True Crime with Kimbyr - Part 1: TRIPLE Family MURDER SHOCKS Florida Vacation Town - The Rogers Family Deep Dive | True Crime Stories

Episode Date: April 8, 2026

In this haunting episode of True Crime with Kimbyr, Kimbyrleigha unpacks the chilling story of Michelle, Christie, and Joan Rogers—three women from a quiet Ohio dairy farm whose dream trip to Disney World turned into a nightmare. What was meant to be their first family vacation became their last, leaving behind unanswered questions and a trail of mystery. Through compassionate storytelling and detailed analysis, True Crime with Kimbyr explores their lives, their bond, and the tragic events that followed. What really happened after they left home—and why didn’t they return? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's a dream come true, a family vacation to the most magical place on earth, Disney World. Yamava Resort and Casino at San Manuel is California's number one entertainment destination for today's superstars. Catch the Jonas Brothers return to the Yamava Theater stage on April 30th, the powerful vocals of Demi Levato on May 17th, and the signature Southern Country Rock of Eric Church on July 19th. Tickets on sale now at Yamavatheater.com. Only a Yamava resort and casino, celebrating its 40th anniversary. You in? Must be 21 to enter.

Two teenagers, Christy and Michelle, had been waiting for this trip forever. It was the first vacation they'd ever been on in their entire life. They could have never imagined. It would also be their last. This is their story. Hi, everyone. Welcome back to my channel. My name is Kimberlya. If you've never been here before, nice to finally meet.

you. In this case is another one from my native state of Florida. It's part of my Florida murder series. You can find the rest down below and at the end of this video in case you want to dive in to another one from the Sunshine State and this one today is particularly insane. It's unbelievable. There are so many twists and turns. I could hardly keep up but don't worry as usual I will make it make sense for all of you. There's just a lot to take in. It's another long one. If that's not your thing you might want to turn back now. I have just been on a deadly deep dive street the last few weeks. So if the next video is a mini mystery, I just need some time to research another longer one. And you may have

heard this story before. But I'm going to go into detail as per usual when I do these deep dives and I'm sure that you will learn something new. Because today I have the pleasure of introducing you to the Rogers family. But before they became four, I have to take you back in time to introduce you to the couple who came together to form this family. Joan Etzler and Hal Rogers. Both of them grew up on farms out in rural Ohio, Middle America, the heartland. Van Wert County, to be exact, this is a small community. Hal and Joan were growing up there in the 1950s and farm life is all they knew. Joan May Etzler, known as Joe, was born November 12, 1952 as a farmer's daughter. She was taught from a very early the importance of hard work and determination.

And she developed a strong work ethic, which she held throughout her life. Though farming is a very serious and very dirty job, Joe still had a fun and girly side. She was known to dress up her cat in baby clothes and take it around in a stroller throughout town. It definitely got the attention of the townspeople. And that made sense for someone like Joe

because she would find this to be fun. She was very outgoing and charismatic, and people said she never knew a strange. because she would talk to everyone and anyone everywhere she went. And that was probably just fine when you grow up in a place where everyone knows your name. A place where no one was a stranger. The main town nearby is called Wilshire, and although it's only one L difference from Wilshire in Los Angeles,

it's a world apart in every way. The population in 2010 was under 400 people, and it was the same back when Hal and Joe were growing up there. It's only about a half a mile from the Ohio Indiana State Line, and it's under one square mile of land. I went on Google Maps, which is probably the site I use the most. And as of now in Wilshire, aside from land and a small number of homes, I found a cemetery, a sewage plant, a fire department, a grocery store,

a tiny little post office that has been there since 1822. And other than that, there were just a handful of stores. That's it. Joe didn't get out much, as you can probably imagine. There wasn't much to do besides help her family on the farm and abide by their rules, which they definitely had. Joe was sheltered. Her family had strong religious and moral beliefs, ones that would make it difficult for Joe to have things her way and enjoy milestones in her life later on. It didn't stop her, though, from being her own person. She was fun and adventurous.

She loved country music and dancing, and she was strikingly beautiful. She stood out, especially to one guy in her high school. Crestview Junior Senior High School, his name was Hal Rogers. He was one year ahead of her and quite the looker himself. But he had something else, a quality that made him even more desirable. He was a hard worker, and that was very important to Joe. Would he be the type of man that could support a family? Indeed, he was.

He was following in his father's footsteps, learning the ropes as a farmer, and he was set to take over the family business, which looked good on him, especially to Joe. Hal was the shy, quiet type. He kept his head down and he worked hard. And when Joe and Hal got together, it was more like opposites attracting than anything else. Joe brought out Hal's lighter side. She would force him to listen to her favorite music and drag him on to the dance floor with her, and she would write him love letters and make sure he would sing along to her favorite songs in between begging him to please take them out to dinner so they could get away from the mundane routine of farm life. Hal was smitten from the first moment he laid eyes on Joe.

He said it himself. He called her his green-eyed girl. He knew she was the one. He just felt it. And just four months after Joe graduated, the couple was getting married. And there could have been more than one reason for that. Because Joe was pregnant. Even though they were both adults at the time,

Joe's parents were actually embarrassed about this entire thing. Their teenage daughter had gotten pregnant from premarital relations. And now she was having what was referred to as a shotgun wedding. If you've heard that cooculism, but you don't know why they say it, I didn't know either for a while. It refers to the father of the pregnant bride to be pretty much threatening the reluctant groom with a shotgun in order to make sure he goes through with the wedding because he knocked up their daughter. So there you have it.

Joe's parents were not thrilled to say the least. The wedding was held in a church, as was customary, except Joe was robbed of what many brides look forward to on this special day. The opportunity to wear a beautiful white gown. Apparently, Joe didn't deserve to have a white wedding. When you weren't seen as pure back then, white just wasn't fitting. Still, to go one step further, Joe's parents didn't allow her to wear a wedding dress at all. No matter what color was, it was forbidden. And on top of that, they prohibited Joe from having any guests at the reception. So much for celebrating a happy union with the man that you love. the soon-to-be father of your first child. However, the newlyweds did get to celebrate with one

another. They got to go on a honeymoon for one single solitary weekend in Fort Wayne, Indiana, at a hotel called Hospitality Inn. And it may not have been much to many, but for them, it was probably a nice little getaway, even though just across the border, only 40 minutes away. But after they returned, it was back to reality, and that meant getting ready to welcome their first child into the world. This is how they became the Rogers family. Michelle Lee Rogers was born February 22nd, 1972, and for the next two years, she would be Hal and Joe's world. Once they became parents, their biggest concern was providing for their family, their growing family, because another bundle of joy came along soon after. Little Christy Eugenia Rogers. She was born on October 6, 1974. Now they had two

daughters under three years old and I'm sure you can imagine how hard it is to take on all of that, especially as newlyweds and new parents. But Hal and Joe were prepared as much as they could be. Joe was a strong-willed woman. She would even stand up to her husband if she thought that he was in the wrong. She definitely had her own independent thoughts and opinions. She may have looked like she could be pushed around considering she was thin and stature, but this woman was resilient. and determined. Together, she and Hal made the decision to become dairy farmers to support their family. By 1976, Hal purchased the exact farmland where he grew up from his father.

His father sold it to him and his brother, John. Thus, Hal became a second-generation farmer. It was a 300-acre plot of land just three miles outside of Wilshire. The Rogers resided in one of the trailers on the property, and Hell's younger brother John lived in one as well. And he was part owner. He helped out on the farm and they needed all the help they could get. Next, they needed cows and soon they had more than you could count.

This was a huge undertaking. Dairy farming is not an easy task, but there was a boom in rural America around this time in the 1970s. Dairy products, milk, cheese, they were in high demand and therefore farmers would purchase female cows who they could use to acquire milk. But not only do dairy farmers have to account for each cow, and make sure they're healthy. They gotta keep track of their reproduction schedules and go through the entire milking process.

They also have to know how to do business with the companies that want to purchase the milk products. And once the cows can no longer lactate, they even have the choice to have them sold to slaughterhouses and you probably know what that means. But back then, this was an honorable way to make a decent living. It's a big business, even on a smaller scale like the Rogers had. Over the years, they grew their farm to 80 cows, and both Joe and Hal were hands-on.

They taught Michelle and Christy everything they could. Michelle, being the firstborn and the older, she took on more and more responsibilities as she grew up. And by elementary school, she was spending a lot of time on the farm. She and her sister loved animals. Michelle enjoyed being surrounded by the cows. And as a matter of fact, she named them, all 80 of them. And unlike many others, she could actually tell them apart. She cared about them. They were more than milk-producing mammals. They were her pets.

Hal was used to just numbering his cows, but because of Michelle, he got used to using their names, even calling one of them by the nickname Crazy. Michelle's favorite cow was one that she named Sage, which is actually one of my niece's names, and there was Rosie, Betty, and a cow named Grandpa. Others were named after months, like April, May, and June. When Michelle was still a little younger preteen, her farm responsibilities were helping her father groom, feed, and take the cows for walks. Michelle had her mother's looks. She was like a little Joe, a twin of Joe, with very delicate features, big brown eyes and brown hair, and a soft smile. However, she was more like her father when it came to her demeanor. She was quiet and more reserved compared to her sister Christy, who took after

Hal when it came to the looks, but was more carefree and outgoing and strong-willed like her mama. I know they say that parents shouldn't pick favorites. I only have one child, so I don't know how it is, but it was really easy to see who Hal's favorite was. It was Christy, the baby of the family, and he'd admit it to. Her charm worked on everyone, including her papa. Everywhere she went, she kept that cute, almost little mischievous smirk on her face,

and her energy would just draw people in. Though the sisters were opposites, they had one thing in common. They were both Rogers. As they got older, they became popular at school. they were attending the same junior senior high school as their parents did, Crest View. And Michelle, she was known for her beauty. People who knew her said, it was hard not to take a double take when she passed by. And to some, this may be a positive, but for a girl like Michelle,

she would rather just have her head in a book and not be bothered. Christy, on the other hand, and doesn't it always happen this way, she couldn't be ignored. She was involved in everything. She basked in the attention. She loved to roller skate, ride on a scooter, play softball. She was even a catcher at one point. And her friends would actually go and watch these games, and they commented about her fearlessness. There were times when the umpire would actually have to remind Christy to leave some distance between herself and the batters. She just couldn't contain her excitement. That's who she was.

She was also definitely more of the athletic one of the sisters and at times self-conscious, especially when she got into her teens. She was shorter than average for her age. She was only 5-1, and that bothered her. So she purposely started. to use a lot of aqua net you know a lot of hair spray and build up her hair so that she could be a few inches taller than she was but who didn't in the 80s that was a look back then i know i did it i'm only 411 and my bangs would scrape the sky so that i could look taller the crispier

the hair the better back then not one strand would even move out of place christie liked being the center of attention and she didn't care who was watching she would even practice her cheerleading moves in front of the cows. And it was quite a funny sight to see. And Hal would joke that if the cows weren't running away, Christy must have been doing something right. She truly was the apple of her father's eye. She followed him around everywhere he went. Before she could join in with all the chores, Christy would just sit under a tree with her little toys and a coloring book and watch her daddy as he was milking the cows and plowing the field. And soon, Hal realized he had a mini-mee. So he began kind of bringing cool things around that Christy would like her favorite snacks, things to keep her

entertained and content while he was doing his work. And then he would stop every now and then and show his daughter every detail about what he was doing. And she took mental notes. This is how they developed a very strong bond together. Even though both of Hal's daughters meant the whirl to him, he would say in regard to Christy, quote, there ain't nothing about it. That's just my little girl. end quote. As I explained, Michelle was more withdrawn. And considering Hal was the same way, it was hard for them to bond as much. Neither one of them broke out of their shell. Michelle preferred being alone and doing her own thing. And that was okay with Hal because he cherished the moments he spent with both of his girls, who he referred to as his princesses. And he may have called them

such, but if you got a peek into their world from the inside, it was nothing like that. royalty. It could even look like Michelle and Christie were more like servants or employees. And though it was routine for both of them, this was their daily life, it was a lot of work. By the time the girls were in junior high school, they were doing everything that both their parents did on the farm. They would wake up at 5 a.m. to begin the milking process. And most times, it was in freezing cold weather. They had to shovel manure, they had to wash the cows, they'd get them ready for the milking parlor. And I learned about this. It's a structure that's made to mass milkouts instead of milking them by hand, they're milked by a machine, but it's still a lot of

work. You have to corral them together, get them inside in their own little stalls, and you have to attach these devices to the udders so that they can be mechanically milked. Imagine the smell, the sounds, the splashes of milk, the gooey mud, even the manure, making its way from your head to your feet, all before the sun came up. It would take a good two, two, three hours before this process was over. There was no sleeping in for the girls. This was all they knew. It was wake up at the crack of dawn and get moving no matter how tired they were day in and day out. Here's a picture of Michelle in the milking parlor. And to me, I could just tell how much went into this process. I watched some videos on it too. Afterward, there was more to do. You had to clean everything

to start over at three o'clock. This was the girl's morning routine before school even started every day. And Joe had been doing this for years before the girls pitched in. Before they came along, it was Joe that was doing the bulk of this work with Hal and his brother John, everything, from caring for the cows, milking them, sometimes by hand before they had the parlor, and even breeding them. They actually owned a bull at one point, but this was all too much. In between harvesting crops, making sure the field was in order, all the machinery working, and was in good condition. And don't forget the regular household duties like cooking cleaning so they ended up resorting to impregnating the cows with an artificial insemination process and that took the burden off of them here's a picture that i

wanted to show you of joe in 1986 she's waiting for lumber to be delivered so they could build a new barn she was tiny but she was mighty however with more mouths to feed when the girls came along it just got harder joe had to get a job outside the farm to bring in extra income and to maintain health insurance for her entire family. She began working at a place called Peyton's Northern, and it's a distribution center. It's still around today. It's located in Bluffton, Indiana, over the Ohio, Indiana border. It's about a 24-minute straight shot from Wilshire. It's actually the supply chain for Kroger grocery stores. I don't know if you've ever heard of them, but we have them here. And it was hard work for Joe. Even today, I went in read reviews

about the work-life balance, and it's practically non-existent for these workers. It's really sad. Joe drove a forklift, and she moved items around this warehouse. She assembled packages, and she worked the overnight shift. That way, she could go back to the farm in the early morning hours and resume her work milking the cows every morning. She would return home from Peyton Northern, and Joe would complete all of her work. She would then have to help the girl.

girls get ready for school and after that she would accompany her husband for breakfast on the back of his Honda Goldwing motorcycle. That was a little fun that they had together. They liked doing that. It was routine for them. They would go into Wilshire after the girls got on the bus. When they finally got back home though, Joe would go straight to bed before waking up and doing more chores around the house getting ready for the girls to come home from school, followed by doing more milking and farm work as well as cooking and cleaning and her everyday chores. like laundry and she would then finally get a nap in before taking that 24-minute drive to the distribution center in the middle of the night. This routine was okay at first, but it became too much

for Joe. Everyone could tell that she was exhausted. If it wasn't obvious by the fact that she would literally fall asleep standing up while milking the cows, she would even take naps during her lunch breaks and her coworkers stared in disbelief. They felt bad for her. By the time, she was time she was 35, she looked strikingly different from her senior picture before her and Hal got married. She'd aged significantly. People who knew her said that she looked at least a decade older than her age. Poor Joe. I feel bad for her. By this time she was suffering from migraines. She had dark circles under her eyes. Her face looked worn and gaunt. Even in 1986, in this picture of her relaxing on the couch, I don't know if you can tell, but she just looks like she needs a break.

And honestly, she hadn't had one in so long. That honeymoon, that was the last getaway that she was on. But Joe was always on the go. She had her farm and her work responsibilities, church every Sunday at Zion Lutheran. And she was also a very attentive mother. She would drive the girls to and from all their activities. Michelle was in 4-H.

She went to all the meetings and the contests. And for Christy, it was softball and cheerleading camp. Joe was so tired. She would even fall asleep driving. Her neighbor and good friend Rosemary was vocal about the way Joe was running herself into the ground. She told her, listen, you're killing yourself and you're killing me by having to watch. She just wanted Joe to take some time for herself. But Joe loved her daughters and her family, and nothing would stop her.

She was the type of mom that made sure that her girls were dressed perfectly for events like Picture Day. She even took out an ad in a newspaper for Michelle's 16th birthday. Here it is just as it appeared on that special day. It read Sweet 16 Michelle with a picture of her and love mom, dad, and Christy underneath. I haven't really said too much about what Michelle was going through all these years and what she was like by this time. Well, she looks childlike in this picture. Sometimes she looked younger for her age on days when she didn't wear makeup. She could even pass for preteen.

But then on other days, when she was dolled up, she could pass for much older. She had become more and more withdrawn as she got closer to age 17. Her teachers would mention she was an average student who spent more time talking in class and flirting with boys than paying attendant to the lessons. As much as she was known for being quiet, she developed a wild side as she got older. She spent a lot of time partying. She would smoke cigarettes, drink beer, she loved wine coasters. Her circle of friends were mostly guys that she had met through her agriculture club in 4-H.

She would be seen at the back of the bus in the mornings on the way to school with a mouth full of bazooka bubble gum, wearing pink-rimmed eyeglasses, and she did not need corrective lenses. She just loved the way they made her look. And she would be chatting and laughing with the boys, sometimes even sitting in one of the guy's laps. And there were times where they would be making some pretty rude jokes and even grabbing Michelle's butt. She didn't seem to care, though. And it appeared as typical teenage behavior, being a little rebellious, going out on the weekends, you could find Michelle in the passenger seat of a car of a guy she was

seeing, just letting her hair blow in the wind as they drove through this city, listening to Guns and Roses, jamming out to you too. Michelle even really liked Madonna as well. But it wasn't easy for her. At that age, in high school, kids gossip. And Michelle ended up being at the center of a lot of rumors, mostly about her being promiscuous, or at least that she seemed to be. But Michelle was tough. She would laugh it off and move on. But on the inside, Michelle wasn't handling it very well. She felt alone.

And she would frequently tell her close friends, she wanted to leave the farm. She wanted to go to college, become a veterinarian. And other times, she would say, you know what, I would miss it if I left all of this behind, everything I know. She would teeter back and forth between never wanting to set foot on a farm again to wanting to meet the man of her dreams and raise a family on a family. a farm of her own. Family meant a lot to her. Even when she was being a little angsty teen,

she would still make time for family. Her and Christy, they would constantly argue like siblings do. They would argue about who would do what chores, who would get to use the phone hunger, or wear a certain outfit, just typical sibling rivalry. But Michelle was still very protective of her little sister and she needed to be because Michelle knew something that little Christy didn't know. Something Michelle never wanted her sister to find out. Michelle had a secret, a big one. She was hiding something that no one knew about. A secret that no teenager should ever have to keep.

It would explain a lot once the truth was revealed, and soon the pieces would begin coming together. It was the spring of 1988. Michelle had only been 16 for about a month. When sheriff deputies showed up at the farm, up at the farm asking for John Rogers, her uncle. Once they located him, he was arrested and taken away in handcuffs. No one knew what was going on. It was the first truly shocking event this poor family would have to endure. And I wish I could tell you it would be the last, but it wasn't.

I haven't told you much about John, so people called him odd. He would frequently wear army fatigues around town, he would brag about serving in the military, and he also said that he was an undercover agent. Of course, nobody believed him. A farmer that moonlighted in the CIA. No. And neither Christy or Michelle seemed to like him very much. They kind of kept their distance. And he spent most of his time in his own trailer with his girlfriend, who wasn't actually that much older than Michelle, maybe a year or two. But John was a grown man. He was in his late 20s, early 30s around this time. But the young girl, she took a liking to him and they were dating for a while until they weren't. They broke up a few months prior to his arrest, and at this point, the young woman was merely John's roommate and not his girlfriend anymore.

She had recently been in an altercation that caused the police to come out to the farm and take statements. It was a horrendous ordeal. This poor woman reported that one evening, while she was getting back inside the trailer, she was attacked by a man wearing a mask. He jumped on her, he blindfolded her, held her captive, and ultimately forced her to have intercourse with him. he held a knife to her and videotaped the entire thing. She could hear him inserting the VHS tape into the camera. She also heard his voice, which she said sounded familiar to her. She told police she actually thought it was John himself, her ex-boyfriend,

the man she lived with Hal's brother, Michelle and Christy's uncle, a man who lived just yards away. On account of this accusation, John had been arrested. Well, those close to John like Hal and Joe, they didn't believe it. Hal immediately went down to the jail and he bailed his brother out. However, the police got a warrant to search John's trailer and they do end up finding a briefcase with a number of videotapes and audio cassettes inside. Once they played them, it proved the young woman was telling the truth.

It was indeed John on those tapes committing this disgusting act on this woman. This woman that he used to say he cared about. He was arrested once again and in custody when Hal gets a call for him and Joe to come down to the sheriff's office. What they were about to hear was more than unexpected. It was unbelievable. When the cops were going through the audio and videotapes, they realized the young woman that reported John wasn't the only one he was doing this to. They found pictures of another girl, one that appeared to be even younger than John's ex-girlfriend. She was bound, blindfolded, blindfolded and unclothed.

As these officers were taking a closer look, they realized she looked familiar. They thought it was Michelle, John's own niece, mortified. The Rogers want proof. And they get it. Little Michelle was interviewed by the police. And this must have been a lot for her to go through.

That's when she finally admitted that it was true. Her secret was out. Those pictures were of her. And that's not all. The police searched John's view. John's vehicle and they obtained audio recordings of Michelle screaming during several of these horrifying and violating acts. It turned out that this had been going on since Michelle was only 14 years old. It was happening right under her parents' nose, right on their property. No wonder

Michelle never wanted to step foot on another farm. This poor child, she kept the secret for so long and she probably would have kept it hidden forever if it wasn't for John's ex reporting him. That's a hell of a secret for a teenager to keep, for anyone to keep for that matter. And it explains a lot about her demeanor, especially some of her rebellious ways the last couple years. Michelle said that John told her he would kill her if she ever opened her mouth about what he had done. Here's a picture of Michelle at only two years old playing as her Uncle John laughs in the background. Who would have known she was living with a monster?

Well, now everyone close to Michelle knew, including Howe's parents. And sadly, Howe's mom, Irene, Michelle's grandma, she chose not to believe that her son John was capable of doing such a thing, no matter what evidence was presented to her. She refused to take Michelle's side. Instead, she called Michelle a liar. She would tell anyone who would listen that Michelle, Michelle was making it all up. Can you imagine that for a minute? This is why a lot of people don't

come forward. They believe that people will think they're lying. And John denied everything. He insisted he was just being framed. Well, enough was enough. Hal cut his mother off and of course his brother as well, and it really calls a rift in the Rogers family. At this point, he also put something else together. Somehow the family dog that Michelle absolutely adored had been found dead not too long before this. For the life of him, you couldn't figure out how it could have happened, but looking back, he knew the truth. He knew John had done this as a warning to Michelle that if she opened her mouth, he really would kill her, and that's terrifying. In Hal's own words, he said, if he would have known what John was doing, he would have killed the son of a bitch. Those are some strong words,

but he meant it. He would do anything to protect his precious daughters. And he wished he could have done something, but he failed. And that depressed him. He was a shell of himself for a long time after all this played out. And it was strange. He would actually lock himself in John's trailer for hours on end. Sometimes he was in there for days. And no one could talk to him, not even Joe. It seemed like he didn't have the right words to express what he felt inside. He was a husk of himself. This went on for quite some time, and Michelle became even more withdrawn as well, for a while anyway. She never talked about what happened. She was offered therapy, but she refused to go.

It seemed like she just wanted to move on and not let this be part of her identity, but it showed through. One of her teachers at Crestview noticed she wouldn't open up at all. In social studies, Michelle would even write in the tiniest little handwriting, so small that all of her her quiz answers would be crammed into just this one-quarter side of the page. All that changed, though. As time passed, Michelle did start to come out of her shell. And in the spring of 1989, during her junior year, Michelle's handwriting began to change. It was large and bold, and she would fill up entire pages with her words. Something had changed, indeed. Her uncle pleaded no contest to the charges related to the case involving his ex-girlfriend, and he was sentenced to up to 20

years in prison. It seemed as though Michelle could finally breathe again. She never went through with the legal process in pursuing charges against her uncle. I'm not sure why, but I could probably guess. So eventually the charges were dropped. He was already in prison, so maybe it seemed pointless. Maybe she didn't want to put her and her family through the agony of going forward with the claims. She even went to prom that year, and although she was no longer close to her father's parents. She was still very close to her maternal grandmother. She even stopped by her house to show off her beautiful prom dress. Michelle was 17, and she was in a more serious relationship with a guy named Jeff Feesby. They met in the seventh grade, but they got together at a prom after

party. They'd always been friends, but that night, they talked forever until the sun came up. They just knew there was something more there. And after just a couple weeks, they made it official with Jeff giving Michelle his class ring to wear. It was a little. an outward expression of their commitment. She would only take it off when she worked on the farm. She was just so scared that she would drop it and lose it so she would pop it into her purse for safekeeping. By this time as a junior in high school, Michelle had more concrete goals than she ever had before. She knew she wanted to go to college and major in agriculture, so maybe she was going to settle for a little bit of both, getting away from the farm for a while, but studying

to know how to run one of her own one day or use the knowledge she already knew to do something more innovative in agriculture. She still had another year to decide. Christy, on the other hand, only being 14, she wasn't allowed to have a boyfriend and she probably didn't want one anyway. She seemed to try hard not to be anything like her older sister, though she seemed to always live in her shadow no matter how loud and outgoing she tried to be. In 1989, she was just finishing up eighth grade. The junior and the senior high schools were on the same campus, so Michelle and Christy saw each other every day. They even rode the same bus to school, but they couldn't be more different. Christy was always with the girls, unlike Michelle, who gravitated toward the guys. And as a matter of

fact, Christy was not interested in boys at all. She would make it known that she was a nut like Michelle. You couldn't make rude jokes with her or grab her rear end. She wouldn't stand for it. Michelle's boyfriend called Christy a little ball of fire because she was feisty. She was kind of determined not to go with the flow. And by this time, she wasn't. exactly bright-eyed and bushy-tailed in the morning for the cow-mulking shifts. Howell would tell people that you would have to get her out of bed with a stick of dynamite. And being the baby of the family, she got away with it more. It was hard for Michelle not to feel a little jealous, especially since Christy had become more popular than her sister at school.

And clearly at home as well, nevertheless, throughout everything Michelle went through with her uncle, she made sure he never hurt her little sister. She went out of her little sister. She went out of her way to make sure that Christy was never left alone with him, ever. All along, Christy never had a clue the sacrifices Michelle made in order to protect her until years later when everything was revealed. Shifting gears back to the present, it was 1989. The end of the school year was coming up and Joe had vacation days to use and Hal came up with a plan, a family vacation.

The first one they would ever go on. Who knows why Hal thought the timing was right? Maybe it was to escape the living hell that the family had just gone through, finding out what happened to Michelle. Maybe to get away from the interrogations, the allegations, the stairs from the townspeople and do anything but talk to one more professional or authority or counselor. The girls were excited. It was the very first time they would go anywhere outside their hometown. The most fun these girls had was visiting the county fair every year.

This was going to be big. their dream vacation, a once-in-a-lifetime event, if they only knew how true that really was. They got to planning as soon as Joe broke the news, and at first they thought it would be fun to visit Gallenburg for a relaxing stay in the mountains of Tennessee or Gettysburg, but then an even better idea came to light. Disney World. It seemed like a world away, a thousand miles, but they wanted to put their toes in the sand of the beach and meet Mickey Mouse for the very first time. And they deserved it. As soon as school was out, the family was going to make their way by car in their two-door, 1986, sky blue Oldsmobile Calais Coupe, from Ohio to the beautiful Florida coastline. It was a

straight shot down Interstate 75. They'd go through Kentucky, Tennessee, and Georgia along the way. It would take about 16 hours to get there. So they decided they'd probably drive to Georgia and stay in a hotel and then make their way into Florida the next day. And they were so excited. The girls would not stop talking about it, planning every detail, the sightseeing, the tourist attractions, the theme parks, and where they would stay along the way. They had about a week to cram in as much as they could. They decided that they were going to set off on May 26th and returned to the farm by June 4th, giving themselves a couple days to drive to and from, spending time in between, having as much fun as they could. However, how, how

had some bad news. As it got closer to the time they were supposed to leave, Hal realized that without his brother John at the farm, there wouldn't be anyone to take care of the daily duties. And not only that, the weather that spring was unpredictable. It was unusually wet and rainy, and it delayed a harvest of corn and wheat. It was normally already planted by this time of year, but Hal said they'd either need to reschedule the vacation or he'd have to stay back and work on the farm. Of course, this This was disappointing. It was a lose-lose situation. Either Hal would miss out on making memories with his family or they'd have to delay the entire

trip, which could mean they wouldn't get another chance for a while. Maybe never. After some thought, Hal insisted that the girls go without him. He knew that they deserve this trip. He'd say that Joe worked harder than he did. She needed this vacation and with everything that had just happened in regard to Michelle and his brother John, he wanted the girls to experience some joy in their lives. It was settled. Howe would stay back and the girls would leave as planned on May 26th.

The night before, on Thursday the 25th, Joe, devoted as she was. She still went to work her midnight shift. Then she came back to the farm, as per usual, fulfilling her morning duties, and then she got some rest. While Michelle and Christy, they were excited, they were preparing everything they needed, they were packing. They couldn't wait to get on the road for their vacation. Michelle got a chance to see her boyfriend Jeff the previous night as well. He came out to the farm to say goodbye. Michelle was going to be gone for his birthday and it was the first time this young couple would be apart. So they wanted to get in that one last kiss goodbye. Michelle told Jeff that she tried to give him a call and fill him in on what they were doing along the way once she got settled

into their hotel. On Friday afternoon, May 26, 1989, the Rogers' Street. trio was off on their magical Florida vacation, now a girls' trip, and they brought along their Nikon One Touch camera and several roles of Kodak film to document every moment. In those days, these types of camera, they required 35 millimeter film rolls. Some of you may know, some of you may not, but these would have to be developed at a Photoshop after it was all used up, and then another canister was inserted inside. Each canister had about 24 exposures. That was just 24 chances at the perfect picture. But unlike digital cameras, you can't see the results until after the photos were developed.

And I remember those days, it was fun to go all your pictures back and find out just how many were really good and how many were bad. Now, I scoured so many sources to get the most accurate information about this trip. It was so important for me to understand exactly where they went, what they saw, and where they stayed. They started out at 1 p.m. on May 26th, they said goodbye to Hal, who was out in the field, feeding the cows. Joe was driving, she stuck her head out of the driver's side window, she gave him a kiss goodbye, and he said,

Have a good time. Joe responded with, we'll be back, and they were off. One of the daughters was in the front seat, most likely Michelle, the older of the two, because she would have been assisting Joe with the navigation, which in 1989 meant reading paper maps and a road atlas. Another one of the girls would have been in the back, taking in the sights and the sounds of the road. After about 575 miles, seven hours later, they made their final stop at a Best Western Hotel off the highway in Dalton, Georgia. They even visited a gift shop where they purchased a few souvenirs, including a salt and pepper shaker with a rainbow and the word Georgia on it. The first of many cute gifts they'd buy to memorialize their trip. The next morning on Saturday, May 27th, they got an early start

and made it to Jacksonville, Florida, and they didn't waste any time. They drove straight. to Jacksonville Zoo and that was their first real attraction. This made sense. The girls loved animals and they spent the whole afternoon looking at many that they probably had never seen in person before. They made sure to take a lot of pictures of monkeys, giraffes, lions, and more. I spent eight years living in Jacksonville and I have to say this is one of my favorite zoos. There's so much to take in, it's a lot of fun. And after this, after they had their fill of the day, they checked into the Days In Hotel for the night. On Sunday morning, May 28th, they headed south to Ocala to visit a destination called Silver Springs State Park.

Now, Silver Springs is the largest artisan spring in the world. It's also the oldest commercial tourist attraction in Florida. It's known for its glass bottom boat experience, and this is so cool. It's a 30-minute tour. You're on a boat. It has a glass bottom, exactly what it sounds like, so that you can look down and see the fish in the manatees and all the underwater life. It would have been the very first time the Rogers women had ever been on a boat. As a matter of fact, Joe never learned how to swim, and neither Michelle nor

Christy was even good at it. At most, they could wade in the shallow water, but anything that required swimming would have taken way more skills than they had. This boating experience was safe, though. It didn't require you to do more than just sit, relax, and take in the experience. Here's a few pictures of people doing just that. The girls took pictures of the experience, including a bunch of wild monkeys at this park, and then they traveled up the East Coast to Titusville. That's where they got a room at the Quality Inn close to Kendi Space Center, and this is a very famous tourist attraction. It is where the NASA Space Shuttle and the rockets launch. And at this point, I really think they probably tried to get a good night's sleep. Because the next day, on Monday, May 29th,

That was the first day that they would spend in the magical city of Orlando, Florida. Home to Disney World, and it's definitely not a theme park you can see in one day. They actually planned to spend the next few days going to each park like MGM, Epcot Center, Pleasure Island, and more. Their girls were headed right to International Drive, which is a famous stretch of highway packed with attractions, hotels, and restaurants. It's a tourist dream. Joe had a Quest International discount card for 50% off a $60 room

at the Gateway Inn. This was a two-story motel. It had a mini golf course out front, and it was close to everything. Once they got settled in, Joe wrote a postcard back home to Howe. She told him all about their adventures and how much fun they were having, but how exhausted she was from running around at 36 years old with two energetic teenagers. She wrote about how they spent the night in Titusville the night before and how they were leaving for SeaWorld, then Disney for the next three nights. She told Hal about the weather, how it was humid, very high. She said 89% and she wrote, Kids are having a great time dragging me everywhere, saw a silver springs and went on a glass bottom boat. At the end of the postcard, she wrote, better go get Christy out of bed. Love you,

take care. Don't work too hard. Michelle also sent out a postcard, not to her dad, but to her boyfriend Jeff. Remember, it was Jeff's birthday in a few days and Michelle, she chose a pretty cute, but funny card. It was a postcard with a bikini-clad woman on all fours with her rear end right near the open jaws of a huge gator. It was cheeky and it said fun times in Florida, completely fitting, I must say. Michelle wrote, hi, how's everything with you? I'm doing great. Yesterday we went to the zoo in Jacksonville. I was visiting my relatives and I found Jeffrey, you. Later we went to Silver Springs and rode on a glass bottom boat. Today we're going to go to the beach and And then to SeaWorld.

You have fun at work and behave yourself. Have a great birthday. I'll be thinking of you. I miss you. Love you. That was the plan. They went out to experience SeaWorld and spend time getting some sun at the beach, taking pictures the entire time,

going through roles and rolls of film, capturing every moment they could, just taking it all in, having the time of their lives. Tuesday, May 30th, they went to the Magic Kingdom. It was their first day at Disney. Wednesday, the 31st was Epcot.

By Thursday, the 1st of June, they were leaving their hotel for their next stop, Tampa. At this point, Christy sent out a postcard to a friend. Hers said, hey, honey, I hope you're having fun. Not bad here. Very hot. Heard it was cool there. We went to the zoo, Silver Springs, Disney, MGM, SeaWorld, and Epcot. Talk to you soon.

And at the bottom, I thought this was cute. She said, great-looking guys. I'll tell you about them, Chris. You really get to see how all of these women's personalities were. I feel like I get to know each and every person I talk about in these videos, and that's why I like finding all of these details. They plan to visit Bush Gardens next, which I'd say is a must-see for vacationers. It has roller coasters, animals, a food and wine festival, and a lot of fun shows.

They arrived at the days in at Rocky's Point at 12.30 p.m. and checked in. They had a nice room. It was on the second floor. It was a basic room, had the tropical decor, two double beds. It was room 251 and from their balcony was a view of the parking lot. But beyond that, they could see Tampa Bay. And it was beautiful. The first thing Michelle did was called Jeff.

It was around 12, 37 p.m. because it was his birthday and she promised she would call to wish him a happy birthday and to catch up on all the awesome things that they were doing in Florida. Jeff had been working at the time. And Michelle, she had actually scheduled a delivery of flowers and balloons to the gas station that he worked at. That's just the type of person she was. She was excited to ask him, hey, did you receive your gifts? And although Jeff was a little bashful about getting such an outward display of affection, he was very appreciative. The lovebirds went on to talk for about 10 minutes with Christy and Joe saying hi in the background

and Michelle telling Jeff their plans for the day. She said that she really, really wanted to go to the beach, but that Joe was being difficult because she was worried about them being too close to the ocean with such deep waters. This was one of the last days they would spend in Florida, and they planned to be back on the farm by either Saturday or Sunday at the latest. Joe had to be back to work for her midnight shift on Monday. And Hal would be anxiously waiting for their return. But that's the thing.

By Sunday night, the girls were still. not back in Ohio. At first, Hal didn't think much of it. Maybe they were running behind. It was their very first trip like this. Maybe they were tired and they'd probably make it back sometime in the middle of the night. But by Monday morning, there was still no sign of them. Hal started to become concerned. Joe was a dedicated worker. She would never miss a shift without giving notice. And if she was planning to be gone longer, she would have called Hal to just let her. him know. At this point, he was sure that they got into a car accident. There just would not be any other reason that they wouldn't be back. So Hal began to call Joe's friends and family to see if

anyone heard from her, but everyone said they had not. At this point, he is concerned. He goes down to the local Van Wirt Sheriff's Office and also contacted the Ohio Highway Patrol. He wanted to see if any accidents had been reported, but there weren't any. And meanwhile, he was Jeff keeps calling the farmhouse. He's asking, is Michelle home yet? And Hal's getting increasingly worried. He's relaying the message to Jeff that no, the girls had not returned. That's when Jeff explained he had just received a postcard from Michelle.

It took that long to get there. And Howe wanted to see it in case there was something written that could guide them to where the women went. So Jeff went over there and they both looked over the postcard for anything that stood out to them. But nothing did. By Wednesday, June 7th, Hal decided he would somehow have to retrace their path. Maybe he would find their car off on the side of the road with the girls stranded. He felt helpless. He was trying to formulate a plan.

He didn't know what to do. But what Hal didn't know was that he was about to get a visit from a police officer and finally get some answers. But before I get to that, I've got to go back a few days and a thousand miles. It was early in the morning on Sunday, June 4th in Tampa, Florida. The weather was perfect for boating on the bay. A pleasure boat named Amber Waves was going underneath the Bob Graham Sunshine Skyway Bridge when one of the occupants saw something in the water that caught their eye. This bridge itself has a history, and it's not full of sunshine like the name suggests.

It's located on the lower Tampa Bay and connects St. Petersburg, Florida, with another part of Florida. This is a big bridge. It's four miles long, 430 feet high, and 94 feet wide. It consists of four traffic lanes, and it has those cables in the center of the bridge. It's got a dark history. This current one was opened in 1987, but the first version, which was a little smaller, but not by much. It was still a very large bridge. It opened on September 6, 1954.

However, just nine years before the second version was opened, The original bridge partially collapsed. It happened on May 9th, 1980, after a boat struck one of its beams. 35 people plunged into Tampa Bay and died. There was only one survivor. That is horrifying. But there's even more dark history related to this bridge. It's estimated that at least 316 people had died by jumping from the current bridge or its predecessor right into the Tampa Bay waters.

Other people are suspected of. jumping from the bridge to their deaths, but they've never been confirmed because their bodies have never been found. Due to the high number of self-inflicted attempts on this bridge, Florida installed six crisis hotline phones and began a 24-hour patrol in 1999. But on that June day in 1989, a decade earlier, something was in the water under that bridge. Someone on that boat yelled, it looks like a body. At around 9.15 a.m., they radioed the Coast Guard right to away. The amber waves continued to circle this object until the Coast Guard arrived on the scene 23 minutes later at around 9.39 a.m. The captain wanted to make sure that this object wouldn't get

carried away by the current. It didn't take long for authorities to realize this was not a mannequin. Is it ever? It was a human body. It was floating face down in the water. Nearly all of the bodies that are pulled from Tampa Bay have been drowned swimmers or victims. of boating accidents. So it was assumed that this victim could have possibly jumped from the bridge or fallen overboard on a boat. It's tragic either way. However, once one of the four crew members from the Coast Guard was able to retrieve the body from the water, he realized that this was something entirely different. This was murder. How did he know? It was evident by the yellow rope that was tied around the victim's neck and on the other end a cement cinder block. He caught the rope

to release the body from the makeshift anchor. Had the weather been cooler, this body may have sunk into the bottom of the bay, never to be found. But the hot summer sun heated up the water, causing the body to become full of gases as it decomposed. This made it rise to the surface cinder block and all. It was a devastating discovery. It was obvious that the body was a female. She had no clothing on below the waist. Her hands were tied behind her back with the same yellow rope and her feet were as well. They were tied together at the ankles and there was duct tape across her mouth. It was also apparent that the body had been in the water for quite some time according to the bloating as well as the blackened discoloration. The female was unrecognizable, but it was believed that she could have been in

her late to mid-20s or early 30s. Homicide Detective Jim Capel was called out to the scene, but before he arrived, the Coast Guard had been alerted again. At 10.06 a.6 a.m., this time a sailboat called the Susie had spotted something bobbing in the water to the north of where the body had been located. Just two miles southwest of the pier. It couldn't be another body, could it? That's what the caller thought it was. But before the crew could go out there, they continued their mission to get the first body down, to the station at St. Petersburg by 1038. Just as Detective Capel was assisting the Coast Guard

crew to retrieve the apparent second body, a third call came in from aboard the Charlie, just 200 yards away. They had just retrieved two more victims from the bay. This was unbelievable. What in the world was happening? How could there be three people killed the same way? They didn't know who these poor women were, but they could tell that all three of them had been murdered. And it seemed that they were all connected because all three of them had the same yellow rope around their necks, the 30-pound cinder block on the opposite end to weigh them down, tape across their mouths, and their arms tied behind their backs with their feet tied together. The second and the third victim looked a bit younger than the first victim due to the type of jewelry they were wearing.

Victim number one was dubbed Jane Doe One. She was wearing one single gold wedding band. The second victim, Jane Doe number two, who was also not clothed from the waist down, had a ring on every finger of her left hand and one ring on her ring finger of her right hand. She had actually been able to get one of her hands free from the ropes and start to remove the tape from her mouth. This indicated that she was alive when she was thrown into the water. Dengdo number three had three colorful friendship bracelets on her left wrist and a friendship ring on her ring finger of her right hand and a ring on her left ring finger. She was also naked from the waist down. Because of this fact, authorities believed that all three of the victims had been sexually battered.

There was a full-blown search going on. Boats, helicopters, divers. They were trying to make sure there weren't more bodies left behind. They also had the challenge of the worst conditions. for a crime scene. Water. It washes away evidence. But the detectives and the search teams were determined to find any clues they could. As the bodies were brought back to the shore, they were photographed while officers tried to identify them, but they weren't carrying any forms of identification. They were only partially clothed after all. There was no way to determine who they were.

They couldn't just take a picture of their faces and release them to the public because of the extreme decomposition. And they couldn't even do sketches because these individuals no longer looked like they used to. All of these Jane Doe's were transported to the medical examiner's office for autopsies. Fortunately, they were able to take their fingerprints, but when they ran them through the system, they did not get any hits. Here's what they knew so far. Jane Doe number one, the one with the wedding band, had long brown hair and was wearing a black t-shirt. Jane Doe number two, The one whose left hand had managed to get free, she had long wavy brown hair and had a black shirt over a blue bikini top. Jane Doe No. 3. The one with the three friendship bracelets had medium-length golden brown hair and was wearing a peach-colored shirt.

Because of the condition of the bodies and the fact that they had been submerged in the water, no DNA could be recovered to determine whether they had in fact been victims of forced intercourse. but that seemed to be the motive for this crime. The person or persons who did this had most likely thrown the women into the water to cover up what they had done to them. The cause of death was determined not to have been from blunt force trauma like a beating and it wasn't from a shooting

and they hadn't been stabbed. There actually weren't any apparent marks on their bodies at all. It was really hard to pinpoint the exact definite cause of death, but the closest the medical examiner could come was to conclude that their deaths were caused by a lack of oxygen and that their bodies had been in the water for at least three days. However, they had water in their lungs. And usually this signifies that they were alive when they went in that water and they drowned. However,

because of the current in that water and the time that they had spent in there and the rapid decomposition, it was hard to tell because water could have gotten into their lungs post-mortem. The next step in trying to identify them was to figure out where they went overboard. The Coast Guard had experts from the University of South Florida. They were marine science experts who were able to use technology to pinpoint where the drop point was according to the currents over the past week. Here you can see where they ended up by looking at this picture. Ultimately, it was determined that the bodies were too far from the shore to have been dropped from a dock or the shore itself. They believed that they were dropped from the middle of the bay or from the Gulf of Mexico. What I'm trying to say in a

way is that they were dropped from a boat, not off a dock somewhere. This was a big lead. Now detectives could try to search every marina in the area to find out if anyone saw these three women on a boat at any point. But this would not be an easy task. Meanwhile, the media jumped on this story as soon as the news broke. By the next morning, a news conference was being held by the local police department. And here's the kind of unusual way the police displayed the jewelry to the public. They put it on styrofoam food containers with hand-drawn pictures of the victim's hands, arms, fingers. But hey, it worked well enough to get the information out there. The Tampa Tribune posted pictures of the women's jewelry.

They were hoping that someone would recognize the items as belonging to a friend or a family member. That's where this picture is from. The article reported that nearly every lead that the officers investigated had to be a friend. fallen through at this point. Someone in Tampa had found a pile of bloody clothing and that seemed promising but the police responded and it was determined that those items had nothing to do with the murders. A sunken boat was discovered near where one of the bodies had been found. However, the owner came forward and told the detectives when this had happened and according to when the detectives believed that these three women were killed, it just didn't add up. They estimated

that they went in the water sometime around Friday, June 2nd. So this man, and his boat were cleared. Police did report that a tip came in. Someone said they saw three women hitchhiking, and they asked anyone with information to come forward, but nobody did. It was odd for as much coverage as this story was getting that no one was coming forward.

Three women, one seemingly married, going missing, would certainly set off some alarm bells. The detectives start to think, maybe these women are not from this area. Had they been on a pleasure cruise, Were they vacationing from out of town? They just didn't know. But it seemed more likely that they were not locals.

By Tuesday, June 6th, detectives were trying to locate hotels where the women may have been staying. News outlets began reporting about this, and that's when a lead came in. On June 8th, a maid comes forward. She worked at a nearby days in. She noticed that one of the rooms seemed to be abandoned. There were still women's belongings inside,

but she had never seen the guests. It looked like they hadn't even used the room, only put their things inside, but never even spent one night. The beds were still made, everything was still in his place. The next day, she went to her manager to report this, and the manager called the police.

It was room 251 on the second floor, and you already know who that room belonged to, the Rogers family. The police were given that information as well. They were told that the room had been reserved by Mrs. Joan Rogers and two additional guests had accompanied her, the manager believed the two other guests were her daughters. This was their biggest lead yet.

Officers from both Tampa and St. Petersburg were working this case because of the location where the bodies were found and where they went missing. The bodies were found in the waters of St. Petersburg. You can see St. Petersburg, it's next to Tampa, and the bay separates the two. But the hotel that they were checked into was in Tampa, so a task force of over two dozen officers was put together. Upon entering this hotel on Thursday, June 9th, three suitcases were seen inside. A purse was on the table and numerous other items were scattered throughout.

There were a lot of teen items, clothing, balloons, a ton of brochures from all over tourist locations like Jacksonville Zoo, SeaWorld, and bags from Disney World, along with various souvenirs. It's actually a sad sight to see. It's like everything was just frozen in time. There had been no signs of guests. No one slept in the beds. The shower and the bath had not been used. The towels were dry and no other items were disturbed. Room 251 was searched for prints and inspected with all the belongings bagged and numbered as evidence. When a fingerprint technician arrived at the days in, he was able to take fingerprints from an Oral B Sesame Street toothpaste tube in the bathroom, and he was quickly able to compare those prints

to the ones that he had from the Jane Does. The whole room went quiet when he shouted. It's them. This is their room. And I got the chills when I read this, especially when I saw a pair of many ears. I felt like crying. I felt this way knowing everything that I know about Michelle and Christy and Joe and how much they truly deserve this vacation, but they did not deserve what happened to them, but what had happened to them? How did all three of them end up in Tampa Bay floating to the top of the water after being thrown overboard from a boat? There were so many questions left unanswered, but at least one part of the mystery was solved. The three bodies found in the bay were those of the guests who checked in on June 1st. After finding Joe's identification in her,

purse, they knew the trio was from Ohio. Now Detective Capell had to notify their family. He called the Van Wert Sheriff's Office back in Ohio and he spoke to Officer Stan Owens, who knew the family. He was a close friend of the Rogers. Of course he was. This was a small, close-knit community. Officer Owens had actually been conducting a search of his own back in Ohio. He was calling around to different agencies across the state and elsewhere trying to find out if anyone had seen Joan and her two daughters. Now, Capelle had the names of Jane Doe, two, and three, Michelle and Christy Rogers. The pieces were really coming together, but this case was so far from being solved. It only gets more confusing and more twisted from here. Obviously, the fact that Sheriff

Owens knew how since high school and was familiar with all the Rogers girls, he had to go down there himself in person to relay this heartbreaking news to Hal face to face. Sometimes we hear this so many times. We don't realize the gravity of these conversations, but this was Hal's entire family. He would be all alone. His younger brother, now in prison, for the evil things that were done to his own daughter, who is now dead. He would truly be all alone.

Telling someone that their whole family is never coming back is unbelievable. It's unfathomable. to me. But as soon as Hal saw that sheriff's car pull up, he knew something wasn't right. And Hal was not a man of many words. And it was no different when he received the news. He just hung his head down and he shook it back and forth. It was so much to take in. He knew something must have happened. Joe and the girls they had kept in touch the entire trip, either calling, setting postcards, but it was radio silence since the weekend began. But I don't think anyone could have imagined that they had been murdered. Hal helped with the official identification of his family members. He provided

their dental records to the Florida detectives and ultimately they were able to use them to make a concrete match to the bodies that were found in Tampa Bay. Back in Florida, the crime scene technicians had collected several roles of film to have developed. They were thinking that these may have clues to what happened to the Rogers, that these pictures might show them something. and this was the most interesting thing to me. I'm a very visual person, and I was intrigued with how the investigators used the Rogers Family Vacation photos

combined with postcards and telephone calls to piece together their whereabouts as they traveled across Florida to each destination and hotel. Back then, pictures even had dates on them. You could tell when the photos were taken, and many times the dates were actually burned into the bottom of the photo.

This is how they had such a precise timeline of where Joe, Michelle, and Christy went on which day. They also pulled phone records at the hotels and they were able to get a timeline put together using that information. However, the camera was now missing. So clues to where the women went and who they were with on the day that they were killed wouldn't be able to be determined from looking at pictures. But they did have what they thought was some of the last pictures taken that day. And I will show you those in just a moment. It's very eerie. According to the information they gathered, it looked as though the Rogers checked in to the Days Inn Hotel around

noon on June 1st. Phone records show that Michelle called Jeff, remember, it was 12, 37 p.m. And after that, records show that someone from that room made a call to Bush Gardens theme park. When they checked into the hotel, Joe had to get a parking pass. So she had to tell the hotel her registration information, including the car make, model, color, license plate number, and the investigators now had that information and were looking for this vehicle. They put a blow out and they were interviewing anyone at the hotel to see if anyone had seen these women. They got a list of every single person who stayed at that hotel for the past week from the day the women checked in until the present, including any vehicles that were registered to those people.

This was a full-blown investigation and they were leaving no stone unturned. And as a matter of fact, speaking of stones, remember the cinder blocks. The investigators were even analyzing the cement cinder blocks found at the end of the ropes tied around Michelle and Christie's necks. They didn't have the one that was on the other end of Joes because it was cut off to pull her to shore. However, the two that they did have were entirely different in style and they had scientists test the actual cement to try to determine where they were from. But they did not have any luck with that. Since they knew the women had to have been on a boat, they wanted information. about any boats that could have been docked nearby or been parked at the hotel on a trailer.

This was a lot to pull together since they had no idea what kind of boat they were looking for or how the women got on it. But they were about to get a big clue. They found the car. It didn't take long. Once they had that description, its location was close by and very chilling, but also very telling. They're getting closer to understanding the women's last move. The sky blue Oldsmobile Calais was found parked three miles away, down Route 60 of Courtney Campbell Causeway, and I'll show it to you on the map. It's about a six-minute drive from where their hotel would have been. Super easy to get there. All they had to do was turn left out of their hotel, make a slight left onto a causeway, and then turn right and follow it about a couple miles down, and they would see a ramp

before they get to the bridge. There's actually a place called Sunset View on this causeway. This is the place that you'd want to set sail to get the best view. You could see a sign for the boat ramp right here. This is where they would have turned in and parked. Here is the boat ramp. The car was parked approximately in this location, looking out to the water. Here's a picture of what the car looked like when it was found. Do you see what's in the back window?

It's a little cow. A reminder of their life back on the farm, and that broke my heart. These girls just wanted to have fun. They were having the time of their life. They expected to see a pretty sunset when they parked their car at this boat ramp. Someone lowered them here under false pretenses. But who? The car was locked, but when they looked inside, they could see that the front passenger seat was pushed forward.

This indicated that someone had come out of the back seat. One of the girls. They thought all three women got on this boat together. Well, more clues come to light when they're able to get inside Joe's car. they had a towed to the crime lab where they went through it with a fine tooth comb. As you would expect, it had the remnants of a long car ride, lots of brochures, maps, handwritten directions, and Uno card game. There was even a puzzle in the backseat. But something stood out to them.

Because of what it was written on, days in stationery from the last hotel they were checked into, out of everything else in the car, this looked like the most recent set of. of directions. It was sitting on the front passenger seat. It said turn right, west on 60. Two and a half miles on the right side, alt before bridge. Then next to that writing, it said, blue with white. I have pictures of this. Here is this stationary. It's on the front seat. It's as though someone placed it there as they got out of the car. It's directions to this exact location from their hotel. The investigators believed blue and white was the color of the boat that they were looking for. Wow. They were able to determine that this handwriting belonged to Joe.

Someone had given her these directions and she wrote them down. But again, who? Now the police go public with this information, the description of the car, the boat, asking the public to come forward with any information. And this case was huge at the time. As you can probably imagine, the entire state and beyond was interested in this case. It was unbelievable. Three family members murdered while they're on a Disney vacation in the city where magic happens. Well, as soon as they went public with this new information, they kind of regretted it because they had 500 calls come in, and not one of them led to anything productive. They had someone call in and say they thought they saw the car parked there at 2 p.m. A woman said, I recall my husband commenting on the Ohio

plates. However, when they examined those pictures that I told you about, the pictures they believe were the last ones ever taken, the investigators believed it was much later when those women arrived at the boat ramp. The reason was the timing of the last photos that I told you I would show you, well, here they are. This one is of Michelle. It kind of looks like she was caught off guard. Her hair is wet, either from a recent shower or possibly swimming, but we know that they don't go into water above their head. So investigators assumed it was a shower. She was also getting dressed in the picture. Recall she was found wearing a black shirt with a blue bikini top underneath. She's wearing that blue bikini top in this photo and the black shirt she hadn't put on yet.

Those white shorts and those white shoes were never found. Most likely they were thrown into the water or taken by her killer to be disposed of later on. The other photo is from the hotel balcony. You can see the parking lots, and then beyond that to the left is the bay with the palm tree, some power lines, and the sunset. This told investigators, the women were still in that hotel room when the sun was starting to set. So they looked up when darkness would have fallen, and they believed that these pictures were taken some time between 7.30 and 8 o'clock p.m. Sunset cruises were very popular. It's something that this area is known for. One of the prettiest type of pictures that you can take while your vacation,

on the bay is to get in a boat at sunset and to get the perfect picture of the sun kissing the water. It's just so sad because the investigators find an opened package of film and they believed that that had just been inserted into the camera right before the women left to get on that boat. These last couple of pictures that were taken were essentially just to use up the last roll of film so they could put a new one into the camera to capture the most beautiful sunset. sunset. This timeline was confirmed by a man that was staying at the hotel. He comes forward and says, I was eating dinner. I was at the hotel restaurant and three women came in around 7 p.m. He remembers, because they were all laughing, they were having a good time. And he said the older daughter actually looked at him. She stopped. She looked over. She smiled. And she said, hi. And he matched the description of these women to what he saw in the news. Just as the investigators were following this

looking for every single white and blue boat registered in that area, which was basically every single boat in existence because this was a very common color combination. They get information about something that pulls them in an entirely different direction, something that seems too perfect to be a mere coincidence. They get word regarding John Rogers and what he did to his niece, Michelle, and Ohio sheriff relayed all of the information about John's case to the Florida team, including the fact that records show he had been in Manatee County just a few miles south of where the boaters found the bodies of Joe Christie and Michelle. Over the years,

John and House parents took winter vacations in a trailer park in Florida. And only months before these murders, John had stayed there for several weeks before going to prison. The detectives wondered if John had recruited a hitman to kill his brother's family. Why? Well, they thought, was this to that Shell could never testify against him in the future, he had been in prison serving time for the previous incident when the murders actually occurred. However, the Florida investigators were flying to Ohio to go through all of his letters that he wrote in prison, his calls, everything. But the more they looked into the likelihood that John orchestrated these murders, it seemed highly unlikely. According to the inmates that were living with John, he didn't have any friends

coming there. There was no way he was going to plan a murder. He even had any friends on the inside or the outside. And having no one on the outside to carry it out made a triple homicide even more unlikely. He couldn't have done it without someone to assist him. It turned out that John Rogers had only received one recent visitor and it was his mom. She came to see him in April. This was before Joe and the girls had even planned their trip. And after the murders, John did make a phone call. It was to his parents on Father's Day, but that seemed completely normal and he hadn't received any suspicious letters. Phone records, show he never even made any long-distance phone calls since the murders occurred.

But this is when someone else gets on their radar. Hal Rogers. Remember, he was the one that bailed his brother out of jail when he was initially arrested. And wasn't it Hal that told his family to go and take a vacation? And then he stayed behind? He knew there was no one to watch over the farm. His brother had already been in prison. So wasn't it a little odd that all of a sudden he used that as an excuse not to go? Plus, the locals, they didn't think he was grieving.

He was still working on the farm, just as usual. It's true, though. People do grieve in different ways, but it seemed way too connected not to look into it. It was time to pay a visit to Hal. When they interview him, he insisted he was not involved. He explained he bailed his brother out before he knew anything about what he had done to his daughter,

but still the fact that he was under suspicion for attacking another young woman, and yet Hal still bailed him out, well, it was his brother. He explained he decided to fulfill his promise to his brother and post the bond only after John agreed to sell half of his portion of the farm to him and never return. I don't know. It sounds reasonable, I guess. Then investigators find out that Hal withdrew $7,000 in cash from his bank account just two days after his family hadn't come home.

It looks as though he might have been possibly paying someone for carrying out these murders, doesn't it? That's what the investigators thought. Hal was their first official suspect. But Hal had a reason for everything. He said, look, I knew I was going to have to retrace their path. I was going to have to pay to have a plane fly over. I was going to need cash to travel and to figure everything out. He said he didn't have credit cards because he didn't believe in them.

And he told the investigators, all he was doing was trying to conduct his own investigation and that the money had never been used. It was still in an envelope in his truck and they found it on the dashboard. But still, investigators had to ask around. Jeff, Michelle's boyfriend, had just been told about the tragedy. He had been calling again and again asking Hal, are they home yet? Right after Hal received the news from Sheriff Owens, Jeff had called to ask if Michelle was back. And Jeff said that Hal sounded really odd. almost furious. He kind of yelled at Jeff asking like, who is this? And Jeff was confused. He's like, it's Jeff. Is Michelle home? And Hal just lost it. He broke down and he said,

they're not coming home. And Jeff was confused. He's like, what do you mean? What do you mean they're not coming home? Had they skipped town? But Hal finally told him exactly what happened. And Jeff was completely distraught. He took out all of his pain by punching a hole in the door of his basement. He also got right in his truck and drove over to the farm, and that's when he said he saw Hal just tending to the animals as usual, which he thought was odd, considering the news that this man just got. However, investigators realized that this was just the way it was for Hal. He was just trying not to think about what happened to his family. It didn't make him guilty of causing it. While the Tampa detectives were in Van Wirt County, funeral services were being held for Joe, Christy,

and Michelle. Their bodies were finally transported from Florida back to Ohio, and they were buried at their local church, the Zion Lutheran Church. This was sad to me, but this pastor, he usually got someone from the community to help dig graves. But when it came to having to do this for Joe, Christy, and Michelle, this man was like, I can't. You need to go find someone else. This is just way too close to home. He had known Hal Rogers and his wife and his daughters for decades. He was one of Hal's closest friends. He watched Michelle and Christy grow up and he just knew he wasn't going to be able to do it. He couldn't dig the graves that they would go into forever.

And what I found even more moving and sad was when I read about how Joe, Christy and Michelle's loved ones, were initially really worried about how to dress the women in their final funeral service. it hadn't really occurred to them that they were so decomposed. They weren't going to have an open casket. They realized they're going to be closed, and that's when the top of clothing was just the last thing on their minds. That is so tough.

I know that we hear about these types of cases all the time. We have an understanding about what these bodies might have looked like. I've been looking at the actual pictures, and these are images that I will never get out of my head. But these people from this small town, they had never experienced anything like this. They had no idea. And it's not something that a loved one should ever have to see.

Because Hal couldn't see the bodies since the state of decomposition they were in, he had no idea if it was his family that were inside these coffins. He was left solely to rely on the coroner's report for confirmation, since Hal hadn't seen or touched the bodies of his wife. He wasn't able to say goodbye and he had a hard time coming to terms with their loss. Being able to see them in their last moment saying goodbye, that provides closure and acceptance. But grieving is much more difficult when you can't do that. Hal knew that once he were to put up grave markers where Michelle, Joe, and Christy were buried,

it would truly mean that his family had died. So he just refused to do this for a very long time.