SC SC - John, 47, & Elizabeth Calvert, 45, Hilton Head, 3 March 2008

[SeriouslySearching]

Has there been any evidence that the couple is not alive? No.

Could he possibly have been trying to keep them from getting harmed and told them what someone/accomplice was planning to do to them and told them to get away from there and not contact anyone for a while? Don't know. He was supposedly the last person known to have contact with the couple. Anything is possible.

Could the couple not be victims in this case?? I questioned this myself. Since they were the ones being scammed by this man and now he is dead plus they are not to found...makes me wonder. To me, that much stolen money is motive for a homicide.

This case is so bizarre already. The players are all very wealthy (it appears) and a lot of money is involved.

 

[dimples37398]

Yeah this case is Bizarre...

Well Gerwings boss, is one of the ones whom broke in the front door, maybe he knows something helpful ???

Maybe another associate of everyone, got rid of Gerwing, wrote the note or forced him to, and left the fate of the couple out of the note in case cops figured out it wasn't a suicide, then that way the cops still don't know the fate of the couple, and the person whom got rid of Gerwing and wrote or made him write the note.. couldn't be charged with the crime involving the disappearance of the Calverts, if it was unconvered to not be suicide in Gerwings case?????

Just more bored speculation on my part.......

 

[SeriouslySearching]

I still say it sounds more like torture than suicide. If the person inflicting them were on the outside of the tub, it would make sense for the cuts to be on the inner thigh of the right leg sending the spray inward towards the shower wall and also on the neck. Their body wouldn't be in the direct spray of the well placed wounds. (I had to reconcile in my head how the arcs and splatter of the blood would not show a second person as it would be interrupted and I think this would possibly work. Now, if I can just get Grissom to try it...)

 

[Busylady]

You would also think he would of had to cut himself very quickly. With the blood spray and splatter it appears he hit an artery and he would of bleed out quickly I would of thought. I know people do crazy things, but I just can't imagine someone cutting themselves that many times in various parts of their body.

 

[SeriouslySearching]

I just went back through the statements again of the four people who were present at the apartment when LE arrived. Bob Long's account is interesting as it is not as well written (meaning less like a legal document) as the two Atty's and the other man.

It mentions that Mark called him early morning that day and said he had gone by the apt. the night before and had gotten no response so he asked if Bob would go. Bob said he went over, but didn't stop. The sentences after are too difficult to make out. Mark called later and asked Bob to go with him over to the apartment again with the key. The lock they are talking about being on the inside appears to either be a chain lock or a guard lock like you may find in a hotel, imo, and the reason they forced the front door.

Here is another interesting part. Bob mentions in his very last sentence about trying to force the bathroom door after telling Dan to call 911...then it cuts off his report.

OK...So if Mark went to the apartment the night before...Gerwing was still alive at this point. The time of death was placed around 5 am-9 am. Why didn't he answer? They also mention there were no lights on in the apt. after arriving that afternoon and the blinds were drawn. Were the lights on the night before when Mark stopped by? Should have been! It means that if this suicide took place nearer to 5 am or so then Gerwing did it in the dark?

LE said there were only 3 recorded messages on the apt. phone all from Dan Saxon. The first one was at 10:06am and the last at 3:00pm. They only said, "Checking in" or something to that effect. If you knew your client/friend was in serious legal trouble and no one had been able to reach him, but you knew he was there because of the people already having been there at least twice...wouldn't you be calling repeatedly?! Wouldn't the messages have been a little more frantic than just so matter of fact? I would have been calling every number on the directory several times to get a response from this man and my messages would have reflected I was quite concerned! And if Mark was so concerned he called Bob Long to go check that morning...why hadn't he called the apt. phone and left a single message?!

 

[murdershewrote]

is anybody else but me sort of suspect of his (ex) girlfriend...where was she when all this was going on?

 

[Jolynna]

is anybody else but me sort of suspect of his (ex) girlfriend...where was she when all this was going on?

I missed her, somehow.

Could someone fill me in on what is known about her???

You don't have to have links. I would really appreciate just a quick run-down.

Thanks.

 

[Jolynna]

Gerwing's brother said he would not hurt a fly. It doesn't seem as if his friend's and family totally agree with the direction of the investigation:

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jQgZZNbrsQg0_f3muMT9HpKdWcGQD8VOICN80

 

[murdershewrote]

I'll have to do some digging back, but apparently they had lived together for quite awhile and had bought a condo together, but weren't living together any more. It was for sale, worth approx $1M. I seem to recall the reason that he was staying at this condo was that his own condo was being cleaned because of it being up for sale.

I hope I have that right, don't want to confuse anybody any more than we already are.

 

[murdershewrote]

OK, here's what I found. Girlfriend's name is Nancy Barry. Fernandez is his real estate agent...home listed at $1.245.

"He put his house, where his ex-girlfriend lives, on the market.
And within the past six weeks, he became “more motivated to sell,” Fernandez said.
Fernandez never imagined that her easygoing client would commit suicide Tuesday, hours after being named a person of interest in the disappearance of his former business associates John and Elizabeth Calvert, who live part time on Hilton Head Island.
Authorities plan to hold a news conference at 11 a.m. today to update the public on the case. They believe Gerwing was the last person to see the Calverts alive. The couple were reported missing March 4 and have not been found.
“It’s extremely hard to believe,” Fernandez said. “He has such a gentle character. ... Not the man that I know.”
Fernandez spoke with Gerwing for several minutes Sunday on the phone after showing the four-bedroom, 4½ bathroom house on Wilmot Avenue, which is listed at $1.245 million.
Nothing struck her as out of the ordinary.
Authorities have not said how the 54-year-old Gerwing died. They said he left two suicide notes behind, but they would not release the contents.
Gerwing’s ex-girlfriend, Nancy Barry, struggled to talk about him on the phone Wednesday and said their personal life was “private.”
“He was just a wonderful person,” she said. “I’m very shocked and upset.”

 

[SeriouslySearching]

You are right. Seems there are others with a motive then. A million of them! I wonder what her connection is to the 3 men who found him? (I don't consider Bob Long having any reason to be involved other than being along for the ride when they found him.)

I don't think she did this, but we can't rule out she has a possible motive. This isn't a female crime to me. The neatness of the scene speaks more to the people directly going to lose money on the place if it had to be gutted due to blood spatter etc. They solved that problem with the comforter/tub scene.

Good job finding out all that information tho. I had not seen it before and it does add another element definitely. With all the money floating around in this case, why couldn't it be a professional job?

 

[murdershewrote]

maybe he became "more motivated to sell" in order to put back the money he stole, or he was going to leave the country (he has strong ties to Columbia apparently).

You make a very good point about somebody not wanting to mess up that place. I've commented before that when Greta did her TV show inside the condo that very night that he was found, it looked immaculate, like nothing had happened. LE had cleaned up so quickly, I never really understood why? Surely they couldn't have gone thru all the drains, etc. looking for blood other than his in that short a period of time. I don't think they did look for anybody else, they have assumed suicide right from the beginning and that's how the investigation was conducted.

 

[SeriouslySearching]

Someone could have "cleaned" the rest of the apartment and left the bathroom intact with the bloody mess. I doubt they even did forensic testing on the other parts of the apartment since they assumed it was a suicide. As for the doors being locked from the inside, it doesn't mean one of the four men initially inside that apartment could not have relocked a window before LE arrived. It sounds like the perfect murder instead of a bizarre suicide.

If you haven't, go back and read Bob Long's account then read what the other's wrote. Something is just "off".

 

[DeltaDawn]

I still feel that a female is involved and that there was a partial struggle. I think he was out of it between the wine and medications and someone was trying to force more meds on him..the report said that beside the pile of clothes in the bedroom there was 1 pill found. Then the whole scene in the bathroom with only 1 drop of blood on the suicide note..but the note on the bed sheet was not able to be read. Of course that was the first reports ..but what was in those notes that he wrote...could the bedsheet say something totally different then the one on the sink?

 

[SeriouslySearching]

Did they ever say anywhere the bottle of wine was empty? The empty pill bottle may not have been a medication which could cause a sedative effect, but since it was near the dop kit could have meant he had put the rest into the 7-day caddy and had run out. We will have to wait on the toxicology results.

I tried to track down the pill listed on the report (light in color caplet with CTR on one side and NVR on the other), but had no luck figuring out what it was.

 

[DeltaDawn]

Just checking in to see if they have found anything to lead them in a specific direction. I guess the accounting company isn't done with the books yet.

Bumping to keep this active.

 

[concernedperson]

Just checking in to see if they have found anything to lead them in a specific direction. I guess the accounting company isn't done with the books yet.

Bumping to keep this active.

Haven't heard anything and I am looking. No updates that I can find.

 

[SeriouslySearching]

Are they stalled on this one? I haven't heard anything for days and it looks like after the death of GW...things would start to click to find some clue as to what happened to them.

I keep thinking about how intelligent these people are. The wife being a pilot tells me she is quite tenacious. I don't see them being overtaken so easily and without a trace. She would have left a clue behind somewhere.

 

[curious1]

The Club Group released a statement Wednesday saying it has discovered financial irregularities in client accounts handled by former chief financial officer Dennis Gerwing, who died of an apparent suicide last week.
Minutes after the press release arrived, however, the president of the property management company, Mark King, tried to retract it, calling its contents "totally not factual." He said the statement was based only on a hypothetical conversation with his company's public relations firm, CNSG Hilton Head.
CNSG's main spokesman, Tom Gardo, took issue with King's version of how the press release was generated and distributed. Gardo said he believed the statement was accurate. (more at link)

http://www.islandpacket.com/calverts/story/258063.html

Hmmmm, maybe Gardo did this to shift all blame and suspicion away from someone. Do you think maybe Gardo knows something or maybe involved? If you are the PR person do you release something without absolute approval from the president?

 

[christine2448]

Missing couple's friends are anxious for answers


What remains a month after John and Elizabeth Calvert vanished from Hilton Head Island is a long list of questions in one of the highest-profile criminal cases that has ever gripped the resort island.

Those who knew the affluent couple are anxious for answers from an extremely tight-lipped Beaufort County Sheriff's Office, which has released little substantial information about the fate of the missing couple since their 2006 Mercedes was discovered March 7, four days after they disappeared.
The apparent suicide of Dennis Gerwing, the Calverts' former business associate and the only "person of interest" publicly linked to the case, created more unanswered questions.
What did Gerwing say in the two notes he left behind?




What role, if any, did he play in the Calverts' disappearance? "We were hoping for an update by now," said Tony Gibus, who operates one of John Calvert's four island businesses and serves as an unofficial spokesman for the couple's employees and friends. "We basically haven't heard anything from the police."