The Manatee County Sheriff’s Office wanted to find a body.
Sabine Musil-Buehler disappeared Nov. 4, 2008.
She had welcomed the community into her heart and to Haley’s Motel, which she co-owned with husband Tom Buehler, for annual Haleyweens but she was nowhere to be found after the night of Barrack Obama’s election.
William J. Cumber, 48, confessed to her murder Oct. 15, 2015 — but not before thousands of hours of manpower and resources went into the Anna Maria Island case.
“In a perfect world, if we would have found the body, got the conviction, instead of 20 years, he’d be doing life,” said former MCSO Homicide Detective John Kenney, who headed the seven-year investigation into the disappearance of Musil-Buehler.
Though MCSO came up empty on four searches on the island — in November 2008 on the beach at Magnolia Avenue, Anna Maria; July-August 2011 two blocks north on the beach at Willow Avenue; and two searches at bayside locations in Anna Maria — the detective maintains they were worth it.
Public safety was the primary concern.
“What we were looking at was a guy who, when he wants to be, he is charming, and good looking. What we didn’t want was him to get out and take advantage of another female,” he said.
Finding the body could’ve upped the charge to first degree murder and made the prosecution easier.
“But it was like finding a needle in the haystack. I’m very proud of the sheriff’s office to commit the resources,” he said.
Even without the body, evidence grew as results came in from experts and witnesses.
“And the closer it got to trial, the more he wanted to make a deal,” Kenney added.
A retrospective look at the evidence and the story of Musil-Buehler will be published in the Nov. 3 edition of The Islander.