One of the best-trained cadaver-sniffing dogs in Florida was unable to give Manatee County Sheriff’s Office detectives any fresh leads last week in the search for evidence in the case of missing Holmes Beach motel-owner Sabine Musil-Buehler.
Bones, a German shepherd, was brought in by Osceola County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Kristy Brewer at the request of MCSO Sgt. John Kenney. Bones sniffed the area at the Gulf end of Willow Avenue for about three hours Aug. 2 and again Aug. 3, as well as the beach end of Park Avenue, but without results.
Brewer and Bones also searched the beach areas in front of the accesses, but again without success.
Kenney said Bones is considered one of the best cadaver-sniffing dogs in the state and was used by police on the recent Casey Anthony case in Orlando. Kenney got the canine team on loan from the OSCO to help with the Musil-Buehler case.
Bones, Brewer and MCSO deputies continued the search last week, but were unable to uncover any more clues in Musil-Buehler’s disappearance in early November 2008.
In July this year, resident Ed Moss was clearing out some invasive plants adjacent to his home in an overgrown area of the city park — at the beach end of Willow — when he discovered some personal items of Musil-Buehler’s in the brush.
That discovery prompted MCSO investigators to search the Willow Avenue beach area for more than two weeks. Several areas of the beach were scoured and dug up using tractors, but revealed nothing for detectives.
The search ended last week, and investigators turned to plans to re-interview William Cumber, Musil-Buehler’s boyfriend at the time she disappeared and a person of interest in the case.
Musil-Buehler was co-owner of Haley’s Motel in Holmes Beach and was last seen by Cumber on the evening of Nov. 4, 2008, at the Magnolia Avenue apartment they shared in Anna Maria. Cumber, who provided authorities with her last known whereabouts, said Musil-Buehler left that night following an argument. Her car was later stolen from a parking lot at a Bradenton tavern and recovered by the MCSO.
Cumber is in prison for violating terms of his probation on an unrelated 2005 arson conviction.