oh, the tragedy of it all.rible final moments of her life. >> welcome to haley's motel. >> she was a free spirit in paradise. >> it had always been her ream to have her own resort. >> then, like footprints in the

>> just strange. right. >> some said the motel owner had simply checked out and left town.ine to get on to an airplane. >> but her prized car turned up ex-con behind the wheel. >> we thought, oh, my god. it was him. he killed her. >> was it that simple?onal life was very complicated. a younger boyfriend. >> the man was very charismatic, drop-dead gorgeous. >> and an estrangecaught them having sex in room 11. >> but the case really started to sizzle when someone torched the motel.ng to destroy some evidence or something? >> we just didn't know. >> this is a murder mystery of >> both of us were obsessed with this case. >> can this get any more bizarre?and this is

here's keith morrison with "a place on the sand." ittle island, its own bit of fantasy, off the gulf coast of florida. here. >> it is paradise. and it just gets better and better, we think.nna maria island, where high rise condos are banned, is seven miles of unspoiled white sand, unspoiled , too, most of them. >> when you come across the bridge, it's a whole different life.mean, yeah, you just come across the bridge and it's like ah. >> it is. >> reporter: and here is where she found her little paradise, too.ay from germany for it. sabine musil-buehler. and whether they called her sabina, or as some did, sabine, re on the island. larger than life person. >> absolutely. you met her, you just were drawn to her.

those people that you wanted to get to know better.nd even now, looking back on what happened to sabine on the awful mystery. it just doesn't seem possible, not here. >> i mean, nothing happens on this island. mean, this is a sleepy little town. >> it's sweet town. we don't have things like that happen here. certainly not to her. sabine made good things happen here, crazy things, happy things.0s motel she bought and reimagined along with tom buehler, the man she marriedmeeting, her partner at haley's motel. longtime friends nancy ambrose and suzi fox.n her lifelong dream to have her own resort.me on the market. and at the time it was pretty run down.ke, oh, now that's you've got your hands full here. but --

>> we knew that tom could do it. i mean, if anybody could do it, the two of them could turn this around.ter: oh, and they did. tom did the fixing, sabine had the ideas.le town to their quirky events, their dress-up parties. >> hel motel. please join me for a tour. >> reporter: this is her with sent parrot. sabine was the star of her own promotional videos for the hotel. >> well, i hope you like our , but with all our activities we offer you you won't spend too much time in there.r barbara hines. >> sabine never saw something that had a broken wing that she didn't try to fix.was a rescuer. people, cats, dogs, turtles.i fox took over the anna maria turtle watch -- nesting turtles are a very big or help.

my fourth volunteers. and there's nine sections on this island one mile long. and they said they'd take as ed to give them. >> i watched her with a huge leatherback in the water. >> reporter: bonner joy owns ther "the islander." >> unfortunately, the leatherback was missing a flipper. and he swam in circles. so he kept coming back to the beach.umped in the water without a second thought. and she was up to here, talking to the turtle's face, like she s 400-pound turtle to turn around, you know or will him to. >> reporter: so you get the idea.t amazing. i mean, she just was one of those people that cared about everybody. >> reporter: like nancy ambrose,e was battling cancer and nobody would give her a job because of her schedule. until the day she met sabine. >> you know, i explained what my situation was. she's like, great. come on, come on to work.

and i was -- that was one of the happiest days of my life becausere she was giving me a chance. >> reporter: so sabine had passions. animals, her motel, her white ertible, and in 2008, a new passion -- campaigning for barack obama. an uphill battle on this predominantly republican island. night, sabine was certainly up for a party. she'd arranged to meet nancy, in fact, in what they hoped would celebration. >> she was so into the election. she was so excited. she wanted obama to win. then that when nancy arrived she couldn't find sabine. >> and i thought she had already got there late. >> reporter: sabine's husband tom had been there earlier, too, but without her. still, nancy didn't worry.y. >> it wasn't until a couple days

missing.ow was it possible? the woman who loved to celebrate didn't. talk called no one. the woman who loved her motel suddenly wasn't there. sabine was gone. when we come back, the first troubling clue, her car with e wheel. >> flags started going off. >> who was this mystery driver? >> she would have driven throughnd it just came to my mind that maybe she

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the air was somehow different on tiny anna maria island that november of 2008.ecause obama won the election, but because sabine musil-buehler, the one and only, was not around to celebrate.. not with her pets. not at her motel.ever leave her animals. she would never, ever not go to haley's to work. i mean, that was her baby.hen, two days later, 2:30 in the morning, a seedy neighborhood across the bridge on the mainland. a patrolman pulled over a white tible with a burned-out taillight. as the cop approached the car, the driver ran. there was a wild chase, but they caught him.obert corona. and he had a story, said

john kenney of the manatee ice. >> mr. corona's original story is, i was doing crack cocaine with the owner of the car.orted stolen. >> reporter: did he say he knew who the owner was? >> yes, and had permission to >> reporter: but when detectives checked the registration, they learned the convertible belonged to sabine. a record. >> he's a known street criminal. i mean, he has a lengthy arrest history.y learned from sabine's friends that there had to be something very wrong with a story that had her doing d drinking with a felon in a smoky bar in a seedy part of town. >> she would never be buying drugs. i mean, she would not evene around her. she would not let people smoke at haley's motel property. >> reporter: really? >> i mean, not even in the rooms, but on the property.she was -- >> reporter: she was kind of a health fanatic. >> she had a private -- a personal trainer.

>> reporter: so they arrested corona, installed him in the morning drove over to haley's motel to talk to sabine's husband tom. and? tom said he hadn't seen sabine he hadn't filed a missing persons report but did after nd. what was he like? what was your impression of the guy?for her well-being. she wasn't answering her phone. he couldn't find her. >> reporter: and something else. according to tom, sabine never let anyone drive her car.. now there was a stolen car, a missing woman and a known criminal.ood combination for sabine. >> flags started going off. and shortly thereafter, etting involved as a missing persons case. >> reporter: but then it got worse. when detectives went over the d drops in the back seat. a patch of the rear seat had

found more blood traces on the rear seat. now, sabine's friends, like horrified. >> so then we thought, oh, my god, it was him. he killed her. he must haeporter: so now it was a homicide investigation. detective jeff bliss decided to pay a visit to corona in jail. my business card down on the table and slid it across, and we said we're homicide detectives. this isn't about an auto theft.truth and we and he's like, hey, i had nothing to do with any murders. and then he changed his story. >> reporter: corona's new story? named sabine. he just found her car parked behind a place called the gator scale wine bar. in a jailhouse interview, corona claimed it was just a crime of >> you didn't see anybody, though, did you? >> i didn't see nobody inside the car or around the car. so that's why i decided to take

>> you know? so i go inside, then i see the keys. so i'm like oh [ bleep ].mean? >> mm-hmm. >> and joy ride, you know? >> so the vehicle was left, like, somebody wanted it stolen.liberty of stealing that car. >> reporter: was the second story any more true than the first? the local paper jumped on all this, of course. ot of stories. >> there were a number of people who speculated that sabine mightown to go to an obama celebration that was being held downtown. the area that she would've driven through to go to that h area and that just came to my mind that maybe she'd been carjacked. >> reporter: certainly, something very bad must have happened.maybe that happened in her car. so was corona their killer? or was he finally telling the car outside that bar? but if that was true, how did it

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it was a disturbing time on anna maria island. what happened to sabine?car there was blood in it. and the felon who'd stolen it kept changing his story. so the logical conclusion was rk indeed. still, she could have just gone back to germany to see her

>> right, and there was investigation to determine that. >> reporter: in fact, had been seen alive and well at the local airport. her friend chris tollette heard the story.two women who were at the sarasota airport, and they were sure that they saw her up ahead in line, you know, to irplane. >> reporter: but when detectives >> her passport wasn't used. that checking surveillance cameras at sarasota bradenton airport, tampa airport to make sure that she did not leave the fly out. >> reporter: a couple of weeks went by that way. lots of tips.ngs. and then finally they got the dna back on that blood in the car. >> we were able to get her toothbrush and some other dna comparison. >> reporter: yeah. >> and we were able to match nkt, her blood. >> reporter: her husband tom

was prepared for the worst from that first morning when he was >> the second i knew when the police told me that they found t her in it and with the keys in the car, i knew sabine was no longer with us. i knew something had happened to her immediately.o, looked like this guy corona might be on the hook for murder. but beyond the blood? well, evidence didn't exactly em. but who else? had sabine made an enemy? when detectives started looking at her life, they had to cast a eople she associated with. after all, sabine was like a magnet. everybody wanted to go to her lavish parties. waiting list to get on her party list. >> exactly, exactly.ter: she could even get a little racy for sleepy little anna maria island. >> one of the more unusual things, she hired some people who came here to do nude body painting.

that nude body painting on anna marie island?hat here. >> reporter: but sabine did what had to be done. it can be a tough businessand promoting a little old motel. debts are fat, margins thin. and with the economy began to tank in 2008, and light was gray with worry. sabine and tom were in trouble. - >> the real estate market had folded. i know from sabine, not from tom, that they were highly, aged. >> please call me for your reservation. >> reporter: and while sabine ting skills to try to keep the motel afloat, she and tom couldn't do the same for their marriage.re than a decade as husband and wife, they were that in name only. but what they did not do was the

>> they were always still good . i mean they worked well together. >> reporter: romance part, the marriage part seemed to what?kind of -- >> maybe romance changed. >> reporter: it certainly did. as the detectives couldn't help tom and sabine had taken up with other people, both of them. he with a woman he'd known quite a while. she with a local artist who onceas a handyman. and then there was the matter of the life insurance. did he take out on sabine's life, the cops asked. $100,000 said tom.as apparently an amicable breakup, people on anna maria island couldn't help but wonder about tom.w, said sabine's friend caryn hodge. >> a lot of people whispering and suspecting him in a way justidn't know.

jack elka did promotional stillsand became good friends with tom and sabine. >> there was no evidence found. there was no nothing. so everything was speculative. who did it? it. this is a murder mystery of epic proportions. >> reporter: so it was. then 12 days afterom the face of the earth somebody set fire to haley's motel. open just going can this get any more bizarre? >> reporter: what was this all about? >> we just didn't know.d or alive, where was sabine? coming up -- bine's husband, that $100,000 policy wasn't the whole story. >> it came up later it was $300,000.tive or just maybe jealousy? >> he had caught them having sex

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the torching of haley's motel here in ctable a mystery as the disappearance of sabine. what they did know was it was no accident. this was arson. in a building beside the main hotel structure, a building that once served as tom and sabine's living quarters.t, happily. but there were questions. was it personal? an attempt to destroy evidence or what?me people wondered if tom had something to do with it. others dismissed that as just plain nonsense.pher jack elka covered the fire for the islander newspaper. >> that's when the mystery other element of this puzzle that -- >> reporter: yeah. why would somebody do that? >> kind of bizarre.urely, it had to

whatever happened to sabine. why would that place burn down?to destroy some evidence or something? >> it was a theory. we weren't sure if something happened there and then she was buried somewhere. >> reporter: months went by without a decent lead. though it was not for lack of trying to find one. where their instincts were telling them sabine might be buried. the beach.ver we would have a break, we into would come out here to this very spot. the case and brainstorm the case. >> reporter: detective sergeant d his partner jeff bliss kept organizing searches on the beach. looking for any area where the ground or the white sand beach looked disturbed.aver dogs, walked them up and down the beach. we used ground-penetrating radar, checked various spots on

>> reporter: to no avail., the first anniversary of whatever it was that happened, on the beach d a little memorial. husband tom tossed a flower wreath into the surf. >> there was no hope. we knew. she was gone.ger alive. >> reporter: but apparently the life insurance company wasn't so sure. time of that memorial service at the beach, tom went to court to take the first step to get that money.sn't it tom who petitioned the court to declare her dead? >> yes. >> reporter: if she's declared dead, he gets a lot of insurance money.ct. >> reporter: he gets the ownership outright of the motel. >> correct. >> reporter: yes, that. told the detectives before he'd held a $100,000 policy on sabine. but when he filed papers to ad, it turned out

insurance policy that he forgot to mention. >> it came up later it was $300,000.he revelation made the newspapers. attorneys for the insurance company argued that under bine had to be missing at least five years before she could be declared dead and any insurance money paid out.hearing reporters noticed an unusual group of observers listening to the proceedings. >> the whole back row of seats was taken up by sheriff's deputies. and if they weren't interested ay to the insurance company, why were they there? >> reporter: but tom was not successful.th certificate. and tom was denied the insurance. >> reporter: and that's a big story. >> -- how they into deny a death certificate. there was no body.then the police knew corona didn't kill sabine. a barmaid at the gator lounge was able to confirm the essentials of his story. so he was convicted of car der.

island cop had known sabine and ed to have another try much closer to home. he asked tom for any detail, no at might take the investigation beyond the conjecture and whispers of suspicion that floated on the >> and he went into a whole background of their courtship, their marriage, and how it disintegrated. >> reporter: how did it disintegrate? >> he told me that they just slowly, you know, like grew stayed together because they were very good friends and they owned the business together.ut -- and this seemed unusual -- while they stayed married, they moved in with other people.r before sabine went missing, tom started dating a new woman and sabine ome younger man who once worked at the motel.

bill cumber. very charismatic, drop-dead gorgeous. >> reporter: ten years younger, in fact. bill was 39 and very different from tom. tom, meanwhile, was still sabine's business partner.re things got a little dicey. one day tom found sabine in a room in their motel with her new lover, bill. >> he had caught them having sex in room 11 at haley's motel. but he said it wasn't a jealousy thing.of respect that, you know, having sex with his wife in the hotel room. >> reporter: not jealous? maybe.ectives knew that sort of thing could very well drive a person to do terrible things.nd bill did one of them harm sabine? they interviewed bill the first

learned that in 2008 they started dating and eventually they moved into an apartment together.friends she'd hit the jackpot with bill. friends like joyce lathrop. cture in her wallet. and she was so proud that he wasnd i can see where she was head over heels. >> maybe this was going to be the love of her life. they were going to have a together. >> reporter: the last time sabine's friend photographer jack elka saw her she was with bill. met him before. >> she came over to me and gave me a big kiss and hug and, you know, how are you?his man to me. and he shook my hand. hey, jack. how you doing, man? long time, no see.d i'm looking at this guy, thinking like i don't really know this guy.

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when sabine disappeared from island on election night 2008, detectives took a good look at the two men closest to her.d tom and the boyfriend bill cumber, with whom she was living at the time. >> typically in any missing k at the husband, paramour. >> reporter: bill gave of what happened the night she disappeared. sabine left their place around 10:00 p.m., he said, that obama victory party. and the next thing he knew, detectives were at his door ound her car and there was blood inside. a few days after that, bill told his story again to a local tv reporter.agedy. i think the world's missed mebody -- somebody special. >> reporter: he told the

way, because sabine left after out his smoking. >> now i feel responsible for her leaving, leaving here. as far as what happened after o idea. >> reporter: the detectives were busy looking at records and discovered that bill once spent me time behind bars. that was after, and unrelated to, his stint as a handyman at the motel. and tom and sabine went to see rison, sent him money, wrote to him and he wrote back. >> and you know, tom, i think, em away. but she started writing him back and trying to help him. 's romance cooled, her letters to bill heated up. when bill was released on probation in 2008, sabine was waiting for him.ds, however, did not share her enthusiasm for bill. >> they didn't want him to be they pretty much said, if you're

guy. >> reporter: but it was just they saw something off about him? >> yes. that, you know, she did not. >> reporter: no. sabine saw a young, fit, artistic man who just needed a break.hing of an amateur artist, though his sketches didn't seem to amount to much. but sabine was determined to -start his career, to get his artwork sold and maybe start up a woodworking business. >> she had set him up in a woodshop, bought all his tools.ter: and around town, they certainly looked like lovebirds. still, two weeks after sabine vanished, the detectives asked another interview, and that's when he told them about the argument. >> we got in a verbal dispute went -- she left. i mean i don't -- honestly i had no control over where she goes

>> right.ere not in a physical altercation? >> no. we never had a physical altercation. they push him? did they challenge him? yes, they did. >> where did you dump her at?so much. >> she left. i don't -- what do you mean dump her? i don't -- >> so you dumped her.ng to do with what -- >> you beat her to a pulp. >> -- happened that night. no.hing to do with what happened to her after she left? >> no. >> reporter: but, try as they might, bill cumber did not crack.e. but kept an eye on him. what made you think that he was the guy who would have killed her? out together. >> we knew that they had an argument day at least one. >> reporter: was there any other evidence that pointed toward him besides that? >> not until he vacated his apartment. reporter: without sabine to pay the rent, bill was evicted.

sweet. >> the first time i entered the apartment, it was a heavy, heavy >> reporter: wait a minute, how long after? >> four or five weeks. >> reporter: and yet the smell of bleach was still strong at that point? >> yes. searched it. and we found additional blood evidence with dna. >> reporter: what did all of that say to you? >> something bad happened right there.ter: but bill told the detectives that was innocent blood. sabine once cut herself here. and then they found bill's dna s seat of sabine's car, but he told detectives she let him drive it. >> we knew that no one, even her to drive her car. >> reporter: but then they looked at bill's hand.njury on his hand that was consistent with a friction burn that i myself had gotten when we were out here digging test holes.om the shovel? getting it on the palm of your hands? >> yeah. just from shoveling. >> reporter: bill said he fell

at bill cumber, the worse it looked for him.d time in prison, for example? he was convicts jealous of his girlfriend, paramour. and -- >> they had a argument and he tried to burn the house down with her and the kids in it. >> reporter: it turned out the as intentionally started with accelerants.ere tested later and had traces of accelerants too, but that wasn't enough to make a case.ill, charge him with murdering sabine?ot. a no-body case would be very tough, said the prosecutors. there's no proof the woman was even dead.ves turned up the heat. so there's always somebody knocking at the door, i want to talk to you. i want to talk to you.te safety concern for other residents, especially if he, you know,

take it. he left anna maria island, left the county. unfortunately for him, that was olation. so before long, bill was in jail while the detectives kept bine everywhere. no trace. then in 2011, three years after an named ed moss was clearing brush in front of his house on the island right next to the beach.ath a log there was a kind of a small purse. >> reporter: looked stolen, said ed.e showed it to a deputy. >> and his eyes got really big and he looked at me, hidea what you've just done. >> reporter: it was sabine's purse. her driver's license confirmed it.

it was only two blocks to the e they actually live. >> reporter: so detectives kenney and bliss brought an army of police and equipment and started searching the area for her remains.r weeks of digging through the sand and bush, nothing. >> both of us were obsessed with this case.we know he did it. >> reporter: another thing kenney knew was that tom didn't do it. remember, some people on the n suspicious of tom, but privately detectives had long since cleared him. he didn't do it.the steps and we alibied him and did, you know, everything that needed to be done to make sure.tly, his attempt to cash out the insurance policies so quickly was just a matter of financial survival. >> i would never thought that tom had anything to do with elt so brokenhearted. >> reporter: so with tom in the nsulted with

handled no-body cases. forensic and circumstantial evidence and finally the prosecutor told them they were ready.our years after sabine vanished, bill cumber was indicted for second degree murder, but it was not going to e. >> obviously, evidence that goes with the body, you know, cause of death, manner of death, and that. >> reporter: and what would it take for a jury to believe er? coming up -- a final clue leads detectives trial on hold. >> he'd been crying quite a bit.

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the days slid by rather more slowly for bill cumber. back in prison on a parole indictment for murder. but he did have visitors. detectives kennek and bliss.th had moved on to other cases, but they still made time to press bill to come clean. >> we traveled four or five times up to where he was in interview him. >> reporter: what would he say? >> say he had nothing to do with

>> reporter: of course, they elieve that. . the detectives were sure bill had killed sabine. and they had an offer he couldn't refuse. blessing of the state attorney to offer him a deal. >> reporter: the deal? tell detectives where to find the body in exchange for a sser sentence. >> he makes a statement, i'll take my chances with a jury. the hair on my neck stands up y telling statement. an innocent man will say i didn't do it. >> reporter: bill will be taking his chances soon. his trial was just a month away.tives approached the one person who maybe could persuade bill to take the deal. >> detective bliss actually took into our property office and viewed all the evidence. >> reporter: there was sabine's ouch, couch ber's hands with those blisters detectives believed came from burying her. and the evidence in her car, theher blood and bill's dna.

and said, you know, we're going with this. >> reporter: pretty soon >> i received a feeler from mr. cumber's defense attorney he might be interested in an off, on if he told us the location of sabine. >> reporter: what do you know? bill bit.h, 2015, a bearded bill cumber pleaded no contest to second degree murder. then he sat down to answer questions with a tape recorder rolling.interview like? >> chilling. >> reporter: according to bill, the argument about smoking was just part of it. the bad part started, he said, they were done. >> so sabine thinks she can't go. what happened at that point? >> i lose control, and i hit herth my fist. this is a disgusting situation, man.

>> she gets scared and she er face with her hands. >> okay. and what do you do at that point? >> i reached and grabbed her throat and started choking her.ed her till she stopped moving, he said. she never fought back.morseful? >> somewhat. i mean, he wasn't teary-eyed. he was just kind of getting it >> i couldn't believe what i did. i stared down at her and all things -- all kinds of things were running through my mind. i couldn't believe what i had done.r: he said he took a sheet off the bed and rolled her up in it, waited about an hour, dragged her out to the car. at where she bled on the place he cut out the upholstery. and then he drove to the beach to bury her.ng a shovel with you? >> yes. >> reporter: on the way to bury her, he stole a shovel from haley's motel. after he buried her, he said, he drove to the gator

hoping somebody would steal it.ack to the island and a trolley back home. >> i thought he minimized certain aspects of his involvement in the murder.ter: minimized what? >> he says that it was just a oment of insanity. i think there was a little bit more calculation than that. >> reporter: after the interview, detective bliss put drove to the beach. then, in handcuffs and leg irons, he shuffled down a long e on the sand where he'd often sat with sabine. this is where he brought her body. it out all the time, right down the road from haley's motel, and that he buried her on the beach there. >> reporter: right here, where o watch the sunset. >> right here?y did you put her in? >> her head was here. >> reporter: detective bliss mapped the area out with tiny

>> about four feet, four or five feet. >> reporter: and then the opportunity, whether he deserved it or not. >> want to take a minute? ahead. i told him if he wanted to say a prayer, he could. and that's when he got teary-eyed and emotional, and he apologized to her. i walked him back to the car. and he just asked me to let her family know that she was a very he didn't deserve to die. and he was very sorry for what he had done. and he was very emotional and that was the first time in my dealings with him that i've ever seen him emotional about what he >> reporter: once he left, a

medical examiner dug slowly, y. and by the end of the day they had found what was left of sabine. what was that like for you afterrying to find something and failing? >> we were elated. me and my partners.ef. closure. >> reporter: bill cumber was il and is now serving his 20-year sentence in state prison. >> a lot of people probably aren't happy with the 20 years you know, they're not part of the family that has to deal with it. should he have gotten life? absolutely.etective sergeant kenney is retired now and detective bliss is still doing homicide cases. tom buehler, who lost both a for years, his good reputation, has tried to move on. now and is still running his beloved and restored haley's motel. it's a busy place this time of

promotional videos, here's tom. >> if you're coming to anna you want to see old florida, you can either drive around and look at it or you can stay here at haley's rience it. >> reporter: and up and down the streets of anna maria island, sabine's friends remember.sed that she was in my life even for that amount of time because she touched my life deeply. me really appreciate each and every day even more because it can be cut short. reporter: even here in this little remnant of paradise.or this edition of "dateline." we'll see you tomorrow at 8:00, 7:00 central for the "dateline" ry, then again sunday at 7:00, 6:00 central. i'm lester holt. for all of us at nbc news, good

ywood vision for the mansfield -- see the haunting changes.