Michelle Lee Rogers was 17 when she died on June 1, 1989, in Clearwater Beach, Pinellas County, Florida, while on vacation with her mother, Joan Mae Etzler Rogers, and younger sister, Christe Eugenia Rogers. The family, visiting from Ohio, accepted an offer from a local man at a gas station to take a sunset boat cruise; they decided to stay an extra night after getting lost.

Their bodies were recovered floating in Tampa Bay on June 4, 1989. All three were found half-naked, bound, and tied to 30-pound concrete blocks. Autopsies showed water in their lungs, indicating they were alive when drowned. Joan’s husband Hal Rogers was excluded as a suspect; he was confirmed to be in Ohio at the time.

Investigators linked a handwritten note found in Joan’s abandoned vehicle, which gave directions to the boat ramp, to a local contractor, Oba Chandler. Chandler was arrested in September 1992, later convicted in 1994 and sentenced to death. Chandler was executed on November 15, 2011.

Did anyone who knew the Rogers family or saw them in Florida in late May or early June 1989 notice anything unusual during their visit?