UPDATE:
The mystery of an Anna Maria motel owner who went missing on election night 2008, is unraveled on Dateline NBC. In case you missed it…. we’ve provided links below:
There are several videos related to the story on Dateline. One is “Remembering Sabine: “A Very Free Spirit”
http://www.nbcnews.com/
A turtle story…. Sea Turtle Run
http://www.nbcnews.com/
Tom’s Friends Defend His Innocence
http://www.nbcnews.com/
“Don’t watch it alone.”
Airing at 10 p.m. Friday, Feb. 19, a “Dateline” episode with NBC correspondent Keith Morrison will unravel a seven-year Anna Maria Island mystery — and new insights — for a national audience.
While island readers may be familiar with the story outcome, the chilling advice in the show’s tagline might be something to revisit in about 13 years and eight months — in October 2029, when Sabine Musil-Buehler’s killer, William J. Cumber III, again may be free.
In return for a 20-year sentence, on Oct. 15, 2015 —nearly seven years after Musil-Buehler’s Nov. 4, 2008, disappearance and before a November trial where he faced a life sentence — Cumber confessed to the killing and took authorities to where he buried her body.
A medical examiner confirmed the remains were Musil- Buehler’s the next day.
Cumber confessed to striking Musil-Buehler twice and choking her to death in their Anna Maria apartment on the night of the 2008 U.S. presidential election. He led investigators to a shelter near the 81st Street beach access in Holmes Beach, where Musil-Buehler’s remains were unearthed.
“Dateline” producer Bob Gilmartin said it was the ongoing in-depth account of Musil-Buehler’s disappearance in The Islander, combined with the photography of Jack Elka and both his friendship and business relationship with Tom and Sabine, as well as the community insights of Islander publisher Bonner Joy, that brought “Dateline” to the story.
Gilmartin did advance interviews, both by phone and in person, and visited the scenes detailed in the stories with the lead detective, John Kenney, former head of the MCSO homicide unit and previously — at the time of Musil-Buehler’s disappearance — head of the MCSO-substation in Anna Maria.
Kenney was determined to solve the mystery before his retirement from the MCSO.
One of the investigators led by Cumber to the body, Manatee County Sheriff’s Detective Jeffrey Bliss, as well as Kenney, were among those interviewed and recorded by “Dateline” crews on Anna Maria Island in January and February.
Kenney said “Dateline” spent several hours filming the beach — including near Magnolia and Willow avenues — showing where the MCSO dug up the beach in its search for Musil-Buehler’s body.
Morrison arrived for two days Feb. 4-5 to interview the local story contributors and record scenes on Anna Maria Island.
Kenney reviewed for “Dateline” the people interviewed in his investigation and how he kept Musil-Buehler’s family in Germany informed of the MCSO’s investigation.
Since the early 2000s and until she went missing, Musil-Buehler operated Haley’s Motel in Holmes Beach with husband Tom Buehler. They had been separated by the time of her death and each had moved on to other relationships but they continued to run the motel together.
Haley’s, still owned by Buehler, is a one-block walk from the beach where we now know Cumber carried her body to the beach.
Cumber’s confession ended seven years of speculation about the haunting whodunit.
Her disappearance complicated life for Buehler as they held business and real estate together. He filed a lawsuit in 2009 asking the court to declare her dead for life insurance purposes, but it was put on hold for several years. A presumptive death certificate was issued in February 2014.
After the confession, Manatee County Sheriff Brad Steube said Cumber was the only suspect all along.
MCSO public information officer Dave Bristow confirmed Feb. 10 that Buehler was never a suspect.
“Maybe to the island he was,” he added.
Kenney said he fully vetted Buehler and that “all the evidence,” DNA, blood found in the apartment and Musil-Buehler’s car, which Cumber used to drive her body to the beach access, and a parking ticket issued on Gulf Boulevard near the beach in Anna Maria the night of her disappearance, pointed to Cumber.
Kenney and Bristow also confirmed Buehler had an alibi for the night of the murder — like his estranged wife was thought to be, he had been at an election night party.
Cumber is in prison at Lake Correctional Institution in Clermont, near Orlando.
His earliest possible release is Oct. 11, 2029, considering time served and gain time reductions, according to Florida Department of Corrections public information officer Reina Praxedes.