The deaths of a 52-year-old Toronto woman and her 36-year-old American boyfriend who had been missing for almost a week in Belize has been ruled a homicide by local police. 

The bodies of Francesca Matus and Drew De Voursney from Georgia were discovered by local authorities in a sugar cane field in Chan Chen Village in the country's northern Corozal district, near the Mexican border on Monday afternoon. 

The couple had been missing since last Tuesday. They were last seen leaving a local bar around 11 p.m. Dozens of Canadian and American expats were involved in the search, scouring beaches, waterways and brush around Corozal where Matus owned a home. 

On Sunday afternoon, Matus' white Isuzu Rodeo SUV was located in a sugar cane field near the village of Paraiso, also in Corozal. De Voursney's brother, David De Voursney told The Canadian Press that Matus' vehicle was found about 15 kilometres from the bar. 

Belize police Det. Zamir Noh said the bodies were discovered late Monday afternoon in another sugar cane field "nowhere close to the truck." He said autopsies were being conducted Tuesday. 

Investigators found the couple's hands bound in duct tape and the autopsy determined they were strangled to death. 

'She loved it there and felt safe'

Friends and family said Matus and De Voursney had been dating for several months.

Matus was scheduled to return to Toronto last Wednesday, but when her friend, Joe Milholen, arrived at her house to take her to the airport, her car was gone and the house, which she had adopted as her second home, was locked up. Milholen said he later found her packed suitcases, passport and travelling money inside the house.

Matus had been in Belize since December, said her cousin Ivana Pucci, enjoying life on her waterfront property. She used to spend winters in the central American country and return to the Toronto area for summer and fall to be with her mother and her two twin sons, aged 22, Pucci said.

"She loved it there and felt safe," Pucci said. "She did tell us it was lawless there, but she felt safe in her little community."

'She did not deserve this'

Her boys, brother and mother are grieving together in the Toronto area, Pucci said.

Matus grew up in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. as part a sprawling Italian-Canadian family, Pucci said. She moved to Toronto after college and became a mortgage broker, which she still did for half of the year. She loved the water and boating in Belize, she said.

"She was 52 in a 35-year-old body," Pucci said. "She really was such a beautiful person -- both inside and out -- and she did not deserve this," Pucci said. "Nobody does."

Pucci didn't know much about Matus's relationship with DeVoursney, but said she appeared to be happy.

"They both will be missed immensely," said friend Nancy Rifenbark who was one of the last people to see the couple before their disappearance.

'He's a real adventure boy'

In Georgia, De Voursney's mother, Char, said she learned about her son's death from the U.S. embassy in Belize. They told her the pair had been murdered and found with duct tape around their wrists, she said.

"I'm not able to really do anything, kind of just sit and think and cry and that's all I'm capable of at the moment," she said.

Her other son, David, was at the Atlanta airport Tuesday morning with De Voursney's best friend, Brandon Barfield, waiting to board a flight to Belize.

"He's going to go bring my boy home," Char De Voursney said through tears.

Drew De Voursney was a big man with a big heart and a big smile, his mother said. The six-foot-six former marine had overcome post-traumatic stress disorder while serving two tours in Iraq, she said.

About four years ago, he bought a piece of property with Barfield in Belize -- with nothing on it -- and went down in December with the idea of starting his own dive company, his mother said.

"He's a real adventure boy, that's what I call him, my adventure boy because he's done so many different things," Char De Voursney said.

'I've dreaded news of his death'

De Voursney went to college in North Carolina on a soccer and academic scholarship, but never finished.

"Then 9/11 happened and he went straight into the marines," she said.

He ended up going to Afghanistan for two years after he left the marines as a contractor to help soldiers learn how to use technology on the battlefield.

"I've dreaded news of his death, but that was when he was in Iraq and Afghanistan," Char De Voursney said as she sniffled.

She said her son was having trouble getting work in Belize, so he decided to return home.

"He was supposed to come home next week and was signed to start school with his brother where he was going to learn to operate heavy machinery," she said.

"Now he's coming home in a way I've always dreaded."

With files from The Canadian Press