Standing at the Harbour Town marina, there's little wonder why John and Elizabeth Calvert wanted to call this place home: the crisp blue waters, the prodigious yachts, the ancient live oaks and the iconic red and white lighthouse.

They worked hard to earn a place in this oceanside playground of ease and wealth. She spent the bulk of her career as high-ranking lawyer and manager at UPS in Atlanta. He managed an energy company and worked as a consultant.

Caroling Hilty/Associated Press (ENLARGE)

John and Elizabeth Calvert in a July 2006 photo.

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For nearly a decade, Hilton Head had been their getaway. Then, in 2005, they bought the businesses managing the marina and resort rentals and made the harbor their home. At least part time: Elizabeth, 45, learned to fly and shuttled them back and forth to their 1938 home in Brookhaven. In Hilton Head, they stayed on their old 40-foot boat, "The Yellow Jacket."

The coastal lodging arrangement was both economic and picturesque. Friends said John, 47, figured you couldn't beat the rent. Or the view.

Then, on March 3, as the life they'd imagined was being realized, they disappeared. And it appears the man they trusted to run their Hilton Head finances and administrative work, Dennis Ray Gerwing, may have been responsible —for their disappearance and, perhaps, their deaths.

On Tuesday, Gerwing took a knife, went into the bathroom of a nearby rental villa, and sliced open his thigh. As he bled to death he left behind questions that frustrated authorities are struggling to answer.

According to anonymous sources quoted by The State newspaper in Columbia. S.C., Gerwing left two suicide notes acknowledging he had stolen money from the Calverts' businesses, But almost two weeks after the couple vanished, no hint of them has turned up.

Living a dream

Each day, as authorities search by land, sea and air and local and national media carry the developing story, the Calverts' friends find themselves caught between grief and hope.

Ellie Titus, a boating buddy who has known the Calverts for about five years, caught herself saying "was" when referring to her friends. "Please," she said, "keep this story in present tense."

Titus marveled at how her friends steadfastly made the move here happen. Elizabeth (called "Liz" by most) loved to cruise in their boat and "drop anchor," sometimes for a day or two, and explore the inlets and creeks by kayak, she recalled. John, an engineer by education, "lived and breathed" his new business, Titus said.

She teased him, calling him "Marina Boy," because "he was constantly thinking of ways to market it and expand it. John figured a way to pull it off. That's a testament to him.

"I'm proud of them for making the life change. They were really living their dream."

Accomplished, happy

For the Calverts, their new life was a reward for decades of hard work.

They married 20 years ago, about the time she finished law school at the University of Georgia. She moved from Price Waterhouse to UPS about 15 years ago.

At UPS, many employees start as delivery people. Not so for Calvert and colleague Linda DiSantis, who came to the legal department.

"We came from the outside and we weren't raised on the trucks," said DiSantis, now city attorney for Atlanta. But Calvert quickly adapted, developing an easy rapport with co-workers, DiSantis said.

"Liz was funny, smart," DiSantis said, "and very, very good." She earned a reputation as one of the best in her department of employment benefits. With no children at home, she could pour her energy into her career. By last fall, she was a vice president.

Those achievements got her onto the board of the Georgia Conservancy and the board of trustees of her undergraduate alma mater, Converse College in South Carolina.

John, friends say, remained close to friends he made at Georgia Tech. The Calverts carried their cross-state rivalry with humor, attending the annual UGA/Tech game together in their respective school colors. And they doted on their dog, Sadie, and cat, T.C.

'A trusting person'

But while they enjoyed their life in Atlanta, the pull of ocean breezes was too much. In 2004, they saw that the marina and other business opportunities were available for purchase. In 2005, the deal was signed and their life on the coast was born.

"This was their new career. They were going to run it," said Sally Nielsen, a friend who recruited Elizabeth last year to join HunterMacLean, the Savannah law firm where she works.

The law firm, Georgia's largest outside of Atlanta, was a good fit for Elizabeth, Nielsen said: She could commute from the island to Savannah or stay in Hilton Head, working by computer.

From the start, Nielsen said, "John was very clear: They'd play a role in the business but people on the ground there who ran it would stay. They were the face of the business."

John recruited Tony Gibus from Key Largo, Fla., to manage the marina businesses, and allowed his 15 employees and 10 subcontractors a good bit of autonomy. What the new owners provided was a boost of energy and enthusiasm.

"We needed someone to come in and give the business a shot in the arm," Gibus said.

The harbor community became something of a family for the couple; they got involved in several charities and were gracious hosts. Last month, John Calvert helped organize an afternoon boat excursion for 60 Army soldiers and their families. "He said, 'Man, we owe these guys,' " Gibus said.

Calvert also helped out employees having hard times.

"John was a trusting person," Gibus said.

Financial pressures?

Perhaps too trusting.

The Calverts hired a management company called The Club Group to run administration and accounting matters for their new businesses. Club's chief financial officer was Dennis Gerwing.

Gerwing was a veteran of island business. In 1985, he headed the finance and administration division of Ginn Holdings Corp., then the island's largest resort and development company, according to a report in Hilton Head's Island Packet newspaper. But a year later, that company was sold and later was in bankruptcy, the paper reported.

Gerwing was a man who liked to entertain and converse about travel and art, said Francois Fisera, a French chef who owns Fleur De Lys Home Culinary Institute in Columbia and has known Gerwing for 12 years. Gerwing took many classes at the institute and the two became friends and twice went to Europe together.

"He was a life lover," said Fisera. "We shared the same passions for food and wine, the good things in life. He loved being with his friends."

Fisera said he occasionally met the Calverts at parties in Hilton Head when visiting Gerwing. He said Gerwing's connection with the Calverts was friendly, but "more a business relation."

Fisera said he saw no financial pressures on Gerwing, who he described as a gentle man. "I never saw him raise his voice," he said.

But Gerwing, 54, apparently had some financial pressures. In 1994, he formed Harbour Tours, Ltd., but it was in forfeiture two years later, according to state records. In the past six weeks, he became "more motivated to sell" his Columbia home, a real estate agent told The State. It was listed at $1.245 million.

Hoping for the best

Recently, the Calverts met with Gerwing after Elizabeth Calvert became suspicious of his business transactions, The State reported. She made notes about her suspicions and discussed them with at least one other person, the newspaper reported.

Friends of the Calverts said Elizabeth was too keen to be defrauded.

"Liz was a math major in college," Nielsen said. "She gets down to the penny on everything. She wouldn't let the bank tell her the checkbook was balanced. She'd do it herself."

Titus said Gerwing spent a lot of time with John during the transition over the past few months. "They had dinner quite a bit," she said.

Gerwing was the last person known to have seen the couple alive, at about 5:30 p.m. March 3 in Harbour Town, authorities said.

As the Calverts' friends hold out for a miracle that they are somehow alive, Gerwing's, too, hope for a different outcome.

"Maybe there's a third party involved," said Fisera. "It's a tragedy. And a mystery."