A woman reported missing in Belize last Tuesday was originally from Sault Ste. Marie, CBC News reports. Francesca Matus (nee Rino), a graduate of Sault College, relocated to Toronto in the 1980s and spent winters in Belize. She and her boyfriend Drew DeVoursney were found dead by Corozal Police in a sugarcane field Monday evening.
Francesca Matus, 52, was in Belize with her American boyfriend, 36-year-old Drew DeVoursney, when they disappeared last week.
Local media in Belize says the bodies were found at about 5 p.m. local time on a road leading to a sugar cane field in the country's Corozal district near the Mexican border.
Breaking Belize News reported on its online site that the bodies were found in the area by a search party.
A GoFundMe page set up for DeVoursney by his friend Brandon Barfield also says their bodies were found on Monday. Barton wrote he received the call confirming the discovery just after 8:30 p.m.
He also wrote that he met his "best friend" while they served in Iraq in 2004 with the U.S. Marines and that DeVoursney moved to Belize last fall.
Jacqueline Logan of Toronto wrote on Facebook Monday that she will remember her "dear friend" as someone who was larger than life who laughed when she walked into a room.
Logan also offered "sincere, heartfelt thanks" to friends and family who supported the search for the missing couple.
Earlier Monday, DeVoursney's brother said police had found Matus' truck on Sunday afternoon about 15 kilometres from the bar where the couple was last seen last Tuesday night.
David DeVoursney says Matus was supposed to return to Canada the following day.
He says a group of expats were searching each day for the missing couple, who had been dating for several months.
With files from the Canadian Press
