It’s still hard to understand, David White says.
Three years later and he still can't make sense of the disappearances and presumed deaths of his sister, Elizabeth, and brother-in-law John Calvert, last seen at the Hilton Head marina they owned.
Their disappearances on March 3, 2008, drew intense media coverage in Atlanta, where the Calverts had a home in the Brookhaven neighborhood. But their case also was a major story in South Carolina because they were just as much residents of that coast, where John Calvert owned a marina and near the Savannah law firm where Elizabeth Calvert worked.
Despite all the attention, the Calverts have never been found. Their case remains open as a missing persons incident, though a judge declared them dead on Oct. 22, 2009.
The suspicion is that their accountant, Dennis Gerwing, killed them after they questioned him about funds missing from their accounts for their island enterprises, collectively known as Harbour Town Holdings. But that was never confirmed. Gerwing killed himself with a steak knife eight days after the Calverts disappeared and the day that police questioned him about them. Gerwing left a note saying he was to blame, but he was not specific, nor did he name the Calverts.
Beaufort County Sheriff P.J. Tanner did not return phone calls Thursday seeking an update on the case, but he has said several times that his office will not stop looking for the Atlanta couple. Last year, the Calverts' case was among several given to a cold case squad of 12 retired law enforcement officials from across the country.
“It has been three long years since Liz and John were taken from us,” White wrote in an e-mail. “They should be here with us today, enjoying their lives and dreams, and spending time [with] us, their family and friends. But we have been robbed of these times together, these memories never made… It pains me greatly to know someone hurt them as they took them from us, never to be seen or heard from again.”
White has tied up virtually all the loose ends of his sister’s and brother-in-law’s lives.
The Sea Pines Resort bought the Harbour Town Yacht Basin, John Calvert’s marina, on Jan. 31. The deal included the company's managerial and operational responsibilities for fishing charters, yacht services, fuel sales, water sports and sightseeing cruises.
In 2009, White sold John Calvert’s Yellow Jacket, the 40-foot Hatteras yacht where the couple stayed during their lengthy visits to the coast.
And Elizabeth Calvert’s T.C., short for “the cat,” now lives with a charter operator and his family.
“It is hard to accept, to understand evil, and even today it is still sinking in as reality,” said White, who lives in Decatur. “And it is an open-ended reality because we still do not know where they are. How does that make me feel? Sick. Angry. Lost. Heartbroken.”
Scholarships have been set up in their names at Elizabeth Calvert's alma mater, Converse College in Spartanburg, S.C., and at John Calvert's school, Georgia Tech.
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