Person of interest in case of missing couple commits suicide

Published Wed, Mar 12, 2008 12:13 AM

The Island Packet

HILTON HEAD ISLAND -- The body of Dennis Ray Gerwing, a former business associate of John and Elizabeth Calvert, was loaded into a coroner's van Tuesday.

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Gerwing, the last confirmed person to see the Calverts alive, was named a person of interest in the case earlier in the afternoon. Investigators had searched his home, business and cars. They announced publicly that he had retained a lawyer and wasn't cooperating.

The 54-year-old apparently ended his life in the upstairs bathroom of a villa in Swallowtail of Sea Pines. Gerwing was chief financial officer of The Club Group, the company that manages the condo complex. The Club Group handled some financial functions for John Calvert's businesses.

Gerwing left two notes that are being studied by forensic investigators with the State Law Enforcement Division. Beaufort County Sheriff P.J. Tanner declined to reveal the notes' contents or the method of suicide. Top law enforcement officers, 14th Circuit Solicitor Duffie Stone and others arrived at the condo in a blizzard of blue light and blaring sirens just after 4 p.m., when Gerwing's attorney, Dan Saxon of Novit & Scarminach, called 911 to report a possible suicide.

Inside, Gerwing appeared to have been dead for hours. An autopsy will be performed today at Memorial University of South Carolina in Charleston.

Even though the last man to have seen John and Elizabeth Calvert is now dead, authorities say they believe others in the community might have more information on the wealthy couple's fate.

The couple, married for 20 years, split time between their boat, Yellow Jacket, in Harbour Town Yacht Basin and a home in an upscale Atlanta neighborhood. They were last seen March 3, and reported missing a day later by Elizabeth's only sibling, brother David White. The Calverts have no children.

BUSINESS CONNECTIONS John Calvert, 47, owns four businesses on Hilton Head Island, including the company that operates the yacht basin and Harbour Town Resorts.

Elizabeth Calvert, 45, is a business attorney with HunterMaclean in Savannah. She worked previously as a lawyer and vice president of UPS for 13 years.

Gerwing's company, The Club Group, is a 21-year-old company that manages a variety of commercial, lodging, recreational and hospitality holdings on the resort island. It performed administrative duties, including human resources and bookkeeping, for some of John Calvert's companies, but parted ways last year, according to Mark King, president of The Club Group.

Last week, King characterized the men's parting as an amicable and planned split.

"In the more than two years our firm has been associated with the Calverts, we had a good working relationship," said King in a statement late Tuesday. "My prayers are that they will be found safe and unharmed. I am making every effort to fully cooperate with the authorities in whatever way that I can be of assistance." King said his firm received notice from the Calverts that they planned to transfer all of the services The Club Group had been performing to their own companies. The details of the transition were being handled exclusively by Gerwing, King said.

Others, however, suggest the split was less than friendly.

A source very close to John Calvert's yacht basin business, who asked not to be identified, said Gerwing kept the books for John Calvert for a couple of years. That relationship ended recently.

The source said John Calvert wanted to confront Gerwing about inconsistencies in the bookkeeping, but couldn't say how big those irregularities might be. The source also couldn't say whether that was the topic of a meeting John and Elizabeth Calvert had with Gerwing at Gerwing's office on March 3, the day the couple disappeared.

INCAPABLE OF VIOLENCE? Any potential involvement Gerwing might have had in the Calverts' disappearance was a shock to many who knew him.

A few hours before Gerwing was found dead, Porter Thompson, a vice president with CNSG-Hilton Head, which does marketing and public relations for The Club Group, expressed surprise Gerwing would be in any way involved in the Calverts' disappearance.

"Dennis is a very quiet, very professional, very gentle-demeanored sort of guy," Thompson said. Thompson also praised Gerwing's abilities as a chief financial offer, saying he capably administered to a wide variety of companies and property regimes on the island.

Frank Fowler, chairman of the Harbour Town Yacht Basin Slip Owners Association, knew Gerwing for a decade. "I absolutely would be the most shocked person in the world if there was any involvement (on his part)," he said. "This guy just ain't capable of anything violent. He's just not."

Fowler had been out of the country last week. He received an e-mail from Gerwing that said Gerwing thought he was the last person who had seen the couple.

In that e-mail, Gerwing mentioned he had spent four or five hours being interviewed by detectives. Fowler had tried calling Gerwing's cell phone this week.

It had been confiscated by investigators, he said.

Tuesday's twists have left some frightened that John and Elizabeth Calvert may never be found.

"As much as I'd love to see John and Liz again, I'm not holding out much hope for that," said Mark Leinmiller, who has been friends with John Calvert since the two were fraternity brothers at Georgia Tech in the early 1980s.

"All I can really hope is that something in the suicide notes is going to let us know what (Gerwing's) done. I can't come up with any positive outcome at this point."

Person of interest in case of missing couple commits suicide