Time deepens mystery of missing Brookhaven couple

A lot has happened in the six months since John and Liz Calvert of Brookhaven vanished from Hilton Head Island, S.C.

The last person known to have seen them alive killed himself. A sheriff’s deputy found the couple’s car. Searchers combed the Carolina low country, the Atlantic Ocean and a South Georgia landfill.

Candlelight glistened in the teary eyes of loved ones who prayed at sunset against the backdrop of the water the Calverts so adored.

What hasn’t happened is an answer to the question behind those prayers: What happened to the couple, a well-off pair who, friends say, loved the outdoors and never met a stranger?

Family, friends and investigators hope new attention to the case will provide answers. The family has set up a Web site (www.calvertrewardfund.com) where an anonymous donor is offering $25,000 reward for information “leading directly to the whereabouts and safe return of Liz and John, or the arrest and conviction of the individual (s) responsible for their disappearance.”

In addition, friends are holding a $75-per-person “cruise for the Calverts” to raise money for the fund.

After a bustle of activity in the days and week’s after the couple’s March 3 disappearance — national news coverage, daily press briefings — investigators now report few leads.

“There has been no new information to release in some time,” said Lt. Col. Neil Baxley of the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office. “The case remains under investigation.”

The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation have assisted in the case.

John and Liz Calvert have a home in an upscale neighborhood off Peachtree Road in Brookhaven, but were known to spend most of their time on their yacht, the Yellow Jacket, at Sea Pines, a gated community on Hilton Head Island.

They disappeared after a meeting with business associate Dennis Gerwing. Searchers found their car a few days later about four miles away, but it yielded no clues.

A week after the disappearance, Gerwing died of apparent self-inflicted stab wounds. A suicide note indicated he embezzled more than $2 million from the couple, the owners of Harbour Town Yacht Basin and Harbour Town Resorts on Hilton Head Island.

In the following weeks, dive teams searched the water near the Calverts’ yacht — whose name references John Calvert’s alma mater of Georgia Tech — but found nothing of significance, investigators said. Acting on a tip, authorities combed through a south Georgia landfill in late March, but also found no clues.

Last week , Baxley said investigators were reviewing the Calverts financial records and other documents but would not elaborate.

Friends who once pressed the media to keep the story alive have since become quiet.

Tony Gibus, a longtime friend and Harbour Town employee, appeared on Fox News Channel in the days after the disappearance. Reached by phone in Florida Friday, he said he no longer worked for the company and had no comment. Nancy Cappelmann, a friend of the couple’s and harbor master at Harbour Town Yacht Basin, once talked freely of the couple. On Friday, she said, “I just don’t want to talk about it” and hung up.

The couple’s only known relative is Elizabeth Calvert’s brother, David White of Decatur, who originally reported the couple missing. He has refused multiple interview requests.

Libby Cape, 54, of Sheboygan, Wisconsin, followed the case for weeks on cable news shows.

“The whole thing is very interesting,” she said Friday by phone. “How can two people just disappear without a trace?”