Sabine Musil Buehler

Sabine Musil Buehler, age 49, passed away suddenly and unexpectedly on November 4, 2008.  She was born July 29, 1959 in Germany.

Private Services.

 

Friends remember artist, environmentalist, entrepreneur (2015 - The Islander Online    www.Islander.org)

It was a difficult seven years for those close to Sabine Musil-Buehler while authorities built a case against William J. Cumber III.

It saddens the community, even though her murder is no longer a mystery.

From the early 2000s until her 2008 disappearance, Musil-Buehler and husband Tom Buehler, ran Haley’s Motel, 8102 Gulf Drive, as a mom-and-pop motel.

Buehler still runs it, now with Carol Goodfellow.

At Haley’s Motel Oct. 21, Buehler and Goodfellow accepted a portrait of Musil-Buehler with her pet parrot, Jacomo, from neighbor Barbara Hines, a local artist who said she “painted it during happy times.”

Buehler previously declined to comment on Musil-Buehler or the case, which began with her disappearance Nov. 4, 2008, and developed 12 days later as an arson fire burned down part of the motel.

On reflection, Buehler said Oct. 23, that there are “only blue skies ahead.”

On Oct. 15, Cumber pleaded no contest to the murder of Musil-Buehler, whom he lived with in an Anna Maria apartment after his release from prison in September 2008.

He confessed to strangling Musil-Buehler in the apartment and burying her body as part of a plea deal for a reduced 20-year prison sentence. Cumber was facing a November trial and life in prison if convicted.

“Well, I’ll say something,” Hines, who lives kitty-corner from Haley’s, said as she presented her portrait of Sabine.

“I just hope all the people who said awful things about Tom are sorry they re-victimized him. People are awful,” she added, referring to those who suspected Buehler was involved in the disappearance of his estranged wife.

 

Memorials, family

During the first year Musil-Buehler went missing, several friends and Tom Buehler, went to a medium, held a beach service and a garden vigil and a dedicated brick in the Anna Maria Island Butterfly Park next to Holmes Beach City Hall.

As far as a memorial now, friend Nancy Ambrose said Oct. 22, “Tom and Carol want to let it go.”

Another friend of Buehler’s is Suzi Fox, executive director Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring. Fox said she’s had “great talks” with Tom Buehler since the disappearance.

She recalled how Tom and Sabine-Musil Buehler once opened their home and hearts to each other and the community.

“They loved each other,” said Fox. “Whether they could live with each other, I don’t know. They loved each other, in my opinion.”

Fox said she believes Musil-Buehler’s only relatives are in Germany.

Assistant state attorney Art Brown, who took Cumber’s confession and offered the plea deal, said he consulted Buehler. Brown did not consult any other family member because he had “no contact information for them,” he said.

Fox said Musil-Buehler showed her pictures of her mother, who was deceased.

Turtle watcher, parrot lover

Fox first met the Buehlers in 1995-96, when she was looking for turtle watchers.

“Out of the blue, she and Tom just called me up and told me they’d take two sections, a 2-3 mile stretch, and be a coordinator — collect and report nesting data. That was a huge job.”

Musil-Buehler also helped push Fox to incorporate AMITW as a nonprofit.

As the motel business took off, the Buehlers dropped off their volunteer work but still offered their home for AMITW meetings, Fox said.

Gail and Ed Straight of Wildlife Inc. of Bradenton Beach also knew Musil-Buehler and her love of animals.  She frequently rescued parrots from their rehab facility, according to Ed Straight.

“We always called her first whenever there was a parrot,” Straight said.

 

Hotel managers

In 1999, Fox and the Buehlers worked together at the front desk of the Tortuga and Tradewinds motels in Bradenton Beach.

Musil-Buehler became a strong voice on the island amid the hoteliers and worked to protect sea turtles from unnecessary lights on the beach, Fox said.

Next for the Buehlers in the early 2000s, they purchased Haley’s Motel.

Neighbors of the small motel noticed a difference with the Buehlers’ ownership.

The Buehlers “were meticulous about doing repairs and there was a lot of work to be done,” said Ursula Stemm of Holmes Beach.

Stemm said she knew a worker at Haley’s who took notice of Cumber when he came to work at the motel. He’d worked for the Buehlers in 2005-06 and then again in 2008, before and after he was in prison, she said.

“He could dig a hole 4 feet deep in 20 minutes and hardly break a sweat,” Stemm said.

 

Other projects

With her seemingly boundless energy, Musil-Buehler took on various art and gardening projects, businesses and teaching opportunities.

She supported Barack Obama for president, said Hines. Ironically, Musil-Buehler’s last conversation with Hines two or three days before her disappearance was about her fear of an Obama assassination.

And Musil-Buehler was outspoken about rising Manatee County property taxes.

Fox noted the Buehlers continued to improve Haley’s and “it was always something new.”

Musil-Buehler would visit Fox, saying, “‘Guess what we’re doing now?’ Skylights. Or, she was going to sell some kind of art.”

And there was the disabled vet who had a trailer in Bradenton Beach with a yard in dire need of landscaping.

Musil-Buehler took plants from her yard and “we spent the entire day redoing his yard,” Fox recalled.

“She did drag me into a lot of big projects. It wasn’t just me. She always had somebody at her house.”

Musil-Buehler also wanted to pass on to Tom Buehler’s grandkids her artistic handiwork.

Gracious hostess, talented artist

      The Buehlers invited the community to their motel for annual Halloween parties, 1950s dance parties, basket-weaving and socializing.

Fox recalled how Musil-Buehler asked her to breakfast in August 1996, talking for hours. “She was a most beautiful cook. I must have had five forks.”

Stemm met Musil-Buehler at a basket-weaving circle in August 2008.

“It was just a girly thing. We dipped our reeds in water. She was so creative,” she said.

“She was this incredible knitter,” she added. “She could knit a perfect choo-choo train on a toddler’s outfit and say it was easy — it’s not.”

Stemm also noted the Halloween parties and decorations at the motel.

Mostly, Stemm remembers how Musil-Buehler wanted everyone to be at home when they visited.

“She was very giving. People have a hard time inviting people into their homes nowadays. She wasn’t like that. She was a very homey person — trusting, loving and welcoming.”

 

Last words

Though Fox knew her for “a long, long time,” she lost touch once Musil-Buehler became involved with William Cumber.

Hines said she and others “knew something was wrong” when she disappeared and her car was stolen from outside a Bradenton bar.

Straight believes most of the community suspected the ultimate outcome. “We’re glad to get the closure,” he added.

In a recent email, Fox wrote, “The most sadness comes from the violence that took her. I wish we could turn the clock back for everyone involved.”

She acknowledged the hard work of law enforcement, and the “pressure they have lived under without firm answers.”

“If there were two things I knew about Sabine was that she was a total animal lover and environmentalist.

“And if asked about a third thing,” she added. “It would be she’d open her door to the world.”

The above article is from The Islander Online  .  The Anna Maria Islander, 3218 E. Bay Drive, Holmes Beach, FL  34217 Phone: (941) 778-7978 Fax: (941) 778-9392.  For general information: info@islander.org

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