The bodies of a 52-year-old Toronto woman and her 36-year-old American boyfriend who had been missing in Belize for almost a week were discovered on Monday night.
Friends of Francesca Matus and Drew De Voursney who were in the small Central American country searching for the couple since their mysterious disappearance say police found their bodies in a sugar cane field.
Joe Milhoen and Nancy Rifenbark, close friends of Matus who were down there searching for her, told CP24 local authorities in the district of Corozal were not clear on their cause of death but it is believed they were murdered.
Milhoen was supposed to take Matus to the airport last Wednesday, but neither she nor her boyfriend were at their house, and her SUV was gone.
David DeVoursney, the brother of the woman's boyfriend, says police found Matus' white Isuzu SUV on Sunday afternoon about 15 kilometres from the bar where the couple was last seen last Tuesday night.
Matus was supposed to return to Canada the following day.
Her friends say she has homes in both Canada and Belize, where she lives up to six months of the year.
The missing couple had been dating for several months, according to their friends.
Earlier today, De Voursney said "This is sickening" from his home in Georgia.
"And nobody seems to know anything. They're just gone, without a trace," he added.
With files from The Canadian Press
