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Missing Woman's Manatee County Motel Burns

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By ROD CHALLENGER

News Channel 8

Published: November 17, 2008

HOLMES BEACH - A fire Sunday night destroyed part of a motel in Manatee County that is co-owned by a woman who disappeared two weeks ago.

Sabine Musil-Buehler, 49, co-owned the 18-unit motel on Anna Maria Island with her estranged husband. She has not been seen since the night of Nov. 4.

Investigators are trying to determine whether the fire and disappearance are more than a coincidence.

"I think you have to look very hard that they are connected," said Holmes Beach Police Chief Jay Romine. "We don't have any evidence that … they are."

Police say they have talked to Musil-Buehler's boyfriend, Bill Cumber, 38.

Cumber got out of prison in September after serving three years for burning part of a girlfriend's house in Bradenton in 2005.

"They're trying to frame me because of my last charge of arson," Cumber said.

Cumber said he was the last person to see Musil-Buehler. He said they argued at their apartment on the night she disappeared when she caught him smoking. She left after they argued, he said.

"The only thing I have to do with it is her leaving, " he said. "I feel responsible for her leaving, leaving here. As far as what happened after that, I have no idea."

The Holmes Beach Police Department, the state fire marshal's office and the West Manatee County Fire District are investigating the fire.

The Manatee County Sheriff's Office is investigating the woman's disappearance.

Deputies found Musil-Buehler's car at 2 a.m. Nov. 6 when they stopped the driver for a traffic violation. They charged the man driving the car, Robert Corona, 38, of Bradenton, with auto theft. Detectives say he told them he stole the car from the parking lot of a Bradenton bar.

Forensics technicians found blood in the car but have not gotten results of a laboratory analysis of whether it was Musil-Buehler's blood.

Musil-Buehler's husband, Tom Musil-Buehler, said the couple married 14 years ago. He said they broke up six years ago but never divorced and were friends. He said they had been sharing a house near the motel.

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