Joan Rogers and her two daughters were supposed to be driving home to Ohio after their Disney vacation. Instead, they got lost and ended up in Tampa, where they met a guy named Oba Chandler who offered to show them the most beautiful sunset from his boat. That was June 1st, 1989. Three days later, all three of them were found floating in Tampa Bay. Today we're talking about how a wrong turn, a sunset cruise, and some handwriting on a billboard solved one of Florida's most brutal family murders.

When a Father's Death Creates a Monster

You know how some kids grow up with fathers who are their absolute heroes? Well, Oba Chandler had one of those dads too. Until he was ten years old in 1957, when his father, Oba Sr., decided to end his own life in the basement of their Cincinnati home. Four kids watched their mother, Margaret Johnson, try to hold their family together after that. Oba was the second youngest, and when they lowered his dad's casket into the ground, this little boy literally jumped into the grave because he couldn't bear to let his father go.

That moment broke something in Oba Chandler that never got fixed.

The Making of a Career Criminal

By fourteen, Oba had figured out he was pretty good at stealing cars. The problem was, he was absolutely terrible at not getting caught. Twenty arrests as a juvenile will tell you everything you need to know about his criminal aptitude. But here's the thing about people like Oba - they don't learn from consequences. They escalate.

As an adult, his rap sheet read like a crime textbook: counterfeit money, burglary, kidnapping, armed robbery. There was even an incident where he was caught masturbating while peeping through a woman's window. But one particular crime really shows you what kind of predator he was becoming.

Oba and an accomplice broke into a Florida couple's home, held them at gunpoint, and robbed them. He told his partner to tie up the husband with speaker wire, then dragged the woman into the bedroom. He forced her to strip to her underwear, tied her up, and then - this is where it gets really twisted - he took his gun and rubbed the barrel along her stomach. Pure, sadistic dominance.

A Brief Military Stint

Oba tried the Marines for a hot minute, but people like him don't do well with authority. He deserted pretty quickly. After that, his life gets murky because he was constantly using fake names and made-up backstories. What we do know is that he worked as an aluminum siding contractor and somehow managed to father eight children with seven different women.

The Perfect Storm: A Family Vacation Gone Wrong

The Rogers Family's Dream Trip

By 1989, Oba was married and living in Tampa, Florida. He owned a boat - remember that detail, because it becomes crucial. That same year, Joan Rogers, 36, and her daughters, Michelle, 17, and Christe, 14, were vacationing in Florida while Hal Rogers, Joan's husband and the girls' father, stayed home to tend to their dairy farm in Wilshire, Ohio.

The girls had been through something traumatic back home. Michelle had been sexually assaulted by her uncle, and though charges were eventually dropped because she didn't want to testify, the whole ordeal had their small town talking. The Disney vacation was supposed to be an escape - a chance for Joan to help her daughters heal and have some fun.

They had a wonderful time at Disney World. But here's where everything went sideways.

A Wrong Turn Changes Everything

When it was time to head home to Ohio, Joan got lost. Instead of going north from Orlando, she went west and ended up in Tampa. Look, we've all been there - before GPS, getting lost was a legitimate life experience. Joan figured they'd extend their vacation a bit, so she needed directions to find a hotel.

That's when she met Oba Chandler.

The Sunset Cruise Invitation

Oba didn't limit himself to giving directions. He was a talker, and he started going on about how gorgeous the Tampa Bay sunset was and how the only way to really see it was from the water. Coincidentally, he happened to own a boat and would love to show them this breathtaking view.

Now, here's what made this particularly insidious. Chandler grew up in Ohio, the same state the Rogers family lived, and he definitely mentioned that during their conversation. Common ground builds trust, especially when you're talking to a nice family from back home.

The Rogers women didn't rush off to meet him at sunset. They took photographs from their hotel balcony as the sun began to set, grabbed dinner at the hotel restaurant around 7:30, and by 9 PM, they drove to the dock on the Courtney Campbell Causeway. Joan left a brochure in the car with Oba's handwritten directions - that detail becomes absolutely vital later.

The Horror on Tampa Bay

What Really Happened on the Boat

The victims died on June 1, 1989. What happened next can only be described as pure evil. At some point during what was supposed to be a peaceful sunset cruise, Oba tied up all three women. Autopsies later indicated that the cause of death was asphyxiation, either from drowning or the ropes around their necks.

The medical examiner determined that sexual assault had likely occurred, though the extended time in the water made definitive proof impossible. Then came the most horrific part - Oba tied concrete blocks to ropes, secured the other end around their necks, and threw them overboard. All three were still alive when they hit the water.

Joan's hands were tied behind her back, her ankles were tied together, and Michelle had somehow managed to free one hand before she drowned. Can you even process that? A seventeen-year-old girl fighting for her life underwater, managing to get one hand free but still unable to save herself or her family.

The Discovery

On June 4, 1989, the bodies of Joan, Michelle and Christe Rogers were found floating in Tampa Bay. The medical examiner determined they'd been in the water between 50 and 60 hours. Boaters discovered them pretty far apart from each other, all naked from the waist down with duct tape over their mouths and ropes still around their necks.

The Rogers family wasn't identified until a week later, when Hal Rogers had reported them missing back in Ohio. On June 8, a housekeeper at the Days Inn said the Rogers family's room had not been disturbed and the beds had not been slept in. Their car was found at the boat dock where they'd met Oba.

The Investigation: Three Years of Dead Ends

Following False Leads

For three years, investigators were stumped. They even suspected Hal Rogers' brother at one point, thinking he might have orchestrated the murders. But he was serving time for another rape, so that theory crumbled. Ironically, they discovered he had assaulted Michelle in the past, but that case was dropped when she refused to testify.

The 1991 Unsolved Mysteries episode suggested two suspects were involved, but that theory was wrong too. The case seemed impossible to solve.

The Breakthrough: A Pattern Emerges

The biggest break came from a Madeira Beach police bulletin that described a similar rape of a 24-year-old Canadian tourist that occurred two weeks before the Rogers' murders. This woman had survived because she had a friend waiting back at the dock. Her attacker had also promised her a sunset cruise before raping her.

Police finally had a description of their suspect and details about his method. They used this information, along with the handwriting sample from the brochure found in the Rogers' car, to create a massive billboard campaign across Florida.

The Handwriting That Solved Everything

Oba Chandler was arrested for the 1989 murders after one of the contractor's customers recognized his handwriting posted on Florida billboards. A former customer provided a work order with similar handwriting that led police directly to Chandler. They also lifted a palm print from the brochure that matched Oba perfectly.

By this time, Chandler had seen those billboards and panicked. He sold his boat and moved his family to Port Orange, near Daytona Beach. Too little, too late.

Justice Served: The Trial and Execution

The Arrest and Trial

On September 24, 1992, Oba Chandler was arrested and charged with the murders. At trial, he maintained his innocence, claiming he'd only given the Rogers family directions and that was the last he saw of them. When confronted with ship-to-shore phone records proving he was on his boat that night, he admitted to being out fishing.

The most damning testimony came from his own daughter, who revealed that Oba had talked about killing the three women and was afraid to return to Tampa.

During the trial, Chandler would sit in court with a smirk on his face, staring at the jury. On November 4, 1994, Oba Chandler was found guilty and sentenced to death. The jury forewoman had some choice words: "They need to do this swiftly. The man is a mutation of a human being and he needs to be destroyed."

The Final Chapter

After 22 years on Florida's Death Row, Oba Chandler was executed by lethal injection on November 15, 2011. His last meal? Two salami and mustard sandwiches, half a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and coffee.

The Fourth Victim: A Cold Case Solved

Ivelisse Berrios-Beguerisse

Remember when I said Oba had killed at least four people? On November 27, 1990, Chandler targeted newlywed Ivelisse Berrios-Beguerisse, 20, at the Sawgrass Mills Mall in Coral Springs, where she was employed at a sports store.

In 2014, investigators revealed that DNA evidence linked Oba Chandler to the rape and murder of Ivelisse Berrios in Coral Springs, Florida. After stalking her for two days, Chandler slashed her tires and pretended to come across the vandalism by chance, offering to help. He then abducted and strangled her.

This case remained unsolved for over twenty years until DNA technology finally connected the dots. Oba Chandler was already dead by then, but Ivelisse's family finally had answers.

The True Monster

While on death row, criminal profiling experts theorized that Chandler had likely killed before the Rogers family murders. His confidence in abducting three people at once suggested this wasn't his first rodeo. The Berrios case proved them right.

Oba Chandler was exactly what that jury forewoman said he was - a mutation of a human being. A predator who used charm and fake kindness to lure victims into his web. The death of his father when he was ten might explain how his darkness began, but it doesn't excuse what he became.

Four families were destroyed by one man's evil. Joan Rogers and her daughters deserved to come home from their Disney vacation. Ivelisse Berrios-Beguerisse deserved to build a life with her new husband. Instead, they all fell victim to a monster who saw other people as nothing more than objects for his twisted pleasure.

Sometimes the only justice is knowing that monster can never hurt anyone again.