Atlanta couple missing in S.C.

News

A former business associate of missing Atlanta couple John and Elizabeth Calvert was found dead of an apparent suicide Tuesday afternoon on Hilton Head Island soon after authorities named him a person of interest in the couple's disappearance. Beaufort County sheriff's deputies found the body of Dennis Ray Gerwing in the upstairs bathroom of a rental apartment in Sea Pines, a gated community on the island, Lt. Col. Neil Baxley said. He had been dead for several hours.

John and Elizabeth Calvert went missing on March 3 after David White of Decatur, Elizabeth Calvert's brother, reported the part-time Atlanta couple missing when his sister did not show up for a meeting at her Savannah law office.

The Calverts lived part of the year in an upscale home on East Brookhaven Drive in northeast Atlanta and the rest on their yacht in a tony Hilton Head community called Sea Pines.

Last year, the couple paid $8,000 in property taxes on this four-bedroom, two-bath home overlooking the Capitol City social club in northeast Atlanta. At the time, the home on East Brookhaven Drive was valued at $674,900, tax records show.

Dennis Ray Gerwing, the couple's business associate, committed suicide on March 11 by taking a knife, going into the bathroom of a nearby rental villa, and slicing open his thigh. As he bled to death he left behind questions that frustrated authorities are struggling to answer.

Suicide notes left by Gerwing acknowledge that he had stolen money from the couple's businesses. This is an interior view of his home at Hilton Head Plantation.

Authorities have accounted for the couple's private plane and at least two vehicles. Their silver 2006 Mercedes E320, with Georgia Tech tag GT821B, was found later found four miles from their Hilton Head yacht home.

Beaufort County Sheriff P.J. Tanner at a press conference last spring said he was investigating a "worst-case scenario" and considered just about everyone a suspect in the case.

Investigators said they believe John and Elizabeth Calvert may have met with foul play. Searchers were sifting through tons of garbage at a south Georgia landfill hoping to find the Calverts.

John and Elizabeth married 20 years ago. 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.

The couple named 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.

Elizabeth Calvert was a vice president in the legal department of Atlanta-based UPS. She was working at a Savannah law firm when she disappeared.

For a few days, authorities searched the couple's yacht but found no evidence.

Friends held a candlelight vigil for the Calverts in Liberty Oak, S.C.

The Calverts' friends hold out for a miracle that they are somehow alive.

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John and Elizabeth Calvert went missing on March 3 after David White of Decatur, Elizabeth Calvert's brother, reported the part-time Atlanta couple missing when his sister did not show up for a meeting at her Savannah law office.

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