Missing Hilton Head couple’s Mercedes found in Palmetto Dunes parking lot

This story originally was published in The Island Packet on March 8, 2008.

Authorities located the Mercedes belonging to missing couple John and Elizabeth Calvert in a parking lot in Palmetto Dunes early Friday morning, but their whereabouts remain a mystery, the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office said. Authorities declined to identify the specific lot the car was found in because it was part of the ongoing investigation.

The 2006 Mercedes Benz E320 was found in a commercial parking area in the Hilton Head Island resort community at about 3 a.m. as deputies were searching every parking lot on the island. The car, discovered roughly 6 miles from the yacht the couple stayed on in the Harbour Town Yacht Basin, was impounded and searched thoroughly. Nothing was found in or around the car that provided any new clues to the Calverts’ location, the Sheriff’s Office said.

John and Elizabeth Calvert were last seen leaving a business meeting in Harbour Town at about 5:30 p.m. Monday. They failed to show up at work or for business appointments the following morning. Their cell phones and Blackberries have been turned off since Monday night.

John Calvert, 47, owns the company that manages the yacht basin and Harbour Town Resorts, which has 125 rental properties. Elizabeth Calvert, 45, is a Savannah business attorney at HunterMaclean, Georgia’s largest law firm outside Atlanta. The couple live part-time in Atlanta and part-time on the yacht, the Yellow Jacket, docked in Harbour Town.

The Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office, which is working with the FBI, the State Law Enforcement Division and the DeKalb County, Ga., Sheriff’s Office, said it had no new information to release late Friday.

The disappearances continue to raise more questions than answers, but the discovery of the car clears up part of the mystery for the Calverts’ friends.

“We’re a little relieved that it didn’t end there,” said Tony Gibus, manager of The Mariner’s Club at Harbour Town and the last person confirmed to have seen John Calvert on Monday. “We’re still holding out our hopes.”

An Island Packet reporter brought a recent picture of the Calverts to several businesses in Palmetto Dunes. None of the employees, including some working Monday night, recalled seeing the couple.

Staff at the yacht basin is running out of things they can do. Gibus said he’s walked through woods in Sea Pines on the chance he might find something.

Elizabeth’s brother, David White of Decatur, Ga., who first reported them missing, said he hasn’t heard any updates from investigators.

“We want them back as quickly as they can (be),” he said. White is Elizabeth Calvert’s only sibling. John Calvert has no immediate family, White said.

Mark Leinmiller was a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity at Georgia Tech with Calvert in the early 80s and saw the couple just last week at a friend’s funeral in Atlanta.

Leinmiller echoed the sentiments of other friends: it is completely out of character for the couple to take off without notice, especially if it meant missing business obligations.

“If you knew John and Liz, it just doesn’t fit. It’s not like a ‘Thelma and Louise’ kind of thing where they just disappear,” he said.

The couple seemed their usual selves last week and gave no sign of any trouble, he said.

“They’re extremely in touch,” Leinmiller said. “I have a hard time imaging they wouldn’t pick up the phone and call.”

This story was originally published January 29, 2020 at 10:48 AM.