The case became high-profile in 1992 when local police posted billboards bearing enlarged images of the suspect's handwriting recovered from a pamphlet in the victims' car.
In February 2014, DNA evidence identified Chandler as the murderer of Ivelisse Berrios-Beguerisse, who was found dead in Coral Springs, Florida, on November 27, 1990.
[1][2] Between May and September 1991—concurrent with the police investigation of the Rogers family triple murder—Chandler was an informant for the U.S. Customs Bureau's Tampa office.
[1] As an adult, he was charged with a variety of crimes, including possession of counterfeit money, loitering, burglary, kidnapping, and armed robbery.
[2] On May 26, 1989, Joan "Jo" Rogers, 36, and her daughters—Michelle, 17, and Christe, 14—left their family dairy farm in Willshire, Ohio, for a vacation in Florida.
Authorities believe Joan became lost on June 1 during the return drive from Orlando to Willshire, and had decided to take an extra vacation day in Tampa.
[7] While looking for their hotel they encountered Chandler, who gave them directions and offered to meet them again later to take them on a sunset cruise of Tampa Bay.
[1] Joan and her teenage daughters had left Orlando around 9:00 a.m.[8] and checked into the Days Inn on Route 60 at 12:30 p.m.[9] Photographs retrieved from a roll of film found in a camera in the Rogers' hotel room showed Michelle sitting on the floor.
[5][18] Ropes with a concrete block at the other end had been tied around the victims' necks to ensure they died from either suffocation or drowning, and that their bodies would never be found.
[24] Marine researchers at the University of South Florida estimated from currents and patterns that the victims were thrown from a boat—and not from a bridge or dry land—between two and five days before they were found.
The Rogers' car, a 1984 Oldsmobile Calais with Ohio license plates, was found at the boat dock by the Courtney Campbell Causeway.
The biggest tip 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.
[25] A palm print on the brochure was also matched to Chandler, who had sold his boat and left town with his family soon after the billboards appeared.
[31] Police reported that Chandler and his then-wife moved from their home on Dalton Avenue in Tampa to Port Orange near Daytona Beach.
[34] Hal Rogers's brother John was also considered a suspect, even though he was serving a prison sentence for the rape of a woman at the time of the murders.
Once the police established John could not have hired a contract killer, did not have accomplices, and could not have known the timing of his sister-in-law's and nieces' trip, he was dismissed as a suspect.
[32] The assaults of Michelle Rogers by her uncle and gossip by local people was one of the reasons for the Florida trip; Joan and her daughters wanted to distance themselves from the incident.
[35] At his trial in Clearwater, Florida, Chandler said he met Joan, Michelle, and Christe Rogers and gave them directions but he never saw them again except in newspaper coverage and on billboards.
[36][37] He acknowledged he was in Tampa Bay that night—the police had evidence of three ship-to-shore telephone calls made from his boat to his home during the time frame of the murders—but Chandler maintained he was fishing alone.
[43][44] A former employee of Chandler's testified that he bragged about dating three women on the bay on the night of the murders, and that the next morning he arrived by boat and delivered materials for a job and immediately set out again.
[47] Joan, Michelle, and Christe Rogers were buried in their hometown on June 13, 1989, after a funeral service attended by about 300 family members and friends.
His execution was set for November 15, 2011, at 4:00 p.m.[67][68] His lawyer Baya Harrison said Chandler asked him not to file any frivolous appeals to keep him alive.
[67] Harrison also said Chandler suffered from high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, problems with his kidneys, and arthritis.
[72] Although the Florida Supreme Court initially scheduled Chandler's appeal to be heard on November 9, 2011, they later cancelled oral argument.
[83][84] On February 25, 2014, investigators revealed that DNA evidence identified Chandler as the murderer of 20-year-old Ivelisse Berrios-Beguerisse, who was raped and strangled in Coral Springs, Florida, on November 27, 1990.
Three hours after she was reported missing, her body was found under a residential mailbox in a local neighborhood by two men returning from a fishing trip.
[89] The Discovery Channel devoted a one-hour episode of its series Scene of the Crime, titled "The Tin Man", to the murder of the Rogers family.
[90] In 1997, a series of articles titled "Angels & Demons", written by Thomas French – which told the story of the murders, the capture and conviction of Chandler, and the impact of the crimes on the Rogers' family and their community in Ohio – was published in the St. Petersburg Times.
[95] In 1995, Chandler, some members of his family, and Hal Rogers appeared in an episode of the Maury Povich Show featuring the case.
[99] On November 19, 2022, the true crime podcast Casefile detailed the case of Jo, Michelle & Christe Rogers in their 232nd episode.