Alumni Magazine - Fall 2008 - (Page 24) “I have just as much evidence that they’re alive as that they’re dead. Sometimes said he didn’t know where the Calverts were. Liz and John hadn’t told employees about the missing money or the nature of the meeting, but Liz had discussed it with a co-worker at the HunterMaclean law firm. As that news came out, investigators called Gerwing for a second interview, but he refused. On the afternoon of March 11, the sheriff’s office sent out a press release stating that Gerwing was “a person of interest” in the Calverts’ disappearance. Unknown to anyone, Gerwing — the last person to see them — was already dead. A Dead End ust after the release came out, authorities were called to a rental unit just down Lighthouse Road from Harbour Town. Gerwing’s lawyer said his client had locked himself in a bathroom and wouldn’t respond. Downstairs they found an empty wine bottle. In the bedroom, Gerwing had torn the blanket from the bed and scrawled an incoherent note in blue ink on the sheet. Firefighters arrived first and forced their way into the bathroom. An empty medication container sat on the counter, along with another note written on paper. Blood spatters and stains covered the counter, walls and floor. Gerwing lay on his back in the bathtub, naked. He had bled to death from gashes to his forearm, throat and thigh. A steak knife lay beside him. The death — which the Beaufort County coroner later labeled a suicide — represented a dead end for the investigation into the Calverts’ disappearance. Gerwing was the only known person with a motive to harm the Calverts and the last one to see them. Now he was gone, leaving behind notes that made no mention of the fate of John and Liz. Beaufort County’s sheriff, P.J. Tanner, is a stern-voiced man with close-cropped gray hair. He says he hasn’t been shaken as the investigation has drawn national media attention to his J
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