‘Working around the clock’: Police continue landfill search for clues in Hilton Head case

This story originally was published in The Island Packet on March 18, 2008.

The search for missing couple John and Elizabeth Calvert continued in a Georgia landfill Monday as the amount of new information released about the investigation slowed to a trickle.

Authorities said the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office continued to search the 2,500-acre Broadhurst Environmental Landfill near Jesup, Ga. Cadaver-sniffing dogs from a local search and rescue service were assisting in the search, Wayne County Sheriff Department Capt. Joe Naia said.

Beaufort County Sheriff P.J. Tanner declined to provide much information about the search or other aspects of the investigation Monday.

“We don’t have anything new to release,” said Tanner. “The investigation into the Calverts continues. ... Investigators are working around the clock. We have more than just the landfill going on.”

The landfill, about 100 miles southwest of Hilton Head Island, receives trash from more than 20 counties in Georgia and several in Florida and South Carolina, including a portion of Beaufort County.

Trash trucks from Beaufort County go into Savannah and then to the Broadhurst facility. The trucks from Savannah have been running behind schedule by up to a week or two, which means some of the trash from Beaufort County can be searched before it’s compacted and buried in the landfill, Naia said.

“That’s probably good,” he said.

Investigators were searching some of the trucks as they came in, he said.

Authorities began searching the landfill Saturday after investigators received a lead late Friday, according to Capt. Toby McSwain. Monday was the second day of that effort.

Hickory Hill Landfill in Ridgeland has not been searched. The 450-acre landfill receives an estimated 400 to 450 tons of Beaufort County rubbish each day, according to Waste Management, the company that owns the facility. Waste hauler Republic Services owns the Broadhurst landfill.

Tanner said investigators are in a holding pattern until technicians with the State Law Enforcement Division finish analyzing potential evidence. The earliest a press conference will be scheduled is Wednesday.

Last week, the Sheriff’s Office held two such conferences attended by local and national media representatives. The daily briefings were put on hold Friday. Since then, very little information has been made public.

“We haven’t held back on anything,” said Tanner. “Everything that we’ve released has been timely and sufficient.”

The Sheriff’s Office has issued three press releases since the Calverts vanished. The last one was a week ago today.

Prayers for the Calverts

David White, Elizabeth Calvert’s brother, who reported the couple missing March 4 when both didn’t show up for business obligations, said he’s trying to remain hopeful they will be found alive, even as the disappearance stretches into its third week. White said he checks with the Sheriff’s Office regularly for updates.

“I hear that law enforcement at all levels are working together to do everything they can to find Liz and John,” he said. “I’m praying every day, and so are a whole group of other people who want them found.”

He again encouraged anyone with information to contact the Sheriff’s Office.

The Calverts were last seen March 3 at a business meeting with Dennis Gerwing. Gerwing was named a person of interest who wasn’t cooperating with the case March 11, two hours before his attorney found him dead in what authorities are calling an apparent suicide in the bathroom of a Sea Pines villa.

Gerwing, 54, was chief financial officer of The Club Group, a property management company. The Club Group provided bookkeeping and other administrative services to John Calvert’s four island businesses, including the one that operates the Harbour Town Yacht Basin.

In his two suicide notes, Gerwing admitted to stealing money from the Calverts, but was silent on whether he played a role in the disappearance, according to law enforcement sources. John and Elizabeth Calvert were aware of the theft and planned to confront him.

After The State newspaper in Columbia reported that Gerwing admitted to bilking money from the Calverts, The Club Group announced Friday a plan to hire a nationally known accounting firm to review all the company’s books with its various clients. Company president Mark King will announce the name of the firm soon, spokesman Porter Thompson said.

This story was originally published January 29, 2020 at 10:34 AM.