Trash contains Musil-Buehler possessions
by Lisa Neff. Islander Reporter
Holmes Beach police investigated curbside trash on 61st Street after learning that the discarded items included photographs of missing motel-owner Sabine Musil-Buehler.
The investigation took place at about 8 p.m. June 8 in the 300 block of 61st St., according to a Holmes Beach Police Department incident report.
John Yates, 56, who lives on 56th Street in Holmes Beach, had collected from the 61st Street curb a red suitcase because, he told police, it was in good shape.
Yates took the suitcase to a friend’s home and looked inside.
He “found some suspicious items. There were numerous photos, business cards and other miscellaneous items belonging to Sabine Buehler,” the police report stated.
Yates, familiar with Musil-Buehler’s disappearance last fall, notified the police department and Officer Robert Velardi went to investigate, along with Manatee County Sheriff’s Office deputies working on the Musil-Buehler case.
Velardi found a garbage can containing German-language books. Musil-Buehler came to the United States from Germany, where family remains.
Velardi next talked with the man who lived at the residence, Joerg Intveen, 38, who said he put the books and the suitcase containing the photographs in the garbage.
Intveen said he is a friend of Musil-Buehler and that her husband, Tom Buehler, gave him the items “to go through them and keep what he wants.” At the time of her disappearance Nov. 4, Musil-Buehler and her husband were separated but still partners in Haley’s Motel.
Intveen said he did not want the items, so he threw them away.
MSCO investigators collected the items for “evidence purposes,” according to the report.
HBPD and the MCSO are working together on the multi-jurisdictional investigation.
Musil-Buehler was reported missing Nov. 6, 2008, after deputies arrested a man driving her stolen car, which contained small amounts of blood.
Her last known whereabouts were about 10 p.m. Nov. 4, 2008, when she argued with her boyfriend, William J. Cumber, and, according to him, left the Anna Maria home they had rented. Cumber is currently serving a 13.5-year prison sentence for violating his probation on a 2005 arson charge.
On Nov. 16, 2008, an arson fire destroyed a building at the Haley’s Motel complex.
Authorities have made no arrests in the arson case or in the disappearance of Musil-Buehler, which the MCSO months ago classified as a possible homicide.
In the months after Musil-Buehler’s disappearance, investigators searched various sections of the county, including digging on the beach in Anna Maria near Magnolia Avenue, but did not find clues to Musil-Buehler’s whereabouts.
Investigators also followed reported sightings of Musil-Buehler, including one said to occur at the Sarasota Bradenton International Airport, but the MCSO reviewed surveillance tape and detectives do not believe Musil-Buehler was at the airport, nor had her name appeared on any flight manifests.
The Manatee County Crime Stoppers is asking for tips in the case and has posted details of Musil-Buehler’s disappearance on its Web site at www.manateecrimestoppers.com. |
