Found Deceased Dominican Republic - Orlando Moore & Portia Ravenelle, from NY on vacation, April 2019

[margarita25]

IMO, assuming here she would have had some sort of identification in the car with her as wouldn't she need it to get back into the states, right?

Yes, but the car is at the bottom of the ocean. She must have not had it on her immediate person.

 

[ilovechili]

Seeing how close the road is to the water and knowing the stretch is known for accidents, I do think they died in a late-night accident while rushing to the airport.

I'm concerned, though, that a woman was in the hospital for four days DURING the search for Portia and Orlando. LE and the hospitals do not communicate?! Not okay.

jmo

I would think a Jane Doe without ID would be an immediate connection to LE and media in an attempt to identify as well as an effort to match up with anyone reported missing. Especially one in serious condition who may die. They also would have known where she was found, a highway not far from the airport...

I don't know, to me, if an accident, she would have been in the car with him if rushing to the airport and it was an accident, not on the roadway.

With what we know thus far anyhow.

 

[ilovechili]

HLN just said her body was found the morning of the airport flight on the side of the road. He was seen in the sea/ocean on March 31st. Today is April 10th, we hear the news last night. So are we to believe what, she survived in the ocean, got out of the car, to the shore and walked up to the road and collapsed? Spends four days in a hospital before she dies. They had reported missing people from another country, they had an unknown Jane Doe almost from day one and a man in the ocean on a route to the airport. I believe family reported it within two days of their not returning home. She was found the day of their flight and on a toll road that goes to the airport and was it ever checked if anyone missed a flight with regard to finding her on a road to the airport? Was it ever reported anyone missed a flight--we do have customs forms and dates one provides they are in a foreign country etc. Did the rental company call LE and say they had a car not returned but that the woman who had it had been calling with concerns the day of and they planned to return it?

Just questions and perhaps those answers will come...

 

[Plo_Koon]

Yes, but the car is at the bottom of the ocean. She must have not had it on her immediate person.

Assuming that it's found in the car or ever. I don't know, I guess it doesn't change anything either. If a human could be ejected from a car, certainly a human's purse could be.

Hadn't the Canadian couple said that on the one car ride they took together, that PR had instructed OM not to have the car window down? If that's the case, I can't really see her having her window down at 2AM, but if you're going down a highway right next to the Caribbean on a nice night I could see wanting some fresh sea air. Sorry, not really adding anything to the conversation but just MOO.

 

[osu]

I don't know. First, there is more than one lane so one would not even need to be near the ocean side. Second, I see absolutely nothing that would cause her to be ejected from the car near the roadside before the car goes downhill.

The car is at the bottom of the Caribbean they say in the one article but he floated out. Was his ID and wallet on him?

I am sure there will be tox screenings but I will say this much, splitting a bottle of rum does not mean they had much to drink, the other couple could have drank most of it, and one may not even have had any. This is an all inclusive resort, it is "free", they could have had their own bottle or drinks but did not need to most likely as they were leaving. The other couple likely finished the bottle and/or took it back to their room as they were staying. They were almost through their lengthy trip on a possibly dark road pretty unknown to them--I think if very intoxicated, they would have likely had issues driving long before then--they also had to check in and through the airport.

She was noted to be concerned throughout the day, calling the rental company, her daughter and talking to various people about the drive and her concerns. I just do not see her at least drinking too much (yet I could be wrong) nor wanting him to. She was warned about not stopping for people and I am sure told to keep doors locked and windows up if I recall. He may have had to open his window at the toll booth but they would have then shut it just based on that alone.

They were found separately, she at the top and he at the bottom? No car and no ID, belongings, etc. thus far. What do you pay with at toll booths in the Dominican? Cash, credit?

She was alive and in the hospital for four days? Hospitals do not report Jane Does to the police there? They do not try to match Jane Does to those missing? She is dying, they do not do a news article trying to find out who she is or again, contact authorities?

Just questions. If they realize they are going to be late or possibly, she was probably calling the airport. When in Mexico, we had a planeload of passengers that was not happy when the flight waited for a man way past departure time. Tourist destinations do not want missing people nor to make anyone unhappy (although the rest of the passengers were not tickled). He finally made it and I would dare say he was probably glared at quite often on the return flight.

Wondering about things is not far fetched. There have been many incidents in foreign countries and on cruise ships even, and those that depend on tourism especially, that just never seem to quite have the answers that add up. It is early though, maybe more answers will come although I would not bet on it.

If this woman was ejected at the road, what ejected her? If this was a stretch known to be worrisome I think it would have been mentioned to them in all of her concern that day to be careful there on the drive and I will bet she mapped the journey more than once. Watching the video, I don't know, I don't see a lot of curves, there are many lanes and at that time of night I doubt it would be all that busy.

They do not yet have fingerprints or confirmation. The bodies were found separately at different times apparently. No ID and no car. Who saw the car go in or in the ocean? Was that reported did they say by fishermen? Were pictures captured by the fishermen and LE called at the time, that is a pretty big deal.

I simply have many questions. The families likely have even more.

I feel so sorry for their children and families.

This article says that a decomposed body, matching Orlando’s description based on a tattoo, was found 19 miles away from the accident scene.

“Mejia also said a decomposed body was found washed ashore March 31 about 19 miles from the accident scene. The body has a tattoo reading "MILANO" that corresponds to a tattoo on Orlando Moore, who accompanied Ravenelle on the trip.”

New York couple vacationing in Dominican Republic presumed dead, police say

 

[PrairieWind]

Yes, but the car is at the bottom of the ocean. She must have not had it on her immediate person.

Probably in her purse.

 

[PrairieWind]

It would be nice to get a photo or diagram showing where she was found along the road, and where the car ended up in the water, some layout of the road etc. I was thinking maybe she was somehow ejected from the car just prior to it plunging into the water.

 

[bradfordsleuth]

My mind is racing here....

If the flight was scheduled to depart at 2:00 a.m. and they were caught on camera at 1:41 a.m. at the Marbella Toll Booth then I believe that they still had a ways to go to make it to the airport just by looking at a map. I couldn't find the exact distance via google but I estimate around 45 minutes.
They may have gotten lost along the way, panicked by their lateness and then were speeding to get there on time for the flight. They still had to return the rental car, and that would have added time to their being delayed.

She may have had her seat belt off to turn around and get something (get passports ready? paperwork for car rental?) from the back seat when the accident occurred. Perhaps he was focusing more on her looking for something in back and got distracted from the road. It sounds like an ugly stretch of roadway around there.

It looks like the passenger window was rolled down in the photo of the car at the tollboth as an arm is visible on the window sill (in the pic where you can see the front of the car.) Maybe the a/c in the car wasn't working, or perhaps she was a smoker (assuming that Portia was the passenger) and she had her window open when the accident occurred. She was ejected from the vehicle and found on the roadway so there is a good chance that the first impact is what ejected her.

What did they hit? Authorities must have a good idea where the accident occurred.

 

[CaseyLPC]

I pulled up a google map and found an area on the DR 3 highway Southeast of the Marbella toll booth that looks like it could be the "Blender" that sits right off a slight curve of the highway. I am not sure how to get a screenshot of the area though. It is a small alcove of water that looks very rough on the google map image. It is just adjacent to the Quality Hotel Real Aeropuerto Santo.
Google Maps

 

[dotr]

I pulled up a google map and found an area on the DR 3 highway Southeast of the Marbella toll booth that looks like it could be the "Blender" that sits right off a slight curve of the highway. I am not sure how to get a screenshot of the area though. It is a small alcove of water that looks very rough on the google map image. It is just adjacent to the Quality Hotel Real Aeropuerto Santo.
Google Maps

Opposite here?
Quality Inn 1 - Picture of Quality Hotel Real Aeropuerto Santo Domingo, Santo Domingo - TripAdvisor

 

[osu]

I pulled up a google map and found an area on the DR 3 highway Southeast of the Marbella toll booth that looks like it could be the "Blender" that sits right off a slight curve of the highway. I am not sure how to get a screenshot of the area though. It is a small alcove of water that looks very rough on the google map image. It is just adjacent to the Quality Hotel Real Aeropuerto Santo.
Google Maps

Here’s Google Earth images of the highway and the ocean right across from the Quality Hotel Real Aeropuerto Santo. The way the sea comes into a cover right there definitely looks like it could be referred to as “the blender”.

 

[CaseyLPC]

I think so, @dotr, but to the left of where that picture is aimed.

 

[osu]

I think so, @dotr, but to the left of where that picture is aimed.

 

[ilovechili]

This article says that a decomposed body, matching Orlando’s description based on a tattoo, was found 19 miles away from the accident scene.

“Mejia also said a decomposed body was found washed ashore March 31 about 19 miles from the accident scene. The body has a tattoo reading "MILANO" that corresponds to a tattoo on Orlando Moore, who accompanied Ravenelle on the trip.”

New York couple vacationing in Dominican Republic presumed dead, police say

Yes first I think I heard this a.m. that a body was seen in the sea but could not be gotten to on 03/27. Now as you said there is a 03/31 a far as when it washed up. The last I just heard minutes ago on HLN was 03/21. 03/21 was before they even went on their trip wasn't it?

I tell ya I do not know who proofreads media releases and/or verifies facts these days. It is getting past ridiculous.

 

[dotr]

So very tragic..
Friend's horror that she was in Dominican Republic when New York got in a fatal car crash | Daily Mail Online

• "Francesca Figueroa said on Wednesday that she was in Dominican Republic searching for the couple when they didn't return back to New York
• She said had she known her friend, Ravenelle, was dying in a
• hospital, she would've 'been there holding her hand'"
• 
  
• Police said on Tuesday that they located a rental car at the bottom of the Caribbean Sea near the highway to the airport in Santa Domingo. The car is believed to be the couple's rental.
  
  National police chief spokesman Col Frank Félix Durán Mejia said the car appeared to have been involved in a crash during the 100-mile journey to the airport in the early hours of March 27.
  
  
  
  
  +10
  Local authorities recovered a decomposing body on March 31 from the shore in Sans Souci. It is believed to be Orlando Moore
  
  
  
  
  +10
  Dominican police believe that the couple possibly suffered a car accident while en route to the Las Americas International Airport. The airport is approximately a two-hour drive away from the all-inclusive Gran Bahia Principe Cayacoa in Samana, where the couple had been staying
  
  

 

[bradfordsleuth]

Its a miracle they found the car and his body. So many people are never found after ending up in water.

 

[osu]

From the DM article:
Map of possible route to airport and where the mans body was recovered.

 

[TTF14]

If the flight was scheduled to depart at 2:00 a.m. and they were caught on camera at 1:41 a.m. at the Marbella Toll Booth then I believe that they still had a ways to go to make it to the airport....

They still had to return the rental car...

She was ejected from the vehicle and found on the roadway so there is a good chance that the first impact is what ejected her.

What did they hit?

RSBM for focus.

All really good and puzzling points! They had to have known they would not make that flight unless it was delayed. Were they just hoping for the best? (Do we know why they were so late?)

As far as hitting something, I suppose they could have just lost control and car rolled and she was thrown out. This happens, right?

 

[Stunned]

Self deleted

 

[Inthedetails]

Fisherman heard a rumble and saw car in the water "that day." Unclear in the article what "that day" is, but assuming it's March 27, the date Orlando and Portia were driving to the airport. Car is not recovered.

Orlando's body washed ashore 19 miles from the car. Found on March 31. Body "eaten by fishes." March 31 is....quite awhile ago.

Portia died April 4.

Very frustrating that LE, hospitals, and apparently even locals didn't connect any of this with a missing couple - especially Orlando, who had a tattoo for pete's sake.

jmo