straight to the bay, and he loved to go out boating at night. He always seemed very friendly and talkative, but almost overly so that it made you feel uneasy. Something was just off with this guy. Not only this, but she recognized his handwriting, as she had previously hired him as an aluminum contractor, and he was the spitting image of the composite sketch in the newspapers. Joanne Steffi even supplied the investigators with a receipt from Oba Chandler, and they compared it to the directions written on the brochure found in Jones' car, and there was no doubt in their minds that it was

written by the same person. As police began looking into Oba even further, the puzzle pieces connected like they couldn't believe. Oba Chandler lived just one mile away from the boat launch that the Rogers' car had been found at. When they tracked the phone records for his boat phone, they noticed that he had called his wife seemingly right after he dropped Judy off at the shore after he reaped her. He had also made a call to his wife the night the Rogers' family is presumed to have

been murdered. They would later discover that he was calling to say that he was having engine trouble and wouldn't be home until late, which is super suspicious and just connects him to these crimes even further in my opinion, because they also proved he was out on the waters those two nights. But when investigators questioned him, he denied any involvement. Either way, there was way too much going against Obachandler for these crimes, especially since Judy, the Canadian tourist who was sexually assaulted, and her friend confirmed that

Obachandler looked just like the guy they had met after being shown a series of photos of different men. So first he was arrested for Judy's rape and then on September 24th, 1992 over three years after the murders occurred, investigators arrested, 45-year-old Oba Chandler for the murders of Joan Rogers, Michelle Rogers, and Kristi Rogers. Oba Chandler was born on October 11, 1946 in Cincinnati, Ohio to Margaret Johnson and Oba Chandler

senior alongside his four siblings, and he was the second youngest. When he was just 10 years old, his father hanged himself in the basement of their home, and during the funeral, Oba actually jumped into his father's grave as his coffin was being covered with dirt. His father's death affected him so much, and within the years to follow, Oba began acting out. By age 14, Oba was stealing cars, and during the next four years until he turned 18, Oba was arrested 20 times. When he became a legal adult, he was charged with multiple crimes, including possession of counterfeit money, loitering and prowling, burglary, kidnapping, and armed robbery. Also he was accused of masturbating while looking through a woman's window.

In another incident, Oba and a friend of his broke into a Florida couples home and robbed them at gunpoint. Before his arrest, Oba fathered eight children. So now that we know a little bit more about the monster behind all this madness, let's talk about what really happened to the Rogers. They were set to arrive at the days in Motel in Tampa by 11am based on the fairly short drive down from Orlando, because we know they

left, like just after 9am and it's a couple hours drive. But they couldn't seem to find the Motel, so Joan pulled over to look at a map. That's when Oba Chandler was believed to have approached their car and asked them if they were lost. Then he gave them directions and asked if they wanted to go out on his boat. By 12.30 pm the girls arrived at the days in, and that's when Joan would have written down the directions to the boat launch. It's unknown what they did for the rest of the day, but they were last seen at the restaurant

that was attached to the motel at around 7 pm. Then they went back to their room and based on the lighting and the photos that were found in their room, Jones snapped a couple of photos, they changed their outfits, and headed out to Oba's boat at around 8 pm. One month later, Oba sold his blue and white boat, and the person who bought it remembered seeing concrete blocks at his house. Even noticing that some of the blocks had three holes and some had two. And this is significant because the blocks had holes in them so rope could be strung through

to help weigh them down. But of course, the buyer didn't know that at the time. When the composite sketch of Oba was released a few months later, he fled the area for several weeks. He visited one of his daughters and her husband in Cincinnati, Ohio, and actually told them that he couldn't go back to Florida because he was wanted for killing three women. And this is just insane because what would you do if your dad was just like oh yeah I can't go back to this state because I'm a piece of shit and I murdered people. Oh my god I mean, I guess he thought he could trust them and was being honest with them and and so that hopefully they could give him a place to stay or something but I

I can't imagine their reaction was positive. I mean what would you do listeners? So police decided to question Oba about his boat and when he said he had sold it in the summer of 1989, this of course only made him seem more suspicious. A handwriting expert also confirmed that the writing on the Rogers' brochure matched his and when the brochure was analyzed further, experts noted that it had Jones fingerprints on it, but there was also a very well-defined print that didn't belong to any of the Rogers girls. So they tested it against Oba's Palm print, and it was a solid match. But Oba Chandler maintained his innocence, and his trial was set to begin in the summer

of 1994, five years after the Rogers' murders. And this is when we got a little more of a peek into what happened to them. So Oba did not take responsibility for the murders, but as we already mentioned above, we know that Oba went up to their car on the side of the road, and we know this because he admitted it. He said that he, being from Ohio, noticed their Ohio plates and wondered if they were lost, so he gave them directions to the days in and never saw them again. But Oba admitted that he was out on his boat that night, but that he was alone and had engine trouble, hence why he called his boat that night, but that he was alone and had engine trouble. Hence why he called

his wife that evening. He even stated that he called the Coast Guard in the Marine Patrol to troubleshoot his issues, but they both stated that they were too busy. Well, the prosecution looked into this and determined that there was absolutely no records that proved he did this, only that he called his wife. Oba explained on the stand what had been wrong with his boat and how he fixed it himself with duct tape, but when a boat mechanic testified saying that there was essentially no way that he could have fixed these issues in the way that he did, it blew Oba's story out of the water. Judy also testified regarding what Oba had done to her, including that he threatened to

tape her mouth shut with duct tape. And remember how the Rogers all held their mouths duct taped? So yeah, lots of duct tape being discussed, and it all seemed to click. During the trial, even Oba's own daughter, Crystal testified that her father admitted to both her and her husband that he raped a woman and murdered three others in Tampa. The judge on this case later described Oba as, a man with no soul. She commented, it's the worst case as far as factually, and as far as a defendant without

saving grace that I have ever handled. A juror later commented, he scared some of the jurors when he would sit there and stare at you and have that stupid grin on his face, he would make your skin crawl. Obviously there was so much evidence against him, so on September 29th 1994, Oba Chandler was found guilty by a jury for the murders of Joan, Michelle, and Christie Rogers. And on November 4th, he was sentenced to death for his crimes. Since he was already going to prison for life, they didn't want to go after him further for the rape against Judy, just to kind of spare her from the additional emotional trauma.

Especially since during the Rogers trial, Oba actually told the court that yes, he and Judy did have sex, but that it was consensual and that she changed her mind during the act. So, he was just really grasping at straws. After his conviction, his wife Debra filed for divorce and ordered that he never see their daughter again. Oba Chandler appealed his conviction multiple times, but all were denied. Then, on November 15, 2011, so about 17 years after he was sentenced to prison,

he was executed by lethal injection in Florida. His last words were, you're killing an innocent man today. Kiss my rosy red ass. The crazy thing is that not only was the evidence against Obachandler and Judy's case as well as the Rogers case undeniable, but about two and a half years after he died, in February of 2014, his DNA was identified as a match in another murder case. On November 27, 1990, so a year and a half after the Rogers murders, a 20-year-old woman named Eva Lise Bezieris was found dead.

She worked at the Sawgrass Mills Mall in Coral Springs, Florida, and was reported missing by her husband after she didn't return home from work. Her vehicle was found in the mall's parking lot, and two of her tires were slashed. She was found the following morning, lying on the side of the road, nude, and she was pronounced dead at the scene. She had ligature marks on both of her wrists and ankles, and tape was found stuck in her hair.

Her cause of death was determined to be Asphyxia, the manor was homicide, and she had been sexually assaulted. So during the rape kit, DNA was taken from her body, and it was stored away for a long time because it was essentially forgotten. But when the sheriff decided to have it retested in early 2014, it was a positive match to Oba Chandler. So not only did Oba deny literally to the death having any involvement in the Rogers case, nor having raped Judy, but he also killed another young woman.

And because of this, it's heavily believed that he has more victims, and he would have been arrested and charged for her murder if he had not been executed beforehand. Although he was now in the business alone, how Rogers continued farming, but got out of the dairy business and instead raised pigs. He buried himself in his work because it seemed to be the only thing that could completely occupy his mind. But it was still extremely difficult since all the memories that were attached to the farm included his family, and he missed them all so dearly.

Nine years after Joan, Michelle, and Christie were murdered, how found love once again when he connected with a Wilshire Ohio local named Joleen. She was also in the farming industry, and she was a widow, so they really seemed to understand each other and were soon married. But Hal and the rest of their circle has never been the same since that fateful summer day in 1989. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode and next week we'll have an

all new case for you guys to dive into. God, this story just breaks my heart because this family was just living their lives. I mean, I feel so bad for Michelle, like not only was she sexually assaulted by her uncle, but then she just tries to go on a vacation and gets murdered and potentially rape by another man like, this whole case is so sad. Yeah, it's extremely horrifying and the other really scary part about this is the years that Oba was free, where, you know, there was the potential for him to have more victims. Yeah, it's, oh man, this case was really tough to research, but I just thought it was so fascinating and just so, so, so devastating.

So thank you guys so much for listening to this episode. We can't wait to hit you back next week in our new studio, in our new home, in Boise Idaho. Also, we gotta give shout outs to our amazing patrons, everybody who joined Patreon in this last week. Yes, thank you so much everybody and for those who want to join Patreon. Again, we have over 43 bonus episodes on there for you guys to binge and we're coming out with them every single month. So thank you so much to Kristi, Kaitlyn, Katie, Adam, Eliza and Angela. Big thanks going out to Misty, Wendy, Tammy, Sarah, Betsy, Nina, and Malina.

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