What happened to John and Liz Calvert? After 17 years, search continues for Hilton Head couple

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    HILTON HEAD ISLAND, South Carolina (WJCL) — March 3 will mark 17 years since John and Liz Calvert, who owned several businesses on Hilton Head Island, were last seen.

“[Liz Calvert] was a hard charger. She was a lawyer, very direct. John was more of a social, carefree guy. That’s how they were described,” said Bob Bromage, cold case investigator for the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office.

Bromage said, on the day of their disappearance, the couple made their way to Sea Pines Center to meet with the man who managed the finances for their Harbour Town businesses.

“They had arranged to meet with Dennis Gerwing to discuss some financial issues with their account,” Bromage said.

Bromage said that before the meeting at Gerwing’s office at Sea Pines Center, Gerwing had made some odd purchases.

“He bought three 9-by-12 commercial grade drop cloths at the store,” Bromage said. “Now, in interviews, people were like, ‘He never did anything, any manual labor at all.’ So it was kind of strange.”

After the meeting, Bromage said Gerwing stopped by a drug store to pick up some latex gloves and Band-Aids for a cut on his hand.

“Where the cut was [located] was highly suspicious because it looked like slide bite,” Bromage said. “Slide bite is when an automatic pistol cuts you when you’re firing.”

Gerwing told investigators he cut his hand on a wine bottle, but investigators never found proof to back up that story. However, what they did find raised their suspicions even more.

“We found a holster in his house, and only later did we find out that somebody gave him a .22-caliber Beretta automatic pistol,” Bromage said.

Investigators were never able to locate that pistol, and just a few days after the Calverts’ disappearance, Gerwing was found dead across the street from Sea Pines Center in the bathroom of the villa where he had been staying.

Investigators determined Gerwing took his own life using a knife. To this day, they don’t believe anyone else was involved, despite questions from the public.

“We made entry into the bathroom, and it was covered in blood. There was nothing leading out of the bathroom. [There was no blood] transfer out of the bathroom,” he said.

Bromage said Gerwing did leave behind a note confessing to stealing money. While he did not admit to killing the Calverts, he did write one sentence that caught investigators’ attention.

“He just said, ‘It all happened in SPC,’ which is Sea Pines Center. When he said that, it was kind of OK … that’s where he committed the murder. That is what I believe,” Bromage said. “Where the money was stolen really doesn’t matter, so why mention that?”

While investigators believe they know who may have killed the Calverts, they don’t know how one man was able to get rid of two bodies without anyone ever being able to find them.

“There are all kinds of theories where they could be. We’ve searched Sea Pines Forest Preserve, the Calibogue area, we went to Eastover to conduct a search there after we got some bogus letter saying the Calverts were there with a little map of a pin, pinpoint on it, and of course, any wooded area in Beaufort County we searched,” Bromage said.

That is why they hope anyone with information regarding this case will come forward so that they can give the Calverts’ friends and loved ones long-overdue closure.

If you know anything that may help investigators, you can call the sheriff’s office at 843-524-2777.

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