| “ | Is sex worth losing your life over? | ” |
— Chandler threatening Judy Blair
| ||
Oba Chandler is an ephebophilic serial killer, serial rapist, stalker, and abductor sentenced to death and eventually executed for the 1989 rape-murders of the mother and teenage daughters of the Rogers family. Chandler was posthumously linked by DNA to the 1990 rape-murder of Ivelisse Berrios-Beguerisse.
Background and Early Crimes[]
Born on October 11, 1946 in Cincinnati, Ohio, little is revealed about Chandler's childhood. He failed the fourth grade due to truancy, and his father, Oba Chandler, Sr., hanged himself when Chandler was ten. Chandler's sister Helen found Chandler Sr., and the family believed Chandler's mother Margaret Johnson killed him, so she wasn't at the funeral. Chandler jumped into the burial plot as it was being filled with dirt and landed on his father's coffin. Chandler moved to Florida and found work in aluminum siding contracting. He had an extensive history of womanizing, with as many as eight partners and seven children. He also accumulated a record of auto theft, counterfeiting, drug dealing, burglary, kidnapping, armed robbery, and voyeurism for masturbation.
Before Chandler's murders, he broke into a couple's home with an accomplice for an armed robbery. While his accomplice restrained the man, Chandler stripped down to her underwear and tied the woman to molest her using the barrel of his revolver against her stomach. On May 25, 1989, Chandler, under the alias of Dave Posner, met Judy Blair and Barbara Mottram, two Canadian tourists, at a convenience store. Inviting them onto his boat in Madeira Beach, Chandler only took Judy out to Tampa Bay. Isolating her and demanding sex from her, Chandler was rebuffed by Judy, who said she was a virgin and refused even after Chandler threatened to kill her. Chandler raped her nevertheless and brought her back to shore. Judy reported the rape, but the case went cold, until Chandler was arrested for murder; Judy would testify at his trial for the prosecution to establish his pattern of offenses.
Murders[]
In 1989, Joan "Jo" Rogers, 37, vacationed in Orlando, Florida with her daughters Michelle, 17, and Christie, 14, having taking a road trip to Florida starting on May 26. Michelle's uncle John, the brother of her father Hal Rogers, raped her, Hal having bailed him out briefly after being jailed for a separate rape John would later be convicted of and imprisoned for, so Jo arranged the getaway. They were to return to their family farm in Willshire, Ohio, on June 1, but when the family lost their direction, they state at the Days Inn on Route 60. Chandler met the family while in Tampa, having seen their Ohio license plates and ingratiated himself by mentioning he was born in Ohio. His boat was docked at the Courtney Campbell Causeway, and he offered a sunset tour of Tampa Bay to the mother and daughters. The family wasn't seen again after leaving the hotel's restaurant at 7:30. They were believed to have been held captive for hours on Chandler's boat, starting about an hour later, then being murdered around 3am the next morning. On June 4, all three of the family members were found having floated to the surface, from the Sunset Skyway to the St. Petersburg pier. They were weighed down with concrete blocks tied to their necks with rope, but after they died, they bloated badly enough to reach the surface of the ocean. The mother and daughter were tied face down and naked from the waist down, Michelle having freed only one of her hands from the rope. They were all confirmed to have been thrown into the water alive and drowned, the decomposition of their remains delaying the mother and daughters being identified by a week, around the same time Hal filed a missing persons report. The family's car was recovered from the dock. Hal and John were dismissed as suspects in spite of the recent criminal situation, and the case went unsolved for three years. There were abundant tips to sort through, but a misdirection in the investigation was a belief there was more than one killer, making it harder to pinpoint Chandler as the type of suspect police were looking for. 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. Slashing her tires after stalking her for two days, Chandler pretended to come across the vandalism by chance and offered to give her a ride home personally. Chandler tied up and raped Ivelisse, killing her by strangulation. She was found dead under a local residential mailbox hours later.
Billboard appealing for answers on the Rogers family's murders
Arrest, Trial, and Execution[]
A break in the case came when police tied the murders of the Rogers family to the rape of Judy Blair. As police collected a handwriting sample from Chandler here he gave the family directions to the dock the night of the murders, the sample was released on billboards, a serious move that was almost unprecedented in American police investigations. Judy also provided a description of Chandler for his facial composite, the investigation then on being known as "Operation Tin Man" due to his line of work he told Judy. Chandler knew the walls were closing in on him, so he repeatedly made moves, alone and with family, out of Florida; when he returned permanently, he gained a reputation as a U.S. Customs Bureau informant for the local Tampa office. However, one of his neighbors called the police to name him as a suspect due to the handwriting sample. Once Chandler's boat was identified as one described in Jo's handwriting, on September 24, 1992, Chandler was arrested. The handwriting sample and a palmprint on the recovered brochure in the Rogers family car matched Chandler, and he was charged with capital murder. With the trial underway in Clearwater, Chandler's lies were picked apart: he made no ship-to-shore calls like he said, no Coast Guard boats patrolled the area, and when he said he patched a gas line leak to return home, a boat mechanic testified his explanation was unfeasible with his boat's manufacturing. Chandler admitted to meeting Judy, but refused to admit he raped her and alleged she "changed her mind". One of Chandler's daughters also testified to the details of his crimes he gave the family. The trial resulted in inordinate media attention, so much that jurors from other countries were selected to preside over the trial, similarly to the trial of Casey Anthony.
Chandler's written final statement
On November 4, 1994, Chandler was found guilty of three counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. Chandler repeated appealed and maintained his innocence, to no avail. His wife at the time filed for divorce and legally mandated he had knowledge of or contact with their youngest daughter. Chandler has been profiled as likely having killed more people, as well as investigated in the event he's guilty of other cold cases in the area, but no conclusive results have at least been publicized. He was long suspected of the murder of Amy Hurst, who was killed in 1982 at Anna Maria Island and remained unidentified for decades; her husband was convicted and imprisoned for the murder shortly after her identification in 2011. On November 15 of that year, Chandler was executed by lethal injection at the Florida State Prison, leaving behind a written statement with a final protest of innocence. His family has always been divided on his guilt and the fairness of legal action against him. In February 2014, investigators conclusively tied Chandler to Ivelisse's murder through posthumous DNA testing and closed the investigation.
Modus Operandi[]
Chandler targeted Caucasian victims, typically attacking tourists, but also attacking locals. Chandler would use ruses for luring tourists on boats to hold them captive, at most for an entire night. He attacked locals by manipulating them into his vehicles, such as pretending to assist with flattened tires he himself damaged or offering a scenic cruise on his boat. The victims would be bound with ropes or cords, partially or fully stripped of their clothes, raped, and killed by some form of asphyxiation. Any victims Chandler killed at sea were thrown into the ocean alive, their limbs tied with ropes around their necks to immobilize them, their bodies weighed down with concrete blocks. Chandler later used his car for abduction, killed by strangulation, and left the victim at a residential mailbox, taking the ropes he used with him. Each murder victim at sea was naked from the waist down, while Chandler's only other murder victim was found fully nude, with shreds of duct tape in her hair. When Chandler assaulted and raped victims without murdering them, they were either held captive on his boat or restrained next to their partners on their own beds during a home invasion. Chandler's home invasion assault involved sexually accosting and harassing the victim using the barrel of the gun which she and her partner were threatened with. Chandler also worked with accomplices before his murders, but although the same thing was suspected in his murders as well, evidence shows he changed to operating alone.
Known Victims[]
Oba Chandler's murder victims, from left to right: Ivelisse Berrios-Beguerisse, Joan Rogers, Michelle Rogers, Christe Rogers
- Florida:
- Unknown dates:
- Unnamed victim (abducted; was rescued)
- Unnamed woman (peeped)
- The armed home invasion: Unnamed couple (held at gunpoint, tied, and robbed)
- Unnamed man
- Unnamed woman (stripped to her underwear and molested with a revolver barrel)
- 1989, Tampa Bay:
- May 25: Judy Blair and Barbara Mottram
- Judy Blair (abducted and raped; released)
- Barbara Mottram (attempted)
- June 1-2: The Rogers family (all tied up, raped, and drowned in the ocean)
- Joan Rogers, 36
- Michelle Rogers, 17
- Christe Rogers, 14
- May 25: Judy Blair and Barbara Mottram
- November 25-27, 1990 Coral Springs: Ivelisse Berrios-Beguerisse, 20 (slashed her tires abducted from the Sawgrass Mills Mall; tied up, raped, and strangled; previously stalked for two days)
- Unknown dates:
On Criminal Minds[]
While never directly mentioned or referenced in the franchise, Chandler appears to be an inspiration for the following unsubs:
- Season Six
- Blake Wells ("Big Sea") - Both were serial killers active in Florida, had fathers who died unnaturally when both were boys (though while Wells tortured his father to death, Chandler's father hanged himself) targeted families and other victims, were active for years, held victims captive on their boats, killed at least one victim each by drowning, and sank at least one victim in the ocean, after which their remains washed ashore.
- Season Ten
- Jerry Tidwell ("Beyond Borders") - Both were serial killers targeting touring families in Florida (though Tidwell was also active in other countries), used ruses to abduct victims, held them captive on their boats for prolonged periods of time, drowned several of their victims (though while Tidwell did so nonfatally as a form of torture, Chandler killed victims by drowning), killed all their victims by some form of asphyxiation, threw at least one of their victims into the ocean alive (though while Tidwell failed to kill the victim, Chandler killed all victims he drowned), weren't caught for years after their murders, and died as a consequence of their crimes (Tidwell was shot by responding police, Chandler was executed by lethal injection).
Sources[]
- Wikipedia's article on Chandler
- Murderpedia's article on Chandler
- SKDB's article on Chandler
- Killer.Cloud's article on Death Cruise
- Clark Prosecutor article on Chandler
- Find a Grave profile of Ivelisse Berrios-Beguerisse
- Tampa Bay Times article on Chandler's execution
- Tampa Bay Times article on Ivelisse Berrios-Beguerisse's murder
- The Ledger article on Chandler's execution
- Oxygen True Crime article on Chandler
- Medium.com article on Chandler
- Talk Murder with Me podcast episode on Chandler
- Andelman.com article on Chandler