'Dateline' to air story Friday on Anna Maria Island murder victim Sabine Musil-Buehler

ANNA MARIA ISLAND -- Four months have passed since the residents of Anna Maria Island learned what really happened to Sabine Musil-Buehler, a beloved businesswoman whose disappearance nearly a decade ago had been fogged in mystery.

William Cumber, Musil-Buehler's then-boyfriend, confessed last fall to striking her twice in the head before choking her to death on Nov. 4, 2008. He then wrapped up her body, picked up a shovel from the motel she owned with her estranged husband and buried her near the beach on the 7-mile barrier island.

The story on the strange and horrific case will be featured in NBC's "Dateline" at 10 p.m. Friday. In the episode titled "A Place On The Sand," "Dateline" correspondent Keith Morrison speaks to friends of Musil-Buehler and law enforcement officials who investigated the case.

"Sabine was a pretty fascinating woman, and friends were only too happy to tell stories about her," Morrison said Wednesday.

Morrison visited the island several weeks ago to report on the story, which was suggested to him and "Dateline" producer Bob Gilmartin by a law enforcement official who worked the case.

"We had a look at it and it was a very interesting tale, so we decided to go for it," Morrison said. "Not only did we put it all together into one story with one timeline, but we were given pretty extraordinary access to the materials that the police department was collecting and the

sheriff's department was collecting, and they made that available to us."

Chris Tollette, a former Anna Maria commissioner and a friend of Musil-Buehler, was one of several people interviewed for the "Dateline" episode. Tollette met Musil-Buehler in 2006 when they joined others in creating the first Anna Maria Island Wedding Festival. She describes Musil-Buehler as a go-getter.

"The way they handled this program is not to sensationalize the fact that there was a murder on the island," the 65-year-old Tollette said. "It's more about women who get caught up in these abusive relationships and what can happen when you're that vulnerable to it, and that was part of Sabine's character. She was a real saver."

Musil-Buehler was known on the island for having a soft spot for animals. After buying Haley's Motel, a property on Gulf Drive in Holmes Beach, Musil-Buehler kept a big bag of peanuts inside the office, former island resident Nancy Ambrose told the Bradenton Herald last fall.

"Squirrels would run right into the office to get peanuts," Ambrose said at the time. "Animals just adored her. That's just the kind of person she was."

John Kenney, a sergeant for the Manatee County Sheriff's Office Anna Maria Unit at the time of Musil-Buehler's disappearance who helped work the case, shared details from law enforcement's perspective for the "Dateline" episode. He said he will tune in Friday.

"It was a case that we worked on long and hard for almost six years," said Kenney, who retired from the sheriff's office in 2015. "It never went cold because we were always looking for the body."

Cumber, Kenney said, was always a prime suspect.

"It was a team effort," he said. "It wasn't just my case. It was a team effort by all the detectives and the homicide unit. Sheriff (Brad) Steube was very supportive throughout the whole process."

Investigators with the sheriff's office found Musil-Buehler's skeletal remains on the beach where Cumber told authorities he buried her in 2008.

"We think it'll be an interesting story," sheriff's office spokesman Dave Bristow said Wednesday. "It took countless hours of hard work by our agency to finally not only make an arrest, but also recover her remains. That was so important to us, to be able to bring closure to the family."

According to Morrison, a key part of his story on Musil-Buehler is those who already know the story will see materials they probably have not seen before.

"We were able to experience a lot of those events as if they were happening," Morrison said, "and I think that always makes a story come alive again."

Amaris Castillo, law enforcement/island reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7051. Follow her on Twitter @AmarisCastillo.

This story was originally published February 17, 2016 at 11:43 PM with the headline "'Dateline' to air story Friday on Anna Maria Island murder victim Sabine Musil-Buehler."