Oba Chandler

Oba Chandler (October 11, 1946 in Cincinnati, Ohio - November 15, 2011 in Raiford, Florida) was an American convicted murderer who was executed in Florida for the murders of Joan Rogers and her two teenage daughters. The women's bodies were found floating in the Tampa Bay, Tampa in June 1989. They had been bound and gagged and then tossed into the bay with concrete blocks tied to their necks while still alive.
Billboards where at the later stages of the investigation used in trying to find however did the murders, the billboards that was spread all over Tampa had pictures of the Rogers women and a picture of the hand-writing of the suspected triple murderer. This method had never been used before, and became useful in searches for missing people later on.
Chandler was arrested in September 1992. He was put on trial where he was found guilty of the murders by a 12-member jury. On November 4, 1994 he was sentenced to death by a deadly injection by the judge in the case. Before his execution, Chandler was locked up at Union Correctional Institution in Florida. Author Thomas French in 1998 won the Pulitzer Prize for his article series Angels & Demons which told the story of the murders.
Background
Early life
Oba Chandler was born in Cincinnati in the state of Ohio. He was the fourth of five children. His parents were Oba Chandler Sr. and Margaret Johnson. At the age of 10, Chandler's father Oba Chandler Senior hanged himself in the Chandler family's basement. This upset Oba so much that he jumped into his father's grave during the funeral in 1957 while gravediggers were covering the coffin with dirt. Afterwards, Oba's life spun out of control and he was arrested many times and had been arrested 20 times by the time he was a teenager. As an adult, he was charged with a long list of crimes, including theft, having fake money, burglary, kidnapping and armed robbery. Chandler would also father a total of eight children before his arrest, the latest one being Whitney born in February, 1989 with his wife at the time Debra Chandler. Between May and September 1991 Chandler worked as an informant for the US customs Tampa office, at the same time as Tampa police investigated the Rogers family triple murder.
Facts of the murders
Joan Rogers and her two daughters, Michelle (17 years of age) and Christe (14 years of age) left their family dairy farm on May 26, 1989 in Willshire for a vacation in Florida.
They had never before left the state of Ohio. On their last day in Florida they became lost and drove into Tampa to ask for directions to the nearest hotel, in a store they came across Oba Chandler and asked him. It is thought that he saw the Ohio state car license plates on Joan's car and used that as means to ask the family to join him out for a boat trip later.
The discovery of the bodies
The women's bodies were discovered floating in the Tampa Bay on June 4, 1989 with bound hands and feet with concrete blocks tied to their necks and duct tape over their mouths. The first body was found floating over the Sunshine Skyway bridge when a sailboat on its way home to Tampa after a trip to Key West, had just crossed under the Sunshine Skyway when many people on board saw an object in the water. They soon realized it was a dead body of a female. Soon another body was found and yet another third body was also dragged out of the bay within an hour. All three bodies had been tied and gagged and had concrete blocks tied around their necks. Autopsies thought the women had been tossed into the bay while still alive.
Investigation
Subsequent investigaton
The Rogers women where identified a week after their bodies where found in the bay. A hotel maid had discovered that a hotel room had stood unused for several days. And when the reports about the murders started to leap into the media the hotel decided to contact investigators in the case. Soon it stood clear that it was indeed the families room after fingerprints where matched to those of the victims, some snaphots from a camera was also discovered in the room which showed where the family had traveled and also a last shot over Tampa Bay. This photo was taken just minutes before the Rogers women went out to meet Oba Chandler to go on a boat ride out on the bay.
Incriminating fact and arrest
The case remained unsolved and cold for several years, partly due to the volume of tips pouring in to the police who investigated the crime.
Chandler would not be arrested for the murders until September 24, 1992. His handwritten directions and palmprint on a brochure found in the Rogers' vehicle, along with a description of his boat written by Jo Rogers on the brochure, were the primary clues that led to his being named a suspect. Also, authorities had posted the handwriting from the brochure on billboards, which was historic as it was used for the first time in an attempt to find the unknown killer, and this led to a tip from a former neighbor who was able to provide a copy of a work order that Chandler had written. A handwriting analysis conclusively matched the two.
Sentence and aftermath
The Rogers women were all buried on June 13, 1989 after a funeral service at the Zion Lutheral Church in their hometown of Willshire, Ohio. About 300 people among them family and friends of the victims attended the service. Numerous police officers were also present to keep all news media and crews out of the church during the funeral service, this because of the huge media interest for the case by media at the time. Chandler was tried and found guilty of the murders, and sentenced to death on November 4, 1994. After sentencing, the jury forewoman commented regarding the death sentence that "They need to do this swiftly. The man is a mutation of a human being and he needs to be destroyed." In July 2008, it was revealed that Chandler was on Florida's short-list of executions.
Profiling experts believe that Chandler may have killed previously, based on the speculation that a first-time killer would not be experienced or bold enough to abduct and kill three women at once. Chandler remains a suspect in a 1982 murder of a woman found floating off Anna Maria Island, he is also a suspect in a rape case concerning a Canadian woman weeks before the Rogers women's murder. However, Chandler has never been charged with other murders. Chandler got an Institutional Adjustment disciplinary report on December 15, 2001, for disobeying orders in prison. All of Chandler's appeals since his 1994 conviction have been denied, the latest one in May 2007. Author Thomas French in 1998 won the Pulitzer prize for his article series Angels & Demons which told the story of the murders.
Execution
Oba Chandler was executed on November 15, 2011 with a lethal injection at 4:25 pm in Florida State Prison in Raiford, Florida.