Oba Chandler was the Florida Man who was convicted of three murder charges for the deaths of Joan Rogers, her teenage daughters and two other people. He denied all wrongdoing up until the day that he died.
According to the Tampa Bay Times, it took three years for the June 1990 killings, which included Rogers and two of her daughters, Michelle, 17, and Christie, 14, to be solved. Their bodies were discovered in Tampa Bay, with a yellow polypropylene cord tying their necks to concrete blocks.
Finally, Tampa police officers identified a suspect based on one of the few clues that he had left behind: His handwriting.
This week’s Fox True Crime Podcast features a detailed description of the exhaustive search for Chandler, with comments from those who were involved in the case.
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Oba Chandler (46 at the time) was charged with the murders Joan, Christie, and Michelle Rogers, after a woman, who had hired him to build aluminum enclosures, recognized his handwriting on a police billboard. (Fox 13 Tampa)
When they were found on June 4, 1989, Rogers and her daughters were all naked from the waist downwards and had their mouths glued shut. The autopsy indicated that the women died of asphyxiation. However, it was not clear whether they were drowned or strangled by the ropes.
Coroners estimate that their bodies were submerged in water for between 50 and 60 hours. This made it impossible to determine if had raped them.
The Rogers trio remained unidentified for nearly four days, until a Days Inn employee who had read the news about the horrifying discovery called the police to inform them that the Rogers trio never returned to the room where she worked.
The detectives learned that Rogers was vacationing with her daughters in Florida, while Hal Rogers stayed at the dairy farm of Joan and Hal Rogers in Willshire in Ohio.
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On June 4, 1989, three girls, aged 14 and 15, were discovered with their mouths taped closed and tied to cinderblocks in Tampa Bay.
Four days later, the police found Rogers’ abandoned vehicle at a boat launch parking lot located two miles away from Days Inn.
A tourist brochure was inside, along with a note written by hand on a piece of Days Inn paper directing the driver to the boat ramp. The note also mentioned a blue-and-white boat.
The Tampa Bay Times reported that detectives have released information on the watercraft. Although tips were pouring in, they did not lead to any progress in the investigation.
Oxygen.com reported that Hal Rogers cleared himself of any suspicions after an emotional interview. He said that John Rogers, Rogers’s brother, had abused Michelle, his oldest daughter. Out of fear of retaliation, the girl never reported it to the police.
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This sketch was distributed by the police after a Canadian woman reported being raped in a blue and white boat belonging to a man. The description of the boat was found on the handwritten directions that were left behind Rogers’ abandoned car. A man threatened her with tape and threw her into Tampa Bay if the woman didn’t comply.
At the time of John Rogers’ murders, he was in prison on charges of raping another Ohio woman. Detectives found that the man was not capable of committing or orchestrating the triple murder.
A break came when, in October 1989, a Canadian Tourist reported a man raped in her in May that year. This was just two weeks prior to the Rogers’ family being killed.
A woman reported to police that on May 15, a man approached her at Madeira Beach and offered her a sunset boat ride.
When they were on the bay he asked for sex. She refused, and he said he would tape her mouth shut, tossing her into the water.
She said that at some point the man informed her that he owned an aluminum siding company and lived just two hours away from Madeira Beach via boat.
The composite sketch based on the description of the Canadian woman was released to the public, but it did not yield any leads.
Detectives in May 1992 posted handwritten directions for the boat launch in Florida newspapers and billboards in hopes someone would recognize it.
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The police used billboards to display the faces of the victims. In 1992, the police began sharing the handwriting samples found in Rogers’ vehicle on billboards as well as in newspapers. (Associated Press)
A woman sent a fax copy of the contract signed by Oba Chandler who installed her aluminum enclosures.
A handwriting expert was able to match the new sample with the directions. His face also matched the 1989 composite sketch. According to Oxygen, the police also learned that Chandler was arrested as a child and later had arrests on felony charges for rape and kidnapping.
The police tracked Chandler to a nearby gas station when he returned home.
While detectives built a case against the June murders, he was charged with raping the Canadian tourist.
Chandler’s records of phone calls placed him at the scene on the water the night the Rogers family were killed. This convinced the district prosecutor to file murder charges with other circumstantial proof.
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Chandler, seen shortly before his execution in 2011 at the age of 65, maintained his innocence to his death. In a note he left on the day of his execution, Chandler wrote that “executors were killing a [sic] uninnocent man today.” ” (Associated Press)
Chandler, who was convicted of murder in 1994 and admitted to the jury that he had met the Rogers family as well as written out the directions for the crime on the day of the trial, maintained his innocence up until his death.
Chandler, when asked by a Fox 13 reporter in a jailhouse conversation why he avoided police for his entire life, replied: “My whole career has been running away from the police since 1969 when I first got arrested.” When I was a child, most of the time you weren’t arrested. Instead, when you were caught doing something you got beaten with sticks by police.
told the reporter that there was no proof to support his claim. “None. “Where is it?”
Chandler, 65 at the time of his execution in November 2011, said that he did not have any last words. According to the Tampa Tribune, Chandler instead handed corrections officers an handwritten note:
It read: “You are killing an innocent man today.”
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Ivelisse Beguerisse, 20, found strangled in Coral Springs, Fla. on November 27, 1990. Coral Springs Police Department in 2014 matched DNA of her post-mortem kit with Oba Chandler, but he was executed three years prior. Coral Springs Police Department
The Coral Springs Police Department reported in February 2014 that Chandler’s DNA matched the post-mortem kit from 20-year old Ivelisse Berrios.
Fox News Digital reported that her wrists, ankles, and hair had brown packing tape stuck to them.
According to Fox News Digital, department detective Brian Koenig stated that the family’s of Chandler’s 4th victim had mixed emotions after the discovery.
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Koenig stated that “they’ve got mixed feelings.” They’re happy to have closure and to know more about what happened. But having to go back to it 23 years later is obviously hard on them.